Melbourne, Dec 17 : Joining a chorus of critics who have panned Baz Luhrmann''s outback epic `Australia' is feminist Germaine Greer, who has branded the film a `disaster'.

Writing in Britain''s The Guardian newspaper, Greer described the film as a "fraudulent and misleading fantasy", designed to promote the Federal Government''s policy of reconciliation.

Greer has pointed out what she claims are several historical inaccuracies about how Aborigines were treated in 1939, when the film was set.

"The scale of the disaster that is Baz Luhrmann''s Australia is gradually becoming apparent," News. com. au quoted Greer, as stating in the newspaper.

Greer describes the film''s plot as "fatuous" and says the film''s "greatest asset" is Brandon Walters, a 12-year-old Aboriginal boy who plays Nullah.

However, she describes as "unforgivable" Luhrmann''s decision to have Nullah speak "in a cutesified stage version of pidgin".

Besides this, Luhrmann has been accused by Greer for using acclaimed Aboriginal actor David Gulpilil''s character King George as "a cigar-store Indian, standing on one leg, the other foot propped up against his knee, silhouetted against the skyline, spar and spear-thrower in hand".

"To the few viewers who will know that this motif has been used repeatedly as a trademark, it does seem that Luhrmann is making a tasteless joke," she said. (ANI)