Tjirilya Artwork

Australia had some pretty apocalyptic fires here in Australia that started in August 2019 and burned through until May 2020. The fires burned out about 186,000km2 of land and killed or displaced an estimated 3 billion terrestrial vertebrates alone. Most prominently, you might have heard the news that one of Australia’s most iconic animals, the Koala, is currently projected to become extinct in the wild in the coming decades. All of this became a pretty powerful driver to take the series in a different direction. In December 2019 and January 2020, I travelled to East Gippsland, Australia in the wake of the devastating fires there, shooting landscapes and images of burnt out flora. I then returned later to shot images of the regrowth and recovery that happens afterwards - gum trees shoot off this brilliant red immature growth as a stop-gap as the plant recovers. You only ever see this after a bushfire.