Mr Weatherly, 67, of Mortlake, has received an OAM for service to the visual arts and to conservation and the environment. It recognises a lifetime of work in which he has undertaken environmental field work on six continents and exhibited his art on five continents.

Mr Weatherly said his interest in the environment was sparked by growing up on the Mortlake sheep and cattle station where he still lives.

If he saw something in the countryside, he wanted to know what it was.

“As you learn more and more, you identify with things that you see. You see the relationships between things and the delicacy of the ecosystem,” Mr Weatherly said.

He had his first art exhibition in 1968, of sculptures, when he lived in England, but his art has since extended to include watercolour, gouache, oils, screen-prints, graphite pencil, pen and ink and etchings. He has specialised in natural history subjects, particularly birds, and has done a lot of his art while doing environmental surveys throughout Australia and overseas in places such as Papua New Guinea and the Antarctic.

“I saw things that excited me and wanted to share that on paper,” Mr Weatherly.

He has also contributed to the promotion of the environment and conservation through a range of organisations. These have included his role as founding president of the Watershed 2000 project that is taking a very wide-ranging approach to restoring habitat in the Hopkins River catchment.

Mr Weatherly said the project looked not only at the natural ecosystem but also at the relationship of people to the ecosystem. He said the project recognised that people needed to have money to look after the environment and sought to allow them the affluence to do so.

He is also involved with the Future Environment Fund that provides funds for research and development.