Painter, naturalist, writer and explorer, for almost 50 years she travelled to remote parts of Australia, India, Europe, America and New Guinea in pursuit of exotic flowers and wildlife to paint. Over 3000 works testify to her prodigious output. This publication will help establish her rightful place in Australian art.

This volume traces the 300-year history of bird art in Australia, from the crudely illustrated records of the earliest European voyages of discovery to the diversity of artwork available at the start of the 21st century. It is a history inseparable from the development of Australian ornithology. Against a background of establishment of the country itself, naval draftsmen, convicts, officers, settlers, naturalists, artists and scientists alike contributed both to the art and to science.

This exhibition is about birds that fly and sing in the Australian imagination. Its images may vividly remind us of the birds that live in the world around us, but they also trace our changing attitudes to birds and our practical, scientific and artistic uses of birds.