20,000 Years of Duck Decoys

Duck decoys represent a deep-seated interest in nature that has resulted - in North America - in the effective conservation of its natural wetlands. Surprisingly, on the driest of all inhabited continents, decoys were used by Australian Aborigines over the millennia, evolving from ancient bark discs. The modern form in Australia derived some 165 years ago out of Scandinavia, in company with European settlers. Duck decoys and callers in Australia have advanced through hand-made, mass-produced and decorative styles - coinciding with shifts in active interest in waterfowl species unique to this continent from food to later recreational pursuits to a now-increasing value as art and other imagery. Such a legacy, in all its forms and with all its history, offers a potential value for wildlife management here. The full history is documented for the first time; selected examples (including 446 illustrations) cover all types and include reference to the leading carvers and collectors in this most colourful landscape.
About the Author: Dr Hugh Lavery AM is one of Australia's leading authorities on sustainable development. Following his PhD in waterfowl biology (including studies at the Wildfowl Trust in U.K., the Illinois Natural History Survey in U.S.A., and the Delta Marshes in Canada), he became a founding Director in the Queensland National Parks and Wildlife Service - before becoming chief environmental adviser to Australia's largest corporate landholder (AMP) and later branching into sustainable major waterfront development planning. A former visiting Professor of Land Development & Environmental Planning at Texas A & M University, he has long held a professorial appointment in the Institute for Future Environments at the Queensland University of Technology in Australia. In 2007, Hugh was selected as inaugural Environmental Practitioner of the Year for Australia and New Zealand and, in the 2013 Queen's Birthday Honours, he was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for his significant services to the environment and conservation. Co-author John Byers is a retired police officer who currently operates a beef cattle farm in south-eastern Victoria along with a duck call manufacturing business. A passionate waterfowl hunter and observer for more than 45 years, John has studied game birds and wetlands in the field across Australia, New Zealand, U.S.A. and Canada. Since 1977, he has been a Member of Field and Game Australia, the country's premier waterfowl conservation organisation, and Secretary of its Sale Branch for the past decade. John began carving Australian duck decoys commercially in 2003; duck calls became his later focus and his Poddy Bay Custom Duck Calls are renowned.