62 Australian Geographic
B
RITISH NATURALIST David Attenborough has seen more of the world than
most during his long life of exploration and filmmaking. But he still wishes
the “world was twice as big and half of it was still unexplored”. David was
fascinated by fossils as a child and went on to study natural sciences at Cambridge
University. Natural History broadcasting barely existed when his first TV series,
Zoo Quest, launched in 1954. His work has since been seminal in shaping the genre,
with David writing or producing more than 100 films or series, spanning six
decades. “David has affected the lives of people and wildlife for many years,” says
ornithologist and BBC presenter Bill Oddie. “With his amazing amount of knowl-
edge, his achievement is to recommend life, wildlife and human life to the people
of this Earth.” David’s influence on the public’s perception of nature has certainly
been hard to beat: an estimated 500 million people tuned in to his 1979 series Life
on Earth. Australasia has held great fascination for David and he has travelled here
frequently since 1957, when he dived on the Great Barrier Reef for the first time.
Visiting Queensland in 2015, he reflected on that experience, describing it as
“revelatory, thrilling and unbeatable” and the most exciting natural history exercise
of his life. Birds of paradise, found only in New Guinea and north-eastern Australia,
is one group he’s returned to film on several occasions.David Attenborough
CATE GILLON/GETTY IMAGES“The question is, are we happy to suppose that
our grandchildren may never be able to see an
elephant except in a picture book?”
30 YEARS OF AUSTRALIAN GEOGRAPHIC