User:JEastaugh/Peninsula Field Naturalist Club

= Peninsula Field Naturalists' Club = The Peninsula Field Naturalists' Club is an Australian regional scientific natural history and conservation society. The club is located on the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria on the lands of the Mayone-bulluk and Boonwurrung-Balluk people, of the Boonwurrung Nation.

The club members have a keen interest in birds, plants, insects, fungi, snakes, geology, animals and many other subjects. The primary goal of the club is to "share our enjoyment of the natural world and learn from each other and our many and varied guest speakers".

Their emblem is the Rabbit's Ears orchid, Thelymitra antennifera which was once common to the Frankston area but is now rare.

Current Activities
The club has monthly meetings February to December in Frankston, Victoria. In each meeting, the club invites a speaker to give a presentation on some aspect of naturalist history. Many of these members are drawn from government agencies, interest groups, researchers, environmental professionals, and club members.

On the Saturday after their monthly meetings, the club holds excursion trips around the Morning Peninsula. These excursions regularly involve observing aspects of the natural environment including birds, orchids, fungi and geology.

The club also contains a birdwatching special interest group that travels to once a month to locations around Mornington Peninsula, Port Phillip and Westernport Bay. The member's observations are commonly used for the Peninsula Field Naturalists' Club Newsletter.

The Peninsula Field Naturalists' Club is a member of the South East Australian Naturalists Association (SEANA), and regularly hosting excursions for other Victorian field naturalist clubs to the Mornington Peninsula.

History
The club was founded in 1952, sponsored by the Rotary Club of Frankston. The club was specifically created to be a junior branch of the Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria. The founding board of the club included the first president, Stanley Robert Mitchell (in office 1952-57), who was also founder and president of the Anthropological Society of Victoria, treasurer S. J. Clough and secretary Alan Spillane (in office 1952-56), who also served as vice president and president over the following twenty-one years.

Owen Dawson, club president from 1965-73 and 1984-88, has been recognised as an important member of the club, noted as being a contributor to the club's culture, twenty years after his passing. Described as a bushman, Dawson served in the RAAF at Onslow, Western Australia during the Second World War, and upon returning, assisted in the collection and study of reed bees (exoneura) and nomia. Dawson was well liked in the club, leading many excursions and presenter numerous talks on his special interests, which included native bees, expanding national parks and Australian Pointer training, until his passing in 2005. The Owen Dawson Track in the Langwarrin Flora and Fauna Reserve was named after Dawson in recognition of his work.

Publications
The club publishes the Peninsula Field Naturalists' Club Newsletter on a quarterly basis. The newsletter details the field excursions from the preceding months, articles written by meeting speakers and high-resolution photos of observations made by group members.