South Glory Cave, Yarrangobilly: Heart of the Nation
Photographer Brooke Maxwell has spent years exploring Australia in her tiny Yaris. Where did she find this extraordinary cave?
You don’t need a fortune to travel, or a fancy means of getting around; all you need is curiosity and some get-up-and-go. Take it from Brooke Maxwell, who’s been all over Australia in her trusty little Toyota Yaris, which has 320,000km on the clock. She’s driven by a love of photographing this country’s amazing landscapes and wildlife. “Photography allows me to show other people what I see, and the way I see it,” she says. As soon as she got her driving licence, the pattern of her peripatetic lifestyle was set: working until she has enough money saved up (all through her twenties she did bar jobs in Sydney), then taking off – to Tasmania, or outback NSW, the Great Ocean Road, far north Queensland, the Warrumbungles, remote Western Australia – until the money runs out. Often, to make her cash go further on road trips, she’ll sleep in the back of the Yaris. Any tips for a good night’s sleep in such a tiny hatchback? “Um, no,” she laughs. “Just make sure you have a good physio or chiropractor for when you come home.”
The 33-year-old recently moved from Sydney’s Inner West to Katoomba in the Blue Mountains, where the rent’s cheaper and she has some space for her dog, a