Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union

1911 was marked by the publication of An Australian Bird Book, by John Albert Leach. 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

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 not prepared for his 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 professional scientists as members.

In a letter sent to the RAOU Council meeting in July 1966, the ACT branch 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 education, 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.

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 Hyett 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,

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

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 Reilly 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,

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 Emu 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.

...while keeping the "scientists" happy

1996 also saw the first

Other projects, such as the Australian Bird Count (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.

State of Australia's Birds

Since 2003 Birds Australia has produced an annual

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, smaller premises in the Green Building at 60 Leicester Street, Carlton, 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.^[4]

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
  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 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
  Margaret Cameron and Tim Dolby. BA-VIC also organizes the Victorian Twitchathon^[5] and Birdline Victoria.^[6]
  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
  Perth
  . 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)

• birds of prey, including eagles, falcons, hawks and owls
• terns
• Australasian Wader Studies Group (AWSG) - waders
  or shorebirds
• Birds Australia Parrot Association (BAPA) -
  lories and lorikeets. It publishes the newsletter Eclectus. It was formed in 1996 with the objectives:^[7]
  • To develop plans for parrot research and management in Australasia 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.
• In 2007 a new Birds Australia Ethnoornithology 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 Observatory 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:

• Broome Bird Observatory (BBO)
• Eyre Bird Observatory (EBO)

Reserves

The RAOU has established two reserves, through the purchase of large pastoral leases, in order to protect extensive areas of important bird habitat. They are:

• Gluepot Reserve
• Newhaven Reserve

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.

Honours and awards

The RAOU has always recognised service to the organisation and to ornithology through the granting of the title of

• Gordon Binns
• Frank Littler (F. M. Littler)^[8]
• Henry Luke White (H. L. White)
• Harry Wolstenholme

See also

• The Finch Society of Australia

References

Notes

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. Wingspan 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. Emu 72: 41–50.

External links

• Birdlife Australia

Regional groups

• Birds Australia homepage (archived 2 June 2009)
• Birds Australia Capricornia (archived 8 May 2009)
• Birds Australia Northern NSW (archived 20 July 2008)
• Birds Australia Tasmania (archived 20 June 2010)
• Birds Australia Victoria (archived 20 July 2008)