Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union
Encyclopedia
The Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union, also known as Birds Australia, was founded in 1901 to promote the study and conservation
of the native bird
species of Australia
and adjacent regions. This makes it Australia's oldest national birding association. It is also Australia's largest non-government, non-profit, bird conservation organisation. In 1996 it adopted the trading name of Birds Australia for most public purposes, while retaining its original name for legal purposes and as the publisher of its journal the Emu
.
The RAOU was the instigator of the Atlas of Australian Birds project. It is also the publisher (in association with Oxford University Press
) of the encyclopaedic Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds
. Its quarterly colour membership magazine is Wingspan
. The RAOU is the Australian Partner of BirdLife International
. The motto of the RAOU is 'Conservation through Knowledge'.
, Victoria, following a series of informal meetings held by a small group of amateur ornithologists from 1896. The driving force behind the formation of the Union was Archibald J. Campbell. Founding membership was 137, including 6 women and 10 overseas members.
The first General Meeting of members was held in Adelaide
on 1 November 1901, where office-bearers were elected. The first President was Colonel William Vincent Legge
of Tasmania
, the Secretary was Dudley Le Souef
, the Treasurer Robert Hall
, and the Editors Archibald J. Campbell and Henry Kendall
. Such general meetings, soon termed 'congresses' were held annually thereafter and were normally accompanied by the annual 'campouts' of several days' duration which gave members the opportunity to meet and to collect specimens and eggs.
', though the distinction between the notionally scientific discipline of oology and simple egg-collecting was blurred. Identification of any but the most common and distinctive species usually entailed the collection of specimens to be made into study skins. Modern field-guides
did not exist and few people could afford the massive multi-volume, lavishly illustrated, handbooks of John Gould
and Gregory Mathews
. However, both Archibald J. Campbell and Alfred North
had produced comprehensive guides to what was known about the nests and eggs of Australian birds, with illustrations of the eggs rather than of the birds themselves, reflecting the dominance of egg and skin collecting in the ornithology of the time.
On 12 April 1905 some Melbourne members formed the Bird Observers Club to facilitate more frequent and less formal meetings and field-trips. At this time, membership of the Union was a prerequisite for membership of the Club. In 1916, when the Union acquired its own room for meetings and storage of donated specimens, it became impossible for the Club to share the use of the room. This led to the Club becoming inactive for the next few years, though it was successfully revived as an independent entity in 1927.
1907 saw the issue of bird conservation raised prominently with the publication in the Emu
of articles and photographs by Arthur Mattingley
depicting starving egret
nestlings in a breeding colony where the parent birds had been shot for the international trade in plumes for millinery. The photographs were widely reprinted internationally as part of a campaign to halt the trade. As a result, the fashion for wearing plumes in hats and head-dresses
changed and the market collapsed.
In 1909 the Union was one of the first major sponsors of the Gould League of Bird Lovers
, which was founded by Jessie McMichael and supported by Dr John Albert Leach
, the Director of Nature Study in the Victorian Education Department.
In 1910 the Union was given permission by King George V
, newly ascended to the throne, to use the prefix 'Royal' on what had hitherto been simply the 'Australasian Ornithologists Union'.
Early in 1913 the first Official Checklist of the Birds of Australia was published as a supplement to the Emu. For many years the compilation of checklists and the production of regular supplements to them was a constant activity, and the position of Chairman of the Checklist Committee was an important one. Almost immediately the first Checklist was published, it was apparent that work needed to be continued towards a second edition, eventually published in 1926.
. The popularity of the first edition ensured that a series of further editions and reprints continued into the 1960s. This was followed in 1931 with the first publication of Neville Cayley
's What Bird is That?, further editions of which continued to be published into the 1980s. These books were focussed on bird identification rather than collecting and were affordable to the general public. They reflected the shifting mood in amateur ornithology, through the first half of the 20th Century, from collecting to observation.
The annual campouts were increasingly being seen as opportunities for bird-watching, photography
and non-destructive studies. During the 1933 campout near Moree
, New South Wales
, extensive egg-collecting by the oologists present aroused much criticism from other members; the egg-collectors were later formally censured. This growing split between members' attitudes to bird-study came to a head at the 1935 campout at Marlo
, eastern Victoria, when a museum ornithologist, George Mack
, provocatively shot a Scarlet Robin
at its nest, which had been under observation by the party. This caused outrage among many members and was followed by a decision of the RAOU Council to appoint a committee to reconsider the question of collecting. The result was a policy that collecting of specimens, except under government permit, was not acceptable, and that no collecting should take place at campouts anyway.
and the Second World War and there were difficulties meeting the costs of printing the Emu
. After the War, membership numbers began to rise again. However, during the 1950s and 1960s, there was further division between the members. There were those who enjoyed the clubby atmosphere of the campouts and the comfortable, sometimes chatty, style of the Emu. Others, including those professionally involved in ornithology as well as the more scientifically rigorous amateurs, wanted the RAOU to be scientifically credible and to publish an ornithological journal that merited international recognition.
The sudden death of Charles Bryant
in 1960 while Editor of the Emu was another blow. He had edited, and managed the publication of, the journal for over 30 years but had neglected to anticipate the need for a successor. Those who did succeed him during the 1960s, struggled to maintain, let alone develop, the journal in a way that the membership and the changing times demanded, and its issue, due to problems with the printers, was becoming erratic. Moreover, the accounts were falling into disarray and the administrative backlog was becoming worse each year. There was increasing criticism from members, especially from the ACT
branch, which contained a high proportion of the members who were professional scientists.
A letter from the ACT branch to the RAOU Council meeting in July 1966 strongly criticised the standard of the Emu, the administrative disorder and the passivity regarding conservation and field studies. It finished by proposing two formal motions to (i) adopt active policies for organising research, publicity and eduucation, and to (ii) set up a committee to implement the former. Subsequently, in September 1966 such a reform committee was appointed under the chairmanship of Keith Hindwood
. However, the lack of agreement between committee members led to its disbandment in August 1967, less than a year later. The RAOU was in crisis.
resigned as Editor of Emu in 1968, the ACT Branch nominated Stephen Marchant
for the editorship, and he was elected unopposed. Marchant was editor for the next twelve years and he transformed Emu into the lean and rigorous journal the 'scientists' wanted.
