ABOUT

Ange Thomas is a Regional Training Coordinator with Western Australia’s Parks and Wildlife Service, part of the state’s Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions. Over her 20 years with the Department, Ange has worked in Fire Management, Parks and Visitor Service, Nature Conservation and Operational Training, and is proud to be part of the Mentored Aboriginal Trainee Employment Scheme, delivering training in the areas of leadership, conservation and land management, and fire-related programs. Ange has a Diploma in Leadership and Management, a Certificate IV in Training and Assessment, and an extensive list of on-ground and aerial fire-related accreditations.

Born in Albany, Ange spent the first few years of her life in Walpole, which is located over 400 kilometres south-east of Perth. With a population of just 500, her upbringing in this beautiful and remote coastal town forged her appreciation of the important role a community plays in raising children.

Ange travelled around Australia extensively in her 20s, and still enjoys the variety of life, and the opportunity to learn new ideas, that moving and travelling provides. She and her husband, Lee, have two daughters who are full of life and spirit, and they both feel very fortunate to be part of a close extended family.

“The truth that Jeremy has explained about our human condition — that we are all corrupted and yet we are all good — has provided so much freedom for me as a human being, a wife, mother, daughter, sister, aunty, cousin, friend, worker and all of the other roles that I have been playing in life. Before I read FREEDOM I had been working my butt off to maintain the façade that I had it all together in all of those areas and not to show my less than adequate humanity…it was exhausting! But after reading FREEDOM, it’s like being able to breathe oxygen into areas of the lungs that have been lying dormant since Resignation. I can finally breathe again!”