ABSTRACT
Conservation and preservation of Australian natural resources, indigenous fauna and flora, and Australian landscape were topics which attracted increasing attention in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This chapter argues that nature study became particularly relevant for conservation and preservation movements as a means of public education. Educators, scientists, naturalists and reformers believed in nature study's present and future potential as an effective conduit of such education. The formation of the Gould League of Bird Lovers in the schools of New South Wales and other states was another important part of the conservation movement, and was seen as a powerful partner with nature study to affect the future. The endorsement of New Education and its wider aims for the schooling of children gave an opportunity to the conservation movement at a time when conservationists in Australia and other countries argued that effective legislation required public support and education.