With regard to other necessary reforms, the new President, Allan McEvey
, set up a new review committee of two, Dom Serventy
and himself. Serventy, a scientist with the CSIRO, was the principal writer of the review report and he addressed both the need for a sense of what the RAOU should be doing, and the structure that would allow it to do so. Although there was considerable vocal opposition to the reform proposals (including cutting the number of people on Council from an unwieldy forty to just nine) the report was ratified by Council in April 1969 and adopted at an Extraordinary General Meeting in June 1969, with the vote being over 80% in favour. Later that year came the first issue of the RAOU Newsletter, a publication that would evolve to become the magazine Wingspan
.
A perhaps unavoidable consequence of the reforms was the alienation of some of the members and Council officers. The drastic reduction in the number of Councillors meant that many regional positions in particular no longer existed. Some members left the organisation and many transferred their active loyalty to the Bird Observers Club. Independent regional groups were established to cater for those who felt disenfranchised by the new order, replacing previous RAOU branches. A comparison of the names of Council officers between 1968 and 1972 shows almost complete replacement, with most change occurring between 1969 and 1970. The process of renewal was painful and the sense of alienation, for some, was permanent.
One test of the reformed RAOU was to be the extent of its involvement with the International Ornithological Congress
(IOC), held in Canberra
in 1974 with about 800 delegates attending. The Secretary-General of the Congress (i.e. the principal organiser) was Dr Harold Frith
who was not only one of the hardliners of the ‘scientists’ faction of the pre-reform RAOU, but had also threatened to start a competing group with its own journal if the reforms had not proceeded. Ultimately the RAOU contributed to the success of the IOC through provision of funding (along with the Australian Academy of Science
(AAC) and the administrative assistance of the CSIRO), and with the organisation of excursions for delegates. The appointment in 1974 of Tommy Garnett
as RAOU Secretary was also a move that assisted in bringing order to the growing administrative demands of the evolving organisation.
was RAOU President and an enthusiastic proponent of the Atlas in the years leading up to the fieldwork phase of the project and she was subsequently Chair of the Atlas Committee which oversaw the project.
The first paid staff members of the RAOU were appointed in connection with the project, and the first property, a small house in Dryburgh Street, North Melbourne, acquired as premises for it in 1976. It soon became obvious that the house was too small and an upgrade was necessary; it was replaced in 1979 by a house in Gladstone Street, Moonee Ponds. The logistics of managing a national bird atlassing project, with 3000 volunteer atlassers mapping the avifauna of a continent, stretched the resources of the organisation beyond reasonable limits, but the RAOU was forced to grow in the process.
The period of the first Atlas also coincided with a move to establish bird observatories
as field research centres. These were Eyre
in 1976, Rotamah Island
in 1979, Barren Grounds
in 1982, and Broome
in 1988. Later the emphasis shifted from the establishment of field centres to the purchase of large properties as habitat conservation
, with the acquisition of Gluepot Reserve
in 1997 and Newhaven Reserve
in 2000.
but were happy to receive the RAOU Newsletter that contained all the informal in-house news that the pre-reform Emu had carried. In 1991 the newsletter was renamed Wingspan
, a glossy colour magazine received by all members. By 2004 fewer than 20% of RAOU members subscribed to the Emu.
In 1996 the RAOU formally adopted the name Birds Australia for most public purposes, and updated its logo from a lone Emu to an Emu with a family of chicks, reflecting new growth in the size and number of its regional groups.
. This was an initiative of Professor Brian Collins, RAOU President at the time. Another SHOC was held at Griffith University
, Brisbane
, in 2000 before the RAOU refined its conference concept and initiated the first Australasian Ornithological Conference
(AOC), hosted with Charles Sturt University
at Bathurst, New South Wales
in December 2001. Also from 2001, the direct management and publication of the Emu was outsourced to CSIRO Publishing
, which already handled a large stable of international and Australian scientific journals.
(1989–1995), followed the first Atlas. However, the project that would dominate the period from the early 1980s until 2006 was the Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds
(HANZAB). Financially it was the biggest project of all, and one that strained RAOU resources more than any other. The need to provide adequate working conditions for HANZAB staff was one factor that forced another move of its head office to larger premises in Riversdale Road, Hawthorn
in 1994.
, Melbourne.
On 21 May 2011 members of both Birds Australia and Bird Observation & Conservation Australia (BOCA) voted by an overwhelming majority at their respective Annual General Meetings
to merge the two organisations into one entity to be named BirdLife Australia
.
in NSW, and Rotamah Island Bird Observatory
in Victoria, have since been closed for economic reasons. The two remaining observatories, both in Western Australia, are:
s, in order to protect extensive areas of important bird habitat. They are:
Newhaven Reserve was sold to the Australian Wildlife Conservancy
in 2007. The RAOU retains access rights for its members and a say in monitoring and research on the reserve through the Newhaven Management Committee.
(FRAOU) to a small and limited number of individuals. It also recognises excellence in contributions to ornithological knowledge
through annual awards: the D.L. Serventy Medal for outstanding published work on birds in the Australasian region, and the John Hobbs Medal
for major contributions to amateur
ornithology.
Bird conservation
Bird conservation is a field in the science of conservation biology related to threatened birds. Humans have had a profound effect on many bird species...
of the native bird
Bird
Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...
species of Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
and adjacent regions. This makes it Australia's oldest national birding association. It is also Australia's largest non-government, non-profit, bird conservation organisation. In 1996 it adopted the trading name of Birds Australia for most public purposes, while retaining its original name for legal purposes and as the publisher of its journal the Emu
Emu (journal)
Emu, subtitled Austral Ornithology, is the peer-reviewed scientific journal of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union. The journal was established in 1901 and is the oldest ornithological journal published in Australia...
.
The RAOU was the instigator of the Atlas of Australian Birds project. It is also the publisher (in association with Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...
) of the encyclopaedic Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds
Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds
The Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds, known as HANZAB, is the pre-eminent scientific reference on Birds in the region, which includes Australia, New Zealand, Antarctica, and the surrounding ocean and islands...
. Its quarterly colour membership magazine is Wingspan
Wingspan (magazine)
Wingspan is the quarterly membership magazine of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union . It was first issued in 1991, replacing the RAOU Newsletter. The current Editor is Sean Dooley....
