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TRINITY TODAY 38 BIG IDEAS
Conservation quest
Our very own ‘jungle doctor’ is on a mission to protect the world’s threatened wildlife, while helping our own fragile ecosystem too. BY L A UR A WATE R S
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n a tiny speck of land in the South Pacific, 11-year-old Chloe Buiting (née Breakwell, TC 2010) marvelled at the abundant and unspoilt natural beauty of her home. Lord Howe Island has been described by David Attenborough as ‘so extraordinary it is almost unbelievable’,
and after spending two years there as a child, Chloe vowed she would do whatever she could to conserve the animals and environment of such special places. Many years later, a meeting with Professor Ken Hinchcliff – the Warden of Trinity College and then Dean of the Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences at the University of Melbourne – set her on the path to becoming a veterinarian and conservationist. ‘He really made time for me and answered all my questions,’ she says. ‘I’m forever grateful.’ It was just a taste of the mentorship and camaraderie she would later cherish during her time at Trinity. ‘I was inspired by my fellow students. All of us had big aspirations, and even
though we were on different paths, we shared ideas and goals.’ Vet school saw Chloe posted in wildlife hospitals around Australia and New Zealand before she ventured further afield; in Africa, she learnt skills such as darting animals from helicopters and transporting them safely. The goal was to protect them from poaching, trafficking and habitat loss. However, Chloe recognised there were challenges. ‘I suspected local Masai communities had a lot of people like me telling them how important it was to coexist with animals rather than kill or poach them, but many of them hadn’t had the privilege of actually seeing them. I set up student safaris, taking students from remote rural
