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Expedition Team
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On all expeditions you’ll find a team of experts travelling with you, all selected for their knowledge and practical experience in fields like botany, marine biology, anthropology and history. You are not only invited to enjoy their informative and entertaining presentations in the Cosmos Lecture Theatre and Leda Lounge; you might venture ashore with them or reflect on the day’s shared highlights over a drink before dinner.

Below are some members of Orion's Expedition Team, please note that the expedition teams may vary for each voyage.

Expedition Team Members
Darrin Bennett
Darrin joined Orion Expedition Cruises in 2005 and has experienced most of our exciting destinations, including Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, West Timor, Indonesia, Tasmania and, of course, the Kimberley. In addition, Darrin completed his first Antarctic assignment as a Zodiac Driver with Orion’s Antarctic Expedition Team in January 2007.

Darrin spent over 15 years working in Lands, Parks and Wildlife Management in the Northern Territory. To gain this extensive expertise, Darrin started as a volunteer whilst still at high school and continued to build his career through various posts, including as Surveillance Officer responsible for protecting and interpreting Aboriginal Art sites at Ubirr Rock – retelling the stories of the art and the people who created it – to District Ranger in the East Alligator District of Kakadu National Park, where he liaised with the local Buntij Aboriginal people and provided guided talks about their art sites.

Prior to joining the Orion Expedition Team, Darrin worked at the El Questro Wilderness Park in Western Australia, where he fulfilled the role of Ecotourism Officer and Guide before a life at sea aboard Orion beckoned.

In his role as the Expedition Team Leader aboard Orion, Darrin’s duties are diverse; from leading guests on exploratory walks ashore to coordinating the Zodiac excursions from Orion’s stern marina platform. He also directs the informative debriefing each evening that features the day’s activities with the Expedition Team.

 

 Michael Fogg
Mick commenced working for Orion Expeditions Cruises in 2006 and has extensive experience as an Orion Expedition Leader on our ‘a path less travelled’ itineraries.

With two degrees in Marine Biology, Mick has over 20 years experience in research and in educating the general public on the myriad wonders of the tropics.
Mick’s maritime qualifications have enabled him to experience a variety of roles onboard other vessels, including as a Skipper, Engineer, First Mate and Expedition Leader. However, he gains the most satisfaction from enlightening people about the wonders of the natural world.
Mick graduated from James Cook University with majors in Marine Biology, Marine Chemistry, Physical Chemistry and Geographic Information Systems and for the next ten years Mick worked in a number of different roles for James Cook University; as an associate lecturer, Field Technician and Research Assistant, spending time onboard the University’s Research Vessel the R.V. James Kirby. Mick has always enjoyed the practical and field sides of Marine research and this culminated with him managing the University’s field research station at Orpheus Island for five years.

He still lectures to visiting students and operates intensive courses for international student groups from his base in Cairns. Guests who have sailed with Orion previously will tell you that Mick is a very entertaining and informative lecturer, who will literally take you on an under sea journey of discovery.
In his role as the Expedition Team Leader aboard Orion, Mick’s duties are diverse; from leading guests on exploratory walks ashore to coordinating the Zodiac excursions from Orion’s stern marina platform. Mick also directs the informative debriefing each evening that features the day’s activities with the Expedition Team.
Mark Watson
Mark joined the Orion Expedition Team in 2007 with a wealth of knowledge and experience accumulated from living and working throughout the wilderness of Australia. Since that time Mark has gained experience as an Expedition Team member on most of Orion’s destinations including the Kimberley.

From Cooktown in Queensland where Mark excelled as an Adventure Trip Tour Guide at Bloomfield Lodge to the Kimberley region, Mark has enviously meshed his passion for the wilderness with his career.

Most notable of his many adventures in the Kimberley region was as Tour and Fishing Guide at one of the most remote corners of the Kimberley; Faraway Bay Bush Camp, where for 10 years Mark held the position of seasonal Senior Ranger/Tour and Fishing Guide at El Questro Wilderness Park.

Mark enjoys all outdoor activities, including scuba diving, bush walking and fishing.
Mark (Harry) Christensen
Mark first joined Orion in late 2005 and has since been an integral member of our Expedition Team.

Mark is a Marine Biologist by trade. For 14 years he worked within the Tourism Industry providing educational programs to visitors in the Torres Strait, Great Barrier Reef and Kimberley regions.

He also worked for many years on the exclusive Lizard Island in Queensland, Australia and was responsible for bringing the diversity and fragile nature of the reef to the Island guests’ attention. It was here Mark started producing a series of nature-based newsletters as well compiling educational programs on the Island’s flora.

Mark was called to help establish Poruma Island Resort on Coconut Island, a tiny coral cay in the Torres Strait. This island was seen as the most viable option for creating employment for the Torres Strait Islanders and Mark was responsible for recruiting and training the local Indigenous people to work at the resort.

Mark also has extensive experience in the Kimberley region, where he worked as a guide and as an Expedition Leader for several seasons.

