Meet the Team

We are a small family owned business based in the Blue Mountains offering camping in various locations around New South Wales including Mogo Zoo. Our team has extensive years of experience in tour guiding and entertaining and understand the importance that the most important person in the world, is the customer.

Meet Chappo

As the business owner Graham Chapman has done a lot in his life. His work on air as a radio announcer during the 1980’s and 1990’s positioned him well for the tourism industry. One of 5 children, he grew up on a small farm at the base of the Blue Mountains. As a child, his parents were guiding lights as they demonstrated the importance of ‘community’ which is crucial to his belief today. He has been a long serving member of the Rural Fire Service first joining his local brigade at Llandilo in 1978, becoming one of the first members of their junior brigade. He remains a member of that brigade to this day. He has refereed football since he was 14 and has worked tirelessly throughout his life donating his time for charitable events. A former boy scout, he loved camping as a child and that has continued into his adulthood.

‘I don’t see tourism as any different to working on radio or television. You are entertaining people. It is an enormous privilege to bring it all together for them and creating special memories. I love, with a passion what I do, and seeing people leave their time with us saying it’s the greatest experience they have been on makes it all worthwhile’

Graham remembers his first family camping trip to Porters Retreat, near Oberon like it was yesterday.

‘My dad was a dreamer. He was always searching for elusive Gold in the rivers. Fortunately for my parents they found lots of Sapphires. I often look back on that era and give thanks that my parents were who they were. I have fond memories fossicking in the rivers over the Blue Mountains’.

Graham describes his life as perfect nowadays, he has three wonderful children, a loving partner and enjoys meeting new people and introducing them to new experiences.

Meet Alec

Alec is one of three children that Chapo often proudly talks about. He has grown up loving the outdoors through sport and camping. He often just decides to throw a swag in the car and enjoy a night under the stars with his mates. At 21, he loves meeting new people from overseas and around our country and he remains an important part of his family tourism business.

‘I remember my dad taking me on my first camping trip. I look back fondly on the photos. I was only 4 years of age but remember loving being out with the wild Kangaroos and listening to all the different birds’  

Alec works in both locations for his family business being the Blue Mountains and Mogo Zoo.

Meet Hayden

Hayden was born in the beautiful Pacific Islands of Vanuatu. His Great Grandmother was the sister to Queen Salote of Tonga. As colourful as that history may be Hayden takes great pride in his Australian mothers’ side, where his 6th Generation Grandparents were both ‘forced tourists’ convicts on the First Fleet in 1788. 

Swapping a group of little islands for the big island of Australia in 1969, Hayden has absolutely no hesitation in calling Australia HOME. 

Hayden has always been in the service of people starting at an early age in the Australian Red Cross/Crescent organisation through to his late 20s, then as a Youth Pastor and Youth worker in the local community through to today as a Tour Guide. 

Working with local indigenous children and taking them on a Pilgrimage to Uluru over a 7yr period, has brought him a beautiful connection to the land. A connection he uses today when he takes people into the Aussie bush with him.

Whether you’re on tour with Hayden or simply one of his 6 children and their mates going on a bushwalk with him, Hayden isn’t content for you to simply see the views but experience nature through all the senses, feel, taste and listen. 

Every day brings with it a new and exciting adventure, a new experience to be had and an opportunity to make a difference for the positive in another’s life, whether you’re a child or a child at heart in your late 90s. 

With a heart of Gratefulness, it is easy to see why he’s often referred to as the ‘Happy Hugger”.

Meet Sean

Sean Smith is a Sydney local. He comes from a long line of creative ancestors and the creative gene has not skipped him or his children. Sean has a love of photography and so too does his eldest son, they both love to immerse themselves in their natural flair for nature photography. Sean has three children, two sons and a daughter playing water polo in the Netherlands at an elite level. 

Sean has 25 years of travel and tourism Experiences stretching across most states and territories of Australia. He plays at integral role when showing international guests, the Blue Mountains and now embarks on the opportunity of a lifetime hosting domestic and international tourists at Mogo Wildlife Park on the South Coast with our overnight camping adventures.

 

Sean grew up visiting the beautiful South Coast with his family for well over a decade. He has lived in many exotic parts of the world and has travelled extensively. The love of engagement ignites Sean and ignites his zest for people, animals, camping and life. Sean is someone rare that understands the calm approach to entertaining and offering experiences but at the same time appreciating that it’s the little things that can make the experience outstanding.

Camping In The Blue Mountains

Camping at Mogo Wildlife Park