Billie Gill
Script error: No such module "AfC submission catcheck". Billie Gill (born Mary Hazel Billie Clarson, September 1923, Ipswich, Queensland; died August 2015, Canberra, Australia, aged 91), was a noted Australian female birdwatcher who, together with Fred T Smith, was a co-discoverer of the Sarus Crane in Australia. She published articles as Mrs R G Gill and Mrs H B Gill.
Early Life[edit]
Billie grew up at Esk, Queensland, Australia, and married R G Gill, a soldier, at Esk in 1943. They settled in the Innisfail district, North Queensland. After his death, she moved to Canberra, Australian Capital Territory[1].
Career[edit]
Billie began birdwatching seriously in 1953, encouraged in part by Reg's army friend, Jack Wheeler and his brother Roy, of Melbourne, Victoria, during their regular visits to North Queensland. The birds of tropical North Queensland became her area of expertise. In 1969 the then Royal Australian Ornithologists Union (RAOU), now Birdlife Australia, appointed Mrs H B Gill as Regional Representative for the Innisfail area[2].
As H B Gill, she published an article in 1970 in the RAOU journal “Emu”, which summarised her sightings of 304 bird species in the Innisfail hinterland over a 15 year period[3]. This widely-cited article drew attention to the desirability of tropical North Queensland as a birdwatching “hotspot”.
William R Eastman in his 1970 monograph on kookaburras and kingfishers said that Billie Gill was “perhaps the foremost authority on White-tailed Kingfishers”[4].
During the 1960s and 1970s, Billie volunteered for field work in north Queensland for Professor Jiro Kikkawa and Lenard Webb (Len) who were carrying out vegetation surveys, and from this work was exposed to a more scientific approach to birding[1].
In 1966, Billie Gill, Fred T Smith of Melbourne, and Eric Zillman of Queensland sighted a “enormous brolga, with very extensive red down their necks and pink legs” at Normanton, Queensland, which led to their identification of a new bird for Australia, the Sarus Crane (Grus antigone). Billie submitted an article to the RAOU reporting this major discovery, but due to circumstances beyond her control, it was not published in the “Emu” until 1969[3].
When the Sarus Crane in Australia was identified as a new sub-species in 1988 by Dr Richard Schodde, it was named Grus antigone gillae “for Mrs H B Gill who first reported Sarus Cranes in Australia and who prepared the holotype”[6]. From 1975, Billie worked for the museum at CSIRO Wildlife, Canberra and it was in this role that she prepared the Australian Sarus Crane holotype type specimen.
Shodde described her as “…the most valuable helper he had…” in establishing the national reference base”[7]. While working for CSIRO, Billie also participated in the fauna survey in the Northern Territory, prior the Kakadu National Park being declared[1].
She retired in 1988[1].
In March 1997 the Queensland Museum included a display case with Billie’s binoculars and a specimen skin of a Sarus Crane in their exhibition “Brilliant careers: women collectors and illustrators in Queensland”[1].
Billie contributed articles and photos to the first edition of the “Reader’s Digest Complete Book of Australian Birds” in 1976[8]; and her assistance was acknowledged by the authors of Australian field guides published in the 1970s, e.g. Peter Slater (“A Field Guide to Australian Birds”, Vols 1 and 2, 1970 and 1974); Graham Pizzey (“A Field Guide to the Birds of Australia”, 1980); and G M Storr (“Revised List of Queensland Birds”, 1984)[9].
Billie Gill was a founding member and Secretary of the Wildlife Preservation Society of North Queensland (WPSNQ) which was formed in August 1966. She assisted John Busst's pioneering work ensuring that an application to mine the Ellison Reef for limestone was rejected by the Queensland Government. This fight was carried out under the auspices of the WPSNQ[10].
Publications[edit]
Mrs Reg Gill, Mourilyan, Queensland, photo credit for “Queensland's Own Flower” in “Australian Women's Weekly, 22 July 1959, p 3.
(Mrs) R G Gill, “Spur-winged Plover in north Queensland” in “Emu”, Vol 62, No 4, 1962, p 262.
(Mrs) R G Gill, “Plumed Egret Eating a Snake” in “Australian Bird Watcher”, Bird Observers Club, Vol 2, No 1, 1963, p 20.
