Over the rainbow? No chance with this colourful, head-turning image

Far from the red dirt of Pilbara mines where he works, Gary Meredith loves nothing more than interacting with the sights and sounds of nature.

A Bee-eater Rainbow, as captured by Gary Meredith, and featured in the Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year exhibition. Picture: Gary Meredith

Gary Meredith works 12-hour shifts a kilometre under the red dirt of the Pilbara.

His job is to maintain the Telfer goldmine’s heavy machinery – the crushers and conveyors, the giant hoist that sends 34-tonne skipfuls of rock to the surface at 16m a second.

It’s dark, cramped and busy down there; a netherworld of sweat, blasting and grinding. But when work’s over he escapes the mining camp – alone, and on foot – into the Great Sandy Desert, with a huge blue sky overhead and dazzling beauty all around.

As the sound of heavy industry recedes into the distance, he says, it’s replaced by a striking absence of noise, save for the wind rustling the spinifex, bird calls and the occasional howling of dingoes.

At this time of year, he’s listening out for a particular sound: the chattering of rainbow bee-eaters.

They’re visitors to the Pilbara – they migrate in winter from the southwest corner of WA – and on early mornings can be found huddling together for warmth on branches.

They’re spooked by noise, so he must approach stealthily, commando-crawling as he gets close.

When warmed by the sun they’ll start hunting, catching insects on the wing with great acrobatic style.

Meredith, 44, traces his love for the natural world to his childhood on a 16,000ha farm in the Wheatbelt, where he would spend entire days happily observing wildlife.

These days it’s an antidote to the rigours of life as a FIFO miner; lately he’s been working two weeks straight before returning to the loving arms of his wife and two kids in Fremantle (“I’m put straight to work doing the dishes and laundry,” he laughs).

Sometimes, when he’s at a cafe in Freo in summer, he’ll see rainbow bee-eaters flying past – a colony of them nest on the Royal Fremantle Golf Club – and wonder if they’re among the birds he’s seen up north in winter.

A wonderful thought, right?

He’ll never know, though. The buggers all look identical.

This is from The Weekend Australian Magazine’s Heart of the Nation series, originally published on June 6, 2020