Bruny Island

Guides, especially local guides, give a great deal of added value to people who are traveling the planet and who love nature, says specialist guide on Bruny Island, Cat Davidson. Being out with someone who lives in a place and understands a place, does give you so many more layers to your experience.

Living where we do now, we are very, very much connected to place, writes the Chair of the Friends of North Bruny, Simon Allston. It's a magical place and a really special place to live. It's increasingly obvious it's an extraordinary place on a planetary level, and we're doing everything we can to look after its precious natural environment.

Bird ecologist Dr Catherine Young always said she wouldn't follow in her brother's footsteps, into environmental science. But growing up in South Africa with a mother who loved wildlife she was surrounded by it, and it wasn't long before it beckoned her as well.

I think I'm going to blame my parents. I grew up on the shore of Loch Ness in Scotland and they own a garden nursery, so I was permeated with plant names since day one, says specialist bird and nature guide Cat Davidson, of her early connection to nature.

"It's just a place that you feel very alive and you feel nature feeling very alive around you," says specialist guide with Inala Nature Tours, Cat Davidson of Bruny Island in southern Tasmania. It has amazing, diverse habitat types, specialist birds and animals and a strong community. It is home.

We will often be sent a wish list by someone before they even arrive on Bruny Island, Inala Nature Tours guide Cat Davidson says of visiting bird-watchers. Nearly every single time the critically-endangered swift parrot or the endangered forty-spotted pardalote is high on the list.

The Myrtle beech, or simply 'Myrtle' is the dominant species of Tasmania's rainforests. Myrtle trees can grow up to 55m tall, and have a heart-shaped dark green leaf with a tiny serrated edge.

The currawong is a bird found only in Tasmania, frequents forests, and is a glossy all-black colour with a heavy black bill, small white tip to its tail and wingtips, and bright-yellow eyes.

Bruny Island has an intricate, complex, beautiful and varied coastline, ranging from sheltered inlets, shallow bays, mudflats, lagoons, and grand sea-cliffs, through to long sandy ocean facing beaches.

Bruny Island is a haven for rare and unique birds and animals, and is one of the best bird-watching spots in Australia.