Dr Tonia Cochran

Dr Tonia Cochran is a zoologist, experienced naturalist and owner of Inala Nature Tours.

Tonia’s fascination with natural history began as a small child living in suburban Melbourne. By the age of 10 years old, she had already accumulated a substantial fossil, gem and shell collection and the family house was a menagerie that included a collection of spiders she was breeding in her bedroom, snakes and lizards and several orphaned and injured native Australian animals. After dabbling with a wish to become a veterinary surgeon, it was no surprise to anyone when she chose a career in biology. Slightly more surprising was her decision to move from Melbourne to Bruny Island and start an ecotourism business.

Tonia is actively involved in threatened species management and conservation and has formed the Inala Nature Foundation to help protect Bruny's plants and wildlife. She is actively involved in the day to day running of Inala Nature Tours as managing director and owner, and designs most of the birding and wildlife itineraries for the company. She also leads tours both around Australia and other selected international destinations where there is a positive conservation outcome.

Tonia also regularly lectures at a number of Australian and International venues, and topics range in subject from her Antarctic experiences, to ecotourism, threatened species conservation and Ornithology. Tonia has also participated in documentaries for the Discovery Channel, the BBC and several international film companies, and has appeared in several national television series. She is also a regular contributor of articles to various magazines and the subject of numerous media articles.

Tonia has a biology background (Bachelor of Science in Botany and Zoology, with Honors and PhD degrees in Zoology from University of Melbourne) and a broad range of interests and knowledge in both marine and terrestrial Australian fauna and flora. Her early academic career mostly involved the field of marine systematics and ecology (PhD on chitons, malacologist at the the Museum of Victoria, krill fish and zooplankton biologist with the Australian Antarctic Division which included 7 trips to Antarctica and sub-Antarctic Heard and Macquarie Islands). In 1988, she moved from Melbourne to Inala on Bruny Island and became involved in threatened species management and conservation on Bruny Island, particularly the Forty-spotted Pardalote (as a founding member of the National Recovery team), Tasmanian Wedge-tailed and White-bellied Sea-eagles (also as a Recovery Team member) and the Swift Parrot. Tonia purchased the 1,500 acre Inala property on Bruny Island in stages to protect threatened species. The property is now protected in perpetuity through several conservation covenants. In 2003 she wrote "Managing Threated Species and Communities on Bruny Island" (Threatened Species Section, DPIPWE) which is still used as the main reference today.

Tonia also has 30 years of experience in ecotourism as founder of Inala Nature Tours which now has companies based in Australia and the UK and which specialises in offering premium natural history tours around Australia and selected destinations around the world. She was founding Chair of the nationwide organisation “Wildlife Tourism Australia” and continues to promote world-class sustainable ecotourism.