Harold Frith
Harry Frith was a member of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union (RAOU), and prominent among those pressing for reform of the organisation in the late 1960s.
[citation needed] In September 1942, the 6th Division was deployed to New Guinea to meet the southward advance of the Japanese Army towards Port Moresby.
He took part in the Buna-Gona campaign when Australian and US forces sought to re-capture key Japanese beachheads on the northern coast of the Papuan Peninsula.
[citation needed] Harry Frith returned to Australia in October 1943 and on November 20 he married Dorothy Killeen at St Philip's Anglican church in the Sydney city-centre.
[4] As an assistant research officer Frith was engaged in experiments with horizontal wind fans to protect orchards against frost.
[5] His job included outreach to community and industry groups reporting on the results of his research, which were the subject of a number of his early publications.
[6] In 1951, the officer-in-charge of the CSIRO Wildlife Survey section enlisted Harry Frith to assist with monitoring the spread of the newly released myxoma virus among rabbit populations.
[3] In 1963, the area of remnant mallee woodland in which Harry Frith studied the malleefowl was dedicated as a reserve comprising 145 hectares.
This began a process of natural environment protection in the Northern Territory that ultimately led to the declaration in 1979 of the Kakadu National Park (an area which incorporates the Woolwonga Aboriginal Reserve).
[10] After Francis Radcliffe's resignation and a subsequent competitive selection process, Frith was appointed in May 1961 as officer-in-charge of the Wildlife Survey section.
[3] From 1976, the CSIRO was put under increasing financial constraints by the Fraser government, including a change in management structure that diminished the power of Division Chiefs.
He had plans in his retirement to restore the rainforest vegetation on the farm and pursue studies on the birds of the region, but he suffered a second heart attack and died on 28 June 1982.
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s that mindset changed, evolving towards a recognition that the natural environment had its own intrinsic worth, that native animals and plants are “a priceless heritage to be protected and cherished”.
His influence was widespread, through his researches into the behaviour and ecology of a range of native birds and also kangaroos and the books intended for general readership that he wrote and edited.
His leadership of wildlife research within the CSIRO was also significant, as well as the important influence he had on government conservation policy at both State and Federal levels.
