Falconry school to take flight

AUSTRALIA’S first falconry school is among the new attractions set to be introduced at the Full Flight Birds of Prey Centre in Miners Rest.

Expected to start operating in the middle of this year, the niche offering will aim to teach its participants about the time-honoured traditions and techniques of falconry through the centuries to the current day.

It is being developed at the centre’s Barnfield Estate property along with new on-site accommodation that will offer the chance to stay in an original historic cottage in rooms themed around raptors – and adjoining an aviary housing barn owls.

“Our aim is not to train people to be falconers because hunting using birds is illegal in Australia,” said Full Flight Birds of Prey owner, master falconer Graeme Coles.

“We will be offering an educational journey. Falconry dates back about 3500 years and originates in Asia, probably Mongolia, and began as a necessity before it became a sport in Europe in around the 11th century.

“Conservation and falconry go hand-in-hand. Shakespeare was a falconer, King Henry the Eighth was a falconer, Mary Queen of Scots was a falconer.”

Mr Coles said students of the falconry school will get to learn all about falconry techniques and practices, handle the birds, and experience at first hand how falconers traditionally use the birds to hunt – “only we won’t be using live prey,” he said.

“The peregrine falcon is the pinnacle of falcons,” said the master falconer, who has travelled internationally over many years to build his knowledge, including most recently to Austria’s famed falconry school that operates out of Hohenwerfen Castle.

“The falcon is the fastest animal on the planet,” he said.

“We’ve clocked one of ours at 305 kilometres an hour, and that’s not the fastest they’ve been recorded.”

The Full Flight Birds of Prey Centre is a conservation organisation that operates under a commercial wildlife licence and runs a successful endangered species breeding program, occasionally supplying birds to appropriately licensed entities like zoos and wildlife parks.

The new falconry school will be expanding on its bird of prey personal encounters experience that it offers visitors.

Mid-year, the centre is also looking to introduce another new attraction called Birds and Brushes, which will offer artistically-inclined visitors the chance to paint a raptor up close.

“We have about 70 raptors at the moment including eagles, falcons and owls, and none of the birds we have here were bred in the wild,” Mr Coles said.

While the centre is temporarily closed to enable works to be completed, those keen to know more should keep an eye on the events section of its website.