Harry Frauca

• Name — Harry Frauca • Born — 14 October 1928 • Birthplace — Girona, Spain • Died — 1986 • Place of death — Bundaberg, Queensland, Australia • Occupation — * Naturalist • writer • photographer • Spouse — Claudia (Claudy) Frauca • Children — Moira Thompson

Frauca was born on 14 October 1928 in Girona, Spain to a Catalan family. He was educated in Denmark and England before migrating to Australia in 1955 with his wife Claudia. They arrived in Adelaide and shortly afterwards moved to Hobart, Tasmania.

From 1960, Frauca became a full-time writer and photographer on natural history, contributing with his wife Claudy to such publications as Walkabout. His books covered a wide range of Australian fauna, including birds, reptiles, insects, and mammals, and were often illustrated with his own photographs. From 1970 he also collected insects for the Australian National Insect Collection. His daughter Moira Thompson has stated that three insects found at Mount Walsh National Park — a fly, a wasp and a cockroach — were named after him.

Frauca's books called for the protection of native habitats, and were significant at a time when there were very few publications on the behaviour of native Australian animals. He documented the decline of native birds and their habitats due to land clearing for farming and agriculture. In his 1971 book Australian Bush Birds, Frauca wrote: "It is essential to know the detailed life history of a species … the day when their life histories will be well known seems a long way off". While living in Bundaberg, he promoted the conservation of Baldwin Swamp during the 1970s; the swamp was gazetted as an environmental park in 1981, possibly as a result of his advocacy.

The last years of Frauca's life were spent in Bundaberg, Queensland, with his wife Claudia. He died in 1986.