A wild life
Footage of him swimming alongside saltwater crocodiles and hugging a dugong landed him in trouble with the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority a few years ago, but it hasn’t stopped this adventurer getting up close and personal with our wildlife — an
WEARING khaki pants and shirt, Beau Greaves introduces himself with a beer in hand, a giant smile on his face and an air of adventure.
And you can tell from his friendly eyes and sense of humour that the 26-year old has had plenty of adventures in his short life so far.
Beau takes a seat at an old outdoor table at a property he shares at the back of Humpty Doo. Next to the table are two glass cages housing a male and female black-headed python, and in the background you can hear his dingo Meika barking for attention.
The pythons are heavy and very large, but friendly and happy to just sit on Beau as he talks about his adventures with Australian wildlife — adventures that have seen him picked to film a TV series with MTV and Red Bull.
BEAU wasn’t very interested in school. Instead, he spent hours walking around the lake at the back of his family’s property on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland. He describes the lake perfectly. Having spent so much time looking for animals there, exploring it and having his own adventures, he knows it like the back of his hand.
“It started when … I lived out in the bush at a place called Lake Cooroibah near Noosa, about an hour out of town,” he said.
“I grew up on the lake and was alone a lot of the time, just me and the dogs. I love it out there. I’d wake up in the morning and was just excited about the day, with so much to do. I’d go exploring the whole lake. I would have gone around that lake about 100 times. I know every bit of land out there.”
That was when he started to get in trouble, skipping school to explore the wilderness. He would spend his time hunting, making spears and looking for snakes.
“I can’t go and sit in a classroom all day when I can wake up to this kind of thing,” he said.
“I was really lucky to grow up out there. A lot of people have a little bit of that experience, but they lose it growing up. They come into society and have to grow up, but it kind of stuck with me. I never got into going out and drinking and stuff. I did a little, but it never was for me, I would have got into too much trouble.”
WHEN his parents separated while he was young, Beau and sister Ebony spent their time between the two houses. It wasn’t such a bad deal — his mum stayed next to the lake, while his dad moved closer to the beach, where Beau was able to explore a whole new landscape.
“When I was at Mum’s I was sidetracked with running around the bush, but when I was with Dad I had the beach and surfing. I’d wake up in the morning and surf, so I had the best of both worlds,” he said.
“I got to year 11 and then I just had no attendance, I just wasn’t going to school enough. As far as I’m concerned, what I was learning in school I was never going to use in my life anyway.
“It’s like every job I’ve had … I didn’t need anything that I was sitting there listening to.”
He worked with his dad for six months in a fibreglass factory after finishing school, but the monotony of the work and the long hours inspired him to make a change.
A self-taught diver and spear fisher, a stroke of luck sent him on a whole new adventure.
“One of my dad’s mates knew I was well into diving and fishing … I used to always bring home heaps of crayfish and trout for Dad, so one of his mates told me he knew someone with a cray boat up north in Cook Town,” he said.
“I said yes, get me a job, so I went out there and loved it. I got lucky to get a job like that, otherwise I would have come unstuck I reckon, just doing something I hated. I ended up doing that job for eight years.”
THAT is when Beau’s social media status took off. Posting photos of himself with wildlife, he quickly gained a strong following.
Scroll through his Facebook or Instagram account and you can see his passion for wildlife. Snakes, crocodiles, sea turtles, spiders and whales fill his feed and it’s clear he loves animals.
It’s no wonder he’s been compared to a new era Steve Irwin, but talking with him, he’s very much his own person.
A job on a sea slug boat brought him to the Territory, where he now lives.
The boat he works on is the only boat in the Territory that does what he’s paid to do — it’s a job most would squirm at, but to Beau it’s just a new adventure.
“There’s a tinny, a skipper in the tinny, and he tows four divers around,” he said.
“There are these long air hoses and you’re in about two metres of water with no visibility. You get towed around on the bottom with your arms out looking for slugs.
“It’s crazy in the Territory. You’re diving along the coastline and in creeks and in lagoons and it’s like the biggest spot for crocodiles. We’ve had some close calls with big crocs.
“The last trip I went out for was a three-and-a-half week trip and we were getting towed along in this big dirty lagoon. You can’t even see the lens of your goggles — you may as well close your eyes.
“If you feel the hoses go slack and the motors stop, then you hear the motor go roar in reverse, it’s a signal that something is going on. So we’ve come up and there is a crocodile, sitting right next to me, like a big four metre croc.
“You have to have your instincts about that thing and just go straight down. He was coming right for me.
“Luckily I was pretty switched on. That was only my second trip out in the Territory. It’s pretty wild up here.”
BEAU is enjoying life in the Top End, but it could soon come with a hint of fame as he’s just signed to do an episode with Red Bull and a full television series with MTV. With such a large following, he’s bound to cop criticism from internet trolls, both good and bad.
“At first, I wasn’t used to people trying to put you down, it’s just like, my heart is in the right spot and I respect the animals so much, so I’m always trying to do the right thing for them,” he said.
“People like that, I just learn over time that they don’t do anything with their lives and have never been out and experienced anything. I just ignore it now.
“Filming came about because of Facebook. I’m always posting stuff of what I’m doing and I live a pretty exciting life. I’m always getting out there and doing stuff, so it’s just come from there.”
Filming for Red Bull will take place on the Torres Straight Islands and his own MTV series will be filmed in Australia, despite a push for it to be filmed in the USA.
“I should probably be really excited, but I haven’t really thought about it much,” he said. “I’ll just keep being myself and doing my thing. I’m not going to change for anyone. For me, everything is about having fun and trying to be happy every day.
“It’s good to stay positive and have some positive things happen. I don’t sit around, I get bored too easy.”