from the Top End: birds, award, Bo Beolens, avitourism research

Good afternoon all

Another busy year here at Darwin River, is coming to a close. In our efforts to conserve wildlife habitat on our property we’ve successfully controlled both Gamba and Mission Grass. Rats-tail Grass and a couple of other weeds are a work in progress including one vigorous herb, a sticky Stylosanthes, that I suspect impedes the access of Partridge Pigeon to our grasslands.

The other week I was awarded a trophy (NT Resource Management Individual Champion) in part for these efforts in trying to protect bird habitat, as well as for my fauna books and endeavours to help Aboriginal people stay on their country through appropriate birdwatching tourism. It really was a pleasant surprise, and thanks to my friends Heather Boulden and Jeremy Hemphill of Friends of Fogg Dam for nominating me.

Then Bo Beolens mentioned myself and two other women involved in tourism, in his Grumpy Old Birder column, UK Birdwatching Magazine, . To have such support has been a rare thing over the decades, and I value friends who’ve given that support, such as Heather, Jeremy, Bo and Alan McBride, and a few others.

For anyone interested in research I’ve two papers accepted for CAUTHE (The Council for Australasian Tourism and Hospitality Education) Conference, to be held in Dunedin, NZ, in February, 2017. The first deals with the trust-building that led to Kunwinjku of western Arnhem Land welcoming birdwatching couples onto their country. The second, based on research from my PhD, examines the influence of women and the relationship with their spouse among US birding couples, and the consequences for the avitourism industry.

I wish all a very merry Christmas and the happiest of New Years.

Denise Lawungkurr Goodfellow
PO Box 71
Darwin River, NT, Australia 0841
043 8650 835

PhD candidate, Southern Cross University, Lismore, NSW.

Founding Member: Ecotourism Australia
Nominated by Earthfoot for Condé Nast’s International Ecotourism Award, 2004.
Liaison Officer, NT Field Naturalists’ Club

With every introduction of a plant or animal that goes feral this continent becomes a little less unique, a little less Australian.