Two months ago Leah Catlow quit her job as a waitress, ready for the trip of a lifetime to Canada.
Then the coronavirus pandemic hit, and she found herself home in South Australia's Clare Valley wine region, her former job at a local hotel non-existent.
"Even if I stayed, I would have still have been stood down because where I worked, they're closed at the moment," Ms Catlow said.
She tried hard to find work, but the boutique town was feeling the pandemic's pinch.
"There's just no jobs available, not that I wasn't willing to try and get out, I am willing, it's just been really hard to find employment," she said.
Could conservation be the answer?
While she hunted for a job, Ms Catlow volunteered with conservation group Trees for Life, helping to restore ecosystems by weeding feral lavender.
"I'd really like to work in the conservation industry, but with the work not being there, it's been really hard," she said.
Her wish could yet come true.
A coalition of 70 farming and environmental groups, including the National Farmers Federation and the Australian Conservation Foundation have written to governments asking them to fund a "green" economic stimulus package.
Workers spend in 'local community'
Pew Charitable Trusts' Pepe Clarke said State and Federal Governments had been receptive to funding park rangers, bushfire recovery, feral animal controls, marine debris clean up and other similar projects to stimulate the nation's economy.
"One of the great things about programs of this kind is they deliver money right into the pockets of the workers," he said.
"The capital costs are low, so you get a very high return on investment, and people working in this area spend a very high proportion of their income in their local community."
The letter said "green" stimulus was also useful as funding could be scaled up or down quickly.
"An investment of up to $4 billion per year could deliver really practical, hands on work," Mr Clarke said.
Not Abbott's Green Army
The groups are keen to fend off comparisons to Tony Abbott's ill-fated Green Army program, which paid unemployed Australians around half the minimum wage to work in conservation, until it was axed in 2016.
Mr Clarke said their project aimed to pay award wages, and fund existing grassroots programs in a systematic way.
"In the US you had work relief programs during the Great Depression. The Civilian Conservation Corps employed three million young men doing work out on the land, planting trees, building national park infrastructure," he said.
James Cook University Sociology Professor, Stewart Lockie, said a large funding injection like the one proposed would also set it apart from Mr Abbott's scheme.
"The program was evaluated and I think in many ways the outcomes were modest, but then the amount of funding was modest," he said.
Professor Lockie said the proposal had merit.
"In isolation they're not going to be enough, they're not going to rescue local business," he said.
"But they do have potential I think to help with that problem of people starting to get disengaged, slipping out of employment or education, and ending up in the ranks of the long term unemployed."
Are governments interested?
A spokesperson for the Federal Environment Minister, Sussan Ley, said funding practical environmental action was already a high priority, and the government would continue discussions to identify projects that can be considered in the future.
Other state governments, including Western Australia, Victoria, and Queensland also indicated their interest in this type of stimulus.
Trees for Life Coordinator, Erica Rees, said the sector was ready, and could easily scale up their practises.
"We could employ heaps of people at different levels part-time casual full time and we'd have work for a few years for sure," she said.
