Bio

I was born and raised in Melbourne, Australia.

Keeping warm in my Canada Goose jacket.
Photo: Jacque Comery

Ever since I devoured a tattered old copy of The Kontiki Expedition by Thor Heyerdahl, I've had the passion for seeking adventures.
Adventure is subjective, it is an attitude. Whether you seek it at the bottom of your garden, at the back of your bush block, on your weekend camping trip with the kids, on the sea, or carrying a tattered backpack through far away lands, it is what you make of an experience that shapes it as 'an adventure'.
From secret sorties off into the bush on family camping trips, to travels overseas, my adventures have flung me progressively further and further afield.
My earlier years were spent working  and snowboarding in ski fields both in Australia and Canada. Needing a change from the endless winters, I qualified as an Environmental Engineer, and gained experience across a wide range of engineering and environmental management projects.

On sub-Antarctic Campbell Island, NZ.
Photo: Jacque Comery 

More recently, my passion for diving and the marine environment found me in Asia for almost two years living and diving from a small Roberts 34 steel yacht that I picked up for a 'bargain' in Langkawi, Malaysia. The waters of Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia were my aquatic playground.
Returning to Australia in 2012, I turned my attention south. I successfully applied for a position as Station Leader of a research station within the Australian Antarctic Program, and was assigned to sub-Antarctic Macquarie Island.
During my 12 months overwintering on Macquarie Island from April 2015 to April 2016, I had the rare privilege of experiencing the wild southern ocean storms that race around the globe in the sub-Antarctic winter. The power and beauty of this place will be inside me forever.
Whilst leading the community on Macquarie Island I was involved in marine debris surveys, assisted with summer science research projects, managed the station infrastructure, and assisted across a range of seal and seabird monitoring projects.

King penguins at Sandy Bay, sub-Antarctic Macquarie Island,.
Photo: Jessica Holan

Having returned from Macquarie in 2016 I embarked upon a 10 week voyage sailing from Tonga to Indonesia aboard a 24 meter schooner in support of a film production recreating Bligh's voyage along the same route.
I returned to Macquarie Island in November 2016, working as an infrastructure engineer with the AAD, planning future station improvements. Shortly after, the same project saw me working at Davis Station, followed by Casey Station in February 2017.

All of these adventures have been interspersed with a healthy spattering of jungle bashing, environmental volunteering and general mischief and shenanigans. Memories of these experiences will be fresh in my mind over the next 6 months as I take on my next challenge.

I am now based on Casey Station, Antarctica as Station Leader for winter, having arrived unexpectedly in mid-March 2017. You can be assured that the long winter days will be filled with dreaming and musing over my next interesting venture.  I do very much think it may be back to the sea......