Ranger Stacey on her biggest animal mishap: ‘Luckily it was non-venomous’

Welcome to CityChats, where Brisbane Times meets our city’s most interesting characters on our most iconic form of transport. This week, environmental educator and former Totally Wild host “Ranger Stacey” Thomson tells us about her early ranger days, the shock of copping hate online and what she’s up to now.

We meet Thomson at Bulimba ferry terminal, and realise she and journalist Dominique Tassell have accidentally matched their outfits. Great minds, as they say.

Thomson is as charming as we’d been told to expect, and strikingly humble and personable for a woman who admits she regularly makes people starstruck.

Did you grow up with lots of nature around you?

Looking back, I did spend a lot of time outdoors. Our family used to go on bushwalks a lot. I remember we’d go bushwalking up to Maiala (D’Aguilar National Park) or Main Range National Park. I ended up being rangers in both of those places. So I’ve always loved being outside, always had a deep love of animals. There was never a time when I didn’t have a pet at home.

Did you become a ranger straight out of high school?

While I was at high school, like every teenager I was thinking, “What am I going to do with my life?” Looking back, there shouldn’t be too much pressure because there’s many different pathways. I knew I wanted to do something outdoorsy.

One of my friends’ fathers told me about a course up at Queensland Agricultural College at Gatton, which is now part of University of Queensland. I went to an open day, found out about the course to become a ranger. The nickname for that course was “wildos”.

I was like 17 when I started college and I lived up on campus. It was a real eye-opening time. I met so many amazing people from all walks of life, a lot of country people as well. I think it did in many ways shape me into the person I was to become.

Which parks did you end up working at?

After I left Gatton I got a job as a ranger at Main Range. I was based at Cunninghams Gap.

I was very unprepared for what it was really going to be like. We did do a lot of fieldwork at college, but actually doing it was a different story. It was probably a lot more getting in there and doing the dirty work than what I expected. Back then we’d have to clean the public toilets, do the track work, use chainsaws for trees that had fallen down.

I gravitated towards talking to people and education. We used to take spotlighting walks at night, and we did early-morning bush bird walks in the morning. I was like, “pick me, I’ll do that”. I loved meeting the people that would visit the national parks, and sharing my passion for the environment.

I did my cadetship in Warwick. I used to drive through that gap every week.

Well, I had a little old yellow Triumph and quite a few times it actually broke down on the range. I used to go to aerobics at Warwick. I lived in the barracks up on the mountain, the gap there. I’d go in once a week and do aerobics, which was huge back in the ’80s. Leg warmers and all.

How did the opportunity to get into TV come up?

The television thing almost just happened by chance. From Main Range I went to Lamington National Park based at O’Reilly’s and then I went out into the bay to St Helena Island and that was amazing. I was there for 2½ years.

At the time there was a lot of interest in the island. It was Queensland’s first historic national park. It was a prison from 1867 to 1932.

We used to have a lot of TV crews come over just to do stories and the other rangers would say, “no, you can do it, we don’t want to talk to the media”. That was my first step into television.

Then, just by chance, Channel Seven were looking for an environmental presenter to work on a show called Wombat. The environment was just starting to become a bit of a topic of conversation and people wanted to know more, and my name was put forward.

Everyone always says in media, don’t work with kids or animals if you can help it. What’s the worst mishap you had when you were filming?

I’ve got all of my fingers. I’ve survived 40-something years of working with children and animals. I’ve had a lot of pecks on my earlobe from birds like parrots because they love shiny things. But probably the worst was a snake that bit me. Luckily it was non-venomous.

It was a big, thick carpet python, and as part of my job I used to go to a lot of schools. So I remember it was in February one year, and I was over in Bardon at St Joseph’s. I had this snake that I’d saved for the big grand finale and it was so hot on that day. It was in the bag but wriggling around and the kids knew it was a snake. I said, “OK, kids, who’s ready to see the snake?” and they all went, “Yeah! Yeah!”

As soon as I got it out of the bag, it’s whipping around and it came back and it got me. It struck and it got me right across the four fingers, and there’s blood dripping out onto their beautiful carpet. Out the other end of the snake, a half-digested mouse came out the bottom, and I’m going, “It’s OK, kids”. And I had to gently prise it off and put it back in the bag.

Years later I was over at Indooroopilly Shoppingtown and a lady came towards me and she said, “Are you Ranger Stacey?” This is maybe 10 years later. And I said, “yeah, I am”. And she goes, “Oh, my son was in that grade 3 class at St Joseph’s, and he thought that was the best day ever.”

Do you have any scars?

No scars. No. I’m good. It’s a long time ago. They faded.

What was it like to be in media when there was that real cultural focus on environmental issues?

Now I can look back and there is this legacy that I’ve left, being a ranger. A lot of people say they could relate to me because I was just a normal person. And because I was a young girl, but like the girl next door, people thought, they’ve said to me, “If you could do that, why can’t I?” which was lovely.

A lot of people who I’ve met have gone on to go to university or some other way get into a certain field. There are so many researchers, vets, scientists, animal carers that say they used to run home from school to watch Totally Wild. That was their inspiration.

Thomson tells us it’s frequently amusing to be so iconic, because even the most high-profile of Queenslanders – such as Premier David Crisafulli – have been a little starstruck by her.

Were there many other women working as rangers?

I was in a very male-dominated field. But I had wonderful bosses and mentors.

There weren’t many women doing it. I look back to when I grew up, there were people like Harry Butler and, this is going way back, the Leyland brothers. I can’t think of any women. The women that inspired me were other people that I worked with.

There’s another UQ alumni actually, Tina Dalton, who sadly passed away just a few months ago. She was a female ranger that I looked up to. She was just a few years older than me.

Do you think we need more women in media again in that environmental space?

I think we do. I think as much diversity as possible, because we are a really diverse country now. If we can inspire kids – everyone looks up to different people. But definitely I think more women, why not?

With social media, there are a lot of other avenues, different ways people can put their voice out there and show the good things that they’re doing.

There can be a lot of negative, as well. I’ve even copped a little bit of hate, and I can’t believe that. You know, why would someone do that to me? But they do it because they’re behind the keyboard and they have an agenda of their own. But most people are very warm and really appreciative of what I’ve done.

What does your career look like now?

I work with Redland City Council. I’m based at IndigiScapes, which is an environmental education centre. It’s a 14-hectare natural bushland area, and I do a lot of community engagement there.

I have a little club that I started a couple of years ago called Ranger Stacey’s Joey Club, and it’s for children aged six and under.

Every month a lot of the same kids come back, and when they first came they would have had no idea who I was. Their parents did, though. The parents were like, “oh my god, it’s Ranger Stacey”. But now I have my little joeys call me by my name, like, “Hi, Ranger Stacey.” They think I live there. They think I live in the forest.

The whole idea is to inspire them and teach them in a fun way about wildlife and nature, and how to look after it. I do a lot of other things, too, but that’s one of my favourite jobs.

Can you tell me a bit about the award you recently won?

It was the University of Queensland Alumni Awards for 2026. It was a wonderful night. I wasn’t even sure when I first found out who would have nominated me. I found out since, and I’ve thanked her very, very much.

I think there were 18 recipients all up. Little old me got the Gatton Gold Award. I got the award for pretty much my dedication and contribution to environmental education and media advocacy over my entire career. I pinched myself. I thought, “this is very cool”.

A lot of people do amazing work, but for someone to think, “she deserves this”, I’ll always be grateful.

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