If you’re heading to Wooleen Station, the sunset tour running several days a week is a must-do. Informative, educational and fun with a cheeky wine as you watch the sun going down.
All in Landscape
Revisiting Lake Ballard
In 2003, to mark the Perth International Arts Festival’s 50th anniversary, renowned artist Antony Gormley created 51 sculptures which were installed on Lake Ballard. I’d read a lot about it at the time and dreamt of seeing them for myself, but an hour or two north of Kalgoorlie, Lake Ballard isn’t really on the way to anywhere else…you really have to make an effort to get there.
I finally got to Lake Ballard in 2010 and walking out onto the salt lake, I had that feeling that I was meeting people for the first time that I’d heard so much about from a mutual friend.
Walga Rock
Walga Rock lies 48 kilometres west of Cue in WA’s Goldfields. It’s one of Australia’s largest granite monoliths Of huge cultural and spiritual significance, the rock faces feature incredible, well-preserved Aboriginal art. Strangely amongst the art is a depiction of a sailing boat, drawn in white ochre. Its origins remain a mystery but there’s stories that it may have been drawn by a shipwreck survivor who had ended up a few hundred kilometres from the coast…or perhaps it was created by an Afghan cameleer who was showing his Wajarri friends what he had seen.
Nallan Station Stay
Nallan Station was the perfect base when we explored Cue and the surrounding district in early September. While we were there we took photographs for Cath and Dave for their website, social media and printed material, creating their very own unique stock library of images…
The Road to Paraburdoo
Cutting through Karijini National Park, the scenery on the road from Newman to Paraburdoo is pretty special, with dramatic scenery at every turn.
Bush Camping near Newman WA
We discovered this awesome bush camp north of Newman. We’d been trying to get to another one we’d heard about but found this one on the way! Running water in the Pilbara is a rare find so it was blissful to have fresh water next to our camp. The only sounds were frogs, cicadas, the ‘babbling brook’, and the breeze through the trees…that was until the helicopter appeared, passing overhead several times one morning, locating cattle during the annual muster.
Pilbara backroads
As far as possible on our meander around Western Australia, we’ve chosen to take the unsealed backroads and have discovered so many amazing spots along the way. When I mentioned on social media where we were and where we were heading next, I got a couple of messages from friends telling us how to find the most beautiful little swimming spot.
Around Marble Bar
Marble Bar is officially Australia’s hottest town, holding the record with 161 consecutive days over 37.8C (100F). Fortunately it was a very manageable 32 degrees when we were there recently. This outback town is named for its jasper which the early explorers believed to be marble. There’s more photos of the jasper patterns and colours in an earlier blog post.
With a rich history of gold mining, Marble Bar still draws gold prospectors from far and wide, hoping to find their fortune.
Marble Bar Pool
Early explorers in the Pilbara mistook the jasper outcrops for marble, and called the new town Marble Bar. The colours in the rocks around Marble Bar Pool are unbelievable, especially if you pour a little water over them to bring out their vibrancy.
Broome Time
Driving into town, after a few months on the road, we’d already adjusted to Broome’s relaxed pace of life and were ready to enjoy its laid-back lifestyle and perfect dry season climate - 17-31C, cloudless skies and sunshine.
I found myself barely picking up my camera - too busy living life to photograph it. So, this blog post is more a collection of Broome snap shots. …
East Kimberley
Exploring the far north-east of Western Australia was always in our minds when we left our home in Denmark on the south coast of WA back in March…
Out and about around Wyndham
…Parts of the Kimberley may have their resorts and wealth, diamonds and pearls, but Wyndham is the hidden gem.
Nature vs industry on the Burrup Peninsula
To stand in Deep Gorge, surrounded by deep red boulders etched with the world’s largest and most important collection of petroglyphs (Aboriginal rock carvings) dating back half to one million years, is breathtaking. It’s a quick-fire way to make you feel insignificant in the big picture. To turn 180 degrees and be confronted by millions of tons of metal structured into a huge industrial plant just a few hundred metres away is heartbreaking.
Stock photography at Carey Downs Station
For the last nine years Carey Downs Station has been home to the McKeough family. They are in the process of setting up so they can offer station stays and were keen to get their own stock library of images ready for their website and social media. Steve and I spent a long day following a map that showed tracks and landmarks such as soaks and bores, to the spots that had been marked on for us to photograph. Over the course of the day I tried to capture the remoteness, the harshness, the beauty, the colours, the scenery, the 4wd tracks, and the history...
Eaglestone Rock and Lake Brown near Mukinbudin
Eaglestone Rock, or as the locals know it Turtle Rock, and Lake Brown near Mukinbudin.
Horizontal Lines in the Wheatbelt
Clean, simple landscapes in the Wheatbelt with flat horizons and big, big skies.