By Agustina Ramirez
I came to Australia on a working holiday almost three years ago. I’d always dreamt of coming here, so when I saw that working holiday visas were available, I saved up for almost two years, and here I am!
I didn’t have many expectations when I first arrived; I just wanted to enjoy my time and travel as much as I could, which is exactly what I’ve been doing.
I’ve travelled all over the country. I’ve lived in Noosa and Airlie Beach, Central Queensland, Sydney (twice!), the Sunshine Coast, and I’ve road-tripped through Perth.
Honestly, I’ve had really good times.
Starting my work with Cetaceans
I studied marine biology back in Argentina, but I didn’t graduate. Things happened; life happened. But I did work with whales and dolphins, mostly on behavioural research, data collection and photo ID.
So, I’ve always had this passion for whales, for cetaceans in general. I first met a humpback, just a glimpse of the tail, during one research outing in Patagonia, and I fell in love. It was like, I want to see you again for the rest of my life.
I started building my photography portfolio with marine wildlife, but I had to sell all my camera equipment to come to Australia. About a year after arriving, I was able to buy my own camera again, with a long-shot lens.
I was in Sydney last year and I said, “I want to work with whales again”, but this time I decided it had to be on the tourist side, which I had never done.
I found a whale-watching company that took volunteer photographers on their time off and joined them for, I think, 15 or 20 trips. That allowed me to build a proper, updated portfolio.
Getting back to working with Whales
After the season ended, I went to Western Australia as I thought I wanted to spend the last year of my working holiday visa discovering the West Coast. It turns out I didn’t really like living in Perth, and two weeks later I decided it was time to get my dream job.
So, I sat at my computer one day and wrote to every single whale-watching company I found in the country. Turns out there are 22. I got a few rejections. Others said, well, it’s too early; the season only starts in May.
And then Rob and Katie replied. It took about a month of back-and-forth emails before we set up a Google Meet. I had my interview, and I think two days later they said, “Welcome! You’re part of the team. You’ll start in May.”
I started doing two days a week as the relief photographer. Now I’m doing mostly five days a week, so I’m pretty much in the ocean every day again, which is amazing.
The excitement never fades away
I’m also a guide too. I remember during the interview Rob said, “Your English is excellent and you’ve got a marine biology background. Would you try guiding?” My first reaction was no! I’d never spoken to crowds before, and I would’ve said then that I was afraid of public speaking. Then one day they didn’t have a guide for a third trip, and it was like, do you want to do it? So I said, I mean, ok, I’ll try. And I loved it.
One thing that has surprised me is how many people I’ve taken out who are seeing whales for the first time. Lots of Sydney locals have never seen a whale, and they’ve lived here for 30 years.
People get amazed by them, and I still get amazed by whales every single day. The excitement never fades away. If I get to share that passion with everyone else on the boat, that’s amazing.
We are the ones watching them
When I’m guiding, I always remind people that it is not a zoo. It is not an aquarium. These are not trained animals. People need to know that whales are doing their thing and we are the privileged ones watching them.
If they want to approach, they will, but it’ll be on their terms. We’ll never chase them. We’ll never force an interaction. Sometimes we get questions like, can you make the whale jump? And it’s like, no, sorry, I don’t have a ton of krill here with me to bribe her and make her jump. It doesn’t work like that.
Fifty years ago, you wouldn’t have been able to see whales here in Australia. We almost decimated them all with hunting, and now you’re part of the privileged, I don’t know, 1% of the population that gets to see whales alive in your backyard. It’s something truly special.
Following their purpose
I think whales have taught me mostly resilience, because they have a tough job: migrating without feeding, on a mission, covering 1000s of kilometres, between their summer feeding grounds and their sheltered winter breeding grounds. They travel so much, following their purpose and building community along the way. I feel like it mirrors my journey here in Australia.
I’ve always planned my life around whales, in a way, because I always try to be at the beach when they are migrating, when they are travelling. And this sense of community that you’re making along the way while you’re travelling, it’s a bit like what I’ve seen in whales as well.
What’s next?
My visa expires in October. I’ve already done my three years, so my partner and I are going to keep travelling. We’ll be in Sri Lanka for three months, and then we’ll try to get a New Zealand visa. It’s not really planned out.
But I think it’s really important to keep a favourite animal as you grow up and not lose your inner child. Life is boring if you don’t have a passion to pursue and you just go day by day doing something. It took me 32 years to get to my dream job. It may only be for six months, but it’s worth it.
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