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Densey Clyne

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Densey Clyne
Born
Dorothy Denise Bell

(1922-12-04)4 December 1922
Risca, Wales, United Kingdom
Died21 May 2019(2019-05-21) (aged 96)
Wauchope, New South Wales, Australia
NationalityAustralian
Occupation(s)Writer, director, naturalist, documentarian
Known forMacro photography
Spouse
  • ​
    ​
    (m. 1950, divorced)​

Densey Clyne (born Dorothy Denise Bell, 4 December 1922 – 21 May 2019)[1][2] was an Australian naturalist, photographer, writer, and documentarian. She is especially well known for her studies of spiders and insects.[3][4] Clyne worked as a researcher, writer, narrator and/or adviser on a number of productions in partnership with cinematographer Jim Frazier.[5]

Life

[edit]

Clyne was born in Risca, Wales, United Kingdom,[1] the youngest of three.[6] When she was two, she and her family moved to New Zealand, where she spent her early years. In 1936, when Clyne was 12, the family was hit hard by the Great Depression and moved to Newcastle, Australia so her father could find a job as an engineer.[7][1] She left school at age 12, when she "simply refused to go back."[7] That same year, she wrote her first nature article, which she had published in Punch magazine.[8][6] Before leaving home, she moved with her family a total of sixteen times.[7] During World War II she served as a commissioned officer in the Australian Women's Army Service, after a year in the Land Army.[2] At age 28, she took up macro photography.[6]

While working as a secretary in a solicitor's office, she met lawyer Peter Clyne and they married in 1950.[2][8][7] They divorced in the 1970s but remained friends; both joked that "he walked out of the house when Lulu [a barking spider] walked in."[9][10][7] At the time of her death, Clyne lived in Wauchope, New South Wales.[2]

Career

[edit]

As a naturalist, conservationist, and communicator, Clyne wrote more than 30 books on natural history and environmental subjects, particularly insects and spiders.[3][7][11] She also had regular columns in Australian Wildlife Magazine, This Australia, The Australian Women's Weekly, Burke's Backyard Magazine, Gardens and Outdoor Living,[citation needed] Australian Geographic,[12]The Sydney Morning Herald[7] and Australian Natural History.[13] Clyne's scientific contributions included the first detailed description of the net-making behaviour and sperm induction of the spider Asianopis subrufa;[14] the web structure of the spider Poecilopachys australasia;[15] and a joint paper with David Rentz, CSIRO Insect Division, on Anthophiloptera dryas, a new orthopteran genus and species, studied and recorded over several years by Clyne in her Sydney garden.[16]

Clyne wrote scripts for her own and other television documentaries on natural history, maintaining a partnership with filmmaker Jim Frazier.[17][3][4][5] Together, they had a company called Mantis Wildlife Films, which was regarded as a world leader in miniature wildlife photography, which was highly specialised at the time.[3][7][8] Their first documentary, Aliens Among Us (1975), was sponsored by Channel 10 and was sold to BBC.[18][8][3] Clyne also acted as a consultant on local wildlife for Australian and overseas television film productions,[4] including several by the BBC Natural History Unit,[2] and had a regular natural history segment for eight years on Channel 9's Burke's Backyard.[19][3][20] She delivered talks and addresses on invertebrate behaviour, the pleasures of insect-watching, natural history writing and wildlife filming to schools, adult groups, and professional organisations.[21][22][23][24] In 1995, she served as a juror at Japan's Environmental Film Festival.[citation needed]

Films

[edit]

For a 1971 feature The Australian Ark, Clyne was asked by producers Robert Raymond and Vincent Serventy to film her garden insects in macro as part of the Shell's Australia documentary series on Australia's natural heritage. Frazier, who was present at the meeting, offered to help; their first attempt at cinematography, based on her research into insect behaviour, was so successful that the team was commissioned to complete one entire programme for the series. This was the start of a 28-year filming partnership between Clyne and Frazier.[5] In 1975, Clyne researched and wrote and Frazier filmed two documentaries, Aliens Among Us and Garden Jungle, about the insects and spiders in her garden. These were sold first in Australia to the national 0–10 TV network and subsequently to the BBC in Britain and to networks in Germany, Holland, USA (Garden Jungle), Japan and Middle Eastern countries.[19] Awards included the Australian Television Society's Golden Penguin.[25]

