The Dreamtime series has been one of Australia's greatest publishing successes in recent years. The first of the series, The Dreamtime was published in 1965 and has been reprinted fifteen times. The others in the series have enjoyed similar success, with more than a quarter-million copies being sold in all.
The original concept of these beautifully illustrated books was developed by an association between Ainslie Roberts and Charles Mountford. Mr Roberts had made extensive painting tours through remote outback regions, and Mr Mountford, of course, was well known for his anthropological work among the Aboriginal peoples.
He told some of their myths to Ainslie Roberts who began to see these legendary tales in terms of colour and design. The result was his extremely successful collection of paintings first exhibited at the Osborne Gallery, Adel-aide, in 1963, in which he captured the glowing colours of the inland and sensitively and imaginatively reflected and interpreted the fantasy and myths of the Aborigines' Dream-time.
In order to incorporate the painting in a book, Mr Mountford wrote a text which explained the background to the myths, as well as his own interpretations of the myths them-selves. They were published in The Dreamtime.
Public response was so great Roberts was encouraged to paint three more series of pictures on the same theme, all of which have been incorporated into books. Charles Mount-ford wrote the text for all except one of these books, Dreamtime Heritage, which was written by Roberts' wife Melva. Mr Mountford died in 1977.