. The RAOU is the Australian Partner of BirdLife International
BirdLife International
BirdLife International is a global Partnership of conservation organisations that strives to conserve birds, their habitats and global biodiversity, working with people towards sustainability in the use of natural resources...
. The motto of the RAOU is 'Conservation through Knowledge'.
Establishment
The RAOU was formally constituted (as the Australasian Ornithologists Union) on 1 July 1901 in MelbourneMelbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
, Victoria, following a series of informal meetings held by a small group of amateur ornithologists from 1896. The driving force behind the formation of the Union was Archibald J. Campbell. Founding membership was 137, including 6 women and 10 overseas members.
The first General Meeting of members was held in Adelaide
Adelaide
Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...
on 1 November 1901, where office-bearers were elected. The first President was Colonel William Vincent Legge
William Vincent Legge
Colonel William Vincent Legge was an Australian ornithologist.-Biography:Legge was born at Cullenswood, Tasmania . He was educated mainly in Britain, also in France and Germany, and became a proficient linguist. He was also educated at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich...
of Tasmania
Tasmania
Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...
, the Secretary was Dudley Le Souef
Dudley Le Souef
William Henry Dudley Le Souef was a founding member and founding Secretary of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union in , also serving as President of that body 1907-1909....
, the Treasurer Robert Hall
Robert Hall (ornithologist)
Robert Hall was a founding member of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union in 1901, and served as its President 1912-1913. He made an expedition to Siberia, via Japan and Korea from 1903, with R. E. Trebilcock, to discover the hitherto unknown breeding grounds of various species of waders...
, and the Editors Archibald J. Campbell and Henry Kendall
Henry Kendall (ornithologist)
Henry Kendall , was a founding member of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union , and a founding co-editor of its journal the Emu. Born in Pavenham, England, when he was six years old, his family migrated to Australia and settled at Orange, New South Wales, where he grew up. The rest of...
. Such general meetings, soon termed 'congresses' were held annually thereafter and were normally accompanied by the annual 'campouts' of several days' duration which gave members the opportunity to meet and to collect specimens and eggs.
Early years
Many RAOU members in the early 20th century called themselves 'oologistsOology
Oology is a branch of ornithology studying bird eggs, nests and breeding behavior. Oology can also refer to the hobby of collecting wild birds' eggs, sometimes called birdnesting or egging, which is now illegal in many jurisdictions.-As a science:Oology became increasingly popular in Britain and...
', though the distinction between the notionally scientific discipline of oology and simple egg-collecting was blurred. Identification of any but the most common and distinctive species usually entailed the collection of specimens to be made into study skins. Modern field-guides
Field guide
A field guide is a book designed to help the reader identify wildlife or other objects of natural occurrence . It is generally designed to be brought into the 'field' or local area where such objects exist to help distinguish between similar objects...
did not exist and few people could afford the massive multi-volume, lavishly illustrated, handbooks of John Gould
John Gould
John Gould was an English ornithologist and bird artist. The Gould League in Australia was named after him. His identification of the birds now nicknamed "Darwin's finches" played a role in the inception of Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection...
and Gregory Mathews
Gregory Mathews
Gregory Macalister Mathews CBE was an Australian amateur ornithologist.Mathews made his fortune in mining shares, and moved to England around 1900....
. However, both Archibald J. Campbell and Alfred North
Alfred John North
Alfred John North was an Australian ornithologist.North was born in Melbourne and was educated at Melbourne Grammar School...
had produced comprehensive guides to what was known about the nests and eggs of Australian birds, with illustrations of the eggs rather than of the birds themselves, reflecting the dominance of egg and skin collecting in the ornithology of the time.
On 12 April 1905 some Melbourne members formed the Bird Observers Club to facilitate more frequent and less formal meetings and field-trips. At this time, membership of the Union was a prerequisite for membership of the Club. In 1916, when the Union acquired its own room for meetings and storage of donated specimens, it became impossible for the Club to share the use of the room. This led to the Club becoming inactive for the next few years, though it was successfully revived as an independent entity in 1927.
1907 saw the issue of bird conservation raised prominently with the publication in the Emu
Emu (journal)
Emu, subtitled Austral Ornithology, is the peer-reviewed scientific journal of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union. The journal was established in 1901 and is the oldest ornithological journal published in Australia...
of articles and photographs by Arthur Mattingley
Arthur Mattingley
Arthur Herbert Evelyn Mattingley , noted Australian bird photographer and ornithologist, was a founding member of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union in 1901. He worked for over 40 years with the Commonwealth Customs Department in Melbourne...
depicting starving egret
Egret
An egret is any of several herons, most of which are white or buff, and several of which develop fine plumes during the breeding season. Many egrets are members of the genera Egretta or Ardea which contain other species named as herons rather than egrets...
nestlings in a breeding colony where the parent birds had been shot for the international trade in plumes for millinery. The photographs were widely reprinted internationally as part of a campaign to halt the trade. As a result, the fashion for wearing plumes in hats and head-dresses
Headgear
Headgear, headwear or headdress is the name given to any element of clothing which is worn on one's head.Headgear serve a variety of purposes:...
changed and the market collapsed.
In 1909 the Union was one of the first major sponsors of the Gould League of Bird Lovers
Gould League
The Gould League is an independent Australian organisation promoting environmental education, originally founded in Victoria in 1909 and named after the English ornithologist John Gould...
, which was founded by Jessie McMichael and supported by Dr John Albert Leach
John Albert Leach
Dr John Albert Leach was an ornithologist, teacher and headmaster in the state of Victoria, Australia.Leach was born in Ballarat, Victoria and educated at Creswick Grammar School , Melbourne Training College and the University of Melbourne, where he graduated B.Sc. in 1904, M.Sc...
, the Director of Nature Study in the Victorian Education Department.
In 1910 the Union was given permission by King George V
George V of the United Kingdom
George V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 through the First World War until his death in 1936....
, newly ascended to the throne, to use the prefix 'Royal' on what had hitherto been simply the 'Australasian Ornithologists Union'.
Early in 1913 the first Official Checklist of the Birds of Australia was published as a supplement to the Emu. For many years the compilation of checklists and the production of regular supplements to them was a constant activity, and the position of Chairman of the Checklist Committee was an important one. Almost immediately the first Checklist was published, it was apparent that work needed to be continued towards a second edition, eventually published in 1926.
