{{Short description|Australian author, ornithologist and conservationist}} {{Use Australian English|date=October 2016}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2020}}
{{Infobox scientist | name = Vincent Serventy | image = Vincent Serventy.png | alt = Black and white image of ornithologist Vincent Serventy, in about 1975 when he was around 59 years of age. It is a head and shoulders shot of white man with curly brown hair, wearing a work shirt, smiling into the lens. | caption = Vincent Serventy, c. 1975 | birth_name = Vincent Noel Serventy | birth_date = 16 January 1916 | birth_place = Armadale, Western Australia | death_date = {{Death date and age|2007-09-01|1916-01-16}} | death_place = Pearl Beach, New South Wales | fields = Conservationist, Author, Ornithologist | alma_mater = University of Western Australia | awards = Natural History Medallion (1974), Member of the Order of Australia (1976), Ridder (Knight) of the Order of the Golden Ark (1980), honorary Degree of Doctor of Science (1998) Macquarie University | spouse = Carol Serventy, née Darbyshire }}
'''Vincent Noel Serventy''' AM (6 January 1916 – 8 September 2007) was an Australian author, ornithologist and conservationist.
==Life and career== Born in Armadale, Western Australia, the youngest of eight children of migrant Croatian parents, Vincent Serventy graduated from the University of Western Australia in geology and psychology. He was a CSIRO researcher and teacher before beginning a career as a writer, lecturer and film-maker. He joined the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union (RAOU) in 1942 and served as either its Branch Secretary or State Representative for Western Australia 1943–1959. In 1946 he became a life member of the Wildlife Preservation Society of Australia and was for many years its president.
In 1956 he bought a movie camera and began making documentary films which later led to Australia's first television environment program, ''Nature Walkabout'' (1967).<ref>Stephens (2007)</ref>
In 1974 he was awarded the Australian Natural History Medallion. In 1976 he was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia.<ref>{{cite web|title=Search Australian Honours|url=https://honours.pmc.gov.au/honours/awards/878304|website=It's an honour|access-date=31 August 2015}}</ref>
In 1985 Vincent Serventy assisted the Conservation Council of Western Australia in its unsuccessful campaign to stop a major road being built through the Trigg Regional Open Space. This public land had been identified by the System 6 Study Report to the Environmental Protection Authority as having important conservation value with the bushland extending from the sea to tuart and banksia woodland, a rarity in the metropolitan area. Vincent spoke publicly of the importance of this land for its vegetation, landforms and habitat for local fauna and migratory birds.
Vincent Serventy was a younger brother of the Australian ornithologist Dom Serventy.
Serventy was interviewed in 1972 by Hazel de Berg about his life and career. He was again interviewed in 1996 by Gregg Borschmann about environmental awareness. Both recordings can be found at the National Library of Australia.<ref>Serventy, V.; de Berg, H. (interviewer). (1972). [https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/catalog/2151414 ''<nowiki>Vincent Serventy interviewed by Hazel de Berg in the Hazel de Berg collection [sound recording]</nowiki>''], National Library of Australia. Retrieved 24 April 2026.</ref><ref>Serventy, V.; Borschmann, G. (interviewer). (1996). [https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/catalog/1342429 ''<nowiki>Vincent Serventy interviewed by Gregg Borschmann in the Environmental awareness in Australia oral history project [sound recording]</nowiki>''], National Library of Australia. Retrieved 24 April 2026.</ref>
== Publications == Serventy wrote numerous articles on natural history and conservation. Some of his books are: * ''The Archipelago of the Recherche. Part 2: Birds'' (AGS Report No.1. Australian Geographical Society: Melbourne, 1952) * ''The Australian Nature Trail'' (Georgian House: Melbourne, 1965) * ''A Continent in Danger'' (Survival Books. A Survival Special. Andre Deutsch: London, 1966) * ''Nature Walkabout'' (Reed: Artarmon, 1969) * ''Southern Walkabout'' (Reed: Artarmon, 1969) * ''Australia's National Parks'' (Angus & Robertson: Sydney, 1969) * ''Around the Bush with Vincent Serventy'' (ABC: Sydney, 1970) * ''Dryandra. The story of an Australian forest'' (Reed: Sydney, 1970) * ''The Handbook of Australian Sea-birds'' (Reed: Sydney, 1971) (with Dominic Serventy and John Warham) * ''Australia’s World Heritage Sites'' (1985) * ''The Desert Sea. The Miracle of Lake Eyre in Flood'' (Macmillan Australia: Melbourne, 1985) * ''Flight of the Shearwater'' (Kangaroo Press: Kenthurst, 1996) * ''An Australian Life. Memoirs of a naturalist, conservationist, traveller and writer'' (Fremantle Arts Centre Press: South Fremantle, 1999)
==Notes== {{reflist}}
==References== * 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}} * Serventy, Vincent N. (1999). ''An Australian Life. Memoirs of a naturalist, conservationist, traveller and writer''. Fremantle Arts Centre Press: South Fremantle. {{ISBN|1-86368-232-5}} * Stephens, Tony (2007). "Green before it was fashionable: Vincent Serventy, 1916-2007" in ''The Sydney Morning Herald'', 2007-09-12, p. 20 [http://www.smh.com.au/news/obituaries/green-before-it-was-fashionable/2007/09/11/1189276711964.html]
==External links== *http://www.wpsa.org.au/pdf/news/VincentServenty.pdf
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Serventy, Vincent}} Category:1916 births Category:2007 deaths Category:Australian ornithologists Category:Members of the Order of Australia Category:Australian nature writers Category:Australian travel writers Category:Australian documentary filmmakers Category:Australian people of Croatian descent Category:People educated at Perth Modern School Category:University of Western Australia alumni Category:Writers from Western Australia Category:Scientists from Western Australia Category:20th-century Australian memoirists Category:20th-century Australian zoologists