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
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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.
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Alastair Newton |
Alastair offers Orion nearly 10 years of experience leading expedition voyages around the world.
Although British, Alastair graduated with a degree in Biology from the University of Alaska Fairbanks, having spent 7 years living in Alaska and discovering a love of Arctic wildlife and people. He spent 4 years living and working with captive Alaskan wildlife, in the form of Reindeer, Caribou and Muskoxen. This starting point led to him becoming a wilderness guide in Denali National Park, taking clients out to discover the wildlife for themselves. This turned out to be the start of his career in tourism and it was in 2004 that he made his switch to working on the water. Since 2004, Alastair has led over 100 cruises in 45 countries covering from the Arctic to the Antarctic and including unusual countries, such as the outer islands of Micronesia and the Marquesas, the Russian Far East and Japan and even Iran and Myanmar.
In addition to leading expedition cruises around the world, Alastair has a passion for flying, having had his pilot's license for 2 years and is currently learning to fly a 1939 Tiger Moth. Alastair is also a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.
At any time during your voyage, feel free to grab Alastair for a meal or a drink and ask him to regale you with tales of of his travels all over the world and what it is really like to live through winters of -40C in Alaska. |
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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. |
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Dr Alexander Watson |
Dr Alexander Watson is an ecologist with a special interest in seabirds and marine mammals. He is particularly interested in human-caused disturbance including long-line fishing, oil spills, seismic testing, whaling and climate change.
He is the current Kimberley Project Manager for the non-government organisation ‘World Wide Fund for Nature’ (WFF). In the summer months he works as a whale and seabird lecturer and guide in the sub-Antarctic Islands and Antarctica. He has also worked in tropical waters for the Australian government assessing impacts of oil spills of marine biodiversity.
Prior to working for WWF, he has lectured at University in conservation biology and ecology, represented the educational organisation ‘Leave No Trace’ and worked for ‘The Wilderness Society’ on the Great Western Woodland project where he brought together key stakeholders to develop a regional plan for managing this extraordinary landscape.
He has published scientific reports on topics including assessing the National Reserve System in Australia, the need for a new approach for managing the large, intact landscapes including the Great Western Woodlands and the Kimberley, the effects of habitat fragmentation on woodland birds, the effects of logging disturbance on forests and impacts of oil spills on biodiversity.
Alexander is a passionate conservation scientist who wishes to utilise his ecology background to natural biodiversity is maintained and, where possible, empower Indigenous peoples. |
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Sue Flood |
Sue Flood is a professional wildlife photographer and author, who spent 11 years with the world-renowned BBC Natural History Unit, fulfilling a lifelong ambition to work with her childhood (and adult!) hero Sir David Attenborough.
This included The Blue Planet and Planet Earth, as well as the Disneynature movie Earth. She also produced a number of BBC wildlife documentaries on killer whales, polar bears and the Inuit of the Canadian high Arctic, before leaving the BBC in 2005 to concentrate on her photography.
Sue’s adventures have taken her from camping at -40°C with Inuit hunters in the Arctic, working on Russian icebreakers on trips to the North Pole, and swimming with humpback whales in Tonga. Sue has also travelled extensively elsewhere, from the Russian Far East and Japan to Africa and throughout the South Pacific. Sue is passionate about the use of still and moving images to engage people’s interest in the natural world and regularly lectures on her experiences of wildlife film-making and photography, with the aim of inspiring people to protect the planet.
Sue also enjoys guiding tailor-made wildlife photography trips to the Antarctic, Costa Rica, Rwanda and Zambia.
Recognition of Sue’s work includes awards in the following competitions: International Photographer of the Year, Travel Photographer of the Year, the Art Wolfe (Best of Festival) Award in the International Conservation Photography Awards, and Royal Photographic Society Silver Medal.
Sue lives in North Wales, though she is often to be found in some far-flung location. She is represented by Getty Images. |
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Tony Crocker |
A New Zealander, Tony holds a MA in French and GradDipSc in History and Philosophy of Science. His career in travel and tourism includes visits to many countries and stints of living for five years each in UK/Europe and Australia.
Tony has a lifelong interest in ornithology, and is acknowledged as one of New Zealand’s best birders. He was editor of the OSNZ magazine Southern Bird for nine years and council member for six. Tony is active in various projects, especially involving research and monitoring of waders (shorebirds) and seabirds. This has involved a number of significant international expeditions, including four months on a yacht through the South Pacific, and north-western Australia and South Korea. In his spare time he has recently been involved with predator eradication on a mammal-free island, and publishing on oystercatcher hybridisation.
Before working extensively for the past few years as on-board ornithologist/lecturer/zodiac driver on expedition ships (including extensive experience in South-east Asia, New Zealand, South Pacific, Antarctica and the Arctic) he was most recently manager of Educational Travel programmes at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch. While often at sea, Tony also works freelance as educator and tour operator/tour leader with a variety of organisations. |
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