All Things Oz. 2

As seen through the window at holtieshouse

The early artists and painters also had great difficulty in clearing their minds of the pretty English country-side, they had a problem with the harsh sunlight the earths colours and even with the trees, mainly eucalypts, which had a very different green than that to which they were accustomed.

It probably wasn’t until the painters were second and third generation Australian that they mastered the landscapes in their true beauty.

Albert Namatjira was a brilliant aboriginal painter, (probably about 2000th generation) who received world wide fame for his paintings of his home land in Central Australia. He was responsible for a new wave of painting that told it like it is.

Some geography now class;

Australia is the smallest continent on Earth, while completely surrounded by water it is too large to be classed as an island.

Land mass is 2967,893 square miles

By comparison the USA is 3717,792 square miles

With Canada slightly larger at 3855,171 Square miles

The United Kingdom is 94,525 square miles

This is about the size of Victoria, the smallest Mainland State.

Population figures;

USA approx 294 million

Great Britain approx 59 million

Canada approx 34 million

Australia approx 21 million

We have only 7 people per square mile

Canada has 9 people per square mile.

Mountains;

Compared to the biggies ours are quite small,

Our highest peak is Mt. Kosciusko, 2228 metres

Mt Everest in Nepal is 8850 metres

Wt. Whitney, mainland USA is 4418 metres

While Mt. McKinley in Alaska is 6194 metres

While it is not so tall our Great Dividing Range

Runs the length of the east coast, a distance

Of about 2500 miles.

In southern NSW and Vic. during winter all the high

peaks are covered with snow.

We have more snow than Switzerland during the

Season but because our mountains are not very high

It all melts with the approach of warmer weather.

The melting snow feeds our main river system,

The Murray/Darling.