Changing attitudes
1911 was marked by the publication of An Australian Bird Book, by John Albert LeachJohn Albert Leach
Dr John Albert Leach was an ornithologist, teacher and headmaster in the state of Victoria, Australia.Leach was born in Ballarat, Victoria and educated at Creswick Grammar School , Melbourne Training College and the University of Melbourne, where he graduated B.Sc. in 1904, M.Sc...
. The popularity of the first edition ensured that a series of further editions and reprints continued into the 1960s. This was followed in 1931 with the first publication of Neville Cayley
Neville William Cayley
Neville William Cayley was a celebrated Australian author, artist and ornithologist. He produced Australia's first comprehensive bird field guide What Bird is That?...
's What Bird is That?, further editions of which continued to be published into the 1980s. These books were focussed on bird identification rather than collecting and were affordable to the general public. They reflected the shifting mood in amateur ornithology, through the first half of the 20th Century, from collecting to observation.
The annual campouts were increasingly being seen as opportunities for bird-watching, photography
Photography
Photography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film...
and non-destructive studies. During the 1933 campout near Moree
Moree, New South Wales
Moree is a large town in Moree Plains Shire in northern New South Wales, Australia. It is located on the banks of the Mehi River in the centre of the rich black-soil plains....
, New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
, extensive egg-collecting by the oologists present aroused much criticism from other members; the egg-collectors were later formally censured. This growing split between members' attitudes to bird-study came to a head at the 1935 campout at Marlo
Marlo, Victoria
Marlo is a small village in the Gippsland region of Victoria, Australia. It is located east near the mouth of the Snowy River where the Snowy River meets and flows into the Southern Ocean....
, eastern Victoria, when a museum ornithologist, George Mack
George Mack (ornithologist)
George Mack was mainly a museum ornithologist and collector. He migrated from Britain to Western Australia in 1919. He worked at the National Museum of Victoria from 1923 to 1945. During this time, he published a revision of the Australian species of the Fairy-wren genus Malurus...
, provocatively shot a Scarlet Robin
Scarlet Robin
The Scarlet Robin is a common red-breasted Australasian robin in the passerine bird genus Petroica. The species is found on continental Australia and its offshore islands, including Tasmania...
at its nest, which had been under observation by the party. This caused outrage among many members and was followed by a decision of the RAOU Council to appoint a committee to reconsider the question of collecting. The result was a policy that collecting of specimens, except under government permit, was not acceptable, and that no collecting should take place at campouts anyway.
Decline and division
Membership of the RAOU, after reaching a peak in the 1920s, went into a decline during the Great DepressionGreat Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
and the Second World War and there were difficulties meeting the costs of printing the Emu
Emu (journal)
Emu, subtitled Austral Ornithology, is the peer-reviewed scientific journal of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union. The journal was established in 1901 and is the oldest ornithological journal published in Australia...
. After the War, membership numbers began to rise again. However, during the 1950s and 1960s, there was further division between the members. There were those who enjoyed the clubby atmosphere of the campouts and the comfortable, sometimes chatty, style of the Emu. Others, including those professionally involved in ornithology as well as the more scientifically rigorous amateurs, wanted the RAOU to be scientifically credible and to publish an ornithological journal that merited international recognition.
The sudden death of Charles Bryant
Charles Ernest William Bryant
Charles Ernest William Bryant was a barrister and amateur ornithologist. He was admitted to the Victorian Bar in 1929. A member of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union , he was editor of its journal, the Emu, from 1929 to 1960, the year of his death, a period of 31 years...
in 1960 while Editor of the Emu was another blow. He had edited, and managed the publication of, the journal for over 30 years but had neglected to anticipate the need for a successor. Those who did succeed him during the 1960s, struggled to maintain, let alone develop, the journal in a way that the membership and the changing times demanded, and its issue, due to problems with the printers, was becoming erratic. Moreover, the accounts were falling into disarray and the administrative backlog was becoming worse each year. There was increasing criticism from members, especially from the ACT
Australian Capital Territory
The Australian Capital Territory, often abbreviated ACT, is the capital territory of the Commonwealth of Australia and is the smallest self-governing internal territory...
branch, which contained a high proportion of the members who were professional scientists.
A letter from the ACT branch to the RAOU Council meeting in July 1966 strongly criticised the standard of the Emu, the administrative disorder and the passivity regarding conservation and field studies. It finished by proposing two formal motions to (i) adopt active policies for organising research, publicity and eduucation, and to (ii) set up a committee to implement the former. Subsequently, in September 1966 such a reform committee was appointed under the chairmanship of Keith Hindwood
Keith Alfred Hindwood
Keith Alfred Hindwood was a Sydney-based Australian businessman and amateur ornithologist. He joined the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union in 1924, served as President 1944-1946, and was elected a Fellow of the RAOU in 1951...
. However, the lack of agreement between committee members led to its disbandment in August 1967, less than a year later. The RAOU was in crisis.
Reform and revival
Up to this point, the Emu had been the only serial publication produced by the RAOU for all members, and was by far the biggest financial cost to the organisation. For a majority of members the receipt of the journal was the only direct contact they had with the RAOU. Yet the content of Emu was being assailed from both the 'scientists' who wanted more rigour and less in-house material, and from the 'amateurs' who disliked the scientific language of many papers. The long-term solution would be to cater separately for both groups. The start of this process came with the decision by the RAOU Council in 1968 to allow for a type of membership without a subscription to Emu. The next step was when Jack HyettJack Hyett
Jack Hyett was an Australian teacher, broadcaster, author, naturalist and amateur ornithologist. He was born in Ballarat, Victoria. He was Foundation President of the Victorian Ornithological Research Group and the Ringwood Field Naturalists Club. He served as editor of the Emu, the journal of...
resigned as Editor of Emu in 1968, the ACT Branch nominated Stephen Marchant
Stephen Marchant
Stephen Marchant AM was born in Shropshire, studied geology at Caius College, Cambridge, and worked in the oil exploration business in many countries, using the opportunities arising from his postings to study birdlife around the world. He wrote classic papers on the birds of the Red Sea,...
for the editorship, and he was elected unopposed. Marchant was editor for the next twelve years and he transformed Emu into the lean and rigorous journal the 'scientists' wanted.
