Carl, thanks very much for your supportive and encouraging email. I must
apologise for the delay in answering. High humidity and Wet Season storms
knock out our internet, often for several days at a time.
Kind regards
Denise
On 9 Dec 2015, at 11:31 am, Carl Weber <> wrote:
> Denise,
>
> You are clearly doing a great job under difficulties, and having some
> success.
>
> Good on you.
>
> Carl Weber
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Birding-Aus On Behalf Of
> Denise Goodfellow
> Sent: Tuesday, 8 December 2015 5:13 PM
> To: Carl Clifford
> Cc: birding-aus; Fred Mack; Tony Russell
> Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] Is anyone else sick of BirdLife Australia
> marketing?
>
> Carl, as you might know (or at least suspect), the breaking of legs has been
> a viable option in the Top End, and worse. Last year friends and I formed a
> small committee to fight a proposed workers’ camp here in the rural area,
> one reason being that Partridge Pigeon habitat could be at risk. The fellow
> behind this proposal owned the hotel, not far from where we lived. One
> night a member went there for a quiet drink, or so he thought. Somehow the
> pub owner had found out that he was part of this committee, chased him to
> his car, and dragging him out of the driver’s seat, threatened to cut him up
> “for crab bait’. Dave went to the police who confiscated this fellow’s gun
> licence. However I know from experience, that means little up here.
>
> Few bodies in the Top End have shown particular interest in the biggest
> threats to our native birds - weeds - most of which were brought in as
> cattle pasture. In part this is because the cattle industry has a lot of
> clout, and opposed (and still opposes) the declaration of plants such as
> Gamba, Olive Hymenachne, Para and Buffel grasses, as weeds. Also grasses
> look fairly innocuous to a lot of people, compared with cane toads. When
> the NT Government finally decided to act against Gamba, it was too late.
> Where possible landowners tackle weeds, not just for the birds, but because
> Gamba Grass in particular fuels dangerous fires.
>
> I’ve found that one way of tackling threats to birds is through
> organisations with some parallel interests, such as the CWA and local
> volunteer fire services. Our deputy fire chief has been controlling the
> weeds on his property “because of the birds”. Taking me aside a couple of
> months ago, he told me with much delight, that Gouldian Finches had turned
> up on his land.
>
> Denise Lawungkurr Goodfellow
> PO Box 71
> Darwin River, NT, Australia 0841
> 043 8650 835
>
> PhD candidate, Southern Cross University, Lismore, NSW.
>
> Founding Member: Ecotourism Australia
> Nominated by Earthfoot for Condé Nast’s International Ecotourism Award,
> 2004.
>
> With every introduction of a plant or animal that goes feral this continent
> becomes a little less unique, a little less Australian.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On 8 Dec 2015, at 1:47 pm, Carl Clifford <> wrote:
>
>> You need to do a bit of research. I donate to the local primary school,
> because I know that the money will go to things that will help the students,
> likewise I donate to a privately run school in Cambodia, where I know the
> guy running the project. There, I know there will be no misuse of the funds,
> because he and I have an understanding. If he fiddles the money, I come over
> and hire someone to break his legs. It is an understanding that has worked
> well. Unfortunately it is not a viable option here.
>>
>> Carl Clifford
>>
>>> On 8 Dec 2015, at 2:38 PM, Tony Russell <> wrote:
>>>
>>> And how do you identify those charities wherein even some of the donated
> funds go to those in need and not mostly to the charity staff and management
> ? I've stopped all my donations to charities and do gooder funds because of
> this unknown, and because of the way they pester you interminably once they
> get your address or phone number.
>>> I did contribute modestly on line ( and therefore more unidentifiably) to
> the recent bushfire relief funds, mainly because it was all so horrifying
> and I wanted to help those who had suffered, but I could only assume,
> hopefully correctly, that the banks did see to it that the money went where
> it was needed in this case. I could be wrong though. If it had been
> possible I would have preferred to hand the money directly to the distraught
> families, but that wasn't possible because the public were not allowed into
> the fireground in case we were looters or rubbernecks.
>>>
>>> Tony.
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: Birding-Aus On Behalf
> Of Carl Clifford
>>> Sent: Tuesday, December 8, 2015 12:36 PM
>>> To: Fred Mack
>>> Cc:
>>> Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] Is anyone else sick of BirdLife Australia
> marketing?
>>>
>>> It looks like BLA has hired marketeers from the pester school of
> marketing, whose technique seems to be based on the tenet that if they keep
> on dunning you, you will donate, in the hope that they will go away.
> Unfortunately, they don't, they just see a sucker and come in for more. I
> have just changed ISP's and they are the same, ringing me 3-4 times a week,
> usually at meal times, trying to sell me their mobile phone packages.
>>>
>>> What worries me about this style of marketing by charities,such as BLA,
> is the percentage of donations that are absorbed by marketing, in the form
> of salaries, printing and postage etc. It has got to the point with
> mainstream charities such as the Salvos, St Vinnies, that I no longer
> donate, because I know that the majority of my donations will not go to whom
> I am hoping to help. I only now donate to causes where I know my mony is
> really going to make a difference.
>>>
>>> Cheers,
>>>
>>> Carl Clifford
>>>
>>>> On 7 Dec 2015, at 10:09 PM, Fred Mack <> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
> https://support.birdlife.org.au/emailviewonwebpage.aspx?erid=2407986&trid=43
> b5737e-fb8a-4471-b824-64047318c034
>>>>
>>>> “With numbers down 84%... how long before the Lesser Sand Plover is
> extinct?
>>>> “This Silent Shorebirds Crisis can’t continue.”
>>>>
>>>> Silent crisis? seriously, it’s been at the forefront of ornithology for
> 10 years hasn't it… are BirdLife Australia just realizing this?.. and is
> this actually true? Given these people have recently said in similar
> marketing 90% of Australia’s woodlands have been cleared in the past few
> decades, we need to protect private land for Mallee- Emu-wrens (they never
> occured on private land as far as I know) and Magpies are going extinct, you
> have to wonder?
>>>>
>>>> I’ve supported this organization in the past to the tune of tens of
> thousands and all I get is constant negative doomsday marketing trying to
> guilt me into things. They must send me a dozen a year. Add to that a
> massive and insultingly invasive, “supporter survey” asking me everything
> from my income to where live!
>>>>
>>>> These people do wonderful actual conservation and research work - I know
> I help with much of it and they are great! but for god’s sake who is running
> this organization these days?
>>>>
>>>> Is anyone else totally sick of them or is it just me?
>>>>
>>>> Frank.
>>>>
>>>>
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