Berney, Frederic Lee (1865 - 1949)

Summary

Frederic Berney was a farmer who spent much of his career on rural properties in Queensland. After serving with the Australian Imperial Force in WWI, he purchased the station Barcarolle near Longreach in 1919. For 20 years he worked the property, struggling against drought and the depression. After retiring in 1939 he travelled to Victoria, New South Wales and Tasmania, ultimately settling at Emu Park, near Rockhampton. Berney was a keen naturalist and foundation Member of the Australasian Ornithologists' Union. He was President of the Union's successor, the Royal Australasian Ornithological Union, 1933 - 1934, and elected an Honorary Member. Berney worked hard to ensure protection for the Bustard, with the result that total protection was granted in every State. Other activities included talks at schools and an active interest in the Central Queensland Native Birds Protection Association. He kept nature diaries, including his ornithological observations, between 1898 and 1946: these 17 diaries are now in Museum Victoria. Among his ornithological correspondents was John Sutton in South Australia.

Details

Educated Whitgift Grammar School, Croydon. Came to Australia ca 1890. Jackaroo, Landsdown station, near Longreach; managed a property at Richmond, north Queensland, for several years, dairy farm, Cawarral, near Yeppoon.

Chronology

c. 1890

Life event - Migrated to Australia

1901 - 1910

Career position - Member, Australasian Ornithologists' Union

1901 - 1910

Career position - Foundation Member, Australasian Ornithologists' Union

1919 - 1939

Career position - Farmer, Barcarolle Station, Queensland

1933 - 1934

Career position - President, Royal Australasian Ornithological Union

1933 - 1934

Career position - President, Royal Australasian Ornithologists' Union

1939

Life event - Retired

Related entries

Archival resources

Museum Victoria

• Frederick Lee Berney - Records, 1898 - 1946; Museum Victoria. Details

State Library of Victoria, Australian Manuscripts Collection

• Frederick Lee Berney - Records, 1918 - 1922, MS 6209-11; State Library of Victoria, Australian Manuscripts Collection. Details

Published resources

Journal Articles

• [Bryant, C. E.], 'Frederic Lee Berney', Emu, 49 (1) (1949), 63-5, https://doi.org/10.1071/MU949063a. Details
• Paton, Penny, 'F. L. Berney', Birds SA newsletter, 199 (2006), i-iv. Details

Resources

• 'Berney, Frederick Lee (1865-1949)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-1473296. Details

See also

• Robin, Libby, The Flight of the Emu: a Hundred Years of Australian Ornithology 1901-2001 (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2001), 492 pp. Details