All these scenes, combining an awesome natural beauty with high drama, are taken from the wave of Australian films that has spread with increasing rapidity these last few years beyond the shores of this island continent.

In the United States in particular, the films from which these moments are taken - Bruce Beresford's ''Breaker Morant,'' Peter Weir's ''Picnic at Hanging Rock'' and Fred Schepisi's ''The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith'' -have found a receptive audience and more than a fair share of critical acclaim. Throughout this winter, for example, Mr. Beresford's Boer War drama, ''Breaker Morant,'' praised as genuinely, surprisingly affecting and unspeakably sad has attracted large audiences to the Cinema I theater in Manhattan.

And there are some New Yorkers -pleased by exposure during the past few years to such Australian films as Phillip Noyce's ''Newsfront,'' Mr. Beresford's ''The Getting of Wisdom'' and Gillian Armstrong's ''My Brilliant Career'' - who now greet the opening of each new film from Australia with the sort of heightened anticipation they once brought to the latest arrivals from the French new wave or the new German cinema.

As indicated by the divergent reviews in New York last week for ''Caddie,'' Donald Crombie's account of a Sydney barmaid's travails, not all Australian films are unmixed blessings. Still there are clear reasons for the appeal of these movies to American audiences.

While all the best recent Australian films have a distinctive national flavor, most obvious in their rich visual texture, their very acceptability is rooted in a recognizably American format. Locale, custom and accent may differ, but the cinematic language does not. With very few exceptions, the major Australian films have been couched in that forthright, explicit style moviegoers the world over associate with Hollywood.