Profile: Tony Morley

Your personal background.
He has been an adventurer and a naturalist for as long as he or anyone can remember. Growing up in a rural town created plenty of opportunity to explore, collect rocks and climb into deep caves. He quickly stepped up the size, scale and intensity of his adventures. Rock and alpine climbing, collecting geological samples in the remote Arctic and joining a helicopter rescue team as well as developing a habit of speaking in the third person. Along the way, his team bested his caving depth record of nearly 900ft – 274M. He climbed high into the alpine and spent frozen nights sleeping in snow drifts. He has been stranded in the remote forests after a Land Rover crash left his team without communications and with a 48km walk ahead of them. He has also survived a light aircraft crash in Canada’s northern forests when a winter storm forced the pilot to ditch the aircraft into the runway.

It was not enough to just explore, before long it developed into a trade. He made a swift progression out of rescue operations and up the ladder of remote exploration, working in the Canadian Rocky Mountains, Arctic Circle and the Deserts of Australia. He has had the pleasure of crossing the bottom corner of the Simpson Desert and exploring the oil fields of southern and northern Australia. Western Australia would hold some of the most interesting mineral finds. The desert evening is truly amazing when the sun goes down, the heat drops off and the flies disappear. Deployed in the Jungles of the Pacific, he has encountered the challenges of working with a people who speak little or no English. He has coordinated helicopter operations involving flying an entire drilling rig and camp into the Pacific Highlands amidst the constant constraints of limited resources and civil unrest.

The principle problem he has faced is finding time to document his adventures and exploits whilst taking the time to complete the needed paperwork, reports, logs or managing helicopter operations. The solution was Archean. He would simply escape and conduct exploration photography on his time off. He is still vigorously passionate about natural history and the environment. When he is not taking photos or exploring he can be found collecting bird sightings, hording interesting rocks, or lecturing on the subjects or geology, resource consumption and exploration. A scientific and inquisitive nature is in his blood. He tells all who will listen how he dearly sympathizes with the gentleman explorers of the 19th century. Archean is the manifestation and creative outlet of these experiences.

His friends often think he is organizationally obsessive. They think he should put away the rocks, stop talking senselessly about continental drift, and most of all stop speaking in the third person. Walking into his study is like walking into Bilbo’s Hobbit hole. It contains piles of books, scattered rocks, piles of new and ancient camera equipment, parts of large telescopes destroyed many years ago. It is just the way he likes it.

The future is bound to hold more adventure, more exploration, more interesting treasure to collect and more challenging projects in difficult climates across difficult terrain. He is excited to see what will be on the other side of the lens and where Archean will next be deployed.
Your feedback on this profile
Recommend this profile for User of the Day: I like this profile
Alert administrators to an offensive profile: I do not like this profile
Account data View
Team BOINC@AUSTRALIA
Message boards 3 posts