Meet The Tribe
Meet the local Tribe Guides behind the experience.
Browse RTN's curated network of guides across Western Australia and find the person, pace, and place that best fit the kind of trip you want.
Local knowledge changes what you notice, how confident you feel, and what the experience becomes.
Why engage with a Tribe Guide
The best nature experiences in Western Australia belong to people who've spent decades in one place. Tribe Guides are those people. They know which season, which trail, which moment suits you specifically, because they live it daily. The advice you get from a local who knows their landscape by heart is a different thing entirely from a generic recommendation. You travel with them personally, and the trip is shaped around what matters to you.
Connect with your Tribe Guide
Dale Tilbrook
A Wardandi Bibbulmun woman whose traditional Aboriginal country is the Margaret River, Busselton area. Dale has been a Swan Valley local since 1998, when she opened the Maalinup Gallery with her brother Lyall, offering authentic Aboriginal art, gifts and souvenirs. The Experiences part of the business has steadily grown as customers seek more knowledge about Aboriginal culture and life. Having spent many years gathering knowledge from her elders and other sources, Dale is often called on to talk about bush food, which she loves presenting and encouraging people to incorporate into their everyday cooking. She is passionate about educating guests on topics such as Bushtucker Talk and Tastings; Bushtucker and Well-being; Aboriginal Art and Dreamtime Stories and Local History and Culture.
Gavin Parker
Born in Perth to a well known local golfing family, I spent much of my childhood caddying and playing golf at the Nedlands Golf Club, one of Perth’s private golf courses. As a junior, I represented Western Australia in golf for two years, captaining the side in my second year. While representing WA, I was undefeated for those two years in national competition, was selected in the Australian junior team and won a national championship.
Gemma Sharp
Gemma Sharp grew up on the ocean. Raised in a sixth-generation WA family whose roots trace back to pearl diving on the remote Pilbara and Kimberley coastlines, she was homeschooled while travelling some of the most isolated waters in Australia. Today, as co-owner of Whale Watch Western Australia, Gemma guides guests year-round: tracking orca across the Bremer Bay Canyon from January to April, following endangered blue whales through the Perth Canyon in autumn, and hosting humpback encounters along the South West coast. Her family has logged over 7,000 hours with the Bremer Bay orca alone, building trust with individual pods across more than a decade. Gemma reads whale behaviour in real time, teaching guests to understand each surfacing, dive, and shift in energy, with the warmth of someone who has spent her whole life in these waters.
Paul Montague
Up Close & Local Tours is an award‑winning tour operator in Perth, offering private tours in Perth, the Swan Valley, Fremantle, Perth Hills, Margaret River and the South West. The founder of Up Close & Local, Paul is our resident wine expert, whiskey lover and coffee snob, not to mention he loves driving. Paul has a WSET qualification in wine education. Each private tour itinerary is personalised and hosted by an expert local guide. Whether you’re seeking luxury, food and wine, wildlife encounters or local history, your day is tailored around what you enjoy — from meeting iconic Australian animals to exploring heritage sites and family‑owned wineries.
Paul Pichugin
Paul teaches travellers to capture frame-worthy scenic shots of Western Australia's nature like a pro. With over 17 years as an Adventure Travel Photographer and Cinematographer for global tourism boards, production houses, and other media platforms, he takes you behind the lens from forests to coastal locations, sharing the composition, light, and storytelling techniques behind cinematic, story-driven images you'll be proud to call your own
Susan McCabe
Susan McCabe is the Director of Albany Tours, the lead land-based tour operator on Western Australia's South Coast. A former science teacher with a Master's in nutrition and an MBA, she shifted fully into tourism in 2016 after nearly four decades in the Great Southern. Her tours take in the dramatic cliffs of Torndirrup National Park, the Granite Skywalk above the Porongurups, Albany's ANZAC heritage, and the cool-climate wineries of Mt Barker and Denmark. She builds custom itineraries for cruise ship groups, inbound operators, and independent travellers alike. A multiple WA Tourism Awards finalist and TripAdvisor Travellers' Choice winner, Susan brings a teacher's instinct for storytelling to every journey, matched by the deep local knowledge of someone who knows every bay, trail and cellar door on this coast.
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