Onboard Naturalist

TIM WILLING

Tim Willing has lived in the Kimberley for 30 years and his wealth of experience brings an extra dimension to any cruise. Tim's principal area of expertise is in the Kimberley environment, particularly the Kimberley flora and the environmental values of the Kimberley coast and islands.

From 1980 to 1995 Tim was a horticulturist with Parks and Gardens for the Shire of Broome, and developed his abiding interest in identifying and cultivating the Kimberley flora. Passionate about finding new plant species, Tim regularly collects plant seeds from along the Kimberley coast which he sends to the WA Herbarium for further research. One such discovery of a plant species was named after him, the wattle Acacia Willingii in 2009.

From 1996 to 2003 Tim was Conservation Officer (West Kimberley) for the Department of Environment & Conservation. During this period Tim played a key role in developing marine ecotourism interpretation on the Kimberley coast.

In 2002, Tim co-authored Under a Regent Moon, about the pioneer pastoralists Joseph Bradshaw and Aeneas Gunn who worked at the remote Prince Regent River during the 1890s. In 1996, he co-authored Broome and Beyond: Plants and People of the Dampier Peninsula - a flora of the area north from Broome. The authors of this publication were awarded a CSIRO Medal for Research Achievement.

Each year, Tim spends weeks in archives and libraries around Australia and the UK collating research as well as sourcing information online. It is Tim's widespread research exploration on the region that makes up our extensive reference library, the most comprehensive of any Kimberley cruise vessel.

Find out more about Tim Willing in his "meet the crew" profile.