The three works taken down today were “Cyclone Tracey” 1991 by Rover Thomas, “Ned Kelly” 1946 by Sidney Nolan and “North-east view from the northern top of Mount Kosciusko,” 1863 by Eugene von Guérard.

But as the gallery’s director, Ron Radford, told Citynews this morning, it will take several months for the artworks to be properly conserved ready for transport, so today’s event was something of a formality.

Senior artist John Olsen was on hand to participate in the unpacking, happily chatting while a huge image of his seminal painting,  “Sydney Sun,” 1965, was screened behind him.

Focusing on the influence of the landscape, “Australia” will span more than 200 years, from 1800 to the present day, and will feature over 200 works, including paintings, drawings, photography, watercolours, prints and multimedia. More than half of the works of art featured in the exhibition are drawn from the NGA’s collection.

Radford, praised the public collecting institutions from around Australia they had participated, particularly major state galleries in South Australia and Victoria, enthusing about many artworks, not least  Frederick McCubbin’s “Little girl lost” and “the great Emily [Emily Kame Kngwarreye’s Big Yam Dreaming, 1995] from Melbourne.”

He estimated that  this exhibition, curated by himself, Kathleen Soriano from the Royal Academy of Arts  and Anna Gray from the NGA,  is the largest survey of Australian landscape art ever held outside of this country.

The exhibition, he explained, will include works by Aboriginal artists such as Albert Namatjira (1902-59), Rover Thomas (c.1926-98), Emily Kame Kngwarreye (1910-96) Clifford Possum (1932-2002) and a number of artists from the Papunya Tula group of the Western Desert. Nineteenth century European immigrants such as John Glover (1767-1849) and Eugene von Guerard (1811-1901) will also feature, as well as the Australian Impressionists: Arthur Streeton (1867-1943), Tom Roberts, (1856-1931) (a student of the Royal Academy Schools), Charles Conder (1868-1909) and Frederick McCubbin (1855-1917). Early Modernists such as Margaret Preston (1875-1963), Grace Cossington Smith (1892-1984) and Roy de Maistre will hang alongside the leading twentieth-century painters: Arthur Boyd (1920-99), Rosalie Gascoigne (1917-99), Fred Williams (1927-82), Brett Whiteley (1939-92) and Sidney Nolan RA (1917-92). The exhibition will end in the twenty-first century with internationally recognised artists such as Bill Henson (b.1955), Shaun Gladwell (b.1972), Christian Thompson (b.1978) and Simryn Gill (b.1959) who also represented Australia this year at the Venice Biennale.

The  full list of works will be made available by the Royal Academy of Arts when the exhibition is officially previewed to media in London on  September 17.