Middleton, William George Dyer (Bill) (1926 - )

Summary

Bill Middleton, the District Forester for Wimmera Forest Nursery in Wail (1959-1976), was awarded an OAM in January 1999, 'for service to conservation and the environment, and to land management.' He has worked for many years, largely through the Trust for Nature Victoria, for the preservation of native vegetation and bird habitat.

Details

Son of Antarctic expeditioner (1915) Dr Fred Middleton, William George Dyer (Bill) Middleton grew up in Nhill and was educated at the School of Forestry in Creswick. Like his father who hosted many visiting ornithologists, including Crosbie Morrison and Charles Bryant (qq.v), Bill introduced Ernst Mayr to the Wimmera in 1959, also American Roger Tory Peterson (1965, 1971), and British ornithologists Reg Moreau (1963) and Peter Scott (1971). Bill and Allan McEvey (q.v.) were the Australians working with J.D. McDonald (q.v.) on the first Harold Hall Expedition of the British Museum in 1962. Bill Middleton broadcasted regularly on ABC Wimmera Radio for fourteen years on gardens, birds and natural history and also did television work.

Chronology

1941 -

Career position - Member of the Royal Australian Ornathologists Union

1959 - 1976

Career position - District Forester at the Wimmera Forest Nursery in Wail, near Dimboola, Victoria

1962

Career position - Harold Hall Expedition of the British Museum

1999

Award - Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM)

Published resources

Resources

• 'Middleton, William George Dyer (1926-)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-1476028. 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