12 Australian Geographic
For this issue our editor-in-chief,
Chrissie Goldrick, a keen photographer,
took to the skies to shoot one of her
occasional travel stories for the
magazine and ended up witnessing a
special natural event (page 106).
“I’m self-taught and had no formal
instruction, so I was keen to find out
what I’d missed,” she says about her
decision to attend a Canon Collective
workshop on location at Kati Thanda-
Lake Eyre, in May. Chrissie shoots with
Canon gear, as do many of our pro
photographers. “It was organised
months before, so I had no inkling we’d
end up being there for a rare flooding
event,” she explains. As a result of
water filling the lake, the nearby town
of William Creek was packed with
visitors during the Canon photo
weekend. “Some had come to see the
flooding phenomenon, others because
those same waters had closed the
Birdsville Track and sent travellers
along the Oodnadatta Track,” Chrissie
says. “I loved the crazy comings and
goings of William Creek. Between the
famous bar of the hotel there and the
busy airstrip, something was always
happening. On the last day, the Shitbox
Rally rolled into town – a huge
convoy of old cars, each bought for
less than $1000 – on their way from
Perth to Sydney via Uluru. The cars
were wonderfully customised and the
crews were all blinged up. They
briefly turned William Creek into a
party town before heading off on the
second half of their 5150km journey.”
When Sam Duncan, on his first
assignment for us, first saw Uluru,
he looked straight at it, tried to
extract some meaning and have “the
experience” then and there, as is very
much the Western way. “It’s beautiful
to look at, sure, but for me, the real
beauty emerged in unexpected places,
bit by bit, with each day I spent there,”
Sam says. “On one occasion, I was
walking towards the base and found
myself alone in a mulga forest, one of
the most peaceful places I’ve ever set
foot in. Another time, I was sitting at a
table under the stars on a remote
desert dune sharing dinner with a
group of people I’d not met before.
We all felt connected in a way that’s
all too rare in our modern world.”Features editors: Joanna Hartmann, Hannah James, Geordie Torr
Regularcolumnists: Bruce Elder, Dr Karl Kruszelnicki AM, John Pickrell, Fred Watson AM,
Kel Richards, Tim the Yowie Man, Peter Rowland
More contributors: Peter Blakeman, Elspeth Callender, Anthony Calvert, Sam Duncan, Angela
Heathcote, Phil Jarratt, Jannico Kelk, Hamish Lindsay, Mandy McKeesick, Christian Perez-Martinez,
Bruce Newton, John Pickrell, Stephen Saphore, Jarrad Seng, Richard Smith, Andrew Tink,
Jasmine Vink, Duade PatonNotes from the field
PHOTO CREDIT: CHRISSIE GOLDRICKAUSTRALIAN GEOGRAPHIC is printed in
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Email: [email protected]AC/DC fan Steven Kirkby
enjoys a comfort stop at
William Creek during the
2019 Shitbox Rally.