Words for Country: Landscape & Language in Australia

by Tim Bonyhady

Stories and phrases can powerfully shape the ways in which we experience and manage our environment. What languages have been used to characterize Australian landscapes and how have they influenced the way we see and treat our environment? This work answers this question and more, while exploring the inter-relationship between Australia's landscape and language. It covers a collection of essays whose subjects range from the Ord River in the far north-west to Antarctica in the south, from the center to the coast, the prehistoric to the present. Its terrain is both environmental and cultural, political and poetic.

288 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2001

About the author

Tim Bonyhady is Senior Fellow, Urban Research Programme, Australian National University.

Reviews

[Shelley]

Well, I think I had high expectations for this but its not going where I had hoped it would. It was recommended to me when I was looking for a writer who was exploring the incorporation of indigenous language into the common vernacular...someone must be researching that, someone must be writing that book, I want to read it. Bonyhady is looking at placenames and landscapes mostly.

[Deb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Exciting approach to the land and how language filters, distances and creates place.