Outback – Spirit of the Land –

‘- a selection of classic Australian poetry with contemporary Ausralian photography –

“Poets have long strived to evoke Australia’s great outback, which punishes with its unforgiving conditions yet rewards with its astounding and sometimes savage beauty. In Spirit of the Land “The Ouback” some of the most haunting of Australian poetry has been gathered together, a fascinating collection of colonial poetry describing this beautiful and challenging land. The poetry has been selected from across a wide range of Australia’s early literature and includes work by such writers as Banjo Paterson and Henry and Louisa Lawson.”

And he would talk as men will talk of what their hands have done,
Of plains and hills and the wilderness where sheep and cattle run,
Of the bitterness of frost and rain and the blinding of the sun.

from The Ballad of Rembrance (John Shaw Neilson)