With regard to other necessary reforms, the new President, Allan McEvey
Allan Reginald McEvey
Allan Reginald McEvey was a schoolteacher before becoming Curator of Ornithology at the National Museum of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia. In 1962-63 he participated in the first of the Harold Hall Australian ornithological collecting expeditions. He was President of the Royal Australasian...
, set up a new review committee of two, Dom Serventy
Dominic Louis Serventy
Dr Dominic Louis Serventy was an eminent Perth based Australian ornithologist. He was born at Brown Hill, Western Australia. He was educated at the University of Western Australia and Cambridge University to parents of Croatian origin. He was president of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists...
and himself. Serventy, a scientist with the CSIRO, was the principal writer of the review report and he addressed both the need for a sense of what the RAOU should be doing, and the structure that would allow it to do so. Although there was considerable vocal opposition to the reform proposals (including cutting the number of people on Council from an unwieldy forty to just nine) the report was ratified by Council in April 1969 and adopted at an Extraordinary General Meeting in June 1969, with the vote being over 80% in favour. Later that year came the first issue of the RAOU Newsletter, a publication that would evolve to become the magazine Wingspan
Wingspan (magazine)
Wingspan is the quarterly membership magazine of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union . It was first issued in 1991, replacing the RAOU Newsletter. The current Editor is Sean Dooley....
.
A perhaps unavoidable consequence of the reforms was the alienation of some of the members and Council officers. The drastic reduction in the number of Councillors meant that many regional positions in particular no longer existed. Some members left the organisation and many transferred their active loyalty to the Bird Observers Club. Independent regional groups were established to cater for those who felt disenfranchised by the new order, replacing previous RAOU branches. A comparison of the names of Council officers between 1968 and 1972 shows almost complete replacement, with most change occurring between 1969 and 1970. The process of renewal was painful and the sense of alienation, for some, was permanent.
One test of the reformed RAOU was to be the extent of its involvement with the International Ornithological Congress
International Ornithological Congress
The International Ornithological Congress series forms the oldest and largest international series of meetings of ornithologists. It is organised by the International Ornithological Committee, a group of about 200 ornithologists...
(IOC), held in Canberra
Canberra
Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...
in 1974 with about 800 delegates attending. The Secretary-General of the Congress (i.e. the principal organiser) was Dr Harold Frith
Harold James Frith
Harold James Frith AO was an Australian administrator and ornithologist. He was born at Kyogle, New South Wales and studied Agricultural Science at Sydney University. He first joined the CSIRO Division of Plant Industry but later transferred to the Division of Wildlife and carried out extensive...
who was not only one of the hardliners of the ‘scientists’ faction of the pre-reform RAOU, but had also threatened to start a competing group with its own journal if the reforms had not proceeded. Ultimately the RAOU contributed to the success of the IOC through provision of funding (along with the Australian Academy of Science
Australian Academy of Science
The Australian Academy of Science was founded in 1954 by a group of distinguished Australians, including Australian Fellows of the Royal Society of London. The first president was Sir Mark Oliphant. The Academy is modelled after the Royal Society and operates under a Royal Charter; as such it is...
(AAC) and the administrative assistance of the CSIRO), and with the organisation of excursions for delegates. The appointment in 1974 of Tommy Garnett
Tommy Garnett
Thomas Ronald Garnett OAM was an English and Australian headmaster, horticulturist, ornithologist and author. Before the Second World War, he played first-class cricket for Somerset.-Early years:...
as RAOU Secretary was also a move that assisted in bringing order to the growing administrative demands of the evolving organisation.
Projects, personnel and property
An essential part of the revolution within the RAOU in the late 1960s, and its evolution during the 1970s was a strong push to carry out scientific field studies with the involvement of volunteers. The first of the major projects undertaken was the Atlas of Australian Birds. Fieldwork for this project took place over five calendar years 1977-1981 and transformed the organisation. Pauline ReillyPauline Neura Reilly
Pauline Neura Reilly, OAM was an Australian author and ornithologist.-Early Years:Reilly was born in Adelaide. Her family moved to Melbourne where she attended Korowa Anglican Girls' School and Melbourne Girls Grammar School until 1934...
was RAOU President and an enthusiastic proponent of the Atlas in the years leading up to the fieldwork phase of the project and she was subsequently Chair of the Atlas Committee which oversaw the project.
The first paid staff members of the RAOU were appointed in connection with the project, and the first property, a small house in Dryburgh Street, North Melbourne, acquired as premises for it in 1976. It soon became obvious that the house was too small and an upgrade was necessary; it was replaced in 1979 by a house in Gladstone Street, Moonee Ponds. The logistics of managing a national bird atlassing project, with 3000 volunteer atlassers mapping the avifauna of a continent, stretched the resources of the organisation beyond reasonable limits, but the RAOU was forced to grow in the process.
The period of the first Atlas also coincided with a move to establish bird observatories
Bird observatory
A bird observatory is a centre for the study of bird migration and bird populations. They are usually focused on local birds, but may also include interest in far flung areas. Most bird observatories are small operations with a limited staff, many volunteers and a not-for-profit educational status...
as field research centres. These were Eyre
Eyre Bird Observatory
Eyre Bird Observatory is an educational, scientific and recreational facility in the Nuytsland Nature Reserve, Western Australia.Cocklebiddy is the nearest locality on the Eyre Highway 49 km to the north....
in 1976, Rotamah Island
Rotamah Island Bird Observatory
Rotamah Island Bird Observatory was established in 1979 on Rotamah Island in the Gippsland Lakes National Park in eastern Victoria, Australia, by Birds Australia as Australia's second bird observatory, in order to provide a base for the study and enjoyment of the birds of the area...
in 1979, Barren Grounds
Barren Grounds Bird Observatory
The Barren Grounds Bird Observatory was situated in the Barren Grounds Nature Reserve on the escarpment of the Southern Highlands of New South Wales, Australia. It was opened in 1982 by Birds Australia as Australia's third bird observatory, in order to provide a base for the study and enjoyment of...
in 1982, and Broome
Broome Bird Observatory
Broome Bird Observatory is an educational, scientific and recreational facility located 24 km from Broome in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. It began operating in 1988 under the auspices of the non-profit organisation Birds Australia in order to provide a base for the study and...
in 1988. Later the emphasis shifted from the establishment of field centres to the purchase of large properties as habitat conservation
Habitat conservation
Habitat conservation is a land management practice that seeks to conserve, protect and restore, habitat areas for wild plants and animals, especially conservation reliant species, and prevent their extinction, fragmentation or reduction in range...
