New bird book from ‘ratbag of the north’

Welcome to Denise Goodfellow's website

www.denisegoodfellow.com

Denise Lawungkurr Goodfellow is a birdwatching/natural history guide, environmental/Indigenous tourism consultant and writer. She began guiding in 1983. Most of her clientele are well-educated, well-travelled Americans who hear of her by word of mouth. As a biological consultant she has conducted fauna surveys in the remote Top End, often solo. In 1981 she stood for Council to save mangrove habitat. Denise is a published author of books including “Birds of Australia’s Top End” - described as winning ‘top honors’ by American Birdwatcher’s Digest), and ‘impressive’ by the American Birding Association’s Winging It) - her autobiographical Quiet Snake Dreaming and Fauna of Kakadu and The Top End, which has been used as a “core text” of the University of NSW’s summer school since 2000.

This information resource is published to provide you with an insight into life in Australia's Top End - in the Northern Territory - including information about how to defeat infestations of gamba grass and how to create hand sanitiser from common household ingredients.

Latest news from Denise Goodfellow

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Details: In Denise Goodfellow; / Published on 15 February 2013

Variously described as an “NT Treasure” and a “ratbag of the north”, eco-tour guide, passionate birder and former buffalo hunter Denise Lawungkurr Goodfellow has published a new book about birds of the Top End.

NT Administrator the Hon. Sally Thomas launched Denise’ latest book, Birds of Palmerston in Australia’s Top End, at Darwin’s Government House earlier this month.

Co-written by Denise and her partner Michael Stott, the beautifully illustrated 52-page book is rich with ornithological descriptions, leavened by wonderful anecdotes from Denise’s four decades in the Top End.

In her forward to the book, the Hon. Sally Thomas describes Denise as “a Northern Territory treasure…who has worked as a biological consultant, conducted countless bird guiding tours for domestic as well as overseas visitors and has an incredible knowledge of the flora and fauna that we all enjoy in this part of the world”.

While the “ratbag of the north” tag came from someone less enamoured of Denise‘s work, she now bears it with pride.

Denise's middle name ‘Lawungkurr’ belongs to a Dreamtime woman still respected for her mediation skills. Denise was given the name by elders in western Arnhem Land in recognition of her efforts to halt abuse of the area's indigenous Kunwinjku people.

In addition to her eco-tourism and birding activities, Denise has been adopted into an Aboriginal Bininj (clan), giving her remarkable access and insight into the lives and challenges of indigenous communities in Northern Australia.

Birds of Palmerston in Australia’s Top End is published by Scrubfowl Press. More information about the work and world of Denise Lawungkurr Goodfellow is available from her website at http://www.denisegoodfellow.com.au/.