Australia. It’s a different kind of wild.
Many people visiting this island continent for the first time are concerned about everything—large and small—that could kill you here. On the larger side, Australia has saltwater crocodiles. Sharks. On the other end of the scale, there are varieties of spider, jellyfish and snake best not to tangle with. Otherwise, the only things to worry about are not breaking down in a remote desert area, not getting lost in the bush, and not being swept away by a rip (or fishing where king waves are a likelihood, which rules out a lot of coastline). And then there’s the climate and its effect on the environment: cyclones, floods, heatwaves and bushfires are increasingly common.
So if you’ve heard Australians have this reputation for being laid-back, sunny-tempered, not overly formal, perhaps it’s because this is a country that shapes a certain kind of courage and resilience, a can-do attitude that doesn’t stand on ceremony. Which champions a type of kindness that emerges in mateship and thrives on reciprocity and looking out for each other. It’s a tough country, a big country, and hearts have to be generous and stalwart enough to match. Australians, by and large, reject pretence and artificiality, and no wonder. This is the home of the oldest continuous culture in the world. We have some of the most dangerous and scary species on the planet, some of the most amazing natural landscapes and resources on Earth. And we’re dead-set proud of all of them.
Shop the Collection
Koala Eco Journal
A World That Can Hold Us
“In wildness is the preservation of the world.”— Henry David Thoreau A major paper in Science Advances recently described mental health as an “ecosystem service”...
Milk's Leap
An Hour in Nature with Sam and Ellie Studd "Cheese is milk's leap toward immortality," wrote Clifton Fadiman. Sam and Ellie Studd grew up cheese...
How Trees Can Teach Us Self-Compassion
Many of us are far more critical of ourselves than we would ever be of others. We move quickly from one task to the next,...
The Relief of Not Thinking About Everything
“I have done a terrible thing, I have postulated a source of boredom, namely awareness.”— Fernando Pessoa One of the quiet burdens of modern life...
Alone, But Not Lonely
What a Norwegian lake can teach us about the difference between solitude and loneliness “I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude,”...
What does nature smell like?
"Nothing is more memorable than a smell." Diane Ackerman, A Natural History of the Senses What does nature smell like to you? The question is...
