User:JEastaugh/Field Naturalists Club of Ballarat

= Field Naturalists’ Club of Ballarat = The Field Naturalists' Club of Ballarat is an Australian regional scientific natural history and conservation society. The club is located in Ballarat, Victoria, on the lands of the Wadawurrung people.

The primary objectives of the club are "to stimulate interest in natural history and to encourage the preservation and protection of the natural environment." Since the club's founding in 1952, it has contributed to several national history databases, assisted in tree planting projects, lobbied for the preservation of environmentally significant public land, undertaken inventories of bush sites and provided information to students and researchers regarding the region’s natural heritage.

Current Activities
The club holds monthly face-to-face meetings from February to December, on the first Friday of every month. In these meetings, the club invites a guest speaker to present on a topic related to natural history or conservation. Field trips are usually held on the Sunday after a club meeting and are regularly hosted by experts in the local area, including the Friends of the Canadian Corridor.

The Field Naturalists' Club of Ballarat manages an iNaturalist journal project that is updated multiple times a month, usually coinciding with field trips, as well as also participating in BioBlitzes of the Ballarat region

The club also regularly undertakes native seed collection and propagation activities, including assisting in the revitalisation of the Woowookarung Regional Park, in cooperation with the Friends of the Canadian Corridor.

The Field Naturalists' Club of Ballarat is a key member of the South East Australian Naturalists Association (SEANA), and have previously hosted several of the association's biyearly naturalist club camps.

History
The Field Naturalists' Club of Ballarat was formed in 1952 but holds close ties with previous natural history organisations in the Ballarat area, most notably the Field Club and Science Society, which was ceased meetings in 1918, due to the labour shortages from the First World War. The club still holds the original meeting minutes from its predecessor.

Allan Sonsee, lecturer at Ballarat Teachers College and television presenter 'Mr Nature Man' for BTV6 and ornithologist Jack Wheeler were the original founders of the club. In 1952, the two organised a meeting to see if there was interest in the local community to revive a field naturalist club. The meeting was a success, and a club was formed, with Sonsee as the first president, Wheeler as the secretary and Eric Crimmins as treasurer. Other founding members include Mary White, head teacher at Ballarat Girls High School, and Olivia Herbert, who was also a teacher.

Pat Joan Murphy, a significant specimen collector and contributor to the National Herbarium of Victoria, was an avid member of the club from 1983, to her passing in 2006. 1138 of Pat's specimens are stored in the National Herbarium of Victoria, a majority of which she collected on field trips with the club.

Stella Bedggood, secretary for the club for 13 years in the 1960's and 70's, notably lobbied the Forests Commission Victoria to reconsider their stance on logging activities within the Enfield Forest. Bedggood's lobbying resulted in recommendations from the Divisional Forester to the Secretary of the Forests Commission in 1962, to preserve areas for local fauna in the forest. The Enfield Grevillea (Grevillea Bedgoodiana) was named after Bedggood by botanist at the National Herbarium of Victoria, Jim Willis.

Publications
The club publishes a monthly field naturalist magazine, the Ballarat Naturalist from February to December. Issues include short articles, details of upcoming events, and reports of excursions, camps, meetings and presentations. The club has also published two paperback botanical guides, Discovering Ballarat’s Bushland (2002) and Wattles of Ballarat (2009).