Pretoria - Imagine living in an SA National Parks facility half of your life, a place where you see, feel, breathe and hear nature 24 hours a day, seven days a week, in all seasons.
This has been Peter “Paddy” Gordon’s life for the past 34 years. The nature specialist has been at the forefront of the management of the country’s national parks.
Gordon has led some of the most important parks across the country in a career that is a testament to his passion and love for the communities around them.
Currently managing the Free State’s only national park, the Golden Gate Highlands National Park, Gordon has also managed the Table Mountain National Park, the Garden Route National Park and the Richtersveld Transfrontier Park.
Gordon flashes a big smile while describing his experiences with nature in the past three decades.
“It’s an enormous privilege being a park manager. You just need to be accessible to your people all the time, he says.
“The range of habitats I was exposed to and the learning curves of comparing them to each other… I can’t explain the richness I’ve experienced.”
Gordon explains how he refused to be stifled by the transgressions of apartheid, but instead learnt from them to become a better person.
“We need to recognise that what we are today is where we come from. I grew up with people in my house from all walks of life. From across the world.
“No university taught me that if you can make a difference in the communities you live around, you must make a difference, it’s not an option but something that we are destined to do.
“Community development and respect of people from all walks of life is critical to your identity.”
Gordon said his parents passed on their respect for nature and he realised his future was in conservation.
“So I grew up, from the age of 2, spending my time on the mountains… and the love for the outdoors started at an early age.
“I knew I was going to conservation even when I knew that it was not for blacks and coloured people… but we are now at an emotionally mature stage in the country that we can speak about apartheid without being bitter.
“It’s a part of who we are. There are things that happened to me because of apartheid, but they grew me instead of stifling me.”
He said having grown up in an English family, he was forced into an Afrikaans school because there were no other languages for him to learn at the time.
“At a later stage I was able to go to an English school but what that meant in terms of communication with people… the ability to speak Afrikaans and switch back into English… people would suddenly listen because they would be amazed.
“Pretoria Technikon was whites-only, Cape Technikon was whites only, Stellenbosch etc… So couldn’t study conservation.”
Gordon went on to do his BSc Honours degree and then a teaching diploma through SanParks and studied for a business diploma with Wits University.
He also tackled a Master’s degree in environmental education at Rhodes University, but was moved and didn’t complete his studies.
“I’m fortunate that I have a background in science, education and business management… at the time I did not know why that was important but for managing a national park it counted in my favour,” he said.
Gordon’s journey was not without its challenges.
He was still at the Garden Route National Park when two of the biggest fires of the past 10 years broke out.
“In 2017 and 2018 wildfires broke out in the park. People lost their lives, lost their homes.
“We lost tens of thousands of hectares of plantations. It was a very difficult and humbling experience to be in the Garden Route at the time because I had to deal with people who had lost everything within minutes and seconds.”
He said there was no formula to running the parks, but you had to interact with the communities around the parks.
“You need to respect local culture and the local people must know that you respect their culture, then they tell you more and give you the background. Once you understand that you understand where the park fits in.”
Pretoria News