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Alison Galbraith already knew she had one of the coolest jobs around, but the 20 emails a day from people begging to volunteer at the Full Flight Conservation Centre sort of reinforces it.
She understands. Before she became a falconer she worked as a keeper at Ballarat Wildlife Park which was where she was first exposed to the magnificent birds of prey she routinely handles today.
“Basically when I found out about this place I emailed and emailed and emailed until Graeme (Graeme Coles master falconer and director) finally agreed to take me on,” Galbraith laughs.
The Full Flight Conservation Centre, opposite the main gate of the Melbourne Showgrounds in Ascot Vale, is possibly one of the city’s best kept secrets.
It houses 40 birds of prey including peregrine falcons, hobby falcons, whistling kites, black kites, five of the eight species of owl found in Australia and three wedge-tailed eagles; Zorro, Sabrina and wild child Oorik.
Oorik, who has bonded with Galbraith, came to the centre with behavioural issues.
“Basically, we were the last people willing to give him a chance,” Galbraith explains.
But, here they understand the lengthy childhood and adolescence of birds that can easily live to as old as 70 and beyond in captivity.
“We think he was mishandled because he used to be quite fearful, but after many, many hours of patient volunteer time he is happy now,” she says.
The birds all have a teaching function and are used in schools and documentaries for conservation awareness, but the eagles Zorro and Sabrina are often deployed to work: to deter seagulls at the MCG, and cockatoos and corellas attacking crops where they can cause hundreds of thousands of dollars damage in a day.
“Education is our main job, but we also do festivals, functions, films. It’s mainly documentaries, but years ago Graeme worked on Zena The Warrior Princess with a raven called Jake and some of the owls,” Galbraith explains.
More recently Tin Tin the barn owl has appeared in the smash hit video for Troye Sivan’s Happy Little Pill.
But perhaps the star of the show is Chook the black-breasted buzzard. Notwithstanding the fact few people realise we have buzzards in Australia, Chook is special and has a collection of favourite rocks he uses to crack open the faux eggs containing his favourite day-old-chicken treats.
Honestly we were rapt-ored.
Details: fullflight.com.au
Video: Watch Chook at work below
Video: See Tin Tin fly in Happy Little Pill below
