Aug 6, 2026 – 12.00pmWhen Maureen Christie, 82, gets onto the subject of birds her delight and wonderment are childlike and infectious. “I’m a fairly compulsive person,” she says, “and so it wasn’t long before birds took over my life.”In 1994, Maureen, a bookkeeper, and her now-late husband, Ian, a civil engineer, retired and moved to the remote South Australian fishing village of Carpenter Rocks. The couple, then in their 50s, became involved with various conservation and scientific groups, protecting and studying the birds that inhabited their patch of the coast.Subscribe to gift this articleGift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe.Subscribe nowAlready a subscriber? Greg BearupSenior writerGreg Bearup is a senior writer for The Australian Financial Review. Send encrypted tips to gregbearup_1234.09 on messaging platform Signal.Fetching latest articles
For Australia’s birds, Armageddon has arrived
As H5N1 bird flu spreads across Australia, wildlife experts, scientists, and poultry farmers prepare for devastating losses to native species and industry.
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