ABOUT US
The Society, being formed in 1928, has the distinction of being the oldest Society of its type in Australia and the third longest established Avicultural Society in the English speaking world!
The Society publishes a monthly magazine, Bird Keeping In Australia, which provides members with a wide variety of interesting and informative articles on the keeping and breeding of birds the Australian way.
Monthly General Meetings are held in Adelaide and the Society has two Branches to cater for the needs of bird-keepers in country South Australia.
In the beginning
In 1927 the Commonwealth Government, under Prime Minister Stanley Bruce, announced plans to ban the importation of all avian species into Australia. This was the result of concerns expressed by the poultry industry that exotic diseases could be brought into the country by foreign birds.
Naturally, the aviculturists of the day were not happy with the proposal. At that time South Australia was the leading avicultural state in Australia, and several prominent aviculturists of the day, at one of their regular Friday late night trading informal gatherings at Foglia’s bird shop in what is now Rundle Street East, decided to oppose the ban.
Mr. Claude Bennett offered his gymnasium rooms in Twin Street, (off Rundle Mall) as a meeting venue, and Mr. George Lewis, a printer in Pirie Street, undertook to print leaflets advertising a meeting of concerned bird-keepers. The Register, a daily newspaper of the time, now incorporated into The Advertiser, gave wide publicity to the proposed meeting.
The meeting was duly held on Friday, February 10th, 1928. Mr. W. Foglia proposed that a society called “The Avicultural Society of South Australia”, be formed, with Dr. W. Hamilton as President and Mr. C. Bennett as Hon. Secretary. The meeting agreed, and our society was born, the first such organisation in Australia.
The proposed ban didn’t eventuate at that time. It was not until 1949 that the import ban we now have was introduced. Again, it was lobbying by the bigger poultry producers that convinced the government to act. They once more used exotic avian diseases as the reason. However, it was widely believed at the time that this was but a secondary worry. The real reason being that the bigger producers had the latest strain of fast-growing chickens from America and didn’t want their small competitors to be able to get them.
Despite the reason for our society’s formation no longer being relevant, The Avicultural Society of South Australia prospered. For ninety years regular monthly meetings have been held, except during the war, and many services been made available to members.
Attempts to restrict bird-keeping in South Australia have arisen from time to time, but have usually been completely overcome, or modified to be acceptable. This has only been made possible by the united efforts of the members of our society, and since 1979 The United Bird Societies of South Australia an initiative of our society.
The Avicultural Society of SA Inc. has the following objectives:
The study of native and foreign birds.
The conservation of native birds in freedom and the establishment of viable breeding populations of all suitable birds in captivity, especially rare and endangered species.
The promotion of the hygienic keeping and scientific feeding and breeding of birds in captivity in the best and most natural conditions.
The arranging of lectures by visiting and local aviculturists and naturalists on matters relating to native and foreign birds.
The dissemination of avicultural information by all methods.
The cultivation of affiliations and friendly relations with societies and clubs with similar objectives, in any part of the world.