CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · People & Ideas

Dawn Whyatt Frith

English and Australian ornithologist, zoologist and author

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJan 11, 2026
Entity authorityQ5242526
Source-derived summary

Dawn W. Frith is an English born Australian citizen and ornithologist. She is now a self-employed zoological researcher, consultant, natural history author, and publisher.

Dawn obtained her PhD, in littoral zone marine biology on a study of the biology of animals living on the littoral sponges with special reference to Halichondria panicea (Pallas), at London University and lectured in zoology before meeting Clifford Brodie Frith on Aldabra Atoll, Indian Ocean where she was a visiting scientist studying insects and he a staff scientist studying birds. Their full-time partnership began in April 1973. They married at Bangkok Central Police Station, in October 1975. In December 1977, they moved to tropical north Queensland, Australia, to start decades of field studies of bowerbirds and birds-of-paradise and other rainforest-dwelling bird species in tropical eastern Australia and in the Papua New Guinea highlands. Together they have published some 150 substantial scientific papers in international peer-reviewed zoological journals. Their studies are largely self-funded by proceeds from their own publishing partnership.

Dawn has written and illustrated many semi-scientific and popular articles in magazines worldwide, has acted as scientific and/or technical adviser and/or associate producer to various feature and television film makers. She has much experience of giving personal presentations at both popular and scientific levels, and also carries out ecological and avifaunal surveys for various environmental agencies in tropical north Queensland, Australia.

Editorial summary

“Dawn Whyatt Frith” enters the record as english and Australian ornithologist, zoologist and author. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Dawn, Whyatt and Frith can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1973, 1975, 1977—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1943-01-01. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Dawn, Whyatt and Frith.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Dawn Whyatt Frith” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Dawn, Whyatt and Frith provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5242526. VIAF identifies the subject as 168622574. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1973, 1975 and 1977.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Dawn Whyatt Frith”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Dawn Whyatt Frith primary sources, Dawn Whyatt Frith archive and Dawn research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Dawn Whyatt Frith”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Dawn Whyatt Frith” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.