|
Darren
Albert Sidney Green
Darren has
lived
at the Araucaria property, Running Creek via Rathdowney since he was 4
days old. He has grown up with the 'best pf both worlds' - close enough
to Brisbane to enjoy
live performances, museums, ethnic restaurants and everything
else the city has to
offer, but living on 87 acres of rural and forested property that
allowed
romping with dogs, riding his horse Rosie, swimming in a creek shared
with platypus, and
turtles, riding horses, climbing trees
and indulging in plenty of other outdoor activities as well as having
access to computers, musical instruments and thousands of books.
|
|
|
Music
 Darren, at
age three, barely able
to peep above the keyboard, was captivated by our new piano. Already
singing
many songs in perfect tune, he now started tapping melodies
on the keys - simple ones at first such as 'Baa Baa
Black Sheep' but within weeks complex pieces such as
the 'MASH' theme and parts of the
Mikado' overture. By age 12, he
was enjoying playing his
own compositions as well as music from
Andrew Lloyd Webber's 'Phantom of the Opera' and other such
pieces, and finlly decided to take
piano lessons for a coupel of years.
As a teenager he joined the Queensland Music Theatre, where he was told
he was a 'strong tenor with a great vocal range,' and later trained for
half a year in light opera singing and did part time courses in music
composition for the film industry, drama and the technology of stage
production. A local novelist asked hm asked to compose the score
for a televised version of his latest book but succumbed to terminal
cancer before the project had prgressed very far.
He plays
keyboard and has played guitar, violin, recorder and piano accoridan,
but the piano is still his favourite instrument, and he has played his
own compositions at a number of local functions, including the
inaugural Arts Dinner at the Centre in Beaudesert,
the 2009 Scenic
Rim
Tourism
Awards evening, the International Frugivores and Seed
Diserposal Symposium 2005, a historic Drumley walk dinner, a
wedding at Songbirds and various
other events
 Animals
and
Fieldwork
Darren has
been
surrounded by animals alll his life, and never lived without at least
one dog and one horse on the home property. He has handled cows,
roosters, snakes, echidnas, fruitbats, possums, various birds and many
other crreatures over the years, and is generally quick to make friends
with almost anything or at least calm it if it is afraid or
belligerent. He is a member
of BatCare Brisbane and WildCare, and has helped foster orphaned birds
and flying
foxes youngsters and rescued a number of injured animals.
He had his first taste of camping when six months old, and has been
helping zoologist mother Ronda with fieldwork (digging pitfalls,
helping to set and check cage traps and mistnets etc.) since the age of
eight
Tour
guiding
When
Darren was applying for his driver authorization (enabling him to drive
tours) after the mandatory three years of holding a regular driver's
licence, he had to answer the usual questions on the form about
traffic offences, etc. The clerk, seeing yet another young man standing
in front of her, looked at his long line of "No" answers, and
said disbelievingly 'hmm, squeaky clean are
ya?" After about 20 minutes on her computer she came back and
said "umm, yes, you are!' " He still has never had so much as a parking
ticket. Winding mountain roads, dusty outback tracks, steep trackless
hillsides, flooded streets and city traffic are all part of his
background experience, and he feels very much at home with country
driving.
Darren's love of wildlife and nature generally is obvious when he is
guiding tours.
He also enjoys meeting new people of all ages, especially if they
share his delight in the natural world.
Growing up surrounded by nature and traveling to his
mother's research sites which included zoos and wildlife parks as well
as wilderness areas, Darren is familiar with many of the animals of the
local area and other parts of Australia.
He has also attended an Aussie Host class on quality turism
service
Photography
Darren has
been
a keen nature photographer for years - everything from beetles and
flowers to eagles, kangaroos and (while traveling) wild leopards and
elehants. and enjoys putting together compilations of his photos
and videos with his oen musical compositions as background.
Travel and languages
In addition to travel with Aracaria Eciotours, Darren has cuddled a
Tasmanina Devil and explored the mountain forests of Tasmania, ridden a
camel along the Todd River near Alice Springs and been introduced to
bush tucker offered by
Aborigina rangers at Uluru, patted monkeys and interacted
with open-air stage performers in Bali, sbnorkeled amoingst coral on
the Great Barrier Reef, walked in Amazonian rainfiorest and ridden on
horseback in the Pantanal in Brazil, stood above the thundering Devil's
Throat and watched coatis in the forest at Iguassu in Argentina, and
spent two weeks driving with his mother through Kruger National Partk
in South Africa, stopping for everything from dung beetles to herds of elephants crossing the road.
.
Darren has studied limguistics and some Spanish and Madarin, and also
learnt a little Portugese before traveling to Brazil
|
