About the author

Chris was born and lives in Sydney, Australia.

He has had a fascination for wildlife since an early age. Nearly every school holiday was spent in the bush in the New England area of New South Wales. He still swears to this day that he discovered a giant cicada species in his youth which dwarfs the largest Australian cicada currently known to Western science.

It was on one of these trips that Chris' fascination for aquatic wildlife began. He brought home hundreds of fish from a small stream, only to learn later that they were a severe pest species. Having worked in and managed a number of aquarium stores during late high school and after completing school, Chris then began a Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Biology with the University of Technology, Sydney.

Excellent grades in first year led to an industrial scholarship placement with the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO). Over the next 12 months Chris helped prepare biological specimens, conducted statistical analyses on freshwater fauna populations, ran breeding programs for native fish and developed image processing techniques for the preparation of electronic map data.

After returning to biological studies for a short time Chris withdrew, and instead spent the next 4 and a half years working in the retail sector, ultimately as a store manager. During this time he commenced a new Bachelor degree in Computing Science which he completed with Honours and a Diploma of Information Technology in 2005. Since 2001 has filled roles in Technical Support, Software Development, Database Administration, Project Management, Website Improvement Analysis, Knowledge Management and Technical Analysis.

Where Light Meets Dark was launched in 2006 in response to the publication of Klaus Emmerichs' alleged photos of a thylacine in Tasmania but Chris' fascination with the thylacine goes back further than he can remember. Although not trained in the forensic analysis of digital photographs, Chris takes a systematic and critical approach to his evaluation of photographic, film and other evidence for rare fauna. Each report is treated with respect and the assumption that the observer is recalling events to the best of their ability, as accurately as possible.

Since its launch, Where Light Meets Dark has achieved a number of milestones, many of which have been made possible by the generous contributions of a large number of experts and professionals.

Also since 2006, Chris has contributed small amounts of voluntary work to two zoos, a wildlife rescue program, frog conservation research in NSW and Eastern quoll conservation research in Tasmania. Together with Debbie Hynes he has launched a website dedicated to the search for Tasmanian devils on mainland Australia called Mainland Devils. Where Light Meets Dark also documents his own search for the Eastern quoll on mainland Australia.

In 2008 Chris received sponsorship in order to conduct an expedition to search for the Tasmanian tiger in Tasmania. The trip became the subject of a Monster Quest documentary episode screened in 2009.

Chris launched Wildlife Monitoring, Australia's first dedicated camera trap specialist business in 2009. Chris shoots photography both commercially and for pleasure.