Philomena & Volker

A Bit About Us

Volker Scholz

I have retired from my position as a Senior Ranger with National Parks and Wildlife South Australia after 36 years service. This position required me to undertake various roles including visitor management, staff supervision, emergency operations, wildlife associated roles, development and maintenance of infrastructure and managing park threats.

My main interests are trekking / walking, travelling, photography and writing. I have been able to combine these interests, both professionally and privately, throughout Australia, with a full time 12-month contract in Papua New Guinea as well as travel in Turkey, Vietnam and throughout the UK and Europe.

My past employment and travel, has enabled me to have an empathy with different cultures and an appreciation of other peoples’ way of life that differs from life in Australia.

Throughout life I have had close associations with animals both in a professional sense and in my private life. Prior to being in the National Parks I worked on a sheep / cattle station having had horses and dogs as constant companions. I have maintained my fondness of both, having had dogs and horses as pets / working animals (as well as being great friends), for a considerable part of my adult life. My position in the National Parks required me to have a daily association with native Australian fauna. This association was a highlight of my career.

My main purpose in applying for house sitting positions overseas is to allow me to experience life in other countries and to absorb myself into lifestyles not found in Australia with my partner Philomena. My personal goals are to maintain a lifestyle that will allow me to continue to travel, meet people and experience cultures that will enhance my life. Undertaking house sitting in other parts of the world will enable me to meet these goals while my health enables me to do so.


Philomena Drage

I was born and raised in Scotland. In my twenties and thirties I travel and worked throughout the UK, Europe and the United States. I worked mainly in the Hospitality Industry in Front of House Reception, Housekeeping and eventually Management. I subsequently moved to Australia where I have lived ever since. I am recently retired from the South Australian Government in the Dept of Health.

Pets, particularly dogs have been a big part of my life for as long as I can remember. As a child we had dogs, cats, rabbits, tortoise, and fish. When I wasn’t travelling I always had a dog or two as a friend and companion. My daughter has always been a big animal lover too, so our home has always been shared with our beloved pets. Sadly we have no animals to care for at the present time so it makes for an ideal time to travel and look after someone else’s pets.

I love living in Australia but I am longing to travel again and to experience the wonders of living in a foreign country. In 2014 we took some time off and did some houses sitting in France and Switzerland, the UK and Spain, which was a wonderful experience and has whet the appetite to do more. Since then we have undertaken house sits throughout Europe and Australia. When I worked and travelled in Europe, I gained some knowledge of French and a wee bit of German. It’s enough to get me by and I would love the opportunity to learn more so as I can make the most of my stay in non-English speaking counties.

Volker and I have similar interested, we love the outdoors, animals, travelling and experiencing new challenges. We can offer you, as house owners, honesty, reliability, integrity and compassionate care for your animals.


Summary

We no longer have family commitments, work commitments or pets that will hinder placements and as such are quite flexible in the time that we can commit to house sitting.

Over the past 10 years, we have undertaken seven previous overseas house sitting positions in Switzerland, England and Spain and 20 + sits throughout Australia. These have been in rural locations / farmsits, isolated outback locations and in urban locations. Most of these sits have required us to care for animals / pets.

We are honest, reliable and can assure prospective house owners that we are dependable. Our professional and personal lives has enabled us to develop a wide range of skills that we consider will allow us to be able to effectively perform allocated duties as required.

Our previous house sitting experiences have been very positive both for us and the owners. As such we are confident in our approach toward this rewarding way of life.

Having lived in rural and / or isolated locations for considerable portions of our lives, we are both very comfortable with living in these types of locations, however, are both very adaptable to living in urban environments as required.

We would love the chance to find out more about you and your home/pets and to share more about us.

We are happy to provide copies of our most recent house sitting references, professional references and Police Checks.