Australian Ecopoetics Past, Present, Future: What Do the Plants Say?

Abstract

Like the country's arid interior, contemporary Australian ecopoetics is vast and robust. The expressions of Australian ecopoetry are as varied as the antipodean landscape itself, underscoring the intricate connections between language and ecology in this part of the world. The Mediterranean climate of Western Australia's South-West corner, the Red Centre of Uluru, the tropical rainforests of Queensland, the temperate Tasmanian oldgrowth forests and the alpine reaches of the Victorian High Country signify this: rather than a contiguous desert or a 'terra nullius' (as some readers both inside and outside of Australia may still believe), the Australian environment is a mosaic of biota, climates, topographies and regions.