Clive Minton

Clive Dudley Thomas Minton, AM (born 7 October 1934) is a British and Australian metallurgist, administrator, management consultant and amateur ornithologist. His interest in birds began in childhood. Born in England, he attended Oundle School and went on to complete a PhD degree in Metallurgy at the University of Cambridge. Although involved in studies of various species of birds, his main focus became the migratory waders. He became the founding chairman of the Wash Wader Ringing Group and was associated with the development of cannon-netting, especially as a means of catching large numbers of waders for banding and demographic studies.

In 1978 Minton moved to Australia as managing director of Imperial Metal Industries Australia in Melbourne, Victoria. There he revitalised wader studies through the introduction of cannon-netting to the Victorian Wader Study Group (VWSG), which became one of the most active banding groups in the world. He was also instrumental in the formation of the Australasian Wader Studies Group (AWSG) of which he was founding chair, as well as in the establishment of Broome Bird Observatory.

Since the early 1980s Minton has led regular, almost annual, wader study expeditions to north-west Australia to catch and study the waders that migrate to and through the coastal strip between Roebuck Bay near Broome, Eighty Mile Beach and Port Hedland in the southern section of the East Asian – Australasian Flyway. These expeditions, along with data collected in south-eastern Australia by the VWSG, have led to major governmental conservation initiatives through the Flyway, including the Japan Australia Migratory Bird Agreement (JAMBA), the China Australia Migratory Bird Agreement (CAMBA) and the East Asian – Australasian Shorebird Site Network. He has also been involved in several international wader study expeditions in North America, South America and Russia.

Minton has also served the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union (RAOU) on its Research Committee 1980–1988 and as vice-president 1989–1995.

Awards and honours

• 1975 – awarded Bernard Tucker Medal for services to ornithology^[1]
• 1998 – elected a Fellow of the RAOU
• 2000 – awarded John Hobbs Medal for outstanding contributions to ornithology as an amateur
• 2001 – elected a Member of the Order of Australia for 'services to ornithology, particularly in the study of migratory wading birds in Australia'
• 2003 – awarded Australian Natural History Medallion
• 2012 – awarded Eisenmann Medal

See also

• List of ornithologists

References

• Jessop, Rosalind; Graham, Doris; Collins, Peter; & Davidson, Rosemary. (2000). John Hobbs Medal 2000: Citation. Clive Dudley Thomas Minton. Emu 100: 247.
• Robin, Libby. (2001). The Flight of the Emu: a hundred years of Australian ornithology 1901-2001. Carlton, Vic. Melbourne University Press. ISBN 0-522-84987-3
• Wettenhall, H. Norman. (1998). RAOU Fellow: Citation. Clive Minton MA, PhD. Emu 98: 241.