Bird Observation & Conservation Australia (BOCA) was a club established on 12 April 1905 by members of the

Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union 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 bird conservation, conservati ...

(RAOU) in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/ Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a me ...

, Victoria, as the Bird Observers Club. Although inactive for many years, in 1927 it was revived and subsequently active until the end of 2011 when it merged with Birds Australia to form BirdLife Australia. It published a quarterly journal, '' Australian Field Ornithology'', and a quarterly newsletter, the ''Bird Observer''. It had a cooperative relationship with the

Land for Wildlife Land for Wildlife is a program sponsored by the Department of Sustainability and Environment in the state of Victoria, Australia. It was established in November 1981 to support private landholders and managers who voluntarily provide and enhance h ...

program, a voluntary conservation scheme for private land in Victoria, which was instigated by two prominent club members,

Ellen McCulloch Ellen Margery McCulloch OAM (23 April 1930 – 13 November 2005) was a Melbourne-based Australian nature writer and amateur ornithologist who had a long association with Bird Observation & Conservation Australia (BOCA, formerly the Bird Observers ...

and

Reg Johnson Harold Reginald (Reg) Johnson (2 January 1921 – 22 May 2011) was an Australian cartographer, amateur ornithologist and environmentalist. Early years Johnson was born in Ararat, Victoria on 2 January 1921. He was the first child of John Thomas J ...

, established in 1981, and coordinated by the Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment. In 1991 the club expanded its name to become the Bird Observers Club of Australia (BOCA) to give itself a national rather than a local focus. In May 2007, at the Annual General Meeting, the membership voted to change the name of the organisation again to Bird Observation & Conservation Australia to "more properly present it and the work it does", while retaining the familiar acronym BOCA. Its head office was in Nunawading (an eastern suburb of greater Melbourne) in Victoria, but it had sub-groups across eastern Australia. By 2011 BOCA had 49 branches and affiliated groups, mainly in the eastern states of Australia, as well as a specialist group (PhotoBOCA) for those interested in bird photography. It also owned and managed the

Clarkesdale Bird Sanctuary The Clarkesdale Bird Sanctuary is a nature reserve focused on protecting and restoring habitat for woodland birds. It lies in the state of Victoria in south-eastern Australia, near the small town of Linton, 30 km south-west of the city of B ...

Linton, Victoria Linton is a town in Victoria, Australia, off Glenelg Highway. Most of the town is located in Golden Plains Shire; however, a small section is in the Shire of Pyrenees. At the , Linton and the surrounding area had a population of 580. The Cla ...

Merger

During 2009 discussions commenced with Birds Australia with a view to merging the two organisations. On 21 May 2011 members of both BOCA and Birds Australia voted by an overwhelming majority at their respective Annual General Meetings to merge the two organisations into one entity to be named BirdLife Australia.

References

External links

Birdlife Australia
Ornithological organisations in Australia 1905 establishments in Australia 2011 disestablishments in Australia Bird conservation organizations {{Australia-org-stub

Merger

References

Further reading

External links