This project was started to create some new work for an exhibition I was invited to participate in at XYZ Photo Gallery in Southbank in Melbourne. The exhibition called for nine photos that told a story. Discussion for the project with the gallery director started in February, a time of the year which often reminds me of the Black Saturday fires in 2009. So I though that I would take photos that tell a story about what the forest looks like now, 16 years on from the fires.
Black Saturday was 16 years ago. One of the major fires started at Kilmore East. Years of drought and the weather that day combined to create an unstoppable blaze that destroyed everything in its path. Living at Kilmore, I watched the massive plume of smoke, knowing how bad the fire would be, feeling helpless, glad to not be in the path and guilty for feeling that relief. These photos are of the Mount Disappointment State Forest, an area consumed by the Kilmore East fire. Many trees that had lived and grown for hundreds of years were killed in the fire, their bare trunks stand as a silent reminder of that day. They are gradually losing more of their branches and falling down as the years pass. These are the ghosts of Black Saturday. New growth is everywhere, claiming the space that the old forest once occupied, nature reclaiming its territory, their leaves dance around the ghosts listening to their stories. Gradually as people forget, and unfortunately, as even worse fires fill our memories, the ghosts will all fall and go back to the earth. All photos were taken in February 2025.
These photos are flatbed scans of silver gelatin prints made from 4x5 black and white negatives.
My thoughts are with the people of Wandong, Clonbinane, Humevale, Flowerdale, Kinglake West, Kinglake, Strathewen, St Andrews, Toolangi, Steels Creek, Dixons Creek, Chum Creek, Hazeldene, Narbethong, Marysville, Buxton, Taggerty, Christmas Hills and Yarra Glen impacted by the Kilmore East / Kinglake fires. Also all the other areas impacted that day and in the weeks following by the many blazes around the state, major fires were also burning at Beechworth, Bendigo, Redesdale, Bunyip, Central Gippsland, Dandenongs, Wilsons Prom, Maroondah, Horsham, Coleraine and Weerite. Many lessons were learned and actioned.
The Mt Disappointment area is on the border of the lands of the Wurundjeri and the Taungurung people.
