Patrons and Life Members
ANGFA Life Member - Gunther Schmida
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Gunther became an ANGFA Life Member in 2016. Most nature lovers in Australia will have seen Gunther's name mentioned in many printed publications or on the internet over the years, either as photographer of 'cold-blooded' critters, or as author of articles about these subjects. His images can be found in about 500 publications and he had almost 150 articles published globally, as well as three books, another as co-author. Some may have seen his many talks at club meetings or conventions.
His two main interests are Australian freshwater fishes and Australian monitor lizards - here better known as goannas. It is more than 60 yearssince he kept his first rainbowfish, Melanotenia maccullochi, of unknown F generation and quite ordinary looking, and also saw his first monitors in a zoo display (Asian water monitors).
The latter, and the fact that he had never liked the climate in his native Germany, made him migrate here more than 50 years ago. He has loved every minute of it and travelled the country widely . He collected his first rainbows (M. s. splendida) in Raglan Creek, halfway between Gladstone and Rockhampton in Qld within weeks of arrival, but had to wait a year to the day before seeing his first wild goanna.
Many years ago he tokk up fish keeping in a big way and also decided to do something about photographing every native freshwater fish species in a way it deserves to be recorded ......... and has almost succeeded (largely thanks to other like-minded people).
He joined Angfa Qld when moving to the Gold Coast more than 30 years ago. In recent years he has been working on a series of 26 e-books about his favourite subjects, with half of these now available on the internet (to view just google Gunther Schmida). With fish photography being his obsession, he is still madly doing it, although he has cut down the number of holding tanks somewhat.
ANGFA Life Member - Adrian Tappin
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ANGFA Life Membership was awarded to Adrian in 2016. Adrian Tappin was a founding member of ANGFA. Together with Graham Heidke and members of the Eastern Districts Aquarium Society native fishes study group they were instrumental in the formation of the association in 1982. Together they promoted the idea of forming a national association of aquarists interested in the keeping, propagation and study of the freshwater fishes of Australia and New Guinea.
Adrian became a member of the national committee in October 1994 and served until October 2000. He was subsequently elected to the position of ANGFA Bulletin Editor in October 1995 until December 2000, and during that time was instrumental in raising the profile of the newsletter. In 2000 he switched to become the Editor of In-Stream, the newsletter of ANGFA (Qld), until finally retiring in 2015.
Adrian Tappin has been a significant contributor to the promotion of the aquarium keeping, conservation, study and propagation of the rainbowfishes of Australia and New Guinea. In 1996 ‘Rainbowfish On-Line’ was created on the World Wide Web, which resulted in increasing the popularity of rainbowfishes both nationally and internationally. Each month a new page would be added to the website. In late 1997 ‘Home of the Rainbowfish’ was created and incorporated Rainbowfish On-Line. In January 1998 the website was selected for inclusion in the National Library of Australia digital archive of Australian online publications. These digital archives can be viewed on the National Library of Australia website. Anyone who has participated in any of the online forums involving native fishes would recognise that Adrian has been a treasure trove of information, providing voluminous detailed answers to many questions.
In 2010 Adrian published probably one of the best books every written on fish keeping, and certainly the most comprehensive on rainbowfishes specifically. Available as a free pdf download, ‘Rainbowfishes ~ Their Care & Keeping in Captivity’ is a amazing illustrated guide to the remarkable rainbowfishes found in Australia and New Guinea. The book provides a tremendous amount of information for anyone from beginner to experienced keeper on just about everything needed to keep and breed rainbowfishes successfully (indeed the information is ideal for keeping just about any group of fishes). A comprehensive illustrated species section is also provided. This was followed by a second edition in 2011 which is almost 200 megabytes in size! Despite this great size, the document is highly accessed and downloaded which is an indication of its popularity and significance.
Adrian has made an extraordinary contribution to the keeping and propagation of the rainbowfishes of Australia and New Guinea and educating and encouraging the next generation of fish keepers.
Vale Ken Shaw
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Wednesday April 22 2015
It is with great sadness that I inform Ken's many friends within ANGFA that he died this morning. Ken battled cancer successfully for the past 7 years or so, but was diagnosed just before Christmas with an unrelated, very aggressive cancer that simply overwhelmed him.
As those who access the web-page will know, Ken was awarded Life Membership of ANGFA earlier this year, and the receipt of the plaque attesting to this, was one of the few high points he experienced recently.
RIP Ken, one of nature's true gentlemen.
Syd Adams
ANGFA Life Member - Barry Crockford
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ANGFA National Life Membershipwas awarded to Barry Crockford at the April 2015 ANGFA Victoria Meeting.
Barry has been an active contributor within and supporter of ANGFA for over 30 years, and as Rod Wubben explained on the night, ANGFA’s experiences with PNG rainbowfish would have been substantially less if not for Barry’s contribution to ANGFA and the hobby.
Also present to help celebrate with (and roast) Barry, (pictured below from left), is ANGFA Victoria Life Member Glenn Briggs and ANGFA Life Members Ron Bowman and Neil Armstrong.
New Life Members
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The ANGFA National Committee is proud to announce the presentation of two new life members
Two nominations for life membership were received from ANGFA members prior to the November 2014 AGM.
It was unanimously agreed by the committee that these nominations be accepted.
Life Membership will be presented to Barry Crockford (VIC) and Ken Shaw (WA) in appreciation of their dedicated service to ANGFA.
Ken (pictured left) and Barry (right) and join illustrious company with current life members: