Amongst other superlatives, Australians have traditionally thought of their land as the oldest continent, a conceit perhaps stemming less from an understnading of the geology than from the timeless experience of the vast expanse of the sunburnt outback. Although the oldest terrestrial materials yet recognized certainly occur in the western cratons, most of the extensive sweeping Australia plains are of rather youthful origin and, until recently, received geomorphological wisdom would have argued that the repeated cycles of denudation over time must make preservation of older landscapes a rare phenomenon. In Ancient Australian Landscapes Twidale sets out to show that landscapes of considerable antiquity are in fact fairly common and indeed have been recognized as such by many workers whose observations have not always gained the recognition they merit.

‘Landscapes’ is possibly somewhat of a misnomer for many of the landforms described here. ‘Surface’, a term extensively used by the author, might be more accurate, but does not convey the feeling of scale which he clearly wishes. Merely local exhumations of unconformities do not count. Thus the fossil strand at Siccar Point on which James Hutton so delightedly danced his discovery jig on that summer morning of 1788 would hardly constitute a Devonian landscape, even though Hutton in his initial ecstasy might well have regarded it so. Because, in an eroding system, lowest levels represent the youngest stages, relics of older landforms tend to occur at higher levels. Characteristically they are seen as the extensive bevelling of the summits of mountain ranges. Impressive examples are recognized in a variety of areas around Australia, Twidale adducing the geological arguments for their antiquity as well as discussing the nature of the surfaces involved and advancing reasons for their preservation from as far back as the Permian.

Much of the material of this book has already been published in the professional literature. Here it is brought together and made available also to the non-specialist, supported by a lucid digest of the geological background and basic geomorphology as well as reflections on the philisophy of geological observation. Reaching out to a wider audience, the author in later chapters does seem to stray somewhat from his strict path, by dealing with some of the more picturesque geomorphological oddities familiar to many from the travel brochures if not from more intimate observation. Thus we find Wave Rocks, Pinnacles, Devil's Marbles, all however incorporated in the context of their age or of the landscapes in which they occur. Pre-eminent of course is Australia's iconic inselberg, Uluru (Ayers Rock), one chapter being devoted to a fascinating account of its evolution by chemical erosion from a small hill on a high plateau 60 million years ago, to its present residual splendour.

The striking features discussed in Ancient Australian Landscapes are well illustrated in colour and in monochrome, the book being produced to a high standard with clear large typography. It can be recommended to any geophile intent on travelling in the outback, whether in reality or in the mind's eye.