In the mid-1970s, they produced four 20-minute educational documentary shorts: Come Into My Parlour Said the Spider... (1975),[26] Now You See Me Now You Don't (1977), Blueprint for Survival (1977)[27][28] and Every Care But No Responsibility (1977).[citation needed] This was followed by Butterfly Farming in Papua New Guinea in 1978, which was a 10-minute film made for the ABC's Weekend Magazine. The short was researched and scripted by Clyne.[citation needed] In 1979, Clyne and Frazier were chosen as one of ten teams to work on David Attenborough's documentary series Life on Earth. Clyne did the research and wrote the script for their segments.[3][17] Notably, they were able to capture footage of a kowari giving birth, which had previously never been observed.[29] The same year, they worked with producers Dione Gilmour and Peter Bale to film the BBC/ABC documentary Encounter Underground about bulldog ants.[30] In 1980 they worked on Gippsland (ABC);[citation needed] on Lady of the Spiders (BBC/ABC) in 1981;[31][32] and on Funnelweb (Forest Homes Films) in 1982.[citation needed]

Their partnership with Attenborough continued when they were commissioned by the BBC[citation needed] in 1983 as one of several filming teams to contribute to three BBC's television series, The Living Planet, by Sir David Attenborough. They filmed sequences for these series in Borneo, Penang, West Sumatra and California, and were responsible for advising, researching and filming a number of Australian subjects, notably invertebrate animals.[3][17][4] That year, their work was the subject of the ABC film Thrill of the Chase.[33] Kinchega National Park, another ABC production, followed.[citation needed] In 1984, a one-hour BBC documentary about moths, Desire of the Moth,[8][27] was released; it was conceived and written by Densey Clyne and filmed by Frazier.[24][34] In 1985, The Sands of Time, a piece on Frazier Island, was produced by Yowie Films, written by Clyne and filmed by Frazier.[35][24] Later that year was The Nature of Australia, a series of six one-hour documentaries for TV by ABC about the evolution of Australia's fauna.[36]

In 1986, Clyne conceived, wrote,[24] and directed[citation needed] To Be a Butterfly,[24] an Oxford Scientific Films/Anglia TV documentary on tropical butterflies.[citation needed] She also participated in Jamie Robertson's Sounds Like Australia, for which she filmed and recorded sound of wildlife as part of Mantis Wildlife Films.[37] The film won a Golden Tripod Award.[citation needed] She took part in David Attenborough's The Trials of Life (1988-1989)[3] as a consultant and researcher;[citation needed] filming spanned over three years.[38] Frazier and Clyne expanded upon their first documentary, Aliens Among Us,[citation needed] in their 1992 documentary Webs of Intrigue.[4] The film was conceived, researched, written and presented by Clyne and co-produced with National Geographic.[18][39][24] It won a number of cinematography, educational and other awards, including an Emmy in the USA,[18] a Panda at Wildscreen in the UK,[40] and the Japan Wildlife Festival Grand Award in 1995.[citation needed] The Amazing World of Mini Beasts (1997) was another documentary conceived, researched, written and presented by Clyne, in association with Silvergrass Productions.[41][4][24]

Publications

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Books authored or co-authored by Clyne include:[42]

