Avianation | Building a Natural connection with birds

On January 1st, 2013 I woke up in Cooktown, with plenty of ‘lifers’ on a Queensland birding trip, with the Atherton Tablelands and a Great Barrier Reef pelagic to come. The calm before the storm…

Hanging out with rare Rock Wallabies, found only at Mareeba, North Queensland.

Arriving back in Sydney, my workplace Caxton Web, formerly the Quality Print Group, was in the process of being dissolved as the owners had bought BlueStar. I didn’t have time for that drama,
jetting off to Heathrow for ‘that flight’ to visit my ailing parents.

Mum & Dad had passed by the time I touched down at Heathrow (48hrs apart) two weeks after being in the tropical rainforests of Queensland, a thick blanket of snow comforted me as I sat in my parents empty house in north London.

Assisting with arrangements, I delivered the eulogy expressing mums love of BOGOF (Buy One, Get One Free) and how she’d found ‘Peace at Last’ only to hear ‘I told you I was Ill’ behind her.

Returning to Sydney I sat an exam that evening, a requirement to continue teaching at TAFE, Nepean Art & Design. Although re-hired by BlueStar, ongoing hostile takeovers in a declining industry, forced me to seriously reconsidering my chosen profession as a print-based Graphic Designer.

I originally obtained a B.A. (Hons) in Graphic Art & Design inspired by LP covers and can recall a colleague at Sony Music saying that our profession was responsible for turning trees into landfill, time for a change…

An afternoon shift saw me volunteer for BirdLife Australia’s Birds in Schools program, THIS is what I did best and was my true vocation. Sharing my passion for birds and hopefully making a difference. I used my inheritance to upgrade my car, computer and photographic equipment, registering my business name AVIANATION!

I used my print-based graphic design and photography experience to create photo guides as a take-home component for walks and talks. Several reprints have seen over 10,000 printed to date with x3 versions currently available (Western Sydney, Wetlands & Blue Mountains).

Over the next 10 years I set up three different programs to design and deliver bird workshops engaging over 400 students from K1 to High School, creating a photographic checklist for each of the nine schools. I run regular birdwatching events for a number of Councils, opening up the ‘invisible’ world of birds to 100s of Sydney-siders.

‘Avianation’ in progress (L-R) NPWS Schools Program, CVA Biodiversity in your Backyard, Parramatta CC Get into Nature, Camden CC ‘Bird is the Word, Penrith CC Birdwatchers Breakfast, Blacktown CC Seniors week, Willoughby CC Mosaic Walk, Campbeltown CC Birdweek walk, North Sydney CC Spring Birdwatch, Cumberland Plain Restoration Project Birds & Bushcare.

Overpopulation and loss of habitat is a major threat to our wildlife, but ‘Avianated’ people connected to nature could be the solution…now, more than ever, is the time to make Australia an Avian Nation!