I love writing and learning new things in order to better educate those in need. I also enjoy hackathons and adventures around the world.
Densey Clyne
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Name
Densey Clyne
Role
Photographer
Books
A guide to Australian spiders, Plants of prey
Movies
Aliens Among Us, Garden Jungle
Awards
Australian Film Institute Award for Best Documentary
Webs of Intrigue - Densey Clyne
Densey Clyne (born Dorothy Denise Bell, 4 December 1922) is an Australian naturalist, photographer and writer, especially well known for her studies of spiders and insects. She was born in Risca, Wales, United Kingdom, and moved to Australia in 1936. During World War II she served as a commissioned officer in the Australian Women's Army Service, after a year in the Land Army. She married Peter Clyne (1927–1987) in 1950. Clyne lives in Wauchope, New South Wales.
As a naturalist, conservationist and communicator, Clyne has written 30 books on natural history subjects, in particular on insects and spiders (see list below). She has written scripts for her own and other television documentaries on natural history, and published numerous papers and articles dealing with invertebrate lives and behaviour in professional journals and popular magazines. She delivered talks and addresses on invertebrate behaviour and the pleasures of insect-watching to schools, adult groups, and professional organisations. She has also taken part in seminars on natural history writing and on wildlife filming, and also acted as a consultant on local wildlife for Australian and overseas television film productions, including several of Sir David Attenborough's natural history series. She has also served as a juror at Japan's Environmental Film Festival (1995), and presented regular natural history segments for eight years on Channel 9's Burke's Backyard lifestyle show. Densey Clyne is a Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society of London.
For her contributions to arachnology Densey Clyne has had two new species of spider named for her.
Print media
Clyne has written several regular columns on natural history for the print media for:
Clyne's scientific contributions include the first detailed description of the netmaking behaviour and sperm induction of the spider Dinopis subrufa, (Australian Zoologist, 1967); the web structure of the spider Poecilopachys bispinosa (Journal of the Australian Entomological Society, 1973); and a joint paper with D. Rentz, CSIRO Insect Division, on Anthophiloptera dryas, a new orthopteran genus and species, studied and recorded over several years by Clyne in her Sydney garden (Journal of the Australian Entomological Society, 1983).
1995 – Spotlight on Spiders. (Small Worlds). Allen & Unwin.
1995 – It's a Frog's Life! (Small Worlds). Allen & Unwin.
1998 – Plants of Prey. (Nature Close-Ups). Gareth Stevens Publishing.
1998 – The Best of Wildlife in the Suburbs. OUP: Melbourne.
2001 – Australian Rainforests. New Holland, Australia.
1999 – Densey Clyne's Wildlife of Australia Pub. New Holland
2007 – Densey Clyne's Wildlife of Australia (new edn) New Holland
2009– "The Secret Lives of Caterpillars" Pub. New Holland
2010 – "All About Ants" Pub. New Holland
2011 – "Attracting Butterflies to your Garden" Pub. New Holland
Filmography
The following are the TV and other documentary productions in which Densey Clyne has been involved as researcher, writer, narrator and/or adviser, in partnership with award-winning cinematographer Jim Frazier, OAM:
1971 – "The Australian Ark" (Shell's Australia). Clyne was asked by producers Robert Raymond and Vincent Serventy to film her garden insects in macro, as part of a TV series on Australia's natural heritage. She approached Jim Frazier to join her in the venture; his first attempt at cinematography, based on her research into insect behaviour, was so successful that the team was commissioned to complete one entire programme for the series. This was the start of a 28-year filming partnership between Clyne and Frazier
1975 – "Garden Jungle" and "Aliens Among Us", two 50-minute documentaries researched and written by Clyne and filmed by Frazier, about the insects and spiders in her garden. These were sold first in Australia to the national 0–10 TV network and subsequently to the BBC in Britain and to networks in Germany, Holland, USA ("Garden Jungle"), Japan and Middle Eastern countries. Awards included the Australian Television Society's 'Golden Penguin'
Short (20-minute) educational documentaries:
1975 – "Now You See Me Now You Don't"
1975 – "Come Into My Parlour"
1977 – "Every Care But No Responsibility"
1977 – "Blueprint for Survival"
1978 – "Butterfly Farming in Papua New Guinea", 10-minute film made for the ABC's 'Weekend Magazine', researched and scripted by Densey Clyne
1983 – "The Living Planet". Clyne and Frazier were commissioned by the BBC as one of several filming teams to contribute to three of the BBC's world-renowned television series by Sir David Attenborough. They filmed sequences for these series in Borneo, Penang, West Sumatra and California, and were responsible for advising, researching and filming a number of Australian subjects, notably invertebrate animals
1979 – "Encounter Underground". Produced by BBC/ABC, a documentary about bulldog ants
1980 – "Gippsland". Series of four half-hour documentaries by the ABC about the natural history of the Gippsland region in the state of Victoria
1982 – "Lady of the Spiders". Produced by BBC/ABC, a film about Dr Barbara Main and her trapdoor spider studies in Western Australia
1982 – "Funnelweb". Produced by Forest Homes Films, a documentary about the search for an antivenin to Funnelweb spider venom
1983 – "Thrill of the Chase". Produced by the ABC, a film about Densey Clyne and Jim Frazier
1983 – "Kinchega National Park". Produced by the ABC
1984 – "Desire of the Moth". Conceived and written by Densey Clyne, and filmed by Jim Frazier, a one-hour documentary about the lives of moths produced by the BBC Natural History Unit, Bristol, England
1985 – "Frazer Island – The Sands of Time". Produced by Yowie Films, Sydney; written by Densey Clyne and filmed by Jim Frazier, a one-hour TV documentary about the biggest sand island in the world, off the coast of Queensland
1985-6 – "The Nature of Australia". Produced by the ABC for Australia's bicentennial year, a series of six one-hour documentaries for TV about the evolution of Australia's fauna
1986 – "To Be a Butterfly" (Gold Camera Award, USA). Conceived, written and directed by Densey Clyne and filmed by Jim Frazier in Australia, a one-hour documentary about the lives of tropical butterflies, produced by Oxford Scientific Films for Anglia TV
1986 – "Sounds Like Australia". Produced by Film Australia, directed by Jamie Robertson, a documentary about two musicians inspired to compose music by the sounds of nature. Wildlife sequences filmed, and sound recorded, by Mantis. (Won Golden Tripod Award)
1988-9 – "Trials of Life". Wildlife sequences filmed over three years for David Attenborough's award-winning 13-part BBC TV series; consultations with BBC on Australian subjects researched and filmed by Mantis
1991-2 – "Webs of Intrigue" (one-hour documentary about spiders). This documentary, filmed by Jim Frazier, is an update of the original "Aliens Among Us", conceived, researched, written and presented by Densey Clyne. The new film won a number of cinematography, educational and other awards, including an Emmy in the USA, a Panda at Wildscreen in the UK, and the Japan Wildlife Festival Grand Award in 1995. Produced by Roger Whittaker Productions
1996-7 – "The Amazing World of Minibeasts". One-hour documentary about the lives of insects and others, conceived, researched, written and presented by Densey Clyne and filmed by Jim Frazier, using his unique Deep focus lenses. Produced and directed by Silvergrass Productions