  • 1969 – A Guide to Australian Spiders. Their Collection and Identification. Thomas Nelson & Sons.
  • 1969 – Australian Frogs. Periwinkle Books: Melbourne.
  • 1970 – Australian Ground Orchids. Periwinkle Books: Melbourne.
  • 1972 – Australian Rock and Tree Orchids. Periwinkle Books: Melbourne.
  • 1973 – Wildflowers of New South Wales. Rigby Australia.
  • 1973 – Wildflowers of the Outback. Rigby: Adelaide.
  • 1973 – Australian Insect Wonders. (With Harry Frauca).
  • 1976 – Australian Wildflowers. International Limited. (With Esther Stepnell and Marian Beek).
  • 1978 – How to Keep Insects as Pets. Angus & Robertson.
  • 1979 – The Garden Jungle. Collins: Sydney.
  • 1979 – Rainforest. A Journey into Nature's Richest Garden (with Jim Frazier).
  • 1982 – Night Animals. Methuen.
  • 1982 – Birds. Methuen.
  • 1982 – Frogs and Lizards. Methuen.
  • 1984 – Wildlife in the Suburbs. OUP: Melbourne.
  • 1984 – More Wildlife in the Suburbs. Angus & Robertson: Sydney.
  • 1984 – Silkworms. Angus & Robertson.
  • 1985 – Fraser Island/ Sands of Time. ABC Enterprises: Sydney. (With Felicity Baverstock).
  • 1987 – The Watchers of Dar. Lilyfield Publishers, Australia. (With Nicholas Brash).
  • 1988 – Densey Clyne's Wildlife of Australia. Reed.
  • 1990 – How to Attract Butterflies to Your Garden. Reed Books: Balgowlah.
  • 1992 – Cicada Sing-Song. (Small Worlds series). Allen & Unwin.
  • 1993 – Catch Me If You Can! Allen & Unwin.
  • 1994 – Flutter By, Butterfly. Allen & Unwin.
  • 1994 – Growing Roses. Kangaroo Press. (With Valerie Swane).
  • 1995 – Spotlight on Spiders. (Small Worlds series). Allen & Unwin.
  • 1995 – It's a Frog's Life! (Small Worlds series). Allen & Unwin.
  • 1998 – Plants of Prey. (Nature Close-Ups series). Gareth Stevens Publishing.
  • 1998 – The Best of Wildlife in the Suburbs. OUP: Melbourne.
  • 2001 – Australian Rainforests. New Holland, Australia.
  • 1999 – Densey Clyne's Wildlife of Australia. New Holland.
  • 2007 – Densey Clyne's Wildlife of Australia (new edition). New Holland.
  • 2009 – The Secret Lives of Caterpillars. New Holland.
  • 2010 – All About Ants. New Holland.
  • 2011 – Attracting Butterflies to your Garden. New Holland.
  • 2018 – My Encounters with Minibeasts. New Holland.

Honours and awards

[edit]

Densey Clyne was a Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society of London.[43] For her contributions to arachnology, Clyne had two new species of spider named for her: Austrarchaea clyneae[44] and Ozicrypta clyneae.[45]

Year Award Awarding body For Ref
1976[citation needed] Hasselblad Masters Award Hasselblad Stills photography [46]
1977 Individual Achievement Award TV Society of Australia Best Documentary Director, Garden Jungle [4][25]
1979 Whitley Award Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales Commendation, Garden Jungle [citation needed]
C. J. Dennis Natural History Literature Award Fellowship of Australian Writers Garden Jungle [47]
1982 Wildlife in the Suburbs [47]
Whitley Award Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales Best Children's Series, Nature City [7]
1993 Best Children's Series, Small Worlds [citation needed]
Commendation - Best Children's Series, Small Worlds [citation needed]
1995 Earthwatch Award National Geographic Society Webs of Intrigue [citation needed]
1996 Environmental Award Wilderness Society Small Worlds [4]
Award for Excellence Australian Geographic Society [4]
Conservation Award [48]
1999 Photographer of the Year [citation needed]
2010 Whitley Award Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales Best Children's Series, All About Ants and Secret Life of Butterflies [49]
[edit]

