Late of Whitfield, aged 92 years. Most dearly loved wife of Arnold (dec’d), loved mother and mother in law of Darryl and Rita, Grahame and Debbie, Alison and Gary, Alan and Heather, loved grandmother of Leanne, Aaron, Tyson, Rhys, Carryn and Jack, loved great grandmother of Joshua, Blake, Luke, Beau and June, loved sister of Lila and Ray (both dec’d) and Clare, loved sister in law and aunt of their families.
Celebrating the life of Dawn Magarry on 10 April 2024: a dedication by Del Richards, author and long-time friend
By Del Richards
Dawn was born at Kingaroy in Queensland. Her father served in the Great War in France along with the Gallipoli Campaign. He lived to come home.
During World War Two, her home town of Kingaroy proved vital to the War effort as many rural producers grew ‘Navy Beans’, the familiar product we now know as “Baked Beans”, for the US armed forces then stationed in Australia. To this day, there is still an address to be found on “Navy Bean Road”!
Arnold Magarry, who at this time was not featured in Dawn’s life, grew up in Killarney on Queensland’s Southern Downs, and built a foundry with a partner named Hall.
When war against the Japanese was imminent in 1951, Arnold, who held the rank of Sergeant in the Toowoomba Regiment, and his sibling Ron, joined up in time to fight in Malaya. However, at the Brisbane port, Arnold wasn’t allowed to board ship and was deemed as being more essential at the Foundry.
Ron went on to be highly decorated for his encounters against the Japanese on the Malay Peninsula. He was forced to surrender along with the British Forces when they capitulated to the Japanese at Singapore. Being a high ranking Officer, he was a leader in the hell-hole that was Changi Prisoner of War Camp
In the late forties, Arnold and his partner (Mr Hall) headed for Cairns to build a foundry in Cairns. That began with buying an ex-army shed from the Atherton Tablelands and transporting it to Hannam Street in the Portsmith area of Cairns. After 70-plus years, the building still stands to this day.
In early 1950 Dawn with two girlfriends, Joan and Dulcie, who were in their late teens, ventured from Kingaroy to Cairns and stayed in residence along The Esplanade.
In due course, Dawn and Arnold met and were married in Cairns on the first day of December 1951. Life was fairly basic in those early days. They had four children in seven years. Dawn related that she took those four offspring to the “corner store” each week, and on the second weekend they shared the use of the company vehicle to go further afield and purchase larger household items.
As the years passed, Dawn always was a leading light with her bird records, publishing notes in the Bird Observer’s magazine and Birds Queensland up until this last decade or so. It was in this manner that many birding people first heard her name. Dawn was an avid letter writer with news from down south and overseas.
In the late 1970s Birds Australia tabled a very thick volume with five years of records, located on the map of Australia, sent in by hundreds of observers travelling the country. There was one record of one sole Gouldian Finch observed in Queensland along the Leichardt River south of Burketown.
The same exercise was repeated in the 1980s, and the only records, largely, were submitted by Dawn around the Georgetown area. Thus began a 25-year long pilgrimage over the cooler months, only to find the records dwindled to a mere trickle over the years. The last Gouldians that Dawn observed were with her son Graham, on 15th April 2015, south of Georgetown
There was a vehicle accurately named “Daffodil” that featured faithfully in the Magarry’s lives for a couple of decades – a yellow Toyota HiAce: she went around Australia at least once.
In the 1990s, North Queensland became a mecca of birding – the Maggarys, the Squires, John Crowhurst, Andy Anderson: and Keith Fisher was available at Sunbird Photographics in Cairns as a contact. Dawn and those mentioned had the joy of witnessing an interest grow into an industry.
Dawn opened her home to this author who underwent much surgery in Cairns over many years. She had an under-rated sense of humour. When greeted at the front door in the evening, there was a doormat with the words emblazoned “Oh no, not you again”! I know that it was only a joke – just as well….
All of my many memories at 27 Heavey Crescent, Whitfield, remain of the Highest Order.
Farewell to legendary Cairns birder Dawn Magarry
By Elinor Scambler
The recent passing, on Sunday, 31 March 2024, of Dawn Magarry at age 92 is truly the end of an era in Cairns birding. Dawn and her late husband Arnold (1918–2013) married in Cairns in 1951, and In the mid-1960s, moved to Heavey Crescent, Whitfield, where they established a large rainforest garden. Their garden was to be the site of Dawn’s interesting and meticulous bird notes over many years - petal-carrying courting fairy-wrens and nesting Papuan Frogmouths are just two species that come to mind.
In 1976, Dawn succeeded another keen birder, Marion Cassels, as Secretary of the North Queensland Naturalists Club. She continued to serve for more than 20 years and published notes in the Club’s journal, the North Queensland Naturalist, into the 1990s.
Year after year the Magarrys travelled to Georgetown for “The Nats” traditional Easter campout, sighting amongst other species, Gouldian Finches and Grey Falcons. Gouldians (or in fact, sadly, no Gouldians) also featured in a 1992 finch survey near Georgetown for the RAOU (now BirdLife Australia). Dawn also surveyed shorebirds for the Queensland Wader Study Group (Birds Queensland), and contributed to the Bird Observer (Bird Observers Club) and Sunbird (Birds Queensland).
It might be easier to write a list of people and organisations that Dawn didn’t help! She advised and informed so many, including scientists studying Rufous Owls, Metallic Starlings, kookaburra plumage, and Star Finches.
She willingly sought help from local birders for international visitors, but when one BBC film crew (chasing parrots) did not turn up to fixed appointments, Dawn told them (in no uncertain terms) that they were discourteous and shouldn’t expect help in the future! Birdwatchers were always welcome at Heavey Crescent and she enjoyed outings and shared interesting sightings until well into her 80s.
I was personally grateful to Dawn for sharing her memories of Tableland farmer-ornithologist Jim Bravery and (in retrospect!) for the help she gave to bird recorder Ray Swaby, for his pioneering 1983 tape recording of Sarus Cranes at Bromfield Swamp. There will be more tributes to Dawn in coming days and we’ll all be grateful to her, for generous advice and birding companionship over so many years.