Brian Thomas

Brian was a ranger at Coolart Wetlands for thirty years, during that time extensive habitat creation took place including wetland construction and woodland revegetation. He coordinated a wetland bird survey starting in1985 and which continues to this day. Brian developed interpretive displays, gave talks and led walks on birds and the environment.

Brian has always been an active member of the Merricks-Coolart Catchment Group for ten years and helped develop Balbirooroo Wetlands at Balanarring Primary School.

Now retired, Brian has had a lifelong interest in birds with most of his birding has been done on the Mornington Peninsula. He participates in several regular local bird surveys and enters the results on Birdlife Australia’s Birdata, He feels strongly that it is important to share information and contribute to the protection of birds by making it available to researchers.

It’s encouraging to see that birdwatching is increasing in popularity and great that there are central databases where surveys and sightings can be entered. Brian loves to hear stories of landholders who consider the environment when managing their properties e.g. regenerative farming, and feels this is extremely important as so much of the country is in private hands. It’s also heartening to see groups of birders all around the country helping protect birds in many different ways.