Nature’s in my blood

Growing up in Melbourne

I can't remember a time where I wasn't interested in nature, plants and animals. Growing up in the suburbs of Melbourne, people would always bring me wild stuff. At the age of 10, I was already hand-rearing baby possums that were orphaned by cats killing the mums, and I also had snakes, frogs and all sorts of stuff. 

When I was 10, my mum and dad thought, ‘hmm, she's not turning out like the little girl she should be’. So my mum bought me a little tutu and sent me off to ballet classes. I did two lessons, which I thought was more than fair, before I swapped all my ballet gear for a female redback spider with eggs. I thought I was a real winner after that transaction. 

I stayed in Melbourne until the age of 26, and I always stayed really connected with nature. I went to Melbourne University, did botany and zoology and just totally absorbed in the natural world. Nature, it’s just in my blood. I can’t really explain where it came from.

6 years with the Antarctic Division  

When I was doing my PhD I announced to my supervisor that I'd like to go to Macquarie Island. I was a marine biologist then and I was working on chitons. The thing about chitons is that some of the cold water species brood their young. 

And he said, ‘well good luck with that, you can't just go to Macquarie Island’. But then he said, ‘look here's an application form if you want to’. So I filled it out and the next minute I was going to Macquarie Island. I thought it was so cool, and I did my own research there.   

At the same time I was working at the Museum of Victoria in the invertebrate zoology section and they said ‘would you stay down there and go to Antarctica to collect specimens for us’. And I thought yes well I certainly will. As a result of that I was offered a job at the Australian Antarctic Division. They were recruiting for a biologist for the new icebreaker which was the Aurora Australis.

All images in gallery supplied by Tonia Cochran.