Heart of the Nation: James Price Point 6725

What exactly is this 10km-wide meteorological phenomenon in the Kimberley? The International Cloud Atlas has the answer …

Wow: Ben Broady’s panorama of the shelf cloud over James Price Point

What we’re looking at here, ­according to the International Cloud Atlas (yes, really: the ­reference guide has been in print since 1896, ­published by the World Meteorological Organisation) is a “shelf cloud” – a type of “low, horizontal wedge-shaped arcus cloud” that sometimes ­appears on the leading edge of an approaching thunderstorm.

Ben Broady estimates that this shelf cloud, which appeared over James Price Point near Broome in April, was 10km across.

“It’s one of the most incredible sights in nature,” says the 44-year-old, who lives in Kununurra and works as a photographer and videographer.

Broady was on assignment for RM Williams at the time, travelling from Broome to Port Hedland to shoot arty video of the landscape for a giant monitor installation at the firm’s new flagship store in Perth.

“James Price Point is a classic desert-meets-ocean spot,” he says. “I put the drone up in the late afternoon to capture its red pindan cliffs, which stretch off into the ­distance and have amazing erosion marks.”

He watched the thunderstorm approach as he worked (far behind the shelf cloud, you can see the landscape being pounded by rain), and when it was almost upon him he shot 24 still frames that he stitched ­together to make this striking panorama.

A veteran storm chaser, Broady usually likes to rejoice in the lightning, lashing rain and howling wind of these events. But not this time.

“I was 50km out of Broome, with no mobile reception and only a dirt road for access,” he says. “I didn’t want to get bogged down out there. So I escaped just in time!”

To see more of Ben Broady’s photography, and to buy prints, go to

https://www.benbroady.com/