Queensland’s tropical and sub-tropical climate sets it apart from Australia’s southern states. Many outsiders imagine the tropics in two (contradictory) ways: as a Garden of Eden and, alternatively, as a darker place – one of apathy, decay and racial stereotypes. The works in this section include the idyllic, romantic images of Arthur Streeton’s travels in the north, Olive Ashworth’s richly detailed and colourful textile prints from the 1940s, and Ray Crooke’s depictions of the harmonious and cyclical routines of tropical life.
