 I remember the first time I held a little betong in my hands we were doing some health check monitoring in the sanctuary and we sort of had them in these little pillow cases and I could feel it. It was a little heart racing and I was just like oh my god we've done this, we've put these animals back on the mainland and you know they're doing really well. It's just shocking when you start to learn about the Australian environment and you realise that we have the worst rate of mammal extinction in the world. I did an environmental science degree and I've never even heard of a betong. Maybe that makes me a very bad student but I would argue that not many Australians have even heard of that animal and that's just one of many many native mammals that people aren't even aware of and it's that lack of awareness that can then lead to these animals going extinct because no one really cares about them, there's no investment into protecting them and things like that. That for me I guess is what sort of helped direct sort of the last five years of my work in terms of trying to educate people and show them how amazing the Australian bush is. That's where the conservation thread comes from, that amazing diversity of those unique animals and I really want to try and do whatever I can to help keep them thriving in their natural ecosystems.