Endless Horizon

Dame Mary Gilmore is the person featured on the back of our ten dollar note. She was a passionate social reformer in the 1890’s and a poet. She wrote ‘Europe has its peaks piercing the sky but we have the horizon’. Geoffrey Blainey wrote that ‘This land is endless horizon’. Dorothea Mackellar wrote...

I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror

The wide brown land for me!

I love the horizon in Australia. The sun rises and sets on it. It promises the opportunity of something new and exciting...just over the horizon. It offers the prospect of a growth and advancement. Our ancient land has profoundly shaped us as Australians. Perhaps the endless horizon has made us a nation of optimists.

That spirit of optimism is what drives our Australians of the Year.