United, we’re still standing:
a short history

The modern-day United Budgerigar Society Inc (United) can be traced back to the Northcote and District Cage Bird and Budgerigar Society (Northcote), founded in 1938.
In fact our vintage United members Alan Rowe and Ray Howard began their journeys as budgie breeders when they joined the Northcote club as boys. ‘When we were young kids,’ recalls Rowe, ‘there was no TV so everyone had birds. Well, not everyone, but a lot of them had pigeons or budgies or canaries. You didn’t go to auctions to buy birds; you just had to get them. My dad was a carpenter and one of the carpenters working on the job alongside him was Fred Brandon, who was in the Northcote budgie club and he was a judge. So he got me involved and I got a couple of birds off him.’

Some of the local halls Northcote met in through the early years became victims of the push for development. For instance, some early meetings Alan Rowe recalls going to, when he joined as a teenager, were held in Wencliffe Hall, Gooch St, Thornbury, which no longer stands. There every month an average of 80 exhibitors would bench birds for the judges.
‘People used to come on their bikes with their birds on the back,’ Rowe remembers. ‘The Bush family showed cage birds and Charley Bush used to push a pram up Ruckers Hill, Northcote, with the birds in it. He was a garbo with the [then] Fitzroy Council, I believe. He only showed finches – male finches, because they were the ones that just showed best. You didn’t have to breed them to show them in those days.’
In 1957 some Northcote members left to form the breakaway Heidelberg Cage Bird and Budgerigar Society. Despite this challenge, Budgie News reported in December 1958 that Northcote’s 20th anniversary meeting was ‘very well attended …The highlight of the evening was a talk by Mr Tommy Cox, a foundation member, on the origin and growth of the Society over the past 20 years.’ (Oh that Tommy was here to guide me now on the history of that first score of years of our progenitor club, much of which appears to be lost in the proverbial mists.)
By the first issue of Budgie News, in November 1958, Northcote’s ‘Club News’ round-up mentioned the flourishing society had 236 members, and that their G. Roberts had just taken out the Royal Melbourne Show Grand Champion bird award, a first for the club.
Harry Eady joined Northcote and became Secretary in 1959, kicking off a hugely influential life in the fancy as a long-term mover and shaker; first from that club, then, when the club re-merged with Heidelberg, the resultantly much stronger entity.
Rowe remembers Eady was Secretary of the Budgerigar Council [firstly ‘of Australia’ then renamed ‘of Victoria’, since all affiliated clubs at the time, save two Tasmanian entities, were in that state] for about 20 years or more, and edited Budgie News for long while.
‘He was right into everything, Harry,’ says Rowe. ‘He was at the first meeting that the Council had,’ in 1964, pushing towards a national Australian competition.
Ray Howard was around 11, he recalls, nine years younger than Alan Rowe, when he joined Northcote. ‘My father bought some budgies off a neighbour for three or four shillings each,’ he remembers. It was dark in winter when he carried three or four cages on foot as he made his way to Northcote’s evening shows each month.
There was also a busy local bird dealer back then called Alan Beattie, who would buy forty or fifty birds off a breeder at a time. ‘I used to ride my pushbike to Heidelberg to check out Beatty’s birds in the sixties and late seventies,” says Howard. Beattie, with an eye for talent, would give the keen young budgie fancier good prices. ‘As a teenager, I bought a hen from the dealer once and won the United Diploma Show with her the next day! A couple of people said oh, she’s a bit old – two – probably won’t breed. But she bred a Kew Bird Society Diploma bird for me.
‘Coles and Woolworths used to sell birds back then too,’ Howard adds, recalling that the cage birds people used to show back then included ‘any sort of parrots, cockatoos, canaries, doves, quail and java finches.
In July 1967, in Budgie News, Northcote reported that their committee had met with Heidelberg’s and the two clubs had vowed to re-combine. Rowe recalls that it had become hard to find secretaries and committees, so they decided to amalgamate. The first joint meeting was 1st May. ‘Heidelberg didn’t want to call it Northcote, and Northcote didn’t want to call it Heidelberg: fair enough. Jack Masters was the president of Heidelberg, and he came up with the name “United” – that was the easy way out.’
