Arthur Boyd, Irrigation Lake Wimmera, 1950

I drove through the Wimmera during the drought last year. It was so so dry. The Wimmera River barely flowed. Yet the farmers are wanting to extend the pipeline so they can access the river's water. Development, development development. I could see little by way of ecological concern.

These Australians were much more concerned with subduing nature than with perserving it. Their focus was on technology and expansion, not in protecting the natural spaces around them. The wild nature of Australia was something that fascinated the Europeans, but not the settlers themselves. The destruction of the natural landscape by the farmers is counterbalanced by the attempts attempts to recapture some of what had been lost to expansion, development and technology.

What the farmers forgot was that the natural landscape was important for Australians. It has played an enormous role in the Australian culture that continues to this day. The beauty of the Australian landscape was seen as a way to express certain ideas about the Australian national character, its uniqeness and sensibility.