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| Eric Zillmann in December 2025 |
Eric Zillmann, an acclaimed naturalist and true gentleman, has passed away at the grand age of 102 in the Bundaberg nursing home that has been his home for the past few years.
Eric's achievements are legendary. From rediscovering the rare Macadamia jansenisre tree in 1982 to greatly expanding the knowledge of birds and other animals that were his life-long passion. Perhaps his greatest claim to fame is that he is almost certainly the last person to have seen the now extinct Paradise Parrot. He died peacefully last night at about midnight.
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| Paradise Parrots - illustration by Tony Pridham |
As a young teenager, Eric encountered the parrots regularly across several years in the 1930s while mustering cattle near Wallaville, his home town south of Gin Gin, inland from Bundaberg. He also uncovered an active nest in a termite mound he was removing. A road in Wallaville today bears his name.
Eric was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in 1999 for his service to the observation, recording and promotion of Australia's natural history. He was awarded an Honorary Master of Science in 1994 by the Central Queensland University (below) in recognition of his significant contributions to the natural sciences. For many years he wrote stories packed with useful information on wildlife for the newsletter of the Fraser Coast branch of the local Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland and for his local newspaper.
In his Bundaberg nursing home room, the medal and degree - along with field notes, copies of published stories and some of the huge collection of photographs he amassed - had pride of place on the bedside shelves. I met with him there for a few hours in December 2024 when he recounted his memories of the Paradise Parrot sightings. “They are as clear today as when I saw them,” he said. Aged 100 then (he would have been 103 next April), his mind remained sharp and focused.
Eric relived with joy his memories of his favourite pair of local Barking Owls, and the hours he spent watching the nests of the rare Square-tailed Kite. I've no doubt he would have been happy to chat all day if I'd had the time.
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| Square-tailed Kite |
However Eric, one of the few surviving veterans from World War II, said he was ready to let go. With failing eye sight and limited mobility, he'd had enough. He was hanging on, but wasn't sure quite sure why. He said to me: “The only birds I see from here is the odd peewee (magpie-lark) walking past. What's the point?”
I had known Eric for more than half a century, seeing him from time to time. Back in 1971, as a teenage birder, I hitch-hiked from Brisbane to Gin Gin to join a Queensland Ornithological Society campout that Eric had organised. At the time Eric's nephew, Greg Czechura, was a close friend. I hiked through the night and rain to get to the camping site. Eric and his wife promptly told me not to unpack my meagre tent and to sleep in their caravan annex. I didn't need to open my cans of baked beans; they insisted on feeding me for the whole three days of the outing.
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| Black-chinned Honeyeater |
I had not been birding long at the time and was very keen to share his experience and knowledge, which by that time was considerable. Eric went out of his way to do that. I was very excited when he flushed my first Eastern Grass Owl from a sugar cane farm outisde Gin Gin. Almost as good was my first Black-chinned Honeyeater in a flowering grevillea. These things I remember as if they were recent.
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| Eric Zillmann & Trevor Quested in Bundaberg in 2011 |
Our mutual friend Trevor Quested was taken by motor neuron disease in 2015 at his Bundaberg home at the age of 66. I had joined Trevor, another accomplished field naturalist who also contributed so much to knowledge of the region's avifauna, and Eric on the occasional bird-watching trip over the years prior to that. Both were plumbers by occupation and they admired each other greatly.
RIP Eric Zillmann, wildlife warrior
extraordinaire.
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| Eastern Grass Owl |
