AUSTRALIAN GEOGRAPHY SEEN FROM AFAR - THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY

Having been invited to contribute an external view of Australian geogr aphy, I concluded that such a task was impossible-that geographers els ewhere do not have a general view of Australian geography. I maintain that this is neither surprising nor significant, setting the argument within the context of a discipline fragmented along four major cleavag e lines. Because of these cleavages, most geographers (like most other academics) work in small intellectual communities which are necessari ly 'parochial': as a consequence, the discipline is characterised by a series of parts that do not make a coherent whole.