Scientists believe the landmass we now know as Australia came into being about sixty million years ago when it separated from the global super continent called Gondwanaland. Cut off from the rest of the world, the prehistoric mammals and other creatures that inhabited Australia followed their own unique evolutionary path. Today, Australia is home to species found nowhere else including such marsupials as kangaroos and koalas.
The myths of Australia's aboriginal people tell of a "golden age" called Alcheringa long, long ago when the great spirits were created from whom all forms of life today, including the human, animal, and plant, are descended. It is that unique connection with the ancient past that sets Australia apart from the rest of the world.
And nothing more clearly exemplifies that connection with the past than Australia's distinctive wildlife, whose unique beauty has been captured by wildlife photographer Mitsuaki Iwago with the Olympus E-1 digital SLR camera.Each one of these pictures represents a message from Mitsuaki Iwago,
"This planet is wonderful precisely because a variety of life lives on it, and we should value the wonderfulness of that diversity."
