Meet Our Rangers
Billabong Sanctuary has a core staff of full-time Rangers to
provide the best possible care for our native animal collection.
From diverse backgrounds, they are a incredibly talented and well-qualified mob, with a variety of practical skills as well as professional training. Each is passionate about working with wildlife and dedicated to the principles of conservation and education.
Robbie Basham
Robbie cheerfully admits that he kind of 'fell into' a career in zookeeping. Born in Mareeba, he had been studying psychology in Brisbane when he got a part-time job at The Woolshed.
At this now defunct Australiana theme park, he was put to work caring for native animals. The experience changed his life. He gave up the books, and devoted himself full-time to working with captive wildlife.
Moving back to the Tablelands, Robbie spent a couple of years at Birdworld Kuranda where he became totally immersed in caring for birds from all over the world. He then worked for three years at Cairns Tropical Zoo, where he had the opportunity to study with experts training birds. Here he also developed a passion for venomous snakes and crocodiles.
Now Head Ranger at Billabong Sanctuary, Robbie has been the driving force behind our spectacular new Feathered Friends show. His patience and skill have allowed us for the first time to showcase birds of prey in free flight. He'll be working with all our Rangers to further expand this show. Of course Rob still loves reptiles. He keeps pet snakes and lizards at home, and regularly presents venomous snake shows and feeds our awesome estuarine crocs. His presentations are always entertaining, marked by his own special warmth, good humour and sincere dedication to wildlife conservation.
Sera Steves
Sera Steves' mum has a pond-full of alligators in her back yard, so it is no wonder that Sera grew up with a passion for all things scaly. In her home state of Texas, she kept all kinds of reptiles and even bred rattlesnakes as pets.
After graduating with a BSc in Biology and Psychology from Texas State University-San Marcos, Sera worked for 5 years at the San Antonio Zoo. Originally an interpreter for the reptile handling shows, she diversified into training, working with a wide variety of birds including lorikeets. But Australia, the land with more reptiles than any other, was beckoning. Sera gave away her rattlesnakes and moved to Queensland to share her passion and knowledge with lucky visitors to Billabong Sanctuary.
Brad Cooper
Brad grew up in a house full of birds. Both his Dad and his grandfather trained homing pigeons at their home in the north of Brisbane.
As the local 'birdmen' they were brought all sorts of orphaned or injured wildlife to care for, and kept cockatiels, budgies and heaps of other birds as pets.
So it was natural that Brad would be attracted to a career working with animals. He's just graduated with a degree in Conservation Biology, a new programme at James Cook University, and worked for 6 months at a prawn farm up in Cardwell.
He's also spent time in hospitality and so giving wildlife talks here at Billabong Sanctuary comes naturally to him. Brad has no favourites here—he's keen to be trained to work with all our native animals, from owls to wombats, koalas to crocodiles.
Rick Lingard
A native of Brisbane, Rick spent a nomadic childhood travelling the country with his grandparents.
So while he has always been interested in animals, it wasn't practical to keep any pets.
After high school a visit to a croc farm showed him that his growing passion for reptiles could become a vocation. He took some snake-handling courses, and found work with Parks and Wildlife before getting a job as a zookeeper and croc farmer at the Malcolm Douglas Wilderness Wildlife Park in Broome.
Rick was in charge of their dingos, but sadly that job ended after Mr Douglas died. Back in Brisbane, Rick started his own collection of pet snakes before moving up to Townsville. While at Billabong Sanctuary he hopes to further his training through part-time courses in captive animal husbandry.
Ryan Cartlidge
A native New Zealander, Ryan brings to Billabong Sanctuary a wealth of international experience in education and animal training.
After finishing his Bachelor of Science degree (majoring in Biology) at Victoria University in Wellington, Ryan decide to immerse himself in a new culture, so he spent a year in South Korea teaching English.
From there he immigrated to Queensland to work at the Rockhampton Zoo as a reptile keeper. He also volunteered at the AACE Kial project, working with endangered bridled nail-tail wallabies and also with northern hairy-nosed wombats. Ryan would be one of the very few people in the world to have ever seen these critically endangered animals. He also began to develop his engaging style of presenting wildlife shows, travelling to schools and fairs with their Mobile Animal Display.
Moving north, Ryan got a position at Cairns Tropical Zoo, where he discovered his true passion in life: training and presenting birds of prey in free flight shows. Somehow he also found time to earn his TAFE Certificate III in Captive Animal Management, and to complete an online course in Living & Learning with Animals.
Most recently, Ryan worked in Canada for 8 months at the African Lion Safari in Hamilton Ontario. Here he gave 4 bird shows a day, flying everything from marabou storks to snowy owls.
Now, along with his other duties as Ranger, Ryan is helping to train new birds for Feathered Friends so that he can share his passion with visitors to Billabong Sanctuary. Wildlife talks by Ryan are a real treat: upbeat and inspiring, they reflect his heartfelt dedication to conservation of our unique natural heritage.
Honorary Ranger - Sheila Brunskill
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Sheila is a local resident living on acreage with her husband Gregg at
nearby Alligator Creek with an abundance of wildlife visitors to her
backyard, some being hand-reared and then released by Sheila into the wild,
but returning on a regular basis.
Billabong Sanctuary has been most fortunate to benefit from Sheila's passion
for Australian wildlife as she is our longest serving staff member, although
in an honorary capacity. Sheila loves Billabong's philosophy of introducing
local children to Aussie animals and providing an introduction to
International visitors to Australia's unique fauna - where to see them in
the wild and help in their conservation through our Billabong message.
The stories and updates you read on the Billabong website on births,
acquisitions of fauna, introducing new staff members, coming events such as
school holiday programmes are all sourced by Sheila after consulting with
Billabong staff.
Billabong management utilize Sheila's love of the Sanctuary as a sounding
board, as she is very close to issues which make the Billabong a unique eco
based attraction.
Fantastic tour guide and shows. Couldn’t ask for any better, thanks – Janai Trotter, Melbourne We love Ranger Dan – Col and Dan Haynes, NSW |
