Twelve Apostles Inala Birding Walk

Introducing Inala

For over 27 years, Inala Nature Tours, a family-owned and operated company, has been designing and leading birding and wildlife tours across Australia. From their 1,500-acre private reserve at ‘Inala’ on Bruny Island, Tasmania, their tours extend across Australia from the lush rainforests of Queensland to the rugged landscapes of the Kimberley and beyond.

Their tours are designed and led by Dr. Tonia Cochran and her expert team. Among them exists a diversity of talents, from qualified scientists to travel experts. They are united by their passion for wild Australia.

Image credit: Blue Winged Parrot - Dennis Braddy

Day 2: Milanesia Track to Moonlight Head

Approximately 14 km and 6.5 hours walking

Challenge delivers great reward. Wild, weathered headlands give the sense you’re at the world’s edge. Day two is your hardest day out on the track. But with it comes spectacular seascapes and personal triumph. Beginning at Milanesia Track, it covers some of the most remote sections of the Great Ocean Walk. This is your day of wild. Your day of rugged. 

The ocean is your steadfast companion across 14.5 kilometres of rolling terrain today, beginning with a descent onto Milanesia Beach. Here, your guide will point out a ‘natural rock wall’ that would be the envy of any budding young climber. After a fleeting beach visit, it’s a short but bracing climb that whispers of inclines to come.

Over the next hours, the trail carves its way through deep gullies with tree ferns and towering remnant Eucalypts, where we will also have a good chance of seeing Gang-gang Cockatoo, the sweet-voiced Olive Whistler, White-throated Treecreepers and perhaps the elusive Beautiful Firetail. In these Southern Blue Gum forests we will also have our best chance of seeing an amazing but perpetually drunk national icon, the Koala. 

Further along, the trail, as it mimics the tumbles and rising of the coastline, keep an eye out for Cape Volney. There’s a bench that, if time allowed, could swallow hours. Heaving seas disappear into watery caves. Views west travel to the horizon’s edge. And the entire spectacle is framed by the forest.

Day 4: Princetown to the Twelve Apostles

Approximately 8km and 3 hours walking

Today invites new heights. Depart from the quiet shores of Princetown by the Gellibrand River, beginning with an easy 30-minute wander to reveal your first full view of the Apostles. Gasps aside, keep an eye out for two resident mobs of kangaroos across the hillsides to your right.

There’s a sense of elation today as you draw nearer to the mighty limestone Apostles. No, there’s not 12, which may come as no surprise. But amongst the proudly standing 7, lie 5 recently discovered apostles beneath the ocean’s surface. Weathered but not beaten, those in view lose a couple of centimetres each year to the perilous swells and winds whipping up from the Southern Ocean.

Drawing closer, hear the romantic tale of Tom and Eva. Tom, a gallant local who swam more than an hour to rescue Eva from the Loch Ard, perhaps Victoria’s best-known shipwreck. Of 63 on board, Eva was one of the lucky two to survive, whisked to a cave by Tom and ‘administered’ brandy to remain conscious.

The Apostles reveal gradually along this stretch, reappearing as the trail rises. There’s a viewing platform exclusive to walkers on the final stretch before your arrival at the Visitor Centre. It’s the official end to your walk and an appropriate locale to get cozy with the Apostles in a group snap. On the rock stacks offshore look for Black-faced Cormorants resting after a day of fishing, while down on the beach see the trails of Fairy Penguins from their burrows to the water’s edge. We may even be lucky enough to spy one at the entrance to its nest burrow.  Hulking Pacific Gulls are a regular sight here too, with their enormous triangular bills.

If conditions permit, don’t miss the opportunity to descend 80-plus steps to the beach below. This final perspective gives a sense of the Apostles' brooding heights, one 73-metres tall, nudging the equivalent of a 20-storey building. It’s here with sand under your boots, a sense of monumental achievement and wonder sets in.

Follow this with a final lunch in the sleepy fishing town of Port Campbell before returning to Melbourne.