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Frequently Asked Questions

We are always delighted to answer any further questions by phone or e-mail, and can help give you comprehensive answers to any individual requirements. 

Frequently Asked Questions, (including T & Cs)

What is the inala e-mail?
inala ( at ) inalanaturetours.com.au - you can also reach us through our contact page if you prefer or call us on 03 6293 1217

Where is Inala located?
Our office is located on South Bruny Island, near to the community of Lunawanna. (320 Cloudy Bay Road )
However, our tours are not simply on Bruny Island, but all over Tasmania, Australia and now also Internationally.
For more information including Bruny ferry details, see our directions page and our Bruny tours page.

What can I see at Inala?
If you are simply dropping by, you are very welcome to visit the public access Nature Museum and 5 acre Jurassic Botanic Garden
Cost: $10 Adult, $5 Child
Hours: 9am - 5pm / 7 days a week
Please note - this garden entry fee does not include access to the bird hides and Inala conservation reserve

If you wish to organise a guided birding & nature tour of the private 1,500 acre Inala property or Bruny Island, we would be delighted to organise that for you and your guide will meet you at Inala and explore from there depending on your interests and birding wishlist.

If you are staying in one of our cottages - included in the price of your accommodation, you get full access to the whole Inala property and can explore with or without a guide as you prefer. 
The Raptor  Viewing Hide, Bird Viewing Hides and Forty-spotted Pardalote Platform are within the private Inala conservation property and can only be accessed on a tour or when staying at an Inala cottage.  
The Raptor Photography Hide is a stand alone photography hide that you can book at an additional cost as an inhouse guest, or you can book to use the photography hide as a day visitor.

I would love to see the Forty-spotted Pardalote at Inala, what are my options?
We know that for many people the Forty-spotted Pardalote is a very desirable bird and Inala is famous for the work that Tonia and her team have been doing over 32 years to conserve this wonderful bird and to increase the size and health of the colony at Inala. 
All 12 Tasmanian Endemic birds including the Forty-spotted Pardalote are found on the Inala Conservation Property and to gain access to the private conservation reserve you can either: 
1) Stay in one of the Inala cottages and gain full access to the Inala property included in your accommodation cost.
2 ) Take a property tour with an Inala guide.  ( Longer full day tours will also include lots of time at Inala )
The Pardalote Platform and habitat area is NOT situated within the Jurassic Garden and cannot be accessed with the garden entry fee.  All profit from Inala accommodation and tours goes straight back into further conservation work and enables the preservation of the unique habitats we have on Bruny Island.

What are your opening hours?
If you are coming to visit the Inala Nature Museum and Jurassic Garden we are open from 9am - 5pm (7 days a week) ( Winter hours 10am - 3pm )
If you are coming on tour we will comunicate with you individually to arrange a suitable start and finish time and location.
If you are staying in one of our Inala cottages, Check in is from 2pm, Check out is 10am

How much are the Inala Bruny tours?
The per person price of the Inala small group tours is displayed on each relevant tour page. 
For a current price list on all the shorter Inala and Bruny tours, please drop us an e-mail on inala ( at ) inalanaturetours.com.au or fill out the tour enquiry page.
We also offer several excellent package prices that include accommodation and meals and make it easier for you to book and enjoy your holiday, these will be sent to you on request of all the tour prices.

Can I book the Raptor Photography Hide without staying at Inala?
Yes you can, this webpage provides you with all further information about the photography hide, including costs, raptor species seen etc.  You can also watch this short video which showcases the photography hide.

Can I join a Bruny birding / nature tour already being run?
We do not have set times or group sizes for Bruny tours, our tours are arranged to fit each individual request.
Most tours start at Inala at 7.30am as a great time of day for birding 
Sometimes it may only be yourself on the short Bruny/Hobart tours ( Property Tour and Day Tour ) but there may be other like minded nature lovers joining that same tour, the maximum we usually have in a group is 6 pax.
 Contact us to find out more about joining a tour on specific dates.

Do you have white wallaby at Inala?
We do have them as part of the local population, however we are not a wildlife park, all the wildlife is wild and free on the reserve, able to roam wherever they wish and to leave the Inala land if they wish.  We have raised many orphaned and injured animals over the years including white Bennetts Wallabies and they are released onto the Inala land.  On our property tours we frequently see many wonderful species of mammals and monotremes, however there are no guaranteed sightings of any specific wildlife.

Can you help me with other Accommodation / Activities / Pelagic Trips / Flights to Melaleauca ......... ?
Absolutely.  We are a tour agency with excellent experience and knowledge of arranging Tasmanian and Australian nature based holiays.  Contact us with any questions, we can help you with self guided itineraries, partially guided itineraries or fully-guided itineraries.  If you dont know where to start - start with us.

What type of tours do you organise?
With almost 30 years creating personalised tours, Inala have helped cater to just about every possible interest on the nature tours spectrum.  So whatever you are interested in, simply tell us and we can suggest a personally crafted itinerary that will best suit you and your budget.  So if you love flora, mammals, photography, scenery or birding, you have come to the right tour company to help you take the next step to a wonderful nature based holiday. 
And If you hate making decisions, and are happy to trust us, that is fine too.  We can lay out a very popular tour format and you can take it how it is or tweek some of the details to better suit.
We will never try to sell you a tour that suits us, we always want it to suit you.

I am a very experienced birder / I am a beginner birder - Are your tours suitable for me?
Yes and yes, our guides are experienced in taking out nature enthusiasts across the entire spectrum of knowledge and experience.  If you have never birded before or if you have birded since you were knee high to a grasshopper, our very knowledgeable and friendly specialist guides will enhance your birding knowledge and match your passions and interests.

