Melanie Faithfull

Assistant Expedition Leader

Before Coral Expeditions I worked with the Parks and Wildlife program ‘Nearer to Nature’ as an environmental Education Guide in Perth, Western Australia after completing my Bachelor degree in Coastal and Marine Science. I wanted to travel with my work and gain knowledge and experience from a variety of places. Coral Expeditions looked like an exciting and wonderful opportunity for me to do so.

Now as part of the Expedition Crew I am responsible for preparing all of the expedition crew equipment for the guest’s day excursions. I also meet with the crew and plan out what will be required of the day. Whilst out and about with the guests I would carry the first aid and assist where necessary, and occasionally do some interpretation on anything relevant to my knowledge base, and answer any of the guests’ questions along the way. At night on board, I will run games nights, quiz nights, dance nights or any other entertainment for the guests.

I love the opportunity of being able to work in remote, isolated, beautiful parts of Australia (and hopefully elsewhere once we can!) and being able to share what I know about the environment, animals and especially the ocean. I also love getting to know the crew, we all come from such unique backgrounds and its wonderful to be able to share our passions at work.

My favourite experience has been being able to work in the Kimberley. It has always been somewhere I have wanted to explore, so for me I have appreciated so much being able to work there and learn so much about the incredible part of Australia. The whole place is beautiful, from the colours to the animals, the iconic locations, and incredible coastline. You could never get tired of being there.

Having only worked in the Kimberley so far with Coral Expeditions my favourite location would have to be Montgomery reef. This place is a spectacular marine phenomenon so being able to be there and experience it multiple times rising out of the water with so much marine life making use of the reef, I was thrilled to witness it.

One of the craziest experiences during my time at Coral Expeditions would have to be flying over the Mitchell plateau in the open doored helicopter. It was an experience I will never forget. I was so privileged to be able to take the opportunity to fly over the falls and spend the day up there as the guide for the guests.

I absolutely love the cruise down King George River to the Oomari falls. Looking around at all the guests facing is awesome. They always look so amazed and in awe of how stunning the tall cliffs are. Another awesome guest reaction I had, was with a guest who had just gotten of the flight to Mitchell falls. As soon as she got out of the helicopter she began to cry, at first, I thought she was crying because she was frightened of flying but then she told me she was so happy and emotional because she didn’t realise how gorgeous our country was and she couldn’t believe what she had just witnessed from the above. It was a lovely moment.