Person
Christie, Maureen Heather
AM
- Occupation
- Bird observer
Summary
Maureen Christie is widely acknowledged as an expert in shorebirds. Since her career as a bookkeeper ended with her retirement in 1994, Christie has devoted much of her time to bird organisations. These included the Australasian and Victorian Wader Study Groups, Friends of Shorebirds SE Inc. (FoSSE), and BirdLife Australia. Besides holding office on the committees of these organisations, Christie's involvement has ranged from field surveys and banding programs to organising and running expeditions and establishing long-term data projects. Much of her involvement covers the South Australian and Victorian coasts and in northwest Western Australia. In particular she is concerned with migratory shorebirds, notably the Ruddy Turnstone and Sanderling, along the East Asian-Australian Flyway from Siberia to Australia. The work she has done with colleagues has highlighted the importance of tidal flats in these migrations. Among the awards Christie has received are the Serventy Conservation Medal and the Australian Natural History Medallion.
Details
Chronology
- 1994
- Career event - Retired from career as bookkeeper
- 1995 -
- Career position - Founding, Member, Friends of Mount Gambier Area Parks
- 1995 -
- Career position - Member, Victorian Wader Study Group
- 1997 - 2001
- Career position - Secretary, Friends of Mount Gambier Area Parks
- 2001 - 2011
- Career position - Member, Birds South East South Australia, Birds Australia
- 2005 -
- Career position - Editor, Friends of Shorebirds SE
- 2005 -
- Career position - Founding Member and Secretary, Friends of Shorebirds SE (FoSSE)
- 2006 -
- Career position - Committee Member, Australasian Wader Study Group
- 2007 - 2013
- Career position - Expedition Co-Leader, Australasian Wader Study Group NWWA
- 2012 -
- Career position - Member, Birdlife South East South Australia, BirdLife Australia
- 2021
- Award - Clive Minton Medallion, Victorian Wader Study Group
- 2021
- Award - Serventy Conservation Medal, Australian Wildlife Society
- 2021
- Award - Inducted into South Australian Women's Honour Roll
- 2023
- Award - Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for significant service to wildlife conservation
- 2023
- Award - Australian Natural History Medallion, Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria
Related entries
Colleague
Published resources
Books
- Christie, Maureen, Jessop, Rosalind and Gibbs, Heather, Report to the Wildlife Conservation Fund Research Grants Program: site faithfulness of Ruddy Turnstone Arenaria interpres in south east of South Australia ([Adelaide]: Friends of Shorebirds SE, 2009), 24 pp. Details
Journal Articles
- Campbell, Maxwell, '2023 Australian Natural History Medallion: Maureen Christie', Victorian naturalist, 141 (3) (2024), 91-2. Details
- Christie, M., 'South Australian wader studies - an overview', Stilt, 50 (2006), 249-76. Details
- Hanks, Petra and Jessop, Roz, 'Clive Minton Medallion citation 2021: Maureen Christie', VWGS bulletin, 45 (2022), 87-8. Details
- Marks, Ila and Christie, Maureen, 'Jeff Campbell - awarded the Clive Minton Medallion AGM 2023', VWGS bulletin, 47 (2024), 83-4. Details
- Minton, C. [and others], 'Geolocator studies of Ruddy turnstone, Arenaria interpres and Greater sandplover Charadrius leschenaultii in the East Asian-Australian flyway reveal widely different migration strategies', Wader Study Group bulletin 118:87-96, 118 (2011), 87-96. Details
- Minton, C. [and others], 'Geolocator studies of Ruddy turnstone, Arenaria interpres and Greater sandplover Charadrius leschenaultii in the East Asian-Australian flyway reveal widely different migration strategies', Wader Study Group bulletin 118:87-96, 118 (2011), 87-96. Details
- Minton, C., Jessop, Rosalind, Hassell, Chris J. and Christie, Maureen, 'North-West Australia wader & tern expedition report 23rd February to 16th March 2013', Stilt, 63/4 (2013), 50-5. Details
- Minton, Clive [and others], 'New insights from geolocators deployed on waders in Australia', Wader Study Group bulletin, 120 (1) (2013), 37-46. Details
- Minton, Clive, Jessop, Rosalind, Hassell, Chris and Christie, Maureen, 'North-West wader and tern expedition 2007 (10th November to 1st December 2007)', Stilt, 53 (2008), 31-6. Details
- Zhao, Meijuan [and others], 'Body size shapes inter-specific migratory behaviour: evidence from individual tracks of long-distance migratory shorebirds', Journal of avian biology, 49 (1) (2017), 1-12, https://doi.org/10.1111/jav.01570. Details
Resource Sections
- 'Miss Maureen Heather Christie: Member of the Order of Australia', in It's an Honour, Australian Government, Dpeartment of Prime Minister and Cabinet, Canberra, 2023. https://honours.pmc.gov.au/honours/search?searchText=maureen%20christie. Details
Helen Cohn
Created: 13 February 2025