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Image Not Available for Australia Exploring the Coral Wonders off Heron Island on the Great Barrier Reef
Australia Exploring the Coral Wonders off Heron Island on the Great Barrier Reef
Image Not Available for Australia Exploring the Coral Wonders off Heron Island on the Great Barrier Reef

Australia Exploring the Coral Wonders off Heron Island on the Great Barrier Reef

Publisher
Printer (American)
Date1960s
Object number00039726
NamePoster
MediumColour lithograph on paper
DimensionsOverall: 1023 x 635 mm
ClassificationsPosters and postcards
Credit LineANMM Collection
DescriptionThis travel poster was printed in New York for the Australian National Travel Association and uses a photomontage of the Great Barrier Reef to represent the perfect Australian holiday. It follows the style of ANTA's later poster commissions in the 1960s using a simple formula of a photograph reproduced with added text rather than the richer graphics created by their poster artists from the 1930 to the 1950s. HistoryIn 1929 the Australian National Tourism Authority, based in Melbourne, commissioned journalists and graphic artists who had worked for the Victorian National Railways Betterment Board to produce posters for every Australian state. Posters were the main promotion medium for the ANTA, which developed an extensive network overseas and had representatives in England, the United Sates and later New Zealand, Canada, India, China, Japan and France. The ANTA emphasised tourist sites and regions such as the Great Barrier Reef and the tropics of North Queensland. The winter migration of tourists from Victoria and New South Wales to the warmer climate of Queensland proved a lucrative market. The poster reflects the graphic style of ANTA promotions in the 1960s which used photographs with text rather than commissioning designs from artists.SignificanceThe Great Barrier Reef and beaches of tropical Queemsland are featured repeatedly as appealing motifs of Australian identity throughout the twentieth century. This poster reflects the persuasive power of beach icononography in marketing Australia to both the national and international traveller.