Pilot shares pictures of Australia from above

SOME pictures are abstract, some look like paintings, and some are simply landscapes. Whichever way you look at it, Australia is bloody beautiful.

Pilot Andrew Kube knows a lot of secret spots around the Outback. Picture: Andrew Kube

THE Goyder Lagoon is a large swamp in the far north of South Australia, sandwiched between the Simpson and Strzelecki deserts near Lake Eyre.

It’s huge and green, but the land around the edge is red. Lines of water create intricate patterns throughout, and a large colony of birds call it home.

Not that many people know it exists, but pilot Andrew Kube is one of them. He regularly flies tourists over the top, and says he never tires of seeing their reaction.

“I don’t think people ever expect to see it. When you do, you just think: ‘Wow, it’s amazing!’ It’s one of the best parts of the trip,” he told news.com.au.

“There’s all these little tributaries, then down the middle is a big channel flowing through, that’s where the water travels that feeds Lake Eyre.”

Andrew is based in Western Victoria, but he takes tour groups all over the country, documenting his travels with incredible photos of Australia from above.

GALLERY

One of his favourite experiences was photographing the Gulf of Carpentaria.

“It’s one of those places you can’t see from the ground. There’s almost no roads up there, around the Gulf, and when you’re on the ground you just see a horizon and a massive sky. Up in the air, you can really appreciate it.”

Equally memorable was a sand dune at Birdsville, in southwest Queensland.

“It was particularly hot that night, with lots of flies. I see it as a bit of a metaphor. If you just take the cozy option and stay inside because it’s hot with all the flies, you’ll miss out.

“Sometimes you have to step out into something uncomfortable, and it’s really rewarding.”

So far, that philosophy has served him well.

The big red sand dune near Birdsville, in Southwest Queensland. Picture: Andrew Kube

Andrew is a former teacher who started his own business in 2013. He flies a Cessna 210 Centurion, which can take a maximum of five passengers.

“My father was a pilot, so I grew up with aeroplanes around. It wasn’t a big thing for me to learn to fly, although I only did it 20 years ago, so a bit later in life,” he said.

He was born and bred in Victoria, but lived in Mt Isa while working in education.

“I used to fly to the places the students called home, to go and meet the parents, to try and help ease them into boarding school. A lot of them were on stations, and a lot of them were indigenous kids. It’s a big adjustment for them to go an live in a fairly regimented environment.

“When the time came to leave that job, I thought I’d always loved flying. I just wanted to give it a crack, and see if I could get people from down south to go up to the places I used to visit up north. I was comfortable in the outback.”

Starting a business hasn’t been easy, but he says this year exceeded his expectations.

“I’m confident my product is good because people keep coming back. I don’t like doing the same thing too much, I want to maintain that absolute genuine enthusiasm for a trip,” he said.

“I never want it to turn into a desk job. For me, it’s all about working with people.”

He said he likes setting up experiences for his passengers, and then stepping back to let them enjoy it at their own pace.

“It’s not about leading from the front, it’s about taking them somewhere and maybe introducing them to someone local, or going to a place off the beaten track a bit.

“When I was a teacher I used to do that as well, set up a learning experience for the kids and then just let them learn it themselves.”

Stunning low-light reflection captured at the Birdsville Lagoon. Picture: Andrew Kube

He’s had all kinds of interesting clients, including a gentleman a few weeks short of 90 who he said was “fit as a fiddle”.

“He was a great character, really curious. When we were walking out around Lake Eyre he’d disappear to go and figure out what a particular tree was, or what a plant was. He really wanted to know,” Andrew said.

“The older folks are fantastic, sometimes it can take 10 minutes to get them in the plane, but they’re really good humoured about it,” he laughed.

“A lot of my passengers are retired or semi-retired. They’re really adventurous people, I like taking them on. Some of them have seen these places from the ground and want to see them from the air.”

More recently, he flew a 26-year-old female doctor who had gone and worked in Africa, who he said was a “fascinating person”.

He’s licensed to fly anywhere in Australia during daylight hours. Obviously, Lake Eyre is a favourite, but he said the southwest coast of Tasmania was stunning, and he enjoyed exploring the remote Kimberley coastline.

However, there’s one place he’s yet to cross off his list.

“I’d like to go to the Torres Strait. I’ve been as far as Weipa, but I’ve never had a reason to go further. I think flying over those little islands would be amazing. Hopefully one day a passenger shares my dream!”

Find out more about Andrew’s work on his website.