www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/hasn/no30/hasn30.txt -
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Published on: 3/1/1993
Last Visited: 9/21/2005
RONALD STRAHAN, BEAUTY AND THE BEASTS: A FASCINATING HISTORY OF TARONGA AND WESTERN PLAINS ZOOS AND THEIR ANTECEDENTS , ZOOLOGICAL PARKS BOARD OF NEW SOUTH WALES, 1991, 160PP., ILLUSTRATED. Australian zoos have scientific, cultural, and historic value.Zoo conferences discuss and document the aims and activities of their institutions, and their predominantly warm-blooded vertebrate zoo inhabitants (yes I know that there are exceptions such as the butterflies in Melbourne's zoo) provide grand photo-opportunities to illustrate newspaper and magazine articles.However, very few books have been published on the history of Australian zoos. As part of the 'Zoobilee' commemorating the 75th Anniversary of the opening of the Taronga Zoo in 1916, the Zoological Parks Board of New South Wales commissioned Ronald Strahan, a former Director of the Taronga and also the Western Plains Zoos, and author of a history of the Australian Museum, to write a concise history of the Board's zoos and their antecedents. Strahan charts the development of zoological interest in NSW from mid-nineteenth century discussions in Sydney which did not succeed in establishing a Zoological Society there.
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Strahan has provided an interesting and engaging story of zoological developments in NSW.