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INALA FOUNDATION TEAM
OUR BOARD
- Dr Tonia Gaye Cochran - Public Officer and President, Environmental Consultant, Bruny Island, TAS
- Jane Kilburn - Treasurer, Springfield, TAS
- Catherine Davidson - Secretary, Nature Guide, Bruny Island, TAS
- David Cochran - Chartered Accountant, Melbourne, VIC
- Judy Fakes - Foundation Fund Committee Member, Bruny Island, TAS
OUR TEAM
- Alison van den Berg - Volunteer co-ordinator
- Dr Catherine Young - Grants and Events Co-ordinator
- Dr Andrew Hingston - Project manager
- Brad Moriarty - Graphic Designer and Digital Co-ordinator
- Monique Mason - Volunteer
OUR CONTACT DETAILS
- Inala Foundation Inc.
- ABN 95 151211 813
- 320 Cloudy Bay Road, Bruny Island, TAS 7150
- info@inalafoundation.com.au
Brad Moriarty
Public Officer and President
Tonia’s fascination with natural history began as a small child. 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 several orphaned and injured native Australian animals in her care. Tonia moved to Inala on Bruny Island in 1988, which is still her home as well as the Inala Foundation headquarters. Her passion for protecting and preserving wild places and the flora and fauna within natural landscapes is demonstrated in her involvement in threatened species management and has led her to place a conservation covenant on her 1,500 acre property at Inala, which is home to all 12 Tasmanian endemic bird species and a refuge for several threatened species.
Treasurer
Jane is a retired Chartered Accountant who after a long career in audit with PricewaterhouseCoopers gained valuable experience as a financial controller for an international business. She has a huge passion for the environment and self-sustainability and is very excited to be part of the Inala team.
Secretary
Cat is a nature guide in the Inala Nature Tours guiding team. She is also the coordinator for the Bruny Island Bird Festival in which Inala is one of the three partners.
Cat's passion for the environment is drawn from a diverse background in nature guiding in Canada, the Falkland Islands and Australia. She has certifications in conservation and land management and her botanical background started very early in life growing up in her family's garden nursery on the shores of Loch Ness in Scotland.
Chartered Accountant
With over 30 years experience as a chartered accountant, David Cochran heads SY Group as the Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director.
David holds a Bachelor of Business and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accounts, Certified Practising Accountants, Taxation Institute of Australia, Taxpayers Association and The Executive Connection (alumni). He is a registered tax agent and chartered tax adviser.
Volunteer co-ordinator
Alison has been working in the tourism sector for a number of years in Tasmania, and has also led a successful career in the public service. Alison is a resident of Bruny Island and she and her husband recently finished building their stunning house, located on south Bruny in a patch of lovely bush, with sweeping views of Cloudy Bay. Alison enthusiastic about Tasmania’s natural flora and shares our love of all things wild. She brings sound organisational and people skills to the team, helping us meet a growing range of operational and administrative tasks.
Grants and Events Co-ordinator
Catherine brings with her a wealth scientific knowledge. As a PhD graduate in behavioural ecology (investigating the private lives of crimson finches), Catherine has over 12 years’ experience as a research biologist including two years with Save the Gouldian Fund and six years on the Australian Bird Study Association committee. Catherine’s research has enabled her to work on a variety of taxa and environments across the world from the UK and South Africa to Australia. Her work within Australia has taken her to the arid zone, seabird islands, the tropical north-west, Sydney, Melbourne and finally to Tasmania.
Outside of guiding, Catherine assists with Tasmanian based research by the Australian National University, Macquarie University and the University of Canterbury (NZ). In addition to this she also holds an Honorary Research Associate position at the University of Tasmania, through which she is involved in a number of projects from Tasmanian devils and quolls to wedge-tailed eagles. This includes her own project, based out of Hobart, monitoring woodland birds and providing training opportunities for researchers.
Catherine is passionate about citizen science and environmental education and is assisting Inala in some exciting new workshops and studies.
Project Manager
Andrew has an excellent, in-depth knowledge of Tasmania’s flora and fauna. He has published around 30 research papers in peer-reviewed journals (see below), and has worked as a specialist bird and natural history guide for Inala Nature Tours since 2012.
Andrew has lived in Tasmania and been studying our birds all of his life. He bought his first pair of binoculars from a second-hand shop when he was 10 years old. Following this passion led him to a Bachelor of Science in Forest Ecology at the University of Tasmania. He then did an Honours degree investigating the invasion and impact of a feral bumblebee in Tasmania, and the ecology of Tasmania's native bees. Following this, he completed his Ph.D. on the bird and insect pollinators of Tasmanian Blue Gums which included studies into the now Critically Endangered swift parrot.
