Jo away from her home range
Jo’s childhood interest in birds that began in rural England was rekindled when she went to live on Magnetic Island in north Queensland in the sixties. During over 20 years on the Island she developed a love and broad knowledge of the birds of the area, as well as the local environment in general. Magnetic Island was, and still is, a great place for birdwatchers and nature lovers despite the increase in tourist development.
Travelling all over northeast Queensland on holidays with her family (now fledged), assisting with fieldwork and surveys and guiding bird tours, she came to know well what is possibly the best area in Australia for birds. She has now covered most of Australia and its offshore territories on birding trips and also enjoys watching birds overseas. She has visited Southeast Asia, New Zealand, North and South America and most recently Antarctica.
In 1999 she completed a Graduate Certificate in Ornithology at Charles Sturt University gaining a deeper appreciation of the origins, biology and life histories of birds. For ten years she followed the progress of about 40 bowers of Great Bowerbirds in the suburbs of Townsville and co-authored a paper on the results. She has also written and illustrated a booklet on The Birds of Magnetic Island.
Now based in Townsville she is a member of Birds Australia, the Bird Observers Club, Birds Queensland and numerous conservation organisations. She also works as an Honorary Associate on the bird collection at the Museum of Tropical Queensland.