Larissa Burns

Larissa Burns is an Environment Protection Officer at Victoria’s environmental regulator, the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA). Larissa’s role sits under the banner of ‘compliance and enforcement’ as an authorised officer. Larissa’s job has many different elements, and on any given day she might be:

• Responding to reports of pollution regarding inappropriate storage, handling or disposal of industrial waste, pollution in waterways such as hydrocarbons, ink, sewage, chemicals, trade waste and sediment, fires, contaminated land, excessive noise, dust or odour from industry.

• Participating in emergency response, and assisting other agencies with advice.

• Sampling and monitoring the environment.

• Conducting field inspections to assess business operations.

• Issuing remedial notices, referring sanctions and assisting with investigations for non-compliance.

• Writing and assessing reports.

• Engaging with community, other regulators and duty holders to educate, with the goal of preventing harm to human health and the environment.

Why did you choose this career pathway?

When I was in high school, I had no idea what I wanted to do – I felt a lot of pressure about deciding a whole career at 17. It felt like no one was telling us at the time that you don’t have to decide everything right now. You don’t need to have it all figured out. I had about 5 different career options, all dependant on my ENTER score (‘what’s an ENTER score?’ Yeah, I’m properly in my thirties, I know).

I could’ve been a teacher like my mum, who’s a bad ass primary school educator implanting that science young (yes mum!), I could’ve tried writing books (I love books, but the closest I came was a thesis which would put the masses to sleep while I rave about soil being a fundamental building block of life). My very rambling point is that I got into science and was still really unsure whether this is what I wanted to do. I only fell in love with it/could see the career side of things when I chose a class on soil as a filler in my second year. Suddenly I thought, hang on – I could take samples for a living?

I thought about environmental consulting and working in labs and thought that would be it, place found. Tick. I’m a self-professed plonker - once I’ve found something I like, I tend to stick with it. I’ve learnt from my peers that you don’t have to be a plonker though – many of them have jumped around careers/industries a bunch of times and they seem very happy.

How did you get to your current role?

After finishing uni I came to the stark realisation that being a grad in a relatively narrow industry can be very competitive. You apply for a lot of jobs and don’t hear back from most. You get through to the top 20 applicants for a role where 1,000 grads applied, and then get turned away. My first job involved planting trees, spraying weeds and general gardening type works. I surprised myself by really enjoying it. The most important lesson I learnt in this time was that once you’re in the industry, wiggle room exists. Once I had the job, people started calling me back for more interviews and I was offered 2 jobs.

The first environmental consulting company I ever interviewed at ended up being one of the clients I managed at the environmental laboratory who offered me my second ‘real’ job. I worked in the environmental laboratory for 7 years. I felt confident in my role and comfortable in the work I was performing - but as with everything that feels like a warm blanket, sometimes you need a little nudge to leave it behind and find a new way to challenge yourself. My nudge came from an ex-colleague who happened to email me on a day I was open to being nudged. He told me that the EPA was hiring and that the work sounded like something I would be suited for. I read the job description and was pleasantly surprised and lured in with the promise of not sitting at a desk every day (I missed working outside). I had first heard of EPA during an environmental law and policy subject at uni and had no idea that EPA did anything except law making. I’m happy that I somehow landed the job after that impulsive “why not?” moment.

Having worked in both the private and public sector now, I’ve come to appreciate that in my experience, the private sector pushes you to be a hard worker and learn time management, which I found invaluable, and the public sector allows you the trust and freedom to do your work and you can work more flexible hours.

I’ve been fortunate that all my work places have housed some excellent staff. For me to be happy in a role, it’s important that I am doing something I am passionate about, feeling like a valuable member of the team, and that I can connect with my colleagues – especially if it’s over dorky shared jokes!

What are the best parts about your job?
What are the hardest parts?

My favourite part of my job is the responsive element. I like that I can go to work and genuinely experience variety - it’s partly desk based and partly field based.

During pollution response, I might get called out to conduct a drainage chase due to a discharge within a creek, or an emergency such as an industrial fire or a fuel spill. Response work provides a great opportunity for learning the many ways in which pollution can occur and have the potential to impact community.

Locating the source of an incident is also interesting and very rewarding when successfully managed. I think the education that comes in this situation is invaluable for the people involved in understanding how their activities can be improved to prevent future occurrences. In saying this, pollution response can also be challenging, you could be in the middle of something and must rush off to address something urgent. It can be likened to juggling, and having to triage work is an ongoing skill to be learnt and improved on.

There are many different industries, chemicals, and types of wastes which EPA regulates, and there is always a learning opportunity. Every notice I’ve issued, and every investigation I’ve been part of has taught me something valuable to take forward. My Team Leader often remarks that he’s still learning after 27 years at the EPA.

How well did your degree prepare you for your career path?

I remember coming across GIS at EPA and having an ‘aha’ moment. Understanding mapping has been very useful for looking at maps of stormwater and sewage systems. Understanding topography, and how to draw mud maps assists me in writing contemporaneous notes for my inspection reports.

The lecturers told us we’d say it, but I’d recommend placing value in a couple of chemistry units. I used this knowledge in the lab and continue to use this at EPA when interpreting lab results or understanding chemicals I encounter.

My soil and sedimentology units assisted in understanding the Earth’s surface better. Understanding soil composition and groundwater assists regarding contaminated land. Often consultant reports will reference local geology, hydrology, and geomorphology.

What does your career progression look like from here?

From here, my next progression within EPA would likely to become a Senior Environment Protection Officer. I’m lucky in that you can also move sideways at EPA. Staff sometimes move into policy roles, or other teams such as those who focus on permissions that EPA regulate (licences, permits, registrations), investigator or scientist roles. EPA has a wide range of career paths and opportunities.

What advice would you give to students in your study area trying to decide on a career path?

I think I accidentally rambled a partial answer to this above. My concise advice (if I’m even capable of doing so) would be to try different things, don’t only apply for one type of job if you’re finding that you aren’t having much luck. You can move around once you’re in.

Labs are a great place to start and to get contacts and understanding of other companies and the types of work they do. You have so much time to work, try not to worry too much and focus on what parts of your subjects you like/don’t like. If you can, do work experience before graduating to get an idea of what the industry you’re looking into does.

Anything else you’d like people to know about your job?

You get to see some really interesting industries and ask questions about how everything works. I’ve learnt lots of interesting information and seen waste streams from items I’d never even thought about like X-rays, and why milk spills can be more impactful than hydrocarbons.

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