See, the issue here is truly within the eye of the beholder, everything you said about Australians could be said about the Romans, but much worse, the reason why one bothers you and the other doesn't even when they're quite equal; is just because you're more emotional attached to one over the other.

 Truth is, Amplitude wouldn't please everyone, wathever was their choice, someone wouldn't feel confortable with that.
 I'm a Brazilian, and I think they just nailed perfectly Brazil's role in ways that even go beyond the contemporary era, and still I could find other Brazilians complaining about AS choices.

 What you should realize is that's just a game in the end, the reasons for those decisions are mostly gameplay oriented, the Devs just wanted to put a builder orientation in that era, that would play in a certain way, Australia was just the nicest fit. Of course, ambiance, immersion and role-playing are also important in this kind of game; but you shouldn't worry too much about that, friend. 
 Just use your imagination, you don't have to think about those negatives things while playing the game, believe that YOUR Australia would do things differently.

As a fellow Aussie, I was pretty pleasantly surprised to see we actually make an appearance in the game. As for the focus on mining, well I'd like for our country to be known for other things, but it's entirely appropriate (the politicians always focusing on mining as our biggest industry/jobs growth/economic stuff for so long). Though I also might've considered agrarian, for the huge focus on cattle farming over the last century. 

As for devastating the ecology, you could argue that the livestock industry did just as much damage ecologically (with the follow on effects, like native animals going extinct). If you know enough context, many seemingly innocuous scenes (e.g. a farmland) reveal the darker history behind it. My point is that, by itself, the cover art isn't really tasteless at all, it's just showing big mining. It's only because it was a recent big deal, it feels more confronting, knowing how badly the mining industry can mess up. 

Anyways, I do like the different spin they're taking with the Australian culture, if anything I'm a litle sceptical of the emblematic unit, seems a little underwhelming. The choice for an industrial faction with a focus on mining is pretty appropriate (i can't think of many other nations focused on mining as heavily, since back in the gold rush days), but it makes me shake my head and wish it was possible to be a faction focused on tourism or something. But being that choice, the cover art works well, and doesn't automatically contain negative connections by itself. 

I do wish the cover art showed more of the Australian environment rather than just the mining effort. The hole covers up much of what could be considered unique so it's hard to tell it's specifically Australia just from the art. Maybe have the foreground be a more green leefy area, the part the worker is standing on?

Very interesting to hear other people’s responses, and reading through I definitely agree with most of what’s been said. I’d still like the civ art to be less ugly, though (subjective perhaps, but I do think the art is by far the least attractive of the civs right now).

Laliloluhla wrote:

I do wish the cover art showed more of the Australian environment rather than just the mining effort. The hole covers up much of what could be considered unique so it's hard to tell it's specifically Australia just from the art. Maybe have the foreground be a more green leefy area, the part the worker is standing on?

Agreed. Just because it's the Land Down Under doesn't mean it doesn't have a beautiful landscape or horizon.