This was my second trip to Australia. My intention was to visit the southern section of the Great Dividing Range, and to sake a series of landscapes. I have always admired the early pioneers of landscape photography, notably in America where they were also helped the creation of environmentalist movement.

We touched down in Sydney in a thick smoke, the sun an orange disk low in the sky. A prolonged drought had left the landscape tinder dry. The bushfires would spread to become the largest fire in recorded history. By the time we reached the edge of the Snowy Mountains National Park various fires had started nearby.

The fires continued their relentless spread. Much of the area was now closed and the fires were becoming increasingly unpredictable. We chose to head west towards the plains, first along the Murray River before heading through the Riverina, a vast agricultural area of New South Wales.

This series of photographs was taken on the road in a 10 day period while the bushfires raged behind us. Shot on a mixture of analogue in black and white and colour digital, they are a document of a time and place close to catastrophe.