AUTHOR, musician, photographer, environmental activist ... Ashley Bland is a man with an impressive resume.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Now he can add to it the prestigious Kelso High School Decade Award for his hard work in the Bathurst community.
The award publicly recognises students who have completed their secondary education at Kelso High and gone on to excel in their chosen field.
The 1990 school captain, with Sharon Dudley, Mr Bland developed a love of music and the environment while he was at Kelso High, going on to complete a Bachelor of Engineering (Natural Resources) with honours at Armidale University (1991-94).
In between jobs, he kept up his music. His band, Elsewhere Fine, which Mr Bland described as indie-pop with rock and jazz influences, travelled Australia and the US college circuit supporting acts such as Killing Heidi, Alex Lloyd, Mental as Anything and Regurgitator.
After three years travelling the world with the band and working on cruise ships as a photographer, Mr Bland returned to a job runn-ing a 150-acre commercial organic market garden.
This led him into the role of regional manager and eventually corporate liaisons and initiatives for Conservation Volunteers Australia.
Last year Mr Bland co-authored Awkward News For Greenies And Everyone Else, which observed how we use the environment, what we have lost and gained and how we can nurture ourselves while looking after our world.
Also in 2009 Mr Bland accepted a position in the Australian Rural Leadership Foundation Program, a 16-month development program that will take him to India next year to study global issues and foreign trade.
Mr Bland is currently the project manager for the Flannery Centre, a $7 million green skills and sustainability training centre under construction at the foot of Mount Panorama.
His role is to build a high performance building that is sustainable, environmentally friendly, solar powered, insulated and cheap to run.
His job is then to implement a program that includes courses, community resources, demonstration projects, exhibitions, biofuels testing, postgraduate courses and networks that provide a positive vision of the future.