St Mary’s Bushfire from Piccaninny Point

Fire is a major and recurrent event in the life of the Australian bush and its inhabitants. In March 1967, during Tasmania’s Black Tuesday bush fires, my mother and 3 year old brother, wrapped in wet blankets, sat in the middle of the highway in our old Fiat 500 as the fires passed overhead, praying the petrol tank wouldn’t explode. Two weeks later I was born.

In December 2007 I was at Piccaninny Point on the East Coast, from where I photographed the St Mary’s bushfires as they approached the sea.

As the original owners of this land were well aware, the cycle of regeneration brought about through fire is an ancient intrinsic and important part of our landscape.

Megan Walch

2010