Hi! We are Base and Jamie and we are naturalist guides, scientists, sailors, surfers, kayakers and we are passionate about our natural world. We love taking people out into nature to learn and explore and discover the wonders around us.
Why Come Explore with Us?
From the Ocean to the Trees and everything in between… you will find us out looking for orchids, going for a sail or surf, or doing citizen science bird counts from our kayaks. Why not join us on a great day out in nature. We would love to be your guides.
Our Backgrounds
Base
Geologist, Sailor, Surfer and all around Nature Lover!
Sebastian ‘Base’ Jones grew up in the region sailing in the Peel-Harvey Estuary, bush walking, and looking at the rocks along the Darling Scarp and surfing in the Mandurah region.
Base has always been searching for wild and wonderful places with trips like sailing across the Pacific Ocean, searching for fossils in Morocco, spending a year driving through central America and starting up a surf camp in Coast Rica, all before he was 25 years old.
The love of the Earth and rocks took him down the path of completing a Bachelor’s degree in Science majoring in Geology. He has had a decade long career as an exploration geologist searching for gold, nickel, and groundwater in the interior of Western Australia and a year spent geological mapping in the tundra of North Eastern Canada.
With the ocean always calling, sailing has been Bases ‘other career’ having skippered and crewed on sailing vessels in places such as the Mediterranean, California, Pacific Ocean and Ningaloo Reef. He has a commercial Yacht Master ticket and he started Southern Cross Sailing with his wife Jamie on their beloved 36ft ketch (Lady C) out of Fremantle teaching sailing courses and running charters to the local islands. Base and Jamie also sailed up and down the WA coast, cruising.
For the past 4 years he has been working as a naturalist guide, driving vessels and lecturing on expeditions ships having the amazing opportunity to work in places such as the Arctic, Antarctica, Indonesia, the Kimberley, Patagonia PNG and other Pacific Islands.
Base loves to get involved in citizen science and environmental initiatives. He was an honorary ranger on Rottnest Island, he has tagged and monitored terns on Penguin Island, and completed plastic clean ups and citizen science trips along the WA coast. Base is keen to promote citizen science and has lectured around Australia on such topics.
Base loves to share his knowledge with everyone he meets but also loves to learn from others. As a geologist he has understood that rocks and the landscape are a fundamental part in understanding ecosystems as a whole.
No matter if it’s on a side of an active volcano in Vanuatu, hanging out with king penguins on Macquarie Island or looking for orchids in Yalgorup National Park , Base will always have a smile from ear to ear and is keen to share with you the secrets of nature.
Jamie
Jamie Van Jones has an immense passion for the natural world and she marvels at how amazing our planet and all the species on it are. Jamie has had the privilege to work all around the world and has travelled to more countries than the number of years she has lived on this Earth.
Western Australia is home and her favorite place, however her roots are from the Maple tree, having moved here from Canada at the end of her teenage years.
Jamie has completed a degree in Sustainable Development and has worked in international development in Tanzania, Uganda, India, and Bangladesh. Projects she has worked on included health, sanitation, hygiene and evaluations on the attainment of the United Nations millennium goals back in 2015. From these amazing opportunities, she learnt that for people to be healthy and happy we need a healthy, functioning Earth to support them.
Jamie has had a career in the Environmental conservation sector having worked for the Conservation Council of WA, and with Wilderness Society of WA and volunteering with many other environmental groups. Jamie loves getting out in the field, having participated in environmental projects including sea bird tagging on WA’s offshore Islands, vertebrate surveys in Charles Darwin Reserve and controlling the forward movement of cane toads in the Kimberley region. Jamie has held the position of Chair of the board for the Wilderness Society of WA and she currently sits of the board of the Coastal Waste Warriors Inc.
Jamie believes that each individual can contribute positive steps to make the Earth a better place. Jamie has taught eco-living courses to the public, local governments and industry sharing ways to reduce our environmental footprint on the planet. She has also presented environmental conservation lectures around the world on waste reduction, plastic pollution solutions and protecting wild places. In Fremantle, Jamie created eco-community workshops and a local green guide and eco-map to promote sustainability. In that year she was presented with an amazing achievement receiving the Citizen of the Year award for Fremantle.
Jamie and her husband have lived on their sailboat since 2015 to reduce their environmental footprint on the planet, while still adventuring. Sailing the West Australian Coast and sharing their experiences on the platform Salty Times allowed them to communicate the citizen science programs they took part in, including documenting the marine debris along WA’s coast, and monitoring marine life as they sailed. They shared their findings with the public and also scientists.
Working as an Expedition leader and naturalist guide on expedition cruise ships, has allowed Jamie to explore many remote wild places on all of Earth’s Continents. She believes if you explore and learn about a place it stays with you and inevitably you will feel connected to it, and hopefully you will do more to take care of it.
After all of these adventures Jamie now calls WA’s south west home and feels so lucky to be living in one of the world’s 32 biodiversity hotspots. The plants, animals, fungi, landscape, waterways and history in this region has captivated her. Science communication and getting people to connect with the natural world is what drives Jamie’s passion.