, with the acquisition of Gluepot Reserve
Gluepot Reserve
Gluepot Reserve is a 540 km2 nature reserve established by Birds Australia in 1997 by the purchase, through a public appeal, of Gluepot Station, a pastoral lease in the semi-arid mallee region of South Australia...
in 1997 and Newhaven Reserve
Newhaven Reserve
Newhaven Reserve lies 363 kilometres north-west of Alice Springs at the junction of three distinct bioregions: the Great Sandy Desert, MacDonnell Ranges and Burt Plain in the Northern Territory of Australia....
in 2000.
Reconciling with the “amateurs”…
Between the beginning and the end of the first Atlas project RAOU membership grew from fewer than a thousand to over two thousand. Not all Atlassers became members, but many did, and most of them were not interested in subscribing to the EmuEmu (journal)
Emu, subtitled Austral Ornithology, is the peer-reviewed scientific journal of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union. The journal was established in 1901 and is the oldest ornithological journal published in Australia...
but were happy to receive the RAOU Newsletter that contained all the informal in-house news that the pre-reform Emu had carried. In 1991 the newsletter was renamed Wingspan
Wingspan
The wingspan of an airplane or a bird, is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777 has a wingspan of about ; and a Wandering Albatross caught in 1965 had a wingspan of , the official record for a living bird.The term wingspan, more technically extent, is...
, a glossy colour magazine received by all members. By 2004 fewer than 20% of RAOU members subscribed to the Emu.
In 1996 the RAOU formally adopted the name Birds Australia for most public purposes, and updated its logo from a lone Emu to an Emu with a family of chicks, reflecting new growth in the size and number of its regional groups.
…while keeping the “scientists” happy
1996 also saw the first Southern Hemisphere Ornithological Conference (SHOC), held in Albany, Western AustraliaAlbany, Western Australia
Albany is a port city in the Great Southern region of Western Australia, some 418 km SE of Perth, the state capital. As of 2009, Albany's population was estimated at 33,600, making it the 6th-largest city in the state....
. This was an initiative of Professor Brian Collins, RAOU President at the time. Another SHOC was held at Griffith University
Griffith University
Griffith University is a public, coeducational, research university located in the southeastern region of the Australian state of Queensland. The university has five satellite campuses located in the Gold Coast, Logan City and in the Brisbane suburbs of Mount Gravatt, Nathan and South Bank. Current...
, Brisbane
Brisbane
Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...
, in 2000 before the RAOU refined its conference concept and initiated the first Australasian Ornithological Conference
Australasian Ornithological Conference
Australasian Ornithological Conferences are biennial meetings of ornithologists that focus on the Australasian region and Antarctica. Preceded by the short-lived series of two Southern Hemisphere Ornithological Congresses, they were initiated by the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union , also...
(AOC), hosted with Charles Sturt University
Charles Sturt University
Charles Sturt University is an Australian multi-campus university located in New South Wales, Victoria, and the Australian Capital Territory. It has campuses at Bathurst, Canberra, Albury-Wodonga, Dubbo, Goulburn, Orange, Wagga Wagga and Burlington, Ontario...
at Bathurst, New South Wales
Bathurst, New South Wales
-CBD and suburbs:Bathurst's CBD is located on William, George, Howick, Russell, and Durham Streets. The CBD is approximately 25 hectares and surrounds two city blocks. Within this block layout is banking, government services, shopping centres, retail shops, a park* and monuments...
in December 2001. Also from 2001, the direct management and publication of the Emu was outsourced to CSIRO Publishing
CSIRO Publishing
CSIRO PUBLISHING is an Australian-based science and technology publisher. CSIRO PUBLISHING is the publishing branch of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation. They cover a range of scientific disciplines including agriculture, chemistry, plant and animal sciences, natural...
, which already handled a large stable of international and Australian scientific journals.
HANZAB
Other projects, such as the Australian Bird CountAustralian Bird Count
The Australian Bird Count was a project of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union . Following the first and successful Atlas of Australian Birds project, which led to the publication of a book on the distribution of Australian birds in 1984, it was suggested by Ken Rogers that the RAOU...
(1989–1995), followed the first Atlas. However, the project that would dominate the period from the early 1980s until 2006 was the Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds
Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds
The Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds, known as HANZAB, is the pre-eminent scientific reference on Birds in the region, which includes Australia, New Zealand, Antarctica, and the surrounding ocean and islands...
(HANZAB). Financially it was the biggest project of all, and one that strained RAOU resources more than any other. The need to provide adequate working conditions for HANZAB staff was one factor that forced another move of its head office to larger premises in Riversdale Road, Hawthorn
Hawthorn, Victoria
Hawthorn is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, east from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Boroondara...
in 1994.
State of Australia's Birds
Since 2003 Birds Australia has produced an annual State of Australia's Birds (SOAB) report. The reports collate and disseminate information on trends in bird populations to inform Australians of the status of their birds. The 2003 and 2008 editions of SOAB are five-yearly overviews, while the other editions are themed on various aspects of Australian avifauna (e.g. SOAB 2010 was themed on Birds and Islands). Some of the material presented in SOAB is extracted from Birds Australia projects, notably the Atlas of Australian Birds project.The future
The final volume of HANZAB was published in 2006, and an era in the history of the RAOU came to an end. In March 2007 the RAOU moved its National Office to new (and for once, smaller) premises in the Green Building at 60 Leicester Street, CarltonCarlton, Victoria
Carlton is an inner city suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 2 km north from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Melbourne...
, Melbourne.
On 21 May 2011 members of both Birds Australia and Bird Observation & Conservation Australia (BOCA) voted by an overwhelming majority at their respective Annual General Meetings
Annual general meeting
An annual general meeting is a meeting that official bodies, and associations involving the public , are often required by law to hold...
to merge the two organisations into one entity to be named BirdLife Australia
BirdLife Australia
BirdLife Australia is the trading name of a company limited by guarantee formed through the merger of two Australian non-government conservation organisations, Bird Observation and Conservation Australia and Birds Australia...
