Australia's Red

Centre In

Pictures

The weird, stark, inhospitab

land of Central Australia, wil its fantastic geological form;

tions, strange wild life and prim

tive, nomadic aborigines hi

been increasingly visited I tourists in recent years.

Such tourists have been a gre; boon to the manufacturers of Kod chrome, Agfacolor, Ansco-color ar all other colour film, for they ha) shot mile upon mile of it at sue places as Ayers Rock, Alice Spring Ormiston Gorge and the Devil Marbles.

Now, however, Central Australia tourists might just as well stop pou ing their money into the film-maker pockets and buy a copy of The Re Centre instead.

The Red Centre is a 106-pa{ book of magnificient photographs < Central Australia, taken by a pn fessional New Zealand photographe Robin Smith, which no tourist cou] possibly improve on. He toure 10,000 miles through the territory 1 get what he wanted. He has pr viously published two volumes ( pictures called Australia in Colon which have sold 60,000 copii throughout the world.

Half in colour

Of the 140 pictures in the bool which measures 11 in. x Si in exactly half are in colour. Th pictures are divided into 12 section These are devoted to such subject as Ayers Rock, Central Australia people and animals, Alice Spring Australia’s Grand Canyon (King Canyon), and the opal field i Coober Pedy.

A brisk text for the book ha been written by one of Australia best-informed authors on Centra Australia and the Northern Territor —Keith Willey. He is a forme editor of the Alice Springs news paper, Centralian Advocate; a forme associate editor of the Darwin news paper Northern Territory News; th winner of three Walkley Awards fo Journalism for stories on northen and inland Australia; and the autho of several books on the subject, plu

on New Guinea, Assignment New nea. r illey takes only four paragraphs ;ound a warning for those who Id visit his happy hunting ground. ; inland is dangerous country newcomers”, he says. “Even y you could perish only half hour by car from Alice Springs f. The sun, generating tempera -5 of 110 degrees and more, and excessively dry atmosphere, can 'drate a lost man, leaving a kened corpse within forty-eight •s”. ;any of Robin Smith’s photo hs reveal the sombre truth of only too well. But anyone who his book is likely to want to The Red Centre just the same.

L.

HE RED CENTRE. Lansdowne Press, ourne. $4.50.) E Australasian Stamp Catalogue, a 64-page listing of all the post stamps ever issued by the Aus m States, the Commonwealth of ralia, and the Australian depen ies is the latest publication of its to be issued by Review Publica i Pty. Ltd., of Sterling Street, bo, New South Wales, le new publication covers a field h was previously embraced by separate catalogues brought out the same publishers—the Aus m Stamp Catalogue, the Am ur States Stamp Catalogue, the ralian Dependencies Stamp logue, and the Papua-New tea Stamp Catalogue, all of h have been discontinued, le new catalogue appears in a r (exercise book) format, with : columns to the page. It is pro d by photo offset, with a four jr cover depicting stamps of the ralasian area. Its price is $l. ich individual stamp design is rated and all stamps are priced y, both mint and used. Full Is of perforations, watermarks, rs, printing methods, designers, > of issue and quantities issued given. le section dealing with Australian ndencies takes in a number of ;nt or former stamp-issuing [ic Islands territories Nauru, ; olk Island. New Britain, North- Pacific Islands, New Guinea, la, and Papua-New Guinea.