P003128 revised AU-VU:EOAS Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation

All key entry types: Awards; Concepts; Corporate Bodies (Organisations); Cultural Artefacts; People; etc

These key entries are listed separately below with other indexes and lists.

 English AACR2 Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules Person created 2001-01-31 human Rosanne Walker and Helen Cohn updated 2025-08-06 human https://www.eoas.info/biogs/P003128b.htm person Cooper William Thomas AO AACR2 1934 10 May 2015 Place of Birth Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia Place of Death Topaz, Queensland, Australia Ornithologist Natural history artist William Cooper resided in the tropical rainforests of north Queensland. He was an internationally acclaimed bird artist who painted birds and wildlife in Australia and Papua New Guinea.

Display manager, menswear firm until he became a full-time painter at 30. Mentor was William Dobell. While painting a bird from a mounted specimen in the Australian Museum in 1968 he was noticed by Keith Hindwood (qv), who asked him to illustrate a book, A portfolio of Australian birds (published 1968), which made his reputation Other works he has illustrated include Kingfishers and Related Birds (6 volumes), Australian Parrots (1969) and Parrots of the World (1978), all by Joseph Forshaw (qv), and The Birds of Paradise: Paradisaedae (1998, by C B Frith (qv) and B M Beehler). His series of 60 paintings of bower birds and birds of paradise were reproduced as prints, with the originals being bought by the Government of Papua New Guinea.

1992 1992 Award - Gold Medal for distinction in natural history art, Academy of Natural Sciences (U.S.A.) 10 June 1994 10 June 1994 Award - Appointed Officer of the Order of Australia (AO)

Wikidata

VIAF - Virtual International Authority File

 Cooper, William T (1934-)

Trove

 'Cooper, William Thomas', in Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation, Centre for Transformative Innovation, Swinburne University of Technology Cooper, William Thomas Swinburne University of Technology, Centre for Transformative Innovation Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation Review: Not so cryptic painter of plants Clarkson, John Not so cryptic painter of plants 2021 Australasian Systematic Botany Society newsletter 187 21-2 Book: The botanical art of William T. Cooper Cooper, Wendy The botanical art of William T. Cooper Canberra NLA Publishing 2021 Review: Australian field ornithology McCarthy, David J. 2016 Australian field ornithology 33 38-9 Review: More than a portrait painter to the birds: William T. Cooper (1934-2015) Clarkson, John More than a portrait painter to the birds: William T. Cooper (1934-2015) 2015 Australasian Systematic Botany Society Newsletter 162/3 37-41 Review: Historical Records of Australian Science Kean, John 2014 Historical Records of Australian Science 25 2 361-2 Book: An eye for nature: the life and art of William T. Cooper Olsen, Penny An eye for nature: the life and art of William T. Cooper Canberra National Library of Australia 2014 Book: The Flight of the Emu: a Hundred Years of Australian Ornithology 1901-2001 Robin, Libby The Flight of the Emu: a Hundred Years of Australian Ornithology 1901-2001 Melbourne Melbourne University Press 2001