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…

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.

I spotted this snappy-dressed gent, tapping away on his iPhone, as I drove down the main street of Boulder in the Goldfields recently…

…I supposed he’d meet some interesting characters in his line of work. He agreed, “I’ve had a gun pointed at me a few times! One time I even came away three grand better off”…

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.⠀⠀⠀⠀

Hugging the horizon, 60 kilometres off the Western Australian coast, the low-lying Abrolhos Islands are home to cray-fishing and, more recently pearl-farming families. With only minimal, low-vegetation, these islands are windswept, and tough underfoot with feet-cutting coral. Without access to mains supplies, the island dwellers use rainwater collected from their shack roofs, and power generated from solar and wind. These islands are not for the faint hearted.

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!

Apart from overnight bush camps on the final couple of nights of our road trip, we spent the last few days of it with our great mates, Tuck and Jenny. They’re gold prospectors with a lease in the Goldfields. Simple living at its finest…

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…

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.