The Maureen Tarleton Fund was established by her son Mark and his wife Clare, in memory of Maureen and her love of wildlife, particularly birds.
To give to the TLC Foundation through the Maureen Tarleton Fund, please click here. To select the Maureen Tarleton Fund, please click the drop down arrow beside the TLC Foundation in the ‘Transaction Details’. Your support enables the TLC to continue protecting and managing our reserves in Tasmania.
Maureen grew up in a small town in the middle of India. Living on the edge of the jungle she learned to care for animals from her father, a quiet, studious man. Later in life she devoted much of her time to taking in and caring for injured, orphaned or mistreated animals and birds, and her home saw a constant stream of animals – among them dogs, monkeys, squirrels, ducks, a loris and tortoises (one of which she felt compelled to smuggle out of a zoo).
After moving to Australia, living first near Ceduna and then in Adelaide, Maureen continued in her ways, taking in and caring for wildlife. It happened to be mainly birds now, cockatoos on the West Coast and a variety of injured or mistreated birds in Adelaide. She was lucky to live in a leafy suburb where parrots, honey-eaters, wattle birds and magpies provided a noisy backdrop to her life. Raucous, melodic and beautiful, Australian birds were a constant source of pleasure for her.
After the death of her husband, Ted, Maureen moved to Hobart to be near her son, Mark, and his wife, Clare. At the age of 82 she was too infirm to experience the Tasmanian bush. For the most part she was happier in Hobart than in Adelaide. Maureen enjoyed the coffee shops, saw and felt snow for the first time and endeared herself to most who met her; however the scarcity of native birds she observed was a persistent disappointment.
Birds enriched Maureen’s life and she would be pleased that part of her legacy was to help improve their lot in some small way. Mark and Clare have established this fund in her name, to be devoted to the benefit of our native birds in whatever way the TLC thinks best.
Banner image: New Holland Honeyeaters (Phylidonyris novaehollandiae). Photo: Peter Vaughan