Mark will share with Orion guests his vast knowledge and passion for the natural environment and its inhabitants.
Mike Keighley
Mike is a fifth generation Aussie who focuses on delivering real Australian experiences. Mike’s adventures as an Outback Savannah Guide have taken him from four wheel drive safaris deep into Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory to staying at the luxurious El Questro cattle station in the Kimberley – and now, to an Expedition Team member on board Orion.

As a youngster growing up in North Queensland, Mike Keighley loved wildlife, the bush and hanging out with his Torres Strait and Aboriginal mates. While most of his schoolmates were playing football or cricket, Mike was out looking for snakes, riding horses on the family farm and wandering along riverbanks looking for whatever might pop up its head.

Mike has turned this long held passion for nature into a successful career and today you will find him leading your Zodiac Expeditions in search of the amazing wildlife this region has to offer. Mike has been honoured for his work in the tourism industry with several prestigious awards, including two Brolga Awards for Heritage and Cultural Tourism.
  Max McGuire
Max McGuire has been going to sea for the last 21 years. Employed initially in 1989 as a deckhand on one Australian’s first expedition ships running weekly from Cairns to Thursday Island he developed a passion and ability to discover and interpret Australia’s tropical marine environment. Valuable years followed, on and under the water around the Great Barrier Reef system before he embarked on a decade of international expedition cruising. This period saw him travelling and working through every ocean and on every continent including high latitude exploration of both the Arctic and Antarctic.

As an underwater specialist and SCUBA Dive Master he has dived, filmed and consulted on diving operations and submersible programs for both private and government initiatives around the world whilst logging up over 7000 dives and spending time alongside renowned ocean explorers.

Max’s marine qualifications have seen him skipper SCUBA dive boats along Australia’s north west coast, throughout the neighbouring eastern Indonesian archipelago and Timor Sea as well as leading expeditions across Australia’s Top End. The Kimberley and Australia’s north is where he is happiest. 
  Damon Ramsay
Damon’s personal aim in life is to combine his loves of nature and travel into a career, and experience as much nature and wildlife on our planet as he can. His professional aim is to document and interpret this natural history for the public, through books & magazine articles, a website, documentaries, lectures and guiding. He believes encouraging the business of ecotourism is the only realistic way that humans will conserve nature. He completed his Biology degree at Charles Darwin University, Northern Territory, and James Cook University at Townsville and Cairns, north Queensland. Previous to this he gained his qualifications in Outdoor Guiding in the Blue Mountains, south-eastern Australia. These courses led to a range of research assistant experiences, including rainforest plants, bandicoots, finches, bats, butterflies and cassowaries.

Damon has worked as a guide and lecturer for various companies and institutes around Australia and the Pacific, including day trips, overnight jungle hikes, rock art tours, documentary film crew, 4WD safaris, coral reef cruises, cycle tours, expedition cruises, wildlife & bird-watching tours, and biology, ecotourism & other study programs. This work has helped fund the following educational and ecotourism projects.

Damon Ramsey is owner of the publishing business “Ecosystem Guides”, which produces a series of field guide books. He is the author and photographer of the series and has published the second edition of “Rainforest of tropical Australia”, as well as “Ocean Surfaces of Australasia”, and “Tropical Seashores of Australia”. Upcoming titles include coral reefs, savanna, south-east Asian tropical rainforest, New Guinea rainforest, and the Southern Oceans. He also contributes regular articles to magazine such as ‘Wildlife Australia’. In 2011 Damon completed the first episode in a documentary series on tropical rainforest, which included segments on dangerous plants and tracking cassowaries. He has constructed the Ecosystem Guides website, which details where the best places are to see wildlife around Australia, Asia and the Pacific. For 6 years he was a company director and co-owner of Educational Tours Australia.
“ETA”, which ran and organized various study tours, including biology and ecology programmes, for groups of students of all ages.

His work and travel experiences have taken him to southern Africa, North America, Central America, South America, India, South-east Asia, New Guinea & Melanesia, Polynesia, New Zealand & the Sub Antarctic, and of course around Australia. He is based in Cairns, North Queensland, Australia.
                                       Andrew Marshall
Andrew joins us with expedition cruising experience in Greenland, Alaska, Antarctica, the Sub Antarctic Islands of New Zealand and Australia, Polynesia, Micronesia, Melanesia, Indonesia, South East Asia and Australia’s Kimberley region. Andrew has also skippered whale watching and dolphin swimming vessels in New Zealand, Australia, Hawaii and British Columbia, and has worked as a dive guide on a “liveaboard” in the Red Sea.

His qualifications range from a Bachelors degree in Zoology and a postgraduate diploma in Tourism Management and Marine Science through to a postgraduate diploma in Natural History Filmmaking and Communication.

Andrew’s documentary filmmaking projects are internationally recognised, with his films having featured at several film festivals including the Green Film Festival in South Korea, Ecovision in Italy, and the Tokyo Environmental Film Festival in Japan.

He is an accomplished and entertaining lecturer who loves marine adventure activities such as diving, surfing and sailing. The refitting of a 30 foot steel sloop over the last three years is also a passion of Andrew’s.

Andrew is the founder of Ocean International, an entity primarily created to facilitate the development and deployment of a dedicated filming expedition vessel.

Andrew is looking forward to sharing his knowledge with Orion guests.