History

History of the Budgerigar Society of South Australia 1950-1959

The Budgerigar Society of South Australia, which had only been formed in 1948, enjoyed a period of huge growth and success during the 1950’s. Many of the founding members and new members recruited in the years following foundation were members of mixed bird clubs and associations, who had the vision and drive to establish a specialist budgerigar club, which is still going strong almost 60 years later.

Today in 2006 we can look back on the minutes and records kept and only marvel at the adaptability and drive of those founding members of our Club. To start a club from scratch and in the space of 10 years have in excess of 370 registered members was a huge achievement. Some of the other items of note during this decade included accepting female members into the Club in August 1952, a tram strike resulting in many members missing the monthly meeting in August 1953, in 1952 cigarettes were the raffle prizes of choice, and an official motion was moved and seconded in February 1955 to have tea and biscuits at the conclusion of each meeting as a light supper.

As with any new Society or Club, the formative years also include a great deal of administrative and logistical challenges. The average monthly meeting attendances grew from 15 in 1951 to 73 in 1956 to 140 in late 1958. This necessitated the use of 4 different meeting venues with the Society moving to the Poultry Association Hall in Adelaide in 1954, a hall that was to remain our home until the 1980’s. Budgies were certainly the flavour during this decade as membership increased dramatically (42 new members in one month – July 1957) and the Annual Show just kept attracting more and more entries. From 328 entries in 1953 when the Society was only 5 years old to 1207 entries in 1958, the hall used for shows had to be changed at least every two years as the entries kept outgrowing the existing show hall. The BSSA has held an Annual Show every year since formation in 1948, and during the 1950’s, the show was a two-day event where entries were received on the Friday night, judging during Saturday and pack up Sunday afternoon. It was also very common for the Society to be invited to put on a display at School and Church fetes such was the popularity of the budgie during the 50’s.

During this decade there was no National Body or any controlling administrative body throughout Australia so every state was “on its own”. In April 1954 the BSSA affiliated with the Budgerigar Society of England, which provided a standard of perfection for members to aim towards. In 1955 the BSSA released its own Standard of Perfection, which was closely modelled on the English standard and continued a close affiliation with the BSE until the Australian National Standard was adopted in the 1980’s. In May 1954, the Society adopted a Show Cage blueprint, which allowed all exhibits to be displayed in a standard cage, and the colours of a white interior, and black exterior were adopted in October 1955. In August 1957 discussion took place to commence the first judges’ class run by the Society. Previously judges were accredited by the Cage Bird or Aviculture Societies and this was a major step for the hobby to have its own dedicated and trained judges. In September 1957 the Port Pirie Budgerigar Society was discussed at a BSSA meeting and in January 1958 the President of Port Pirie Mr. Threadgold publicly thanked the BSSA for help in forming their Society.

Meetings were held monthly and the entertainment centred on educating the membership on the breeding, exhibition standards, and differentiating the varieties of the budgerigars. Speakers were mainly drawn from the foundation members of the club and the audience of mainly colony breeders must have been in awe at their knowledge and the possibilities of the “little” budgerigar. Most meetings included a raffle of a pair of birds or similar from the speakers to enable the varieties to be spread among the club members. Minutes of the November 1956 meeting note that “Mr. Hancock and Mr. Kin… solved the French moult problem for us and their talk was entertaining and educational:” If only they recorded what was actually said.

Many members who joined prior to 1960 remained in the hobby for many years to come and helped establish the BSSA as a successful and progressive Society. These included Bob Hancock, Lal Logan, Stan Watson, Geoff Smith, Graham Hogg, Doug Barlow and Mrs. Ethel Dobie.