A visit to Darwin during a particularly wet Wet Season in the mid 1970s, inspired John Kirk to return to Darwin to explore and photograph the extraordinary landscapes of the Northern Territory. After living and working in the Territory during the mid 1980s, John couldn't resist the lure of the Territory and returned time and again to photograph the landscapes, the awesome Wet Season storm activity and the unique wildlife. Two of these expeditions included Mark O'Connor and from this collaboration, The Forever Lands has grown.

Mark first visited the Northern Territory in 1985, courtesy of the Literature board of the Australia Council and the Darwin Institute of Technology (now the Northern Territory University) and has returned several times since.

In The Forever Lands, "Mark has brought his prodigious powers of observation (and his way of seeing into the nature of things) to bear on one of Australia's most prodigious environments. We are given so much: his unique naming of the country and precise rendering of nature continue; his genuine insight into the reality of contact history; and finally, a seemingly endless store of memorable images pervades the poetry." *

Both John and Mark share a passion for the Australian landscape and a desire to share that passion with others. They agreed to publish a book that had a unique attribute: it was to be more than just poems and pictures of the Northern Territory. Ian Dalton's design of The Forever Lands creates an interplay between word images and photographic images to produce a sense of place, a celebration of a unique land.

While The Forever Lands portrays a European perception of the land, the authors acknowledge the special significance that this land has for Australia's Aboriginal people: a relationship that spans over 50,000 years.

* David Headon, Director, Centre for Australian Cultural Studies, Canberra