Meanwhile the Agricultural Society encouraged the careful breeding and upkeep of show birds and club members embraced it too. Showing at the Easter Royal Melbourne Show was certainly high profile. However the birds were on display for four days, in their small cages. With bird welfare in mind, club members began to skip that event.
Other venues Northcote/United have met in over the decades include the Scots Church in Burgundy St, Heidelberg; the Sea Scouts Hall in Ivanhoe; an RSL hall in Rosanna; the (then) Holy Trinity church at the corner of Shaftesbury Parade and Stott Street, Thornbury; the Eaglemont Scouts Hall in Ivanhoe and finally (upon Alan Rowe’s suggestion that we needed a bigger venue) Plenty Hall, Plenty, a lovely old heritage ‘bush’-style hall which is serving us beautifully.
Our current President Alan Baxter joined United Budgerigar Society Incorporated in late 1988, from Diamond Valley, after years of loyal service as President of the BCV. ‘Prior to that, I was in a club called Diamond Valley.
‘I remember our current member Michael O’Connell’s dad and uncle judging at United’s shows back then,’ reflects Baxter. ‘Another regular judge of choice was Bruce Shepherd (RIP); a big supporter of our club.’ At the time Baxter admired the big birds bred by BCV Life Member Jack Watts (RIP).
‘A big thing around the eighties, in particular,’ says Baxter, ‘was the inter-club competitions between Diamond Valley, United and Eastern. They were well supported and very competitive.
‘The reason I switched over to United, was because I felt I got a lot of help – in particular from Alan Rowe,’ says Baxter. ‘You feel like you’re getting somewhere with the birds. He’s been a mentor to a lot of us.’
That is certainly also true for this writer. For one of the rarer ‘hens’ in the fancy, I have also gained tremendous help, knowledge and sometimes really useful birds from club members ‘Rowie’, Alan Baxter, Steve, Bev and Gemma Bradley, Vic Murray (who has done so much for United through creating and maintaining our tremendously informative website at unitedbudgies.org.au), Adrian Praeger and recently James ‘Jim’ Meale, in particular, even as I witnessed more women spread their wings in the world of breeding and showing the clever and endlessly beautiful, loving, song-gifted and genetically complex creature that is Melopsittacus undulatus.
The people that have made up UBS over the years of course have changed. There have been various spats, blow ups, reprimands, people walking and all of that. But you get that in any sort of club, don’t you? And in the end lessons are learnt and wiser heads prevail. And luckily there always seems to be just enough camaraderie, care and cooperation to roll through another amazing budgie show relatively intact.
In tribute to the indefatigable Harry Eady, the BCV’s Annual Harry Eady Adult State Championship is a highly valued event in Victoria, and out of all our state budgerigar societies, there can only be one winner each year whose name is engraved on the shield.
Since BCV Secretary Ray Slade kindly reminded me that United are the current 2025 Adult ‘Premiers’, I asked our esteemed President Alan Baxter to take a look at United’s tally on the actual shield. UBS has won 22 of the (Adult) Shields listed there, since 1998 (although the shield competition, of course, started earlier). We’ve had similar success in the Young Bird and UBC shields over the years. A pretty good record, but these days many clubs are seriously competitive in the battles for the three shields. Nothing can be taken for granted. But isn’t life like that?
There is another award I need to mention. For the last two years, United’s Annual Diploma Grand Champion budgerigar breeder-exhibitor has been awarded the Alan Rowe Perpetual Trophy. The redoubtable Ian Hunter has deservedly won both of them. in a salute to the sharp-as-a-tack inspiration to us all, who still loads staging in and out, tells a good joke, is kind and can show manage with the best of them, our trophy could have no other name inspiration. Good luck to all for the seasons ahead. May your dreams take wing.
– Jen Jewel Brown
UBC Committee member

Current UBS Champions:
Alan Baxter – President and Life Member
Bradley Family (Steve [Vice President] Bev & Gemma)
David Spink – Secretary and Life Member
Alan Rowe – Life Member
James Meale
Vic Murray – Life Member
Bill Schembri

Other Committee members
Adrian Praeger – Treasurer
Jen Jewel Brown
Tony McMahon
Mick Mann
Michael O’Connell
Mark Bridgeman
Matt Jones
Sean Wong

ROLL OF HONOUR
Jack Masters – Dec’
Barry Barnes – Dec’
Harold Morgan -Dec’
Harry Eady – Dec’ Vale Harry Eady
LIFE MEMBERS
Harold Barkley – Retired