Inala Nature Tours

Dr Tonia Cochran moved to Inala on Bruny Island in 1988 and has run Inala Nature Tours from the property for more than 30 years. A qualified biologist with a Bachelor of Science in botany and zoology with honours and a PhD in zoology, she designs and leads most of the birding and wildlife itineraries herself. Inala is a 1,500-acre private conservation reserve under a conservation covenant, and it holds all twelve of Tasmania's endemic bird species, including the Forty-spotted Pardalote and the Swift Parrot. Cochran is the founding chair of Wildlife Tourism Australia. Her stated approach runs past showing guests the habitat: the operation restores habitat, protects endangered flora and fauna, and supports research and education on the reserve itself, so the tours fund the conservation rather than sit apart from it. What began as small-group birding and wildlife trips on the Bruny Island property has grown into itineraries beyond Tasmania, but the covenanted reserve, and Cochran's own guiding, remain the core of it — guests come for the twelve endemics and the ground set aside to hold them.