The Discoverers

Leon is a remote exploration guide and four-wheel-drive specialist. A survivalist and bush medicine expert. Orphaned in his teens, he was raised in the small fishing village of Denham amongst his extended Malgana Aboriginal family. He has spent a lifetime amongst them on the ocean as a commercial seafarer, scuba dive master, free diver, spear fisher, and ocean salvage man.

Shayne is a metal detection treasure hunting specialist, a highly skilled commercial camera operator and a certified CASA drone pilot. With a lifetime spent filming above and below the water in remote wilderness locations, his images have graced the Australian and international screens for decades. His greatest passion is Western Australian maritime history and hunting the trove of treasures beneath its soil and sea. He is an expert in researching and decoding the finds they uncover using his skills with modern treasure detecting equipment.

Shayne and Leon spent five years fighting to see the Australian Baby Buddha given the respect it deserves and, in that time, have had at the fore front of their minds its importance as an Indigenous Australian first contact artefact.

They have tried to balance that with the fact that it is also and perhaps foremost, an object of extreme spiritual significance to the Chinese Buddhist Community. Trying to find an appropriate home has been a delicate exercise in diplomacy.

They have tried their best to be conscientious custodians of the Buddha and have spent over $100 000AUD in research and travel and secure storage in that time to achieve the recent scientific forensic authentication.

These funds have been diverted from their self-funded charity the Shark Ark Project, www.SharkArkProject.com of which their film company FINN Films is a subsidiary.

They do not accept any public or government donations and for over a decade now have used the income from their documentary works to help provide free research vessels for marine biology expeditions within our World Heritage listed marine park home. Their aim is to provide vehicle, vessel and logistics support free of charge to enable research that incorporates our Malgana saltwater nations traditional knowledge with modern marine science.

They work with many universities, private corporations and conservation based organisations like the Harry Butler Institute, Bush Heritage Australia, The Australian Wilderness Conservatorium and more.. In the last two years they have recorded world first dolphin tool use that will premiere on a Netflix special soon and through their philanthropic works have discovered not one but two new species as well as helped to record and catalogue new sacred sites for protection for the local Malgana people.

They spend their lives fighting for conservation of the natural world and the preservation of the cultural history that entwines it.