Ollier and Pain (1994) have published an appealing and confrontational essay on the evolution of the landscapes of southeastern Australia. Their ideas provide an attractive insight into the broader interpretations of landscape evolution scarcely mentioned by other authors prior to their publication. The controversial linked topics of highland uplift and river evolution have not been demonstrated on the broader picture as their studies have been confined to small areas (Young 1978; Bishop 1988; Gale 1992). These studies illustrate a continuity of drainage in southeastern Australia during much of the Cainozoic era whereas Ollier and Pain bring these smaller areas together to show that the landscape history extends back well beyond the Miocene. They also demonstrate how drainage disruption is widespread (though often old) and how they believe that drainage reorganisation was associated with the origin of the Great Divide. By providing evidential support to their theories, they have published an informative and well-structured essay. Ollier and Pain's work on evolution of landscapes of southeastern Australia has produced a major contribution to the understanding of geomorphic phenomena. It's not only due to their new views utilising a broader approach to the issue, but mainly due to the opening of areas of discussion to the understanding geomorphic phenomena. Their hypothesis has created controversy and conflict amongst geomorphologists specialising in this area. They will be looked at in further detail where the true contribution to understanding geomorphic phenomena will be realised.
             Ollier and Pain provide an interesting outline to their interpretation of landscape evolution in southeastern Australia. They believe that in the Jurassic, Australia was attached to parts of Gondwana, the Tasman Divide was located two to three hundred kilometres east and parallel to the present coast and rivers carried sediment to the Eromanga-Su...