Life as the caretaker of a tropical island includes gardening and plenty of birdwatching, but the job is not all glamorous.
The Sun has gone down and the tourists are back at their resorts, leaving Lee and Don Cameron all alone on their new island home. Except, they're not really alone -- thousands of migratory birds are keeping them company, and don't the Camerons know it.
The Tasmanian couple have begun a stint as the resident caretakers of the Low Isles, off the coast of Port Douglas in Far North Queensland. Their predecessors, Colin and Renata Musson, left them with some sound advice: take earplugs to get to sleep."The little terns do a quick-step on the aluminium stairs, so you hear this tapping and battering," she says. "The pied imperial pigeons, they coo, and it's just like white noise -- it's beautiful to go to sleep to. "But then the bridled terns and some other birds I haven't recognised yet start up a cacophony of sounds.Low Island is one of 22 in the Great Barrier Reef governed by the Reef Joint Field Management Program, but the only one with live-in caretakers. The Camerons, heavily involved with conservation group Wildcare Tasmania, are regulars at working bees on offshore islands and national parks. They found out about the job through friends from the Low Isles Preservation Society and applied for the 12-month contract.For 12 years, the Camerons lived on a sailboat, spending their time sailing around various parts of the world, from one side of the Pacific to the other, up to Alaska, across the Atlantic and through the Mediterranean. Once they were done, they sailed to Hobart, where they sold the boat to build their own off-grid solar house on a hill overlooking the River Derwent.Having lived and worked on Tasmania's Maatsuyker, Bruny and Tasman islands, and Queensland's Heron Island, plus the remote Deal Island in the Bass Strait, it's fair to say the remote life suits them."I think we're both quite resourceful in being able to make things work." Island life often means there is no hardware store, and the supermarkets can be 15 kilometres away by boat.The couple's first visit to Low Island was for a two-hour job interview."It was smaller than I thought but honestly, I think if I had a step counter, I'd be doing more steps on this island walking around raking, checking, than I would at home," she says. "I'm a person who believes if you sit still for too long, you get old. I'm just not ready to get old yet.""And we're very happy to do that. I'm not an indoor person," Lee says.There's a well-maintained home on the island for the caretakers, plus a couple of others for researchers or volunteers who visit at various times, including for the bigger jobs the caretakers can't do themselves.But there are some things they are starting to miss. "We haven't managed to work out how to get chocolate and ice cream across without it being a puddle yet," Lee says.Most of the 50,000 tourists that flock to the area each year spend their time in the water, marvelling at the marine life of the reef, but the Low Isles are a bird lover's paradise too. Ospreys dart about the lighthouse and over the sea, while thousands of bridled terns lay across the island, their nesting season entering full swing. Renata Musson, who returned to live in Port Douglas with husband Colin after a 19-month caretaking spell, says it's a place "people fall in love with automatically". The Mussons had already worked on several Queensland islands and national parks from Lizard and Orpheus, down to K'gari, as well as Carnarvon Gorge and Wilsons Promontory in Victoria. In their spare time on the island, they worked with the Queensland Museum to restore an old research station to honour the Low Isles' scientific significance.Commonwealth islands project manager Alicia Moisel said the job required a mix of maintenance and people skills."It can get really hot, you get cyclones, the birdlife is quite intense at some times of the year, so we really need people understanding of the expectations," she says. With two caretakers required on the island for safety reasons, the job naturally lends itself to couples."As I said to some people on the beach one day, it's a fantastic place where you can be out there with your best mate," Colin says.'I had this dream': Sandy lives alone on a remote island for half the year and life couldn't be better
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