Oct 7, 2026 · 31 min · 10 segments
In this insightful conversation Glyn shares his insight and wisdom from three decades of teaching, learning and recreating in the nature space. He speaks of the power of silence and letting the…
Um, and how has perhaps your relationship with the natural world changed over the, the course of that, uh, you know, reasonably lengthy career?
I, I deliberately ha- uh, felt a responsibility to know more about the places I was going.
And I did develop an interest in birds, I guess about 15 years ago, so that's become a passion.
And I went and did some formal study at university on ornithology, or the study of birds, and, uh, and that's become a bit of a passion, I suppose, that, um, leaks out of me, whether, whether you like it or not.
But a key thing that shaped my, how I viewed teaching in the outdoors came early when I did this trip with a private school in Brisbane.
And it was about the first year after I did my studies, so we're talking early 199- 1990s, sort of, no, no, '93 sort of probably would've been, 1992.
And I was given this really big group to walk up Mount Barney on an overnight trip.
And Mount Barney's not the highest mountain in Queensland, but it's probably one of the more technical ones.
And I had this large group of year 11 boys, about 18 of them, on my own, walking up Barney Gorge, which is pretty technical.
Like, I wouldn't recommend anyone do that, particularly not someone as green as I was.
Well, we, we, first we set up camp in the saddle and then we walked up to the summit to, uh, to check out the views.
But then when we got up there, it was, um, really quiet, and the students noticed that it was really quiet.
And I'm talking I've never been in a place where it's been that quiet ever before.
And one of the students noticed this and, and said to everyone, "Hey, everyone, just, hey, notice how quiet it is." And, and they said, "Why don't we sit here for a minute?" They said this.
Like, "Why don't we sit here for a minute and just notice how quiet it was?" And we did that.
And then another person said, "Well, why don't we see how long we can be quiet for?" And that, they literally sat in dead silence on top of Mount Barney East Peak, uh, being completely quiet until I think someone farted and everyone laughed and, and the moment was gone.
And it kinda taught me that, you know what? Uh, uh, I mean, at, at this conference they've been talking about country as the teacher.
Well, that was a great example that sometimes, Glyn, I just need to get out of the way and allow these places or country to do the teaching, just like in that case.
And if I had of tried to debrief that kind of amazing experience, I think it would've cheapened it.
So there's times when, you know, you just need to step back and let country do its thing, I suppose.
So I, I've tried to be less interventionist, uh, from that point on in my career
Um, and how has perhaps your relationship with the natural world changed over the, the course of that, uh, you know, reasonably lengthy career?
I, I deliberately ha- uh, felt a responsibility to know more about the places I was going.
And I did develop an interest in birds, I guess about 15 years ago, so that's become a passion.
And I went and did some formal study at university on ornithology, or the study of birds, and, uh, and that's become a bit of a passion, I suppose, that, um, leaks out of me, whether, whether you like it or not.
But a key thing that shaped my, how I viewed teaching in the outdoors came early when I did this trip with a private school in Brisbane.
And it was about the first year after I did my studies, so we're talking early 199- 1990s, sort of, no, no, '93 sort of probably would've been, 1992.
And I was given this really big group to walk up Mount Barney on an overnight trip.
And Mount Barney's not the highest mountain in Queensland, but it's probably one of the more technical ones.
And I had this large group of year 11 boys, about 18 of them, on my own, walking up Barney Gorge, which is pretty technical.
Like, I wouldn't recommend anyone do that, particularly not someone as green as I was.
Well, we, we, first we set up camp in the saddle and then we walked up to the summit to, uh, to check out the views.
But then when we got up there, it was, um, really quiet, and the students noticed that it was really quiet.
And I'm talking I've never been in a place where it's been that quiet ever before.
And one of the students noticed this and, and said to everyone, "Hey, everyone, just, hey, notice how quiet it is." And, and they said, "Why don't we sit here for a minute?" They said this.
Like, "Why don't we sit here for a minute and just notice how quiet it was?" And we did that.
And then another person said, "Well, why don't we see how long we can be quiet for?" And that, they literally sat in dead silence on top of Mount Barney East Peak, uh, being completely quiet until I think someone farted and everyone laughed and, and the moment was gone.
And it kinda taught me that, you know what? Uh, uh, I mean, at, at this conference they've been talking about country as the teacher.
Well, that was a great example that sometimes, Glyn, I just need to get out of the way and allow these places or country to do the teaching, just like in that case.
And if I had of tried to debrief that kind of amazing experience, I think it would've cheapened it.
So there's times when, you know, you just need to step back and let country do its thing, I suppose.
So I, I've tried to be less interventionist, uh, from that point on in my career
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