References

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  1. ^ a b c Bright Sparcs entry on Densey Clyne Accessed 25 July 2007
  2. ^ a b c d e Fairhurst, Tracey (21 May 2019). "Author and naturalist Densey Clyne has died, age 96". Manning River Times. Retrieved 23 May 2019.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Knox, David (1 June 2019). "Vale: Densey Clyne". TV Tonight. Retrieved 4 April 2024.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Cormack, Holly (14 March 2019). "The Aussie women dominating natural history filmmaking". Australian Geographic. Retrieved 8 April 2024.
  5. ^ a b c Calabria, Christine (29 September 2022). Tirebuck, Ben (ed.). "A Tribute to Dr Jim Frazier, OAM ACS DSC.hc". Brilliant. Retrieved 4 April 2024.
  6. ^ a b c "The Nature of Densey Clyne: Living with things we'd rather ignore (Part 2)". The Sydney Morning Herald. Sydney, Australia. 30 November 1995. p. 4. Retrieved 4 April 2024 – via newspapers.com.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i "The community of little things that fascinates Densey Clyne". The Sydney Morning Herald. Sydney, Australia. 30 October 1982. p. 32. Retrieved 4 April 2024 – via newspapers.com.
  8. ^ a b c d e Clarke, Simon (13 November 1982). "Natural delights of watching suburban wildlife". The Age. Melbourne, Australia. p. 150. Retrieved 4 April 2024 – via newspapers.com.
  9. ^ Clyne, Densey (13 May 1980). "Beauty in the Beast". The Sydney Morning Herald. Sydney, Australia. p. 7. Retrieved 4 April 2024 – via newspapers.com.
  10. ^ "[Biographical cuttings on Peter Clyne, former barrister and former husband of Densey Clyne, containing one or more cuttings from newspapers or journals]". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 4 April 2024.
  11. ^ ""...from purple moonbeams to itchy cows"" (PDF). Entomological Society of Queensland News Bulletin. Vol. 46, no. 6. September 2018. p. 111.
  12. ^ "Cicadas: Sound of the Australian summer". Australian Geographic. No. 56. October 1999. p. 52.
  13. ^ "From the Inside" (PDF). Australian Natural History. Vol. 21, no. 6. The Australian Museum Trust. Spring 1984. p. 217.
  14. ^ "Notes on the Construction of the Net and Sperm-Web of a Cribellate Spider Dinopis Subrufus (Kochi) (Araneida: Dinopidae)". Australian Zoologist. 14. Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales: 189–197. 1967.[full citation needed]
  15. ^ Journal of the Australian Entomological Society. 15. 1973. {{cite journal}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)[full citation needed]
  16. ^ Rentz, D.C.F.; Clyne, D. (1983). "A new genus and species of pollen- and nectar-feeding katydids from eastern Australia (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae: Zaprochilinae)". Journal of the Australian Entomological Society. 22 (2): 155–160. doi:10.15468/39omei.
  17. ^ a b c "Spiders in her parlour". The Sydney Morning Herald. Sydney, Australia. 1 March 1979. p. 13. Retrieved 4 April 2024 – via newspapers.com.
  18. ^ a b c Arblaster, Jo (13 September 1993). "Spiders' webs snare an Emmy". The Sydney Morning Herald. Sydney, Australia. p. 14. Retrieved 4 April 2024 – via newspapers.com.
  19. ^ a b "Webs of Intrigue - Education notes". Australian Screen. Retrieved 8 April 2024.
  20. ^ Bonner, Frances (2003). Ordinary television: Analyzing popular TV. Sage Publications. p. 206. doi:10.4135/9781446221716. ISBN 978-0-8039-7571-2. Retrieved 7 April 2024.
  21. ^ "DENSEY Clyne". The Sydney Morning Herald. Sydney, Australia. 1 May 1981. p. 19. Retrieved 8 April 2024 – via newspapers.com.
