Massive Aviary Complex heading into Wyndham WA

[arthur]

[quote="E Orix"]The complex may be good but the location!!!!!![/quote

"Home is where the heart is!"

[Strop]

Yes they were the aviaries of Hugo Ostler. Don't know who lives there now but according to a mate where I get my seed from reckons the bloke there has got only Crimsons in his aviaries. He is a quite fella and would love to have a look but know such luck as yet.

Cheers Strop.

[SamDavis]

Thanks to all for the feedback. Including a few who also PM'd or rang me. This forum really has a wealth of stored knowledge.

I spoke to Ray Ackroyd who has confirmed they were owned by Hugo. Apparently they were close friends. Ray is speaking at our Sydney FSA meeting next Wednesday (11th March 2015). During questions I'll ask him about Hugo and this setup as he has a few stories to tell that I think will be of interest. Ray has agreed for us to video his presentation so it will be added to our YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6lvTO ... Wb0kIvRkjw

Of course, everyone is welcome to attend the meeting.

[Lukec]

Sweet can't wait to see it

[barra]

They are/were Hugo Austla's aviaries. Hugo was an ex-finch trapper and died many years ago of pancreatic cancer. He was a big man and non drinker and fit as a mallee bull. Just shows that cancer can strike the most fittest. The road to the famous Bastion lookout is named after him (as he used to win the local billy cart race down the hill when it was running as an event).
I used to call in and see him on occasions when visiting Wyndham. He would always want to have a chat for a long period of time before showing his aviaries. They were quite revolutionary and set up specifically for the hot weather experienced in Wyndham. The newest aviaries were a cross between partially suspended and full height aviaries (both ends were suspended but not the main flight, and the roof mostly closed over except in the middle from memory). Roaming geese would take care of spillages and in Hugo's view mice and snakes.
He had a beautiful line of Northern Rosellas with extra blue on the front.He mainly kept parrots.
His smaller aviaries contained a lot of Gouldians - although he didn't like visitors viewing these.
He used to have some interesting stories about trapping days.
It's a pity he has gone and what was a magnificent set-up laying in waste

[Craig52]

Thanks for the info Barra,boy the billy carts would pick up some speed coming down that hill/mountain. Cheers Craig

[matcho]

Wonderful information about how things were. But, to put a damper on it is this one of the locations where the goulds being held got infected with ASM and then released back into the wild because there was no market for them at that stage? History shows that in that time they were very common, as in the thousands if not more.

Just a question.

Ken.

[arthur]

Can't quite follow the logic . .

Wouldn't any Gouldians at the facility of a local trapper have been sourced locally i.e. uncontaminated by ASM

[Craig52]

Can't quite follow the logic . .

Wouldn't any Gouldians at the facility of a local trapper have been sourced locally i.e. uncontaminated by ASM

Arthur,i thought one of the causes for the decline in gouldian numbers in the wild was airsack mite,if you confine hundreds together and only a few have it,it wouldn't be long before the whole lot got it. That's my logic. Craig

[casehulsebosch]

"airsack mite has never been found in Gouldians in the wild" is one of Sarah Pryke's quotes I remember well at one of the counts I attended.

cheers, Case
Tauranga, New Zealand.