Harold Hall Australian expeditions

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The Harold Hall Australian expeditions were five big bird-collecting trips in the 1960s that covered much of Australia. They were organized by the Zoology Department of the British Museum of Natural History in London to expand their Australian bird collections after the Rothschild and Mathews collections were sold to the United States. The project was funded by Australian-born philanthropist Major Harold Wesley Hall, who gave £25,000 for the expeditions. The plans caused some opposition in Australia, but the work was done with close cooperation from Australian ornithologists and museums. Pat Hall (not related to Harold Hall) explained that five expeditions could be funded and mounted from London, each costing about £5,000, with about six people traveling in three Land Rovers. Members came from the British Museum (Natural History) and Australian museums, plus amateurs from both countries, and each expedition lasted about six months. The routes aimed to provide the BMNH with a representative collection of Australian birds, to explore poorly known areas, and to let the head of the Bird Room, J. D. Macdonald, visit state museums to prepare for the next expeditions. Each expedition also had to end with the vehicles and equipment stored at a place convenient for starting the next one six months later. The plan was carried out between November 1962 and 1968, mostly during the Australian winters.

Most collecting took place from camps on cattle and sheep stations. The majority of birds were shot, though a few were caught in mist nets. Scientists examined stomach and crop contents and skulls, and they preserved tongues from most species. The main goal was to produce a comprehensive and well-documented set of skins and anatomical specimens. New material was deposited in the state museums, and the British Museum received 4,709 skins, 786 skeletons, and 910 fluid specimens. One new species, Hall’s babbler, was discovered, along with two new subspecies (of the white-quilled rock-pigeon and grey shrike-thrush). The team also gathered important data on rare birds such as the black grasswren and white-lined honeyeater. Several papers describing the findings were published in a series titled “Results of the Harold Hall Australian Expeditions.”