Karnivool guitarist, Drew Goddard kept finding himself drawn back to Coolgardie in the WA Goldfields. When he ran out of reasons to visit, he moved there…

Before marrying Dianne, Terry was living at the northern end of Leonora’s main street, in the house he’d grown up in. An avid collector, Terry has spent many, many hours treasure-hunting at the Leonora tip…

Self-described environmentalists, Jean and Russell salvage and repurpose what would otherwise end up at the tip. Between them they own five gophers (disability scooters) which they ride around town doing their shopping and running errands, because they’re more economical than a car.

With a lifelong passion for both the birds and the bees, dating all the way back to his childhood growing up at Clontarf Boys’ Town, apiarist Wally Kerkoff is well respected in bird and conservation circles. He has spent over 30 years designing and constructing artificial logs for placement in the Carnaby’s Black Cockatoo breeding areas of Moora and Mogumber in WA. With the shortage of suitable natural nesting trees, this work has been essential in building numbers of the endangered Carnaby’s.⠀⠀⠀⠀

Beyond the Traffic Lights - I’ve finally shared some photos and words about my recent exhibition on Yagan Tower, featuring 100-plus portraits taken on our 6-month meander around Western Australia last year.

I’m so excited to be able to share the news that I’m a finalist in the National Photographic Portrait Prize 2020…and better still, I’ve had two images selected amongst the 50 finalists, and they were both taken during our meander around Western Australia this year.

It’s promoted as a rodeo, music and camping festival and it more than lived up to its name, and its reputation for being a great weekend!

As we strolled into the iconic outback hotel, Steve was telling me that the last time he was there was 30 years ago. He was playing pool when there was suddenly an almighty crash behind him - he turned round to see a donkey in the bar. With perfect timing, just as he finished his story, Bella appeared behind the bar…she’s a five year old great dane cross with excellent hospitality skills.

Most of the characters I’ve photographed along the way have been discovered after we’ve arrived somewhere. Lazy Les was someone we’d heard about over the years and we had our fingers crossed that he’d be around when we visited gold prospecting friends of ours near Leonora.

Just a couple of kilometres from Cue we started spotting life-size metal cutouts of blue sheep, and red dogs on kayaks. A little further down the road we saw Eric, sporting a crazy hat and obviously trying to get some phone reception, as he paced around his quad bike complete with Aussie flag, proudly fluttering in the wind. I’d barely started asking the question, and Steve was already slowing down to do a U-turn!

Grocery shopping in Cue is an altogether different experience. Bell’s Emporium opened in 1904 and is still operating from the same premises all these decades later…

Most evenings, Brendan strolls down Cue’s main street, a long, slim case under his arm, to the Murchison Club Hotel. He orders his can of Guinness, sits quietly and waits for someone to challenge to a game of pool. Our first night in Cue, and that someone was Steve.

Johnny doesn’t want a roof over his head - he’s happy in Western Australia’s out of the way places, sleeping under the stars.

…While Steve was having a rest one day, I took myself and my camera down to the lunchtime session Marble Bar’s iconic Iron Clad Hotel. I found a few locals getting in a bit of practice before the Friday night pool competition.

Pretty much everyone we got to know in Marble Bar, we met in the Iron Clad Hotel, including Tim. Like so many people in this outback town, gold is in Tim’s blood. While Tim uses a metal detector his mother Katie used a yandi. Shallow multi-purpose dishes, yandis were traditionally used by Aboriginal women to carry water and bush tucker, but they could also use them to sort chaff from seeds, and in these parts, to separate gold from dirt.