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This International Women's Day, celebrated globally on 8th March, has the theme ‘Count Her In: Invest in Women. Accelerate Progress’.

Aussie Ark is marking the day with sharing the work and passion of its Deputy Managing Director Liz Gabriel while Surf lifesaving clubs acknowledge the day with the yearly Pink Patrol. 

With the focus for International Women’s Day 2024 being ‘inspiration and inclusion’, Aussie Ark’s Deputy Managing Director Liz Gabriel has worked hard all her life to be inspiring and inclusive, with a focus on wildlife conservation. This started as a child – with a passion for snakes and frogs – and continues to this day.  

Gabriel first began in the conservation industry when she was 20 years old and started work at the Australian Reptile Park as a volunteer. Over two decades, she became an expert in dozens of species and worked her way up to be co-Director. The Park is now the premiere tourist attraction on the Central Coast, with over 300,000 visitors per year.

“I’m most famous for my work with spiders…I love them!” Gabriel shared. “I oversee the venom milking program and hold the record for the most venom milked from a Funnel Web spider in a single year!”

Juggling her work at the Park, Gabriel is also Deputy Managing Director of Aussie Ark. Founded in 2011 to save the Tasmanian Devil from extinction, Aussie Ark has grown to become NSW’s largest independently owned and operated conservation organisation and a world-leader in breeding and re-wilding some of Australia’s most endangered species. Much of this success is thanks to Ms Gabriel’s finesse as business leader, strategist, and wildlife expert.

“Career highlights at Aussie Ark include rescuing turtles during the Black Summer fires,” Gabriel added “and releasing animals for the first time back into the ‘wild’ ecology of our Barrington Wildlife Sanctuary. To breed and re-wild species otherwise facing extinction is a special thrill for me. It never gets old.”

As well as conservation, Gabriel is also passionate about education. She dedicates many hours of her week to mentoring others including her own children.

“This International Women’s Day I want to do a ‘shout out’ to the girls and women around the world to join the conservation movement,” Gabriel said. “The greatest thing a human can do is protect our beautiful planet.”

Bondi’s SBLSC Pink Patrol 2024 was held on 2nd March to help raise awareness about the various roles and opportunities available to women in lifesaving, helping to empower females to build their operational capability and capacity. The aim is to increase the number of women actively patrolling, as well as see more women represented across all facets of lifesaving.

The Pink Patrol, an initiative started by Bondi SBLSC, was also held at a number of other surf life saving clubs on 2nd March and will also be held on 9th March.

Evans Head-Casino SLSC, located on the far north coast of NSW is hosting their second pink patrol to help celebrate the incredible work women do within Surf Life Saving. This is a 9am-2pm patrol and is open to any female within Surf Life Saving.

With well over a century of history and change, the first International Women's Day (IWD) was held in March 1911. IWD isn't country, group or organisation specific. It's a day of collective global activism and celebration that belongs to all those committed to forging women's equality.

World-renowned feminist, journalist and activist, Gloria Steinem, reportedly once explained “the story of women's struggle for equality belongs to no single feminist nor to any one organization but to the collective efforts of all who care about human rights."

All IWD activity is valid, that's what makes IWD so inclusive.

Image top left: Credit: Bondi SBLSC; top right. Credit: Aussie Ark; image above. Credit: Evans Head-Casino SLSC

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