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The Gould League was
formed in 1909 following a suggestion by Jessica McMichael, a young school
teacher from Richmond, and had Australia's Prime Minister Alfred Deakin
as its' first President to protect Australia's birds in a campaign that
saw millions of Australian children sign a bird pledge in thousands of
classrooms across the nation. Gould is now turning to the internet to
re-kindle the magic of Australian bird life.
The organisation has
delivered environmental education for 99 years into Australian schools.
A major fire at Gould's headquarters in Prahran destroyed a large amount
of its records and history.
Ann-Maree Colborne,
CEO of Gould said, the organisation will soon launch a major campaign
in a lead up to its Centenary Celebrations in 2009.
"We are utilising the internet to re-connect with millions of Australians,
their children and grandchildren to take part in the "The Flight
of the Blue Wren", a Gould national community awareness
project to promote an appreciation of common Australian native birds and
personal action which can be taken to limit the impact of climate change.
"The appreciation of Australia's bird life has never been more important
as many of our birds are facing extinction and unfortunately in the past
one hundred years we have already lost many species.
"Teaching
children to appreciate bird life in their own gardens is part of developing
a life long environmental skill and understanding that is vital given
the impact of climate change on the next generation."
Ms Colborne
said that Gould is also searching for the oldest original certificate
in Australia which would date from 1909. We are interested in being able
to see any original certificate signed through the past century so we
can scan them and complete a digital collection.
"We are also interested in receiving a description of people's childhood
memories about the signing of their pledges to record on the Gould Centenary
website.
"Old
newspaper cuttings of Gould League events are also being sought as well
as any photos of signing events."
People
can send their memories and details to andreal@gould.org.au
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