Trainer Profile - Geoff Coombe

Geoff Coombe, one of the directors and course writers of Living with Wildlife, has been actively involved with reptiles since the mid-1960s. He has had practical experience with venomous snakes since 1971 in both field environments and captive situations.

Since 1993, Geoff and Living with Wildlife has presented hundreds of talks, courses, workshops and seminars and has trained several thousand people in how to handle venomous snakes, delivering training programs all over Australia as well as overseas. Government wildlife agencies in all Australian states and territories have called on Geoff to train their personnel, as have New Zealand government authorities.

Geoff is the author of Snakes & Humans, subtitled "Understanding the behaviour of snakes and human reactions to them". He is currently working on another, more extensive, book on snake behaviour.

Some of his other qualifications include:

• He is a founding committee member of South Australian Herpetology Group, established in 1971.
• He was employed as ranger, law enforcement officer & interpretative ranger with the South Australian National Parks & Wildlife Service from 1971 to 1986.
• He was Information Officer at the SA Museum in 1974.
• In 1986 he founded Adelaide Snake Catchers - the first non-profit community reptile removal & advisory service in Australia.
• In 1988 he was one of the prime movers in initiating the venomous snake policies adopted by the South Australian Department for Environment & Heritage (National Parks & Wildlife).
• At the Second World Congress of Herpetology (1993/4) he chaired the Wildlife Educators' Narama: the First Australian Expo of Reptiles & Amphibians.
• He contributed to a range of Clinical Toxinology Short Courses for Australian & International delegates in 1997, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2005 and 2008.
• He is a financial member of the South Australian Herpetology Group (State), the Australian Society of Herpetologists (National), the International Society on Toxinology and the Society for the Study of Amphibians & Reptiles (International).
• He has been a subscriber to the Clinical Toxinology Resources Website since its inception.
• He has been involved in numerous public displays since the early 1970s at country shows, field days, Royal Adelaide Shows and shopping centres throughout South Australia, as well as the Northern Territory and New South Wales.
• He continues to hold a permit to keep venomous snakes (all Australian species) and to catch them when required.

Living with Wildlife courses have been conducted all over Australia.We have also provided training programs outside Australia. In 2007 Snake Awareness workshops were conducted in Bharatpur, Southern Nepal, an area which has the highest rate of snake bite fatalities in Asia. In 2005 the New Zealand Ministry of Agriculture & Forestry sponsored a number of Snake Awareness workshops in Auckland and Christchurch. In 2003 Living with Wildlife ran a series of Seminars in Pakistan for BHP Billiton at the Zamzama Gasfield.