.
Regional Groups
The RAOU / Birds Australia has several Regional Groups that cater for members based in particular geographic regions of Australia, as well as looking at the bird conservation challenges of those regions. These are:- Birds Australia Capricornia (BAC) is a regional group of Birds Australia based in the RockhamptonRockhampton, QueenslandRockhampton is a city and local government area in Queensland, Australia. The city lies on the Fitzroy River, approximately from the river mouth, and some north of the state capital, Brisbane....
and Yeppoon region of Central QueenslandCentral QueenslandCentral Queensland is an ambiguous geographical division of Queensland that centres on the eastern coast, around the Tropic of Capricorn. Its major regional centre is Rockhampton and the Capricorn Coast and the area extends west to the Central Highlands at Emerald, north to the Mackay Regional...
and covering the geographical area from Bundaberg to Birdsville in the south and Gumlu to Boulia in the North. Birds Australia Capricornia was formed in 2002. Members of Birds Australia resident in the area of coverage are automatically members of the group. A quarterly newsletter is sent to members. Activities provided for members include meetings, a variety of field trips, bird surveys and conservation projects.
- Birds Australia North Queensland(BANQ)
- Birds Australia Northern NSW (BANN) is a regional group of Birds Australia based in northern New South WalesNew South WalesNew South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
. BANN was formed in 1987 following a campout by RAOU members at Dorrigo the previous year. Members of Birds Australia resident in the area of coverage are automatically members of the group. A quarterly newsletter is sent to members. Activities provided for members include meetings, a variety of field trips, bird surveys and conservation projects.
- Birds Australia Southern NSW & ACT (BASNA)
- Birds Australia Southern Queensland (BASQ)
- Birds Australia Victoria (BA-VIC) is the Victorian regional group of Birds Australia. BA-VIC was formed in 1982. Members of Birds Australia resident in Victoria are automatically members of BA-VIC. The quarterly newsletter is Vic Babbler. Activities provided for members include monthly meetings, a variety of excursions and campouts, bird surveys and conservation projects. Past Presidents include prominent ornithologists Margaret CameronMargaret Alison CameronMargaret Alison Cameron AM, FRAOU is a noted Australian librarian, administrator, and amateur ornithologist. She was foundation librarian of Deakin University 1977-1996, and pro vice-chancellor of the University 1986-1990. She joined the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union in 1969 which she...
and Tim Dolby. BA-VIC also organizes the Victorian Twitchathon and Birdline Victoria. In 2009, in association with Allen & Unwin, BA-VIC published a new bird book, Where to See Birds in Victoria, edited by Tim Dolby, featuring the best places in Victoria for seeing birds.
- Birds Australia Western Australia (BAWA) is the Western Australian regional group of Birds Australia. BAWA was formed in 1943 and incorporated in 2001. Members of Birds Australia resident in Western Australia are automatically members of BAWA. BAWA maintains an office, Peregrine House, at Floreat, PerthPerth, Western AustraliaPerth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
. It also publishes a quarterly newsletter, WA Bird Notes. Activities provided for members include monthly meetings, a variety of excursions ranging from half-day outings to extensive campouts, bird surveys and conservation projects.
- Birds Tasmania (BA-TAS)
External links
- Birds Australia homepage
- Birds Australia Capricornia
- Birds Australia North Queensland
- Birds Australia Northern NSW
- Birds Australia Southern NSW & ACT
- Birds Australia Southern Queensland
- Birds Australia Tasmania
- Birds Australia Victoria
- Birds Australia Western Australia
Special Interest Groups
The RAOU / Birds Australia has Special Interest Groups that focus attention on particular groups of birds that have special study and conservation needs. These are:- Australasian Raptor AssociationAustralasian Raptor AssociationThe Australasian Raptor Association was founded in 1978 as a special interest group of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union, also known as Birds Australia. It promotes the study and conservation of the diurnal and nocturnal raptors, or birds of prey, of Australasia and South-east Asia. It...
(ARA) - birds of prey, including eagleEagleEagles are members of the bird family Accipitridae, and belong to several genera which are not necessarily closely related to each other. Most of the more than 60 species occur in Eurasia and Africa. Outside this area, just two species can be found in the United States and Canada, nine more in...
s, falconFalconA falcon is any species of raptor in the genus Falco. The genus contains 37 species, widely distributed throughout Europe, Asia, and North America....
s, hawkHawkThe term hawk can be used in several ways:* In strict usage in Australia and Africa, to mean any of the species in the subfamily Accipitrinae, which comprises the genera Accipiter, Micronisus, Melierax, Urotriorchis and Megatriorchis. The large and widespread Accipiter genus includes goshawks,...
s and owlOwlOwls are a group of birds that belong to the order Strigiformes, constituting 200 bird of prey species. Most are solitary and nocturnal, with some exceptions . Owls hunt mostly small mammals, insects, and other birds, although a few species specialize in hunting fish...
s - Australasian Seabird GroupAustralasian Seabird GroupThe Australasian Seabird Group, the oldest of Birds Australia's Special Interest Groups, was formed in 1971. Its objectives are to promote seabird research and conservation in Australasia...
(ASG) - seabirds, including albatrosses, petrels, penguinPenguinPenguins are a group of aquatic, flightless birds living almost exclusively in the southern hemisphere, especially in Antarctica. Highly adapted for life in the water, penguins have countershaded dark and white plumage, and their wings have become flippers...
s, gulls and terns - Australasian Wader Studies GroupAustralasian Wader Studies GroupThe Australasian Wader Studies Group , established in 1981, is a special interest group of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union, also known as Birds Australia. It publishes a journal, The Stilt, usually twice a year, with occasional extra issues...
