Australia's Birds also represents two family members drawing closer together after nearly 50 years of separation.

Tallandoon's Richard Steele, a keen bird watcher since childhood, collaborated with his stepbrother David Freedman, of Melbourne, in the coffee table book of paintings and stories.

The pair, now in their 70s, met as children when their families lived next door to each other in Boronia. A distressing turn of events - an affair, divorce and remarriage among the adults - then split the two households.

Steele became a teacher, firstly at Mitta North, where he played in three flags with Mitta United Football Club and met his now-wife Narelle. He retired as principal at Eskdale in 2005.

Freedman, the son of prominent Australian artist Harold Freedman, became a surgeon and worked in Swan Hill for many years.

He found art a great form of escape from his often-stressful profession and particularly enjoyed painting in the outdoors.

IN OTHER NEWS:

When forced to be a studio painter by Melbourne's lockdowns last year, Freedman began to notice, and paint, the birds around him.

"One bird led to another and before long I had 20 or 30 birds, and then 40 birds, and thought, 'Wouldn't it be nice to make a book of Australian birds?'," he said.

Steele was surprised when the stepbrother he barely knew asked him to write for the book and did take some time to think it over.

"But I just thought, 'Gee, my mum would love this', so I said yes," he said.

The illustrator would email paintings to the author ("Often four or five at a time, it was pretty frantic"), who then wrote a descriptive piece, more personal than textbook in nature.

"This is more a book aimed at celebrating the beauty of the birds," Freedman said.

"Birds are sort of part of everybody's world, I think.

"Richard's got a great style of writing, which is very simple yet informative, got a few little anecdotes."

In one story, Steele relates how he was dive bombed relentlessly by a feisty willy wagtail - and then made the mistake of telling his fellow teachers.

"The next morning I arrived to find my office festooned with hundreds of photocopied black and white, life-sized willy wagtails," he wrote.

"They were in every last nook and cranny of the entire school and I was still discovering them a year later."

Australia's Birds, available for sale at davidfreedmanart.com.au, is a deliberately all-Australian affair, printed in Melbourne and with a foreword by naturalist Robin Hill.

"We wanted to produce a book written by an Aussie, illustrated by an Aussie, designed by an Aussie, printed by an Aussie," Freedman said.

Decades after a damaging family breakdown, the stepbrothers who became collaborators are now friends.

"I like the idea of that," Steele smiled.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: