Happy Australia Day. Some of my favourite places in Australia. Original photography.

I love
A sunburnt country.
A land of sweeping plains.
Of ragged mountain ranges.
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons. I love her jewel-sea.
Her beauty and her terror. The wide brown land for me.
~Dorothea Mackellar.

Dorothea Mackellar's My Country.

Dorothea Mackellar’s poem My Country was the first poem I remember learning as a child. It was first published in 1908 as Core of My Heart.

Dorothea Mackellar’s iconic verse is now regarded by many Australians as the universal statement of our nation’s connection to the land. ~State Library of New South Wales.

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Dorothy's poem graphicly describes the vast terrains of this continent and as I read it again now, I realize there are still so many iconic spaces in Australia that I long to visit: And photograph.

I've sailed past the Daintree Rainforests through uncharted waters of Queensland's Great Barrier Reef and climbed the Gloucester tree into the canopy of the Karri forest of Western Australia. But without a camera.

But I've yet to visit the 'Top End's Kimberley Ranges and Bungle Bungles and the Northern Territory's Uluru and Kakadu.

I loved the crystal mountains of Adeleide and spent many a teenage summer at Anglesea and Lorne on Victoria's Great Ocean Road. Again without a camera.

But I've yet to trek Tasmania's Cradle Mountains and South Australia's Flinder's Ranges and Kangaroo Island.

I lived in Mildura, the heart of Mallee country for a year and loved being by the Murray River and visiting the red cliffs and sea lakes further out in the 'scrub.' Once again without a camera.

And the calling that has been with me for many years to return to this area and visit the desert areas of Lake Mungo grows ever stonger by the day.

Fortunately for me the 'ordinary' bushland around Sydney has much to offer as well and is very accessable. And so on this Australia Day, I'd mainly like to share some of my favourite places around Sydney and New South Wales where I've tried to capture some of the Spirit of this Great Land Down Under.

But first. What could be more Aussie than a fallen tree in the bushland, inscribbed with the word Billabong.

This tree lies within one of the many natural parklands along The Artists’ Trail in the Blackburn and Box hill area of Melbourne. This is the landscape that inspired the early Australian Impressionist Artists.

Frederick McCubbin’s Lost and A Bush Burial as well as Bush Idyll were painted in this area.

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The Artist's Trail as it continues through the Blackburn Lake Sanctuary.

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And now in Willoughby, a northern suburb of Sydney: Walking along the North Arm walking track.

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A beautiful place to sit and feel the energy of the Xanthorrhoeas.

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In the dappled shade of red gums overlooking Middle Harbour on a hot summers morning.

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She Oaks and billabongs along the Casuarina Track in Garigal National Park, Forestville, NSW.

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Silver birches and wild grasses along the Casuarina Track in Garigal National Park, Forestville, NSW.

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Walking into the Ku-ring-gai Wildflower Garden.

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Scribbly Gums and Grevillias, Banksias and an old barbecue site.

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Silver trees: The remnants of fires on the Mount Buffalo Mountainside.

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A maturing Old Man Banksia.

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Banksias in their prime on the Roseville Golf Course.

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Early in the morning Cookatoos create havoc on the pristine greens of the Roseville Golf Course.

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Paddling out to sea at Boomerang Beach.

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Sea Gulls at Long Reef, Northern Beaches of Sydney.

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Starfish at Boomerang Beach, 400 kms north of Sydney.

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Moss covered rocks on the banks of Carroll Creek in Forestville, NSW.

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Fallen logs and muddy reflections of Carroll Creek in Forestville, NSW.

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Grevilleas at Boomerang Beach.

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Australian Native Violets at Terrey Hills, Rural Sydney.

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Australian Native Rock Orchids in my garden.

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And a place to sit in my own backyard.

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Photography: ©Alison Lee Cousland.
Camera: Sony Alpha A7 Mark II.
Processing: Lightroom.
Steemit World Map.

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