I have a friend / partner / family member who is not a birder, can you provide a suitable tour to make us both happy?
Yes of course we can, we frequently design tours that provide interest and entertainment to couples and friends with very diverse interests.  There is so much to do and see that we can balance the days to keep everyone enjoying their time in Australia.  Our guided are also very knowledgeable about topics far beyond birds alone and can inform and entertain on topics such as history, botany, insects, reptiles .... or whatever else someone may have as their personal passion.

What are the ethics of your tours?
 For Inala, the respect, conservation and protection of wildlife is always the priority.  We will try not to disturb or stress any bird or mammal on a tour.  We will do our best as a group not to get too close when viewing or photographing wildlife, we do not unnecessarily handle the wildlife and we do not overuse bird call-backs.  Every Inala guide has passionate involvement with nature conservation and operates by their own ethical and moral standards as well as the industry leading standards set by Tonia Cochran when she established Inala Nature Tours.  Nature rewards our care and patience with incredible wild sightings and views of natural behaviour, our guides' excellent local knowledge will enable you to adapt your tour to weather, light levels, seasons and  behaviour to give you the best possible experience.
We are listed on an international list of ethical birding operators.

Licences and Permits:
You can be assured that we always have full licenses and accreditation for all the areas in which we operate within Australia.  We also work with other highly respected and fully licensed operators from around the world.

What do I need to take with me on a short tour?
If you are on a group tour we will send you a suggested 'What to bring' list.  For the smaller tours just remembering that Tasmania is wonderfully changeable so we recommend a pair of decent footwear, a spare layer of clothing, a waterproof just in case, a re-fillable bottle of water, your binoculars and camera gear and of course your best bird spotting karma.  Please also carry any individual medical items you may need. i.e. Epi-pen, Asthma inhaler
Let us know in advance if you have any specific requirements or would like to borrow a pair of binoculars for the tour.  Your guide will have a first aid kit, all meal supplies and any reference books & bird lists that you may like to use.

Can I charge my Electric Vehicle at Inala?
There are no facilities to recharge your vehicle at any of the Inala cottages and even if you have your own cable for doing so, our power system is not compatible with the demands of charging. However, we have two charging stations on Bruny Island, one for Teslas in Adventure Bay and a Chargefox station suitable for most EV types in Alonnah outside Hotel Bruny. 

What are your terms and conditions? 
Terms and conditions can be sent to you on request and is written on every booking form for each group tour.
We offer a personalised service for our clients, who often make reservations with us well in advance. Cancellations with short notice (of even 2 months or more) are sometimes hard to re-book because of the long lead time most clients require to secure reservations. 
In addition, considerable time and expense is incurred to Inala when designing, liasing, booking and altering tours and if cancellations are required there are further administration expenses when cancelling all the arrangements.

Therefore, we strongly recommend that you arrange travel insurance when booking any length of trip, to cover you for any financial losses incurred for cancellation due to unforeseen circumstances.

a)Deposit and payment

  • A deposit of 25% of the tour /accom cost is due at the time of booking. This, along with a completed booking form, will secure your booking.
  • Full payment of the balance is due 90 days before the tour/accom start date.
  • Payment is generally accepted in Australian Dollars ($AU) For some of our international tours, the currency may be ($USD)  We also have a Inala UK company where we accept £GBP for UK guests.

b)Cancellations

  • Cancellation any time after the deposit is paid incurs loss of the full deposit. If however we are able to fill your place on the tour, and we are able to recoup deposit funds paid to accommodation and other service providers, we may be in a position to reallocate some of your deposit to another tour booking if you so wish. Such requests are dealt with on a case by case basis.
  • Cancellations between 90-46 days prior to departure incur a cancellation fee of 50% of the tour cost.
  • Cancellations between 45 days or less prior to departure incur a cancellation fee of 100% of the tour cost (i.e. no refund).
  • If Inala Nature Tours have to cancel a group tour as a result of undersubscription, then Inala will refund you all payments made to Inala by you for that tour.
  • We strongly recommend that you take out travel insurance when booking your trip to cover you for any financial losses incurred as a result of cancellation due to unforeseen circumstances.
  • The same timescales and conditions apply to accommodation booking at our inala cottages on Bruny Island.

Responsibility

  • For and in consideration of the opportunity to participate in the tour, each tour participant agrees to release, indemnify, and hold harmless Inala Nature Tours (hereafter referred to as INT), their agents, servants, employees, shareholders, officers, directors, attorneys, and contractors. INT acts only as an agent for the passenger in regard to travel, whether by railroad, motorcar, motorcoach, boat, aeroplane, or other means, and assumes no liability for injury, damage, loss, accident, delay, or irregularity caused by defect in such vehicles or for any reason whatsoever, including the acts, defaults, or bankruptcies of any company or person engaged in conveying the passenger or in carrying out the arrangements of the tour. INT accepts no responsibility for losses or additional expenses due to delay or changes in air or other services, sickness, weather, strike, war, quarantine, pandemic or other causes outside our control.  The tour participant shall bear all such losses and expenses. INT reserves the right to substitute hotels of similar category for those indicated and to make any changes in the itinerary where deemed necessary for whatever reason. INT reserves the right to decline to accept or to retain any person as a member of any tour. Baggage is at owner's risk entirely.

    Participants should prepare for the tour by reading the detailed itinerary, the information bulletin, and other pertinent material provided by INT. If you have questions about the physical requirements of a tour, please contact our office for further information. Participants should be in appropriate health for the level of activity involved in the tour and if necessary should consult a physician before undertaking a tour. Each participant is responsible for bringing appropriate clothing and equipment, as recommended in the correspondence.

Covid Flexibility and Understanding
For our full covid information document please click here