Or at least, that's what Australian Geographic focused on when it began putting together a photobook to celebrate its 30th anniversary.

But editor-in-chief Chrissie Goldrick soon discovered the real story to tell wasn't of the Australian landscape, but of its people.

"We're a geographical magazine. We're all about interpreting country and landscape but we always do it through the lens of the people who live there," she said.

The resulting photobook - A Portrait of Australia - was published in 2016, but has since become the subject of a travelling exhibition of photographs that would call the National Museum of Australia home until March 8, 2021.

The exhibition collected 56 iconic photographs and stories showcasing the people of the outback, bush and coast, full of iconography of rural and remote Australia and the vibrant colours of the Australian landscape.

The travelling exhibition opened in Toowoomba in August 2019 and had since been shown at dozens of museums, galleries and libraries around the country.

Ms Goldrick said rural communities in particular had responded positively to the exhibition.

"It's a really positive celebration of themselves and their communities and it seems to bring out a sort of pride in people," she said.

"There's the romance of the bush and the outback, but it's [also] those kinds of real Australian faces. There isn't an airbrushed celebrity in sight - it's those real, craggy Aussies that we all are."

After a year trapped indoors and behind closed borders, Ms Goldrick hoped the exhibition would echo the public's desire to get out and travel in their own backyard.

"The exhibition is very timely in that way. It's a great showcase for Australia, for getting out there and the places you might go and visit, the beauty of the country and the welcoming nature of those communities out there," she said.

It's designed to be adaptable to different galleries and spaces around the country, with different sized prints available and different works highlighted depending on the locale.

Ms Goldrick said given the space afforded to them the presentation at the National Museum was one of their most impressive iterations of the exhibition.

As for her favourite work, Ms Goldrick picked out a vibrant photograph of a swagman walking the iconic outback Birdsville Track, back turned to the camera.

"Parts of the Birdsville Track have now been bitumened over, so in some ways that photo captures the end of an era," she said.