Meet the crew!

Hey, I’m Cat/ Caf/ Catfish/ Catherine, just don’t call me Cathie!

I am a born and bred Melbournian, I love coffee, Margaritas and being far away from cold weather.

I have always been fascinated by psychology and medicine, as my Dad is a Vet (animal doctor, not a war veteran) and used to watch him operate on animals amongst other cool stuff.

I was a Personal Trainer for 10 years at least and lectured Cert 3 and 4 in Fitness for a couple of years. Somehow the wind took me to Port Hedland via living stints in Portugal, Sydney and Geraldton.

And so here we are now in Port Hedland running Essential First Aid Training for 6 years solo, and now Essential Training Oz with Kate and Trenno for 2 years so far but many more years to come!

Hi, I’m Kate! Not Kat, not Katherine, not Kathleen... will answer to Katie though. I’m born and bred in Vic... don't hold that against me. Eldest child, so had all the responsibility and none of the fun. I play Favorites with everything:
Favorite colour: Green
Favourite song: Working Class Man by Jimmy Barnes
Favorite bandage: Triangular bandage
Favorite organ: Kidneys
Favorite course: CPPFES2005 - Demonstrate First Attack Fire Fighting Equipment.

Kate's a highly qualified nurse and paramedic with over 15 years experience in the medical profession. Her journey began as a carer in a nursing home, where she built the strong foundation that drove her career. Kate has excelled in various healthcare settings, including community nursing, ICU, cardiac wards, and mental health units. She specialised in emergency medicine for five years and renal nursing for over three years, bringing extensive enterprise to every role she undertook.

In 2023, Kate completed her Training and Assessing Qualification, making her an invaluable member of the Essential Training Oz team.

Skill: If hurting yourself in all sorts of weird and wonderful ways is a skill I would be pretty high on the all-time list. Very handy to know first aid with that skill.

Experiences: Lifeguarding beaches on the Central Coast for 10 years which led to all sorts of aquatic rescues and scenarios. Worst one for me was being stuck about 1500m off the beach surrounded by blue bottles, I had to be rescued on that occasion.

Favourite course: CPR – resonates with me due to the potential to save life but also how it can affect the person performing CPR on a casualty. Its very important to understand that the trauma to the 1st aider can be long lasting and knowing methods of negotiating that is vital to share in class.

Course anecdote: We have a rule no chewing gum whilst doing CPR practical, why? I was attending a first aid course and a colleague of mine was doing the DRSABCD assessment on a fellow student. Whilst checking for breathing the piece of gum from said colleague was chewing dropped out of his mouth and into the other students mouth. Funny and Gross.