Neville Parminter

I originally trained and worked as a local body park ranger with the then Auckland Regional Authority. In 1987, I attended Lincoln College (University), where I studied Parks and Recreation Management, majoring in the National Park Ranger option.   

After being a hut warden at Aspiring and Luxmore Huts, I moved to Southeast Queensland in 1993 to work as a park ranger in their parks system. At the same time, I studied for a MSc in Environmental Management part-time. In 1999, I moved to Perth where I taught ecology, land management, biodiversity and nature-based tourism subjects at polytechnic level as part of their park ranger training program.

 While in Perth I had the opportunity of presenting papers at the National Conference of the Ecotourism Association of Australia 2001  “ Developing Ecological Indicators for use by Ecotourism Operators” and a paper at the Aquatic Ecology PostGraduate Workshop Brisbane 2001  “Developing Community Monitoring Programs in Marine Protected Areas”.

Upon moving back to New Zealand I worked for the Department of Conservation on various contracts in community awareness ranger and biodiversity advisor roles, primarily in the North Canterbury and South Canterbury areas. This has included the setting up conservation trusts e.g. Lakes Ohau, Alexandrina and Lindis Pass, working with existing groups on conservation initiatives, developing conservation school projects and the organizing of events e.g. Arbor Day plantings

It was during this period that in 2006 I spent a year working at Egmont National Park in a Community relations and information centre role. My time was split 50% between both roles with the information centre based primarily at Dawson Falls. The community relations role involved running Conservation Week events, working with community groups etc