600 Club Badge
Many years ago I took over a specialist Australian birding magazine, originally with the fabulous name of Cosmic Flashes. This was the invention of the late John McKean (the first to 600 Australian birds as far as I know) and was intended for twitchers and like-minded birdwatchers. Margaret Cameron became the editor and one of our first jobs was to reproduce the 600 club badge which features a not very well drawn Eyrean Grasswren. It has only taken me 45 years to get this badge and now I feel as though I can take over its distribution without being tempted to wear one when it's not deserved. There are plenty of badges so please contact us if you would like one. IT IS FREE. including postage. This is an honour system and is only available to those that have genuinely seen 600 birds in Australia, in other words it is not for badge collectors.
A prominent birder said to me that 700 is the new 600! He is right of course and we will get a 700 Club badge made, as well as an 800 Club badge for Mike Carter and Rohan Clarke. I may have a design for the 700 badge which I will unveil in due course.
Andrew Isles