The Australian Bird Count (ABC) was a project of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union (RAOU).
Methodology for a suitable project involving volunteers was worked out through experimental fieldwork and a workshop on ‘Monitoring the Populations and Movements of Australian Birds’.
Some 950 volunteer observers carried out 79,000 surveys, for fixed 20-minute periods in 1700 three-hectare locations over Australia.
[3] Project management started at the Australian Museum in Sydney and was later moved to the RAOU National Office in Melbourne.
Financial support came at first from the Australian Nature Conservation Agency and subsequently from BP Australia which pledged A$260,000 to the project over five years.