  22. ^ "Australian Book Fair". The Sydney Morning Herald. Sydney, Australia. 20 June 1993. p. 9. Retrieved 8 April 2024 – via newspapers.com.
  23. ^ "Writer's Choice". The Sydney Morning Herald. Sydney, Australia. 28 July 1986. p. 71. Retrieved 8 April 2024 – via newspapers.com.
  24. ^ a b c d e f g "Guide to the Papers of Densey Clyne". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 8 April 2024.
  25. ^ a b "Alternative's actors win Penguins". The Age. Melbourne, Australia. 7 November 1977. p. 2. Retrieved 8 April 2024 – via newspapers.com.
  26. ^ "Come into my parlour, said the spider to the fly". Australian Centre for the Moving Image. Retrieved 8 April 2024.
  27. ^ a b Alexander, Geoff (10 January 2014). Films You Saw in School: A Critical Review of 1,153 Classroom Educational Films (1958-1985) in 74 Subject Categories. McFarland. p. 164. ISBN 9780786472635.
  28. ^ "Blueprint for surviva". Australian Centre for the Moving Image. Retrieved 8 April 2024.
  29. ^ "Life on Earth a bonanza in natureland". The Age. Melbourne, Australia, USA. 29 May 1980. p. 28. Retrieved 8 April 2024 – via newspapers.com.
  30. ^ Noble, Tom (24 June 1982). "Close encounter with an irrit-ant". The Age. Melbourne, Australia. p. 41. Retrieved 4 April 2024 – via newspapers.com.
  31. ^ "Professor Barbara York Main, OAM". Western Australian Museum. 2019. Retrieved 8 April 2024.
  32. ^ "Lady of the Spiders (1981)". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 12 August 2018.
  33. ^ Nixon, James (13 June 1983). "The geckos are beasts and the bees roar". The Sydney Morning Herald. Sydney, Australia. p. 24. Retrieved 6 April 2024 – via newspapers.com.
  34. ^ Schneider, Steve (15 September 1985). "'United States' gets a fresh start". New York Times. p. 24. Retrieved 8 April 2024.
  35. ^ "The Sands of Time". National Film and Sound Archive of Australia. Retrieved 8 April 2024.
  36. ^ Gillam, Mike (15 September 2020). "A touch of light: the tireless energy of ants". Alice Springs News. Vol. 25, no. 37. Retrieved 11 April 2024.
  37. ^ "Sounds Like Australia". National Film and Sound Archive of Australia. Retrieved 8 April 2024.
  38. ^ "The Trials of Life". BBC. Retrieved 11 April 2024.
  39. ^ "Webs of Intrigue". National Film and Sound Archive of Australia. Retrieved 8 April 2024.
  40. ^ "Webs of Intrigue (Original)". British Film Institute. Retrieved 8 April 2024.
  41. ^ "The Amazing World of Mini Beasts". Screen Australia. Retrieved 8 April 2024.
  42. ^ "Western Australian Museum - Results". library.museum.wa.gov.au. Retrieved 4 March 2023.
  43. ^ "Schedule of new Fellows and members" (PDF). Antenna. Vol. 39, no. 2. Royal Entomological Society. 2015. p. 132.
  44. ^ Rix, Michael G. (201). "Australian Assassins, Part I: A review of the Assassin Spiders (Araneae, Archaeidae) of mid-eastern Australia". ZooKeys (123): 26. doi:10.3897/zookeys.123.1448. PMC 3175121. PMID 21998529.
  45. ^ Raven, RJ (1994). "Mygalomorph spiders of the Barychelidae in Australia and the western Pacific". Memoirs of the Queensland Museum. 35 (2): 291–706 [428]. Retrieved 5 July 2023.
  46. ^ Driscoll, Julia (3 July 2019). "Densey Cline and Jim Frazier worked together on David Attenborough series". Manning River Times. Retrieved 6 April 2024.
  47. ^ a b Fitzjames, Michael (1986). "1. The Arts". Arts funding fiasco (PDF). John Fairfax & Sons. p. 16.
  48. ^ "Adventure awards". The Sydney Morning Herald. Sydney, Australia. 3 November 1996. p. 14. Retrieved 4 April 2024 – via newspapers.com.
  49. ^ "2010 Whitley Awards". Australian Zoologist. 35 (4): 996-997. 2011. doi:10.7882/AZ.2011.054.
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