Although it was her passion for photography that started Zarah Ellis on her trip around Australia, life in the Red Centre soon stopped her in her tracks.

"I set off around Australia to build a portfolio of landscape images and ended up working at Uluru," she says.

She found a position serving champagne on the "sunset strip".

"It's where all the tour buses take people to watch the sunsets," she says.

Eventually, an ad for a driver with indigenous tour operator Anangu Tours caught her eye.

"They were really well respected, so I went for the job," she says. "They trained me to get my bus licence and then decided to train me in their local language, Pitjantjatjara." Language training meant Ellis could act as an interpreter for tourists wanting to learn directly from the local people and she settled into a routine working around Uluru.

"I'd go to the Aboriginal community to pick up a guide who wanted to work that day and take them to the cultural centre to meet our tour group, who'd already been to watch the sunrise," she says.

"We'd take [the tourists] for a walk around Uluru, explaining the stories. If it was a men's story we'd show people how to light a fire or how to throw spears. If it was a women's story we'd show people all the different foods that were collected, what they'd be made into and how to carry water."

The experience taught her more than job skills.

"It changed my life," she says. "I was working closely with a group of indigenous people I felt strongly about. It changed my view of doing things and my view of the landscape. I felt I learnt a lot."

But eventually, Ellis began missing the one thing central Australia does not have an abundance of: water. So she returned to Victoria and retrained as a snorkel instructor.

"I did a five-day snorkel instructor course and then started volunteer work with Sea All Dolphin Swims," she says. "They were pretty pleased to see how I dealt with groups, [so] they got me on board."

Her days are now spent showing visitors the marine life off Port Phillip Bay.

"It's seasonal work. We head out for four hours, twice a day," Ellis says. The highlight of the trip is the chance to swim with the male seals hanging out off the coast.

"It's a big bachelor pad filled with male seals," she says. "You can swim freely with them. I love it."

Ellis soon learnt that leading groups on the ocean requires a special set of skills.

"You need to know how to talk to people and to manage a group without letting them know they're being managed," she says. "You need to be totally aware of safety all the time."

With her love of the outdoors solidified through her latest job, Ellis appreciates her current employer's involvement in education programs.

"We [often] find seals in the bay with fishing wire around them," she says. "[We're involved in] a program called Seal the Loop in conjunction with Melbourne Zoo.

"We're trying to clean the harbour and get fishermen to put their cut-off lines and hooks in bins we have."

THEN
Salary: "Devastatingly disastrous." About $14.50 an hour.
Work-life balance: "Pretty poor. I was working very long hours and outside that a lot of the recreational time was spent taxiing my Anangu friends around or helping them out."
Hours: 50-60 hours a week, six days a week. "I started work at 11am and finished around 7-7.30pm."

NOW
Salary: $22 an hour.
Work-life balance: "A lot better, it's much more in sync with what I'd like."
Hours: 3½ days a week, starting at 8am. "It's seasonal, so summer is when it's at its peak. I'm a single mum and being in tourism, most people need you out of hours or on the weekends. This has worked out perfectly."
Miss: "The people and the landscape. I want to show them how much my daughter has grown up. I need to get back soon as some of the older ladies that taught me the most may not have much time left."
Challenges: "Learning about the marine environment and the whole biology side of things. I'm learning from others here who are really skilled in that."

LINK
dolphinswims.com.au