THE HISTORY OF THE AUSTRALIAN FINCH SOCIETY

In the early 70's there began to emerge the feeling amongst bird keepers that an attempt to establish a viable breeding strain of Australian finches was essential if we were to maintain these birds in aviculture in the UK. In 1971 12 of these forward thinking individuals formed the Australian Finch Society.

Later that year membership stood at 48 and the first newsletter was published in November 1971. By 1973 membership had grown to 250 and in 1979 the regional branch structure was established.

By this time the Gouldian Finch and Longtail Grassfinch were firmly established in British aviculture. In 1981 the first A.F.S. Annual Convention was held and was addressed by a well-known Belgium breeder. By 1985, 13 regional branches had been established and membership stood at 1000.

The Rare and Difficult Species (RADS) scheme was started in 1993 in collaboration with Newcastle University with the goal of establishing the more difficult species. As a reflection of the success of the early years it was decided to maintain a stock of pure blood Gouldian Finches as the society was rightly concerned that they would be lost to mutations.

In 1996 the society had its Silver Jubilee and held its first All Finch National which has gone from strength to strength and is now second only to the National Exhibition.

Today the membership is truly international with frequent contact between members around the world and with A.F.S. member field trips to the Australian Outback taking place.