Selwyn George (Bill) Lane E.D. R.L. (1922–2000) was an Australian amateur ornithologist who worked for the Sydney County Council for most of life until he retired in 1983.
The Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union (RAOU), now part of BirdLife Australia, was Australia's largest non-government, non-profit, bird conservation organisation. It was founded in 1901 to promote the study and conservation of the native bird species of Australia and adjacent regions, making it Australia's oldest national birding association. In 1996, the organisation 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. In 2012, the RAOU merged with Bird Observation & Conservation Australia to form BirdLife Australia.
John Nelson Hobbs was a British-Australian career police officer and amateur ornithologist.
Pauline Neura Reilly OAM FRAOU was an Australian ornithologist and author of children's books.
Clive Dudley Thomas Minton, AM was a British and Australian metallurgist, administrator, management consultant and amateur ornithologist. His interest in birds began in childhood.
Ian Cecil Robert Rowley was an Australian ornithologist of Scottish origin. He was born in Edinburgh and educated at Wellington College and Cambridge University. Following service in the Royal Navy during the second world war, he moved to Australia in 1949 and graduated in Agricultural Science from Melbourne University under the Commonwealth Reconstruction Training Scheme. From 1952 he worked for many years with the CSIRO on animal ecology. He was well known for his extensive studies on fairy-wrens. He served the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union as Editor of the Emu 1990–2000. He was elected a Fellow of the RAOU in 1989. In 1991 he was awarded the inaugural D.L. Serventy Medal, which recognises excellence in published work on birds. Published books include:
Roy Percy Cooper (1907-1976) was an Australian accountant and amateur ornithologist. He was a Council member of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union (RAOU), serving as President 1960–1961, and Editor of the Emu 1960–1962. He was also President of the Bird Observers Club 1954-1955 and editor of its journal, the Australian Bird Watcher 1959–1976. Books he wrote include:
The Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union (RAOU) 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 exist at any time and new Fellows are generally only elected when an existing one dies. In the following list those elected to the similar positions of Corresponding Members or Corresponding Fellows (CM) are included, although this does not appear to have occurred since the 1930s. Some past and present Fellows, following the years of their election, are:
Wilson Roy Wheeler MBE FRAOU (1905-1988) was an Australian postman and professional ornithologist. He was an active bird bander and was convener of the Altona Survey Group, later part of the Victorian Ornithological Research Group. In 1965 he was awarded the Australian Natural History Medallion. He was a member of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union (RAOU), President 1964–1965, and made a Fellow of the RAOU in 1971.
Norman Chaffer OAM, FRZS, RAOU was an Australian businessman, a bird photographer and an amateur ornithologist. He was a pioneer of colour cinematography and won many awards. He was a member of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union (RAOU), President 1954–1955, and made a Fellow of the RAOU in 1991. He authored In Quest of Bowerbirds which was illustrated with his photographs. He was a recipient of the Medal of the Order of Australia.
Dr Henry Norman Burgess Wettenhall AM was an Australian paediatric endocrinologist, philanthropist, bibliophile and amateur ornithologist. Wettenhall was born in London while his family were living there before returning to Australia, where they lived in Toorak, Victoria. He was educated at Glamorgan, The Geelong College and the University of Melbourne, where he graduated from medicine in 1940.
Margaret Alison Cameron AM, FRAOU (1937-) is a noted Australian librarian, administrator, and amateur ornithologist. She was the foundation librarian of Deakin University between 1977–1996, and pro vice-chancellor of the University 1986–1990. She joined the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union (RAOU) in 1969 which she served as President 1986–1989. In 1993 she was elected a Fellow of the RAOU. She is a Member of the Order of Australia.
John Edgar Courtney is an Australian farmer and amateur ornithologist. He helped put together the first Field Guide to Australian Birdsong, produced by the Bird Observers Club of Australia. He joined the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union (RAOU) in 1959 and was the RAOU's New England regional representative 1971–1978. In 1999 he was awarded the RAOU's John Hobbs Medal for outstanding contributions to Australian ornithology as an amateur.
The Australian Natural History Medallion is awarded each year by the Field Naturalists Club of Victoria (FNCV) to the person judged to have made the most meritorious contribution to the understanding of Australian Natural History. The idea originated with J. K. Moir, a book collector and member of the Bread and Cheese Club. Moir wrote to the FNCV in 1939 suggesting that such a medallion should be awarded to a person who had performed, in his words, ‘a signal service’ to the protection of flora and fauna—‘a variation of the Nobel awards’. Nominations for the Medallion are made by field naturalist clubs and kindred bodies from all over Australia, each nomination being valid for a three-year period. The Medallion has usually been awarded annually since 1940. In that time, recipients have been honoured for their work in many fields of natural history studies, and have come from every state and territory in Australia.
Graham Martin Pizzey AM was a noted Australian author, photographer and ornithologist. He was born and grew up in Melbourne and was educated at Geelong Grammar School. After leaving school he worked in his family's leather business, while studying part-time and publishing articles and photographs on natural history. In 1960 he resigned from the family business to become a full-time freelance writer and photographer.
Leslie Christidis, also simply known as Les Christidis, is an Australian ornithologist. His main research field is the evolution and systematics of birds. He has been director of Southern Cross University National Marine Science Centre since 2009. He was assistant director at Sydney's Australian Museum from 2004 to 2009.
Robert Geoffrey Hewett "Bob" Green AM was an Australian naturalist, photographer, conservationist, and long-term Curator of the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery in Launceston, Tasmania.
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 (BOCA) and Birds Australia. A constitution was drafted in May 2011 for BirdLife Australia, which became operational on 1 January 2012. Their respective magazines, the Bird Observer and Wingspan were succeeded by Australian Birdlife.
Kenneth (Ken) Nigel Graham Simpson was an Australian ornithologist and ornithological writer best known as the coauthor, with artist Nicolas Day, of the Simpson & Day field guide to Australian birds.
