Person
Frith, Dawn Whyatt (1943 - 2025)
OAM
- Born
- 1943
England - Died
- 16 March 2025
Queensland, Australia - Occupation
- Ornithologist and Zoologist
Summary
Dawn Frith and her husband, Cliff, contributed greatly to Australasian ornithology. They carried out long-term studies of bower birds and birds of paradise in northern Queensland and in New Guinea, from which they have written the first - and often the only - accounts of the nesting biology and behaviour of these species. Their studies resulted in over 80 papers published in Australian and international journals. With Cliff, Dawn also published a number of books aimed at a general audience on the fauna of north Queensland, two of which received the Whitley Award from the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales. In 1996 they were awarded the D. l. Serventy Medal by the Royal Australasian Ornithological Union.
Details
Chronology
- 1964
- Education - BSc, University of London
- 1968 - 1973
- Career position - Lecturer in zoology, University of London
- 1969
- Education - PhD, University of London
- 1972
- Career position - Visiting Scientist, Royal Society of London Research Station, Aldabra Atoll
- 1974 - 1977
- Career position - Senior Marine Biologist, Phuket Marine Biological Centre, Phuket Island, Thailand
- 1996
- Award - D. L. Serventy Medal (shared with Clifford Frith), Royal Australasian Ornithological Union
- 2008
- Award - Whitley Award (Field Natural History) for Bowerbirds: nature, art & history, Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales
- 2011
- Award - Whitley Award (Field Natural History) for Birds of paradise: nature, art and history, Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales
- 2021
- Award - Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for service to conservation and the environment
Related entries
Husband
Published resources
Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation Exhibitions
- McCarthy, Gavan; Morgan, Helen; Smith, Ailie; van den Bosch, Alan, Where are the Women in Australian Science?, Exhibition of the Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation, First published 2003 with lists updated regularly edn, Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, Melbourne, Victoria, 2003, https://eoas.info/exhibitions/wisa/wisa.html. Details
Books
- Frith, Clifford and Frith, Dawn, A wild romance: 50 years of studying and photographing wildlife around the world (Malanda, Qld: Frith & Frith, 2023), 402 pp. Details
- Frith, Clifford. B. and Frith, Dawn W., Bowerbirds: nature, art & history (Malanda, Qld: Frith & Frith, 2008), 304 pp. Details
- Frith, Clifford. B. and Frith, Dawn W., Bird of paradise: nature, art & history (Malanda, Qld: Frith & Frith, 2010), 370 pp. Details
Journal Articles
- BirdLife Northern Queensland Committee, 'Vale Dawn W Frith, OAM: Remembering Dr. Dawn W. Frith, OAM', BirdLife Northern Queensland (2025), https://www.birdlifenq.org/post/vale-dawn-w-frith-oam. Details
- Valentine, Peter, 'Obituary: Dawn Whyatt Frith (1943 - 2025)', Emu, 125 (2) (2025), 199-200, https://doi.org/10.1080/01584197.2025.2511808. Details
Resources
- Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q5242526. Details
- VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/168622574. Details
- 'Frith, Dawn W (1943-)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-625742. 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
Rosanne Walker and Helen Cohn
Created: 2 February 2001, Last modified: 7 July 2026
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