(AWSG) - waderWaderWaders, called shorebirds in North America , are members of the order Charadriiformes, excluding the more marine web-footed seabird groups. The latter are the skuas , gulls , terns , skimmers , and auks...
s or shorebirds - Birds Australia Parrot Association (BAPA) - parrots, including cockatoos, lories and lorikeets. It publishes the newsletter Eclectus. It was formed in 1996 with the objectives:
- To develop plans for parrotParrotParrots, also known as psittacines , are birds of the roughly 372 species in 86 genera that make up the order Psittaciformes, found in most tropical and subtropical regions. The order is subdivided into three families: the Psittacidae , the Cacatuidae and the Strigopidae...
research and management in AustralasiaAustralasiaAustralasia is a region of Oceania comprising Australia, New Zealand, the island of New Guinea, and neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean. The term was coined by Charles de Brosses in Histoire des navigations aux terres australes...
in conjunction with other interested bodies; - To coordinate and encourage scientific projects using amateur and professional skills;
- To encourage and assist with the publication of results;
- To maintain effective communication on parrot matters within Australasia, and with similar groups elsewhere; and
- To formulate and promote policies for the conservation and management of parrots and their habitat.
- To develop plans for parrot
- In 2007 a new Birds Australia EthnoornithologyEthnoornithologyEthnoornithology is the study of the relationship between people and birds . It is a branch of ethnozoology and so of the wider field of ethnobiology...
Special Interest Group was established.
Bird Observatories
Four Bird Observatories were established by the RAOU in order to provide accommodation and act as bases for research, education and recreation, in areas of particular interest and bird richness. Two of these, Barren Grounds Bird ObservatoryBarren Grounds Bird Observatory
The Barren Grounds Bird Observatory was situated in the Barren Grounds Nature Reserve on the escarpment of the Southern Highlands of New South Wales, Australia. It was opened in 1982 by Birds Australia as Australia's third bird observatory, in order to provide a base for the study and enjoyment of...
in NSW, and Rotamah Island Bird Observatory
Rotamah Island Bird Observatory
Rotamah Island Bird Observatory was established in 1979 on Rotamah Island in the Gippsland Lakes National Park in eastern Victoria, Australia, by Birds Australia as Australia's second bird observatory, in order to provide a base for the study and enjoyment of the birds of the area...
in Victoria, have since been closed for economic reasons. The two remaining observatories, both in Western Australia, are:
- Broome Bird ObservatoryBroome Bird ObservatoryBroome Bird Observatory is an educational, scientific and recreational facility located 24 km from Broome in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. It began operating in 1988 under the auspices of the non-profit organisation Birds Australia in order to provide a base for the study and...
(BBO) - Eyre Bird ObservatoryEyre Bird ObservatoryEyre Bird Observatory is an educational, scientific and recreational facility in the Nuytsland Nature Reserve, Western Australia.Cocklebiddy is the nearest locality on the Eyre Highway 49 km to the north....
(EBO)
Reserves
The RAOU has established two reserves, through the purchase of large pastoral leasePastoral lease
A pastoral lease is Crown land that government allows to be leased, generally for the purposes of farming.-Australia:Pastoral leases exist in both Australian commonwealth law and state jurisdictions....
s, in order to protect extensive areas of important bird habitat. They are:
- Gluepot ReserveGluepot ReserveGluepot Reserve is a 540 km2 nature reserve established by Birds Australia in 1997 by the purchase, through a public appeal, of Gluepot Station, a pastoral lease in the semi-arid mallee region of South Australia...
- Newhaven ReserveNewhaven ReserveNewhaven Reserve lies 363 kilometres north-west of Alice Springs at the junction of three distinct bioregions: the Great Sandy Desert, MacDonnell Ranges and Burt Plain in the Northern Territory of Australia....
Newhaven Reserve was sold to the Australian Wildlife Conservancy
Australian Wildlife Conservancy
The Australian Wildlife Conservancy is an Australian independent, non-profit organisation, working to conserve threatened wildlife and ecosystems in Australia, principally through the acquisition of extensive areas of land on which to establish conservation reserves . These sanctuaries are...
in 2007. The RAOU retains access rights for its members and a say in monitoring and research on the reserve through the Newhaven Management Committee.
Honours and awards
The RAOU has always recognised service to the organisation and to ornithology through the granting of the title of Fellow of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists UnionRoyal Australasian Ornithologists Union Fellows
The Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union may elect somebody to the position of Fellow, the highest grade of membership, for service to the RAOU and to ornithology. Fellows of the RAOU are entitled to use the letters FRAOU after their name. There is a limit to the number of Fellows that may...
(FRAOU) to a small and limited number of individuals. It also recognises excellence in contributions to ornithological knowledge
Ornithology
Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the study of birds. Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and the aesthetic appeal of birds...
through annual awards: the D.L. Serventy Medal for outstanding published work on birds in the Australasian region, and the John Hobbs Medal
John Hobbs Medal
The John Hobbs Medal may be awarded annually by the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union for "outstanding contributions to ornithology as an amateur scientist". It commemorates John Hobbs and was first awarded in 1995...
for major contributions to amateur
Amateur
An amateur is generally considered a person attached to a particular pursuit, study, or science, without pay and often without formal training....
ornithology.
Sources
- Campbell, Archibald James. (1900). Nests and Eggs of Australian Birds. Including the geographical distribution of the species and popular observations thereon. (2 vols). Author: Melbourne.
- Dickison, D.J. (1951). The first fifty years of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union - 1901-1951. Emu 51: 185-284.
- Garnett, Stephen. (1996). Parrots: a new special interest group of the RAOU. WingspanWingspan (magazine)Wingspan is the quarterly membership magazine of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union . It was first issued in 1991, replacing the RAOU Newsletter. The current Editor is Sean Dooley....
6(3): 26-27. - Marchant, Stephen. (2002). A brief history of the 1966 proposal for reform of the RAOU. Canberra Bird Notes 27(1): 14-24.
- North, Alfred John. (1901–1914). Nests and Eggs of Birds found breeding in Australia and Tasmania. (4 vols). Australian Museum Special Catalogue No.1. Sydney.
- Robin, Libby. (2001). The Flight of the Emu: a hundred years of Australian ornithology 1901-2001. Carlton, Vic. Melbourne University Press. ISBN 0-522-84987-3
- Robin, Libby. (2002). An Emu for a nation: a centenary reflection on the journal and its discipline. Emu 102: 1-7.
- Serventy, D.L. (1972). A historical background of ornithology with special reference to Australia. EmuEmu (journal)Emu, subtitled Austral Ornithology, is the peer-reviewed scientific journal of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union. The journal was established in 1901 and is the oldest ornithological journal published in Australia...
72: 41-50.