melbin by kei truck

we wanted to head down south for a bit of a change of scenery and I had some business things to do so we decided to pack the truck, a few cameras and Clem (our border collie) and head south with no real set itinerary.

as we reached west wyalong, we’d heard that temperatures were set to soar. the hume highway at seymour had closed just a few hours before we were headed down so we made the detour through bendigo instead.

it reached 46c on the dash at one point. we brought Clem into the cab. tired from a huge day on the road and the stress of outrunning potential fires, we made it safely in.

we enjoyed a few days in the city, browsing around and ingesting various thai delicacies as we are feeling a bit poorly for being without (homesick?).

I was able to get to some art exhibitions, shoot a few rolls, get to a developing (and networking) course at filmneverdie and a face to face meet up with my mentor, Christina. cup was certainly overflowing.

on the way back to brisbane, fortunately the hume had opened back up. the air quality was rubbish (Clem obviously made her way back into the cab) and the aftermath of the fires were horrendously visible. i was able to talk to some locals in euroa at the caravan park we’d stopped off at. many different walks of life and experiences in natural disaster converged. central/country victorians are such a tough breed. it was safe enough to do some documentary work near benella/baddaginnie. I wanted to be sensitive to the nature of coming into zone where much anxiety/possible destruction would’ve existed but locals were happy for pictures to be taken and for our listening ears.

4000km & lots of bullets sweated, we made it home safe.