“Great Southern Land” is an iconic Iva Davies song from 1982 that is still offered at major events for a few moments of nationalist pride. It is also the title of an ABC television series that offered magnificent aerial views of Australia, and now of this accompanying book.

In the foreword to this Great Southern Land, the TV show’s host, Steve Simpson, remarks, as many have before, on the apparent contradiction between our increasing urbanisation and a feeling of attachment to the land. Not surprisingly, the whole volume – written by Ivan O’Mahoney and Steve Bibb, producer and executive producer of the documentary series – is essentially about a sense of place, and how we identify ourselves.

The risk with a coffee-table book is that shortcuts might be taken, assuming that a tug at the heart and lots of big images will always win over technical quibbles or a lazy text. One should not be alarmed here on that account.

Four short and intelligent essays introduce the main sections (Great Australian Bite, Tug of War, On the Move and Living on the Edge), while captions provide genuinely interesting information. The production quality is excellent, with good paper stock and more than 280 pictures generously displayed with varied layout, sometimes with one image spread across two large pages. Among the latter are a striking view of Adelaide and a perspective of Newcastle ore wagons that is at once beautiful, real and verging on the abstract.

Grizzles? There really should be an index … and that’s it.  Great Southern Land is a stunning work.

Great Southern Land, by Ivan O’Mahoney and Steve Bibb, with photographs by Richard Woldendorp, is published by ABC Books, $60 (hardback).