Donald Henry "Don" Goodsir OAM (21 May 1937 – 6 October 2010) was an Australian teacher, school administrator, author and environmentalist.

Early life

Goodsir was born in Haberfield, New South Wales

Haberfield, New South Wales

Haberfield is a suburb in the inner-west of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Haberfield is located 9 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district in the local government area of the Municipality of Ashfield....

 on 21 May 1937 to Harry (a maintenance engineer) and Molly Goodsir. He was educated at Haberfield Primary School, Fort Street Boys' High School

Fort Street High School

Fort Street High School is a co-educational, academically selective, public high school currently located at Petersham, an inner western suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia....

 and William Balmain Teachers' College.

Career

At the age of 18, Goodsir was appointed to a one-room school

One-room school

One-room schools were commonplace throughout rural portions of various countries including the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Ireland and Spain in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In most rural and small town schools, all of the students met in a single room...

 at Bulby Brush School near Krambach, New South Wales

Krambach, New South Wales

Krambach is a village in New South Wales, Australia in the City of Greater Taree. The village lies on the Bucketts Way, southwest of Taree on the Mid North Coast. Its population in the 2006 census was 137....

, the same school attended earlier by Australian poet Les Murray

Les Murray (poet)

Leslie Allan Murray, AO , known as Les Murray, is an Australian poet, anthologist and critic. His career spans over forty years, and he has published nearly 30 volumes of poetry, as well as two verse novels and collections of his prose writings...

.

After three years Goodsir returned to Sydney where he taught while completing an Arts degree at the University of Sydney. After teaching in England for three years, he served as principal at public schools in North Sydney, Lindfield, Maroubra Junction and Mosman. Frustrated that books on birds focussed on North American species, he approached the Gould League

Gould League

The Gould League is an independent Australian organisation promoting environmental education, originally founded in Victoria in 1909 and named after the English ornithologist John Gould...

 and wrote the text for two books, on Australian birds and mammals.

Goodsir went on to become an inspector of schools in Coonabarabran and a director of schools for Woollahra.

After retirement

Following his retirement in 1994, Goodsir undertook many voluntary community roles including:

• President, Headland Preservation Group
• President, Mosman Historical Society
• Member, Friends of the Bradley Bushland Reserve
• Community Advisory Committee Member, Sydney Harbour Federation Trust
• Assessor for the Australian Tidy Town Awards
  Australian Tidy Town Awards
  The Australian Tidy Town Awards were launched in 1968 in Western Australia and are an initiative of Keep Australia Beautiful. These awards encourage, motivate and celebrate the achievements of rural and regional communities across Australia...
  
  

Goodsir also served as a volunteer teacher training adviser in Thailand, Kiribati and, while suffering from cancer, the Solomon Islands.

Honours

• Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for service to the community, particularly through environmental preservation and heritage organisations (2008)

Publications

• The Gould League book of Australian birds (1979) ISBN 085558632X
• The Gould League book of Australian mammals (1981) ISBN 0855586400
• Fascinating Australian birds : a pictorial guide (2007) ISBN 9781921221088