Relating to birds in postcolonial Australia

It would be possible to construct a very convincing account of Australia’s special relationship with birds: how quite early in the nineteenth century many prominent people (and organisations) mounted some of the first environmental skirmishes around the conservation of birds; how some of our prominent poets and writers forged an aesthetic and moral connection to the land through their writings about birds; how artists such as Russell Drysdale used bird motifs to persuade Australians to adapt to our unique conditions; and how birds became cherished symbols of states and nation (Cozzolino and Rutherford 1991; Smith 1997).