12 N.S.W. TECHNICAL EDUCATION. 



But it is necessary that a step further should be taken, for the day has come 

 when a more distinct national style of ornamentation should adorn our archi- 

 tectural structures and other productions of Applied Art, and so individualise 

 Australian Art with the character of its own natural surrovmdings. 



It will be seen from the plates produced that our native flora is held in high 

 repute for decoration by our artists, a taste which illustrates the adaptability 

 of Australian plant forms and colour in the field of Technology. 



It was when using, for purposes of design, the immediate natural objects, 

 both fauna and flora, that the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Etruscans 

 became so excellent in their skill while executing and designing their bronzes, 

 terra-cottas, enamels, pottery, and textile fabrics. Similarly there is little doubt 

 that Australian workers in these subjects have, ready to their eye and hand, forms 

 as pure and as adaptable as had the older nations. 



Our own aborigines, whilst possessing some artistic skill, yet were not wan- 

 ting in admiration of the native vegetation, and their selection as first favourite 

 was the Waratah. The white man was no sooner brought in touch with Nature 

 here than his perceptive faculty very soon saw that the Australian bush possessed 

 no rival to the Waratah for beauty and colour, and later had the patriotic 

 feeling to adopt it as the national emblem. 



And this is not to be wondered at, when it is admitted by nearly all our 

 artists, past and present, that this flower is facile princeps the best from which to 

 design decorative work in Australia, if not from any other country, and it is this 

 feature of the plant that has moved the author to bring before the Technical 

 world the numerous instances of its various forms of adaptation in Technology 

 since 1788, the date of the First Settlement. 



This utihsation of the native flora has, in the author's opinion, laid the foun- 

 dation of what will eventually become a distinctly national form of decoration — 

 an achievement that has probably no parallel in any modem country. 



Although this volume is devoted to the Waratah alone, yet that is not our 

 only indigenous floral specimen used for decoration. The Flannel Flower, 

 perhaps, ranks second to the Waratah for this purpose, whilst Stenocarpus, Banksia, 

 Fern Fronds, &c., are also found to please the artist, but the Waratah is the 

 principal motive of them all. In Applied Art it is first favourite amongst almost 

 every branch, as here instanced. 



As the Acantluis and other exotic forms of decoration are still much in evi- 

 dence, the question resolves itself into this : Are we Australians, because the 

 Hindoo, Egyptian, and Greek utilised tlie kotus flower, Acanthus leaf, &c., for 

 designs to decorate their columns, fiiezes, fat^ades of temples and palaces, never 

 to employ any othei motive in our decoration, and in this imitative mood show 

 a lamentable lack of originality or imagination, whilst surrounded as W2 are with 

 forms of great adaptability for oui ai tijtic conceptions ? 



