HOW CAN ANYONE be charmed by a
cane toad? I can. That’s because cane
toads are Queenslanders and I’ve always
had a soft spot for them. When I came to
Australia 30 years ago, I set off with my
husband on an archaeological expedition
to outback Queensland. For a greenhorn
from Los Angeles, this land of true
adventure was a culture shock.
During the cane toad assignment for
AG many years later, I recalled those first
adventures. Even though I was now
studying toads, not ancient artefacts,
the people there still represented those
uniquely Aussie values that I had come to
admire so much: doggedness, laissez-faire,
irreverence, a wry humour, and coping
against the odds. Of the many assign-
ments I’ve done for AG, I voted for this
image as my favourite because the cane
toad job moved me the most.
Photography is about the moment,
and although I strive for beauty and
design, it’s emotion that’s primary. That
assignment was my first opportunity to
rediscover what I loved about Australia. I’d
only planned to stay three years. Why did
I keep postponing my return ‘home’ to
California? I finally realised I was charmed
by the people. Sure they have loyalty and
all the other good stuff, but always there’s
irreverence. Let’s not take anything too
serious, mate. And yet, somehow, despite
the words and jokes, and no matter how
tough, the job always gets done. But will
they ever get rid of the cane toad?Esther Beaton
SHEEP FARMERS, Japanese rocket
engineers, goldminers and scientific
boffins made this assignment in the
Woomera Prohibited Area of SA
memorable. The people I met were as
diverse as the landscapes writer Ken
Eastwood and I traversed. I was shooting
with high-end digital by then, so I was
surprised when AG insisted I shoot film. I’d
not worked with it for four years. Can you
imagine these days, shooting in excess of
80 rolls of film and not seeing the results
until they hit the lightbox? We travelled
with a Geiger counter to check radioactiv-
ity levels, and it sometimes gave us good
reason not to hang around, because the
needle occasionally went off the scale.
A cup of tea with workers on the
nation’s second-largest sheep station,
Commonwealth Hill, was followed by
safety training for a 1.2km journey
underground into the Challenger Gold
Mine. Hundreds of bunkers such as the
one were built for pastoralists in the
Woomera Prohibited Area in the 1950s.
We learnt that upon the announcement of
a rocket launch, rather than dashing inside
the bunkers, locals would line up deck
chairs and eskies on the roofs for a good
view of the light show.Barry Skipsey Bunker AG 83, 2006
30 YEARS OF AUSTRALIAN GEOGRAPHIC
Learn about Barry’s
AG Anniversary song!
Go to page 22.
SEE more of AG photographers’
favourite photos online, at: http://www.australian-
geographic.com.au/issue130January. February 93The charm of cane toads,
AG 44, 1996