50 Years Wild
David Fleay's history prior to establishing Fleays Fauna Reserve at West Burleigh.
Born in Ballarat on 6 January 1907, David Howells Fleay established an interest in the Australian bush and its wildlife at an early age. This passion he inherited from his mother, Maude Glover Fleay, who studied painting under Frederick McCubbin at the National Gallery in Melbourne and specialised in painting landscapes and scientifically accurate flora and fauna. Educated at the Pleasant Street State School and Ballarat Grammar School, his first job (at his father's insistence) was in his father's pharmacy. His father, William Henry Fleay, disapproved of his son's interest in Australian wildlife. Soon after, illness caused his father's retirement and David left the business.
He accepted a teaching position at Ballarat Church of England Grammar School and, in 1927, moved to Melbourne where he taught whilst studying for a Bachelor of Science degree and Diploma of Education at Melbourne University.
Fleay later claimed that he had been specially chosen and trained to fill the shoes of noted nature study pioneer, David J A Leach. At Melbourne University he met fellow science student, Mary Sigrid Collie, and they married in 1931 - the year in which David Fleay graduated in Zoology, Botany and Education.
Between 1927 and 1931 Fleay taught at State primary and secondary schools. He continued his private study of native animals and in 1933 photographed and filmed the last living Tasmanian tiger in the Hobart Zoo.
He was bitten on the bottom in the process and carried the scar proudly throughout his life. On failing to capture thylacines on a subsequent expedition, he sought to direct a breeding program on captive thylacines to save them from extinction. The Tasmanian authorities did not approve the program and his advice went unheeded. We now know that the last definite sighting in the wild of a Tasmanian tiger was in 1930. Even if the captive breeding program had been approved, it is unlikely that any animals would have been available. Fleay was too late. If the Tasmanian tiger had hung on for another 20 years, Fleay's expertise in captive breeding could well have been enough to save it from extinction.
Photograph from the David Fleay Natural
History Collection.
Photo: David Fleay Trustees
By 1934 his reputation as a "wildlife man" was sufficiently established for Fleay to be chosen to design and direct a new Australian section at the Melbourne Zoo as part of Melbourne's centenary celebrations. He worked there for 3&189; years, during which time he was able to achieve some significant scientific "firsts" such as the first captive breeding of emus, brush-turkeys, several birds of prey, the tawny frogmouth and a variety of marsupials including the koala.
He constructed his first platypusary (home for platypuses) and commenced his research on the breeding habits of the platypus. He initiated his first radio nature talks on Melbourne's radio station 3AR in 1937, continuing his campaign and natural desire to educate the community about Australia's native fauna. His time, however, at the Melbourne Zoo was not particularly happy as he disagreed with management on matters of principle. Reflecting his naturalist's viewpoint rather than traditional zoologists' thinking, he insisted that native birds and animals should be fed what they would eat in the wild and refused to feed insect-eating frogmouths on horse meat. He was dismissed over this issue in 1937.
David Fleay was offered a position as Director of Audley National Park (south of Sydney), but rejected the offer. However, the wildlife sanctuary at Healesville, 40 miles north-east of Melbourne, needed to replace Robert Eadie, who had been the honorary curator since the early 1930s. In 1937 Fleay was appointed at &163;7 per week (the first paid Director of the sanctuary) to develop Healesville's wildlife sanctuary on 78 acres of temperate rainforest on Badger Creek. His collection included quolls, Tasmanian devils, dingoes and various birds of prey.
Controversially, he introduced 95 large tiger snakes to the sanctuary, which were displayed on an island and milked for antivenene purposes. Fleay recommenced his breeding and conservation programs in earnest, achieving world-wide recognition.
His greatest achievement at Healesville was breeding the first platypus in captivity in a new platypusary he designed and built himself. On about 5 November 1943, "Corrie" the platypus was born. Although other scientists and sanctuaries have tried to breed platypus in captivity, no one other than David Fleay had successfully bred and reared a platypus until 1999 when Healesville Sanctuary had success again some 55 years later.
Fleay's first published book, "We Breed the Platypus", published in 1944, commemorated this event (a 50th anniversary edition was published in 1994). His writings, while at Healesville, included his edited nature notes in The Argus and The Australasian (a continuation of the contributions he made to these and other publications begun at the age of 16). He went on to publish "Observations on the Breeding of the Platypus in Captivity" and then "Gliders of the Gum Trees" in 1947.
He received public acclaim during this period by receiving the Australian Natural History Medallion for 1941 and by his election as a Corresponding Member of the Zoological Society of London in 1945 and Corresponding Member (Life) of the New York Zoological Society in 1947.
In 1947 David and Sigrid Fleay travelled with platypuses "Cecil", "Penelope" and "Betty" to New York's Bronx Zoo, arriving on 25 April. His platypuses were accommodated in a new platypusary at the zoo, built to Fleay's specifications.
During his stay in the USA he inspected the modern methods of housing and feeding of animals at the New York Zoological Park, Staten Island Zoo, Philadelphia Zoo, National Zoological Park (Washington), Brookfield Park Zoo (Illinois), Lincoln Park Zoo (Chicago), San Diego Zoological Park and Golden Gate Zoo (San Francisco). He brought back with him from America ideas he implemented in Australia.
David Fleay returned to Healesville on 13 October 1947. Six months later, a discontented board dismissed him for the purported unauthorised donation of other sanctuary animals to the Americans. While the accusation was not true, it did not mitigate the board's hostility toward Fleay. After much public outcry and a reshuffling of the board members, Fleay continued in a lesser role at Healesville as a consultant.
Fleay continued to maintain his private native fauna collection until 1951 when the Victorian Government banned private individuals from asking for and accepting even token admission fees from members of the public wishing to view their personal collections of native fauna. This legislation prompted Fleay to find a more suitable location, which would enable him to carry out his research into the life and habits of native birds, mammals and reptiles, and he ultimately moved north to Queensland.
Last updated: 05 October 2006