(Mrs) R G Gill, “Some observations on the Red-necked Rail” in “Emu”, Vol 64, No 4, 1964, pp 321-322.
H B Gill, “Eastern Barn Swallow in North Queensland” in “Emu”, RAOU, Vol 66, No 2, 1966, p 122.
H B Gill, “First record of the Sarus Crane in Australia” in “Emu”, RAOU, Vol 69, No 1, 1969, pp 49-52.
H B Gill, “Birds of Innisfail and Hinterland“ in “Emu”, RAOU, Vol 70, No 3, 1970, pp 105-116.
H B Gill, “Grey Wagtail in northern Queensland” in “Emu”, RAOU, Vol 70, No 3, 1970, pp 141-142.
H B Gill, “Further records of Sarus Crane in northern Queensland” in “Emu”, ROU, Vol 71, No 3, 1971, pp 140-141.
H B Gill, “Birds of the Opalton Area“ in “Emu”, RAOU, Vol 73, No 1, 1973, pp 21-22.
H B Gill, contributor to “Reader’s Digest Complete Book of Australian Birds”, first edition, 1976.
Ian J Mason, H B Gill, J H Young, “Observations on the Red-necked Crake Rallina tricolor” in “Australian Bird Watcher”, Bird Observers Club, Vol 9, No 3, 1981, pp 69-77.
R Schodde, I J Mason, and H B Gill, “The avifauna of Australian mangroves: a brief review of composition, structure and origin” in “Mangrove Ecosystems in “Australia: Structure, Function and Management”, B F Clough (ed), 1982, pp 141–150.
Billie Gill, John Grant, Graham Harrington, Elinor Scrambler, Virginia Simmonds, “The Mysterious Affair of the Sarus Crane” in “Australian Birdlife”, RAOU, Vol 3, No 1, March 2014, pp 32-36.
References[edit]
1 Rob Reed and Jean Ffrench, “The Remarkable Discovery of the Sarus Crane in the Gulf of Carpentaria by a Most Remarkable Woman: Billie Gill”, in “Contact Call”, https://www.birdlifenq.org/contactcall, December 2023.
2 RAOU Newsletter, 1969.
3 H B Gill, “Birds of Innisfail and Hinterland“ in “Emu”, RAOU, Vol 70, No 3, 1970, pp 105-116.
4 William R Eastman, “The Life of the Kookaburra and Other Kingfishers”, 1970, p 49.
5 H B Gill, “First record of the Sarus Crane in Australia” in “Emu”, RAOU, Vol 69, No 1, 1969, pp 49-52.
6 Richard Schodde, “New subspecies of Australian birds” in “Canberra Bird Notes”, Vol 13, No 4, Dec 1988, p 119.
7 Richard Schodde, “Establishing a National Reference Collection of Birds: The First Forty Years of the Birds of the Australian National Wildlife Collection”, in “Contributions to the History of Australasian Ornithology”, edited by William E Davis jnr, Harry F Recher, Walter E Bowles, Jerome A Jackson, 2008, p 305.
8 H B Gill, contributor to “Reader’s Digest Complete Book of Australian Birds”, first edition, 1976.
9 Peter Slater, “A Field Guide to Australian Birds”, Vols 1 and 2, 1970 and 1974; Graham Pizzey, “A Field Guide to the Birds of Australia”, 1980; and G M Storr, “Revised List of Queensland Birds”, 1984.
10 Judith A Wright, “The Coral Battleground”, 1977, p 4.
Further Reading[edit]
F Smith, “Little Whimbrels and other waders at a North Queensland airport” in “Australian Bird Watcher”, 2(7), 1966, p 222.
Alec H Chisholm, “Some VIPs* Fly in from India, *Very Important Pioneers”, in “The Sydney Morning Herald”, 16 September 1967, p17.
F Smith, “The Finding and Consequent Identification of the Sarus Crane in Australia” , in “The Bird Observer”, No 471, February 1971, p 7.
Hugh Ronald Officer, “Walkabouts and birds, 1971, p 122.
Eric Zillman, “Sarus Cranes”, in “Wambaliman: The newsletter of the Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland Fraser Coast Branch”, July-September 1985.
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