When I ask Kim Garratt how she became an Environmental Investigator, she asks if I've read Lord of the Rings.
"You know in Lord of the Rings when Pippin is like 'It's too big for us. What can we do in the end? We've got the Shire." Kim asks. "I was Pippin. My dream was to go and live in a permaculture community in Sweden as far away from the problems of the world as I could get."
In 2015, this dream hit a bump in the road.
When the reindeer started starving
"Going to the Arctic Circle was my dream, but when I got there, it was just so cloudy that I saw the Northern Lights only once in six weeks of midwinter – which is really abnormal. I learned from a space engineer I met in Kiruna that climate change doesn't affect everywhere evenly. It's much more pronounced in the Arctic than it is closer to the equator.
"They were having a winter that was like 10 degrees above average. In Northern Sweden winter means months of darkness and constant deep cold, and the animals and people up there are well adapted to it. Reindeer can dig through the crust of snow to find moss and grass hidden beneath. Everyone in Kiruna owns ice cleats that are like snow chains for your shoes.
"But when the winters are too warm, the snow melts and refreezes into ice. Suddenly Elders were getting fractures from slipping on the ice. Reindeer couldn't get through that layer of ice to browse. They were starving."
While Kim was up in the Arctic Circle seeing firsthand the realities of climate change, the Paris Agreement happened. Rather than making her feel like things were under control and she could go and live her life in Sweden, Kim felt the opposite.
The Paris Climate Agreement just made me feel like I couldn't watch from the sidelines anymore and hope that politicians did the right thing. Suddenly it didn't feel too big for me, it was like it was too big for me not to try and help.”
A quiz said she was a 'born investigator'
After this epiphany, Kim turned to a source many of us have trusted at a similar crossroads.
"This is going to sound silly, but I did one of those quizzes that asks you what you're good at and spins out job ideas. It popped up that I was a 'born investigator'. I'd never considered it before."
"I then did a Masters in Investigative Journalism and the whole time I was doing it I was very focused on climate and nature stories. My lecturer used to joke that the only audience for my work would be Moose Monthly."
After her studies, Kim landed a role in the newly minted ACF Investigations team.
What an investigator actually does
When it comes to cool job titles, it doesn't get much cooler than 'Environmental Investigator'. It brings to mind dark sunglasses, a long-lens camera and that classic moment in a crime movie where the good guys trick the bad guys into admitting their guilt.
But what does an Environmental Investigator actually do?
"Occasionally we get to go out into the field to gather primary evidence, but I wouldn't say that's a typical day - more like the dream day! Most of our work happens on remote sensing tools," Kim said.
"For example, with our most recent crowd-sourced investigations project, after the images have been scanned and flagged by volunteers, we spent a lot of time digging into individual cases. This involved things like checking land management permits, checking to see if they had an application permit through the EPBC, and checking whether the activity could have had impact on a threatened species."
Sometimes being an Environmental Investigator is less about exciting field work and more about detail and data, but that's exactly what Kim loves.
I love data. I love maps. I love taking something that feels really big and abstract and turning patterns or maybe an expert's niche understanding of something important into something that anyone can see and understand.”
Stopping bulldozers from space
This data also turns into incredible real-life impacts.
The crowd-sourced investigations project Kim mentioned smashed expectations. Over the course of the project, 1,625 volunteers from 39 countries scanned over 10 million hectares of land (almost twice the size of Tasmania). The investigations team then managed to uncover three cases where bulldozers were still active. Thanks to quick thinking, the team was able to stop the bulldozing in its tracks and help protect threatened species in the area.
Catalysed by starving reindeer in the Arctic Circle, Kim is now part of a team fighting to protect precious Australian threatened species like koalas, glossy black cockatoos, greater gliders and more.
With or without the dark sunglasses, that sounds like a pretty cool gig to me.
Help power ACF's investigations through to 2030
At a time when pressure on nature and climate is accelerating, independent investigations are more critical than ever.
Kim and the Investigations Unit bring together evidence, expertise and persistence - helping ensure decisions that impact our environment are transparent, accountable, and grounded in fact.
Our investigations don't happen overnight. They're built carefully, over time - following evidence, uncovering patterns, and acting when it matters most.
They're only possible because of a small group of committed supporters.
If you believe in this kind of work - rigorous, independent, and focused on long-term change - we invite you to join Force for Nature, helping power ACF's investigations through to 2030.
Visit the Force for Nature page , or speak directly with our Donor Relationship Executive, Alannah Dixon, on 0460 298 167 or alannah.dixon@acf.org.au.