Graphic Designer and Digital Co-ordinator
Brad has a diverse background including the creation and implementation of operating procedures for international companies including a multi-national conglomerate.
He has always had a passion for environmental conservation and has certifications in conservation and land management. Brad has previously been a nature guide in Canada and the Falkland Islands and in recent years Brad has switched over to creative media and digital solutions including photography and videography.
Andrew is currently an Honorary Research Associate at the University of Tasmania, a position which has entailed supervising a student's Masters thesis on the importance of suburban trees as food sources for swift parrots, providing guest lectures to post-graduate students, and continuing his research into the impacts of feral bumblebees. That research prompted the Invasive Species Council Australia to award him the 2006 ‘Vigilance of Weeds and Ferals Award’. He also works periodically as a research assistant at the University of Tasmania, investigating such topics as pollinators of eucalypts and the potential for eucalypt plantations to inter-breed with native forest trees. He has previously worked as a botanist, mapping Tasmanian alpine vegetation. Along with his guiding work at Inala, most of his recent employment has involved running Forestry Tasmania's investigations into the responses of birds to timber harvesting in Tasmanian wet eucalypt forests.
Along with his research, Andrew enjoys practical environmental remediation work. He has a long involvement with the Hobart City Council's Bushcare program of removing environmental weeds from native bushland and was awarded the 2013 ‘Bushcare Legend Golden Secateurs Award’ by the Hobart City Council for “his dedication, passion and commitment to the Mt Nelson Bushcare Group”. He has also raised and planted thousands of native trees for habitat restoration, windbreaks and erosion control.
Visit our related research articles page to see a list of publications produced by Dr Andrew Hingston.
Tonia is also owner, Managing Director and principal specialist guide and tour leader of Inala Nature Tours, which is a major contributor to the Inala Foundation. She has over 30 years of experience in ecotourism in Australia and works with local and indigenous people from around Australia and throughout the globe to provide the best possible ecotour experience with a positive conservation outcome and to benefit local communities, particularly those in more remote areas.
Tonia is a qualified Biologist (Bachelor of Science in Botany and Zoology, with Honors and PhD degrees in Zoology from the University of Melbourne) and draws on her broad knowledge of marine and terrestrial fauna and flora, years of field experience and wide-ranging academic and teaching background to provide leadership and guidance to the Inala Foundation.
Tonia is also owner, curator and collection manager of the Inala Jurassic Garden and Museum from whom the Inala Foundation also receives profits from entry fees and shop sales. Tonia is the driving force in registering the Inala Jurassic Garden as a member of such organisations as Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) and the Climate Change Alliance of Botanic Gardens which are addressing conservation concerns regarding plants around the world and how living collections such as the Inala Jurassic Garden can assist by becoming a ‘Noah’s Ark’ for species under threat by climate change and/or human interference in the wild.
Tonia also holds the following positions in organisations which contribute substantially to positive conservation outcomes:
Forty-spotted Pardalote Recovery Team member since 1993.
Wedge-tailed Eagle Recovery Team member since 1993.
Bruny Island Environment Network (BIEN)- Committee Member.
Kingborough Environment Fund (KEF) Stakeholder member since its formation in 2018.
Relevant publications by Tonia:
Cochran, T (2003). Managing Threatened Species and Communities on Bruny Island. Threatened Species Unit, Department of Primary Industries, Water and Environment, Tasmania.
Tonia also encourages research and conservation work on the Inala property to further knowledge particularly on threatened species, so that they can be better protected. A list of research papers and media productions which have used the Inala property to study its special inhabitants can be found on our related research articles page.
Volunteer
Monique brings with her extensive management experience in the Not-for-profit sector and holds Masters degrees in science (earth science) and social science.
Monique comes from a family of nature enthusiasts and gardeners and has enjoyed many bushwalking and nature-based experiences in New Zealand and Australia, as well as designing and constructing her own gardens based on permaculture principles.
In May 2020, she moved to Tasmania from Adelaide, South Australia to enjoy a slower pace of life and immerse herself in a beautiful, natural environment. Monique is very excited to have the opportunity to learn from the Inala Team and fulfil a life-long dream of actively contributing to environmental conservation.
Foundation Fund Committee Member
Judy has a keen interest and background in horticulture and conservation. She has served on a number of committees including the Horticulture Committee of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney and the TREENET Management Committee based at the Waite Arboretum, University of Adelaide.