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Panel 5    Bird Watching

The White-tailed Black Cockato

Ebenezer Edward Gostelow (18671944)
The White-tailed Black Cockatoo 1929
Modern common name: Long-billed Black-Cockatoo
Modern scientific name: Calyptorhynchus baudinii
watercolour; 50.7 x 60.2 cm
National Library of Australia
R2740

Gostelow entered the New South Wales Department of Education as a teacher's assistant in 1883 and at the conclusion of the four-year course won a scholarship to the Teachers' Training College. After serving his apprenticeship in the city, he took charge of country schools and soon acquired a keen interest in all forms of nature study. While teaching at Broken Hill and Harden, despite having no artistic training, he began to paint the flora and fauna of the surrounding countryside. On his retirement he devoted himself exclusively to his hobby, repainting much of the earlier work which he considered inaccurate. His aim was to depict all the species of birds on the continent. The detail in the flora and general foliage surrounding the birds in these works was taken from his own recorded images of coastal and interior plants.

Gostelow died suddenly in 1944 while starting to paint Australian butterflies. His bird paintings were deposited at the National Library and his paintings of native flora were bequeathed to his son, who shared his father's interest in natural history. In 1969 this collection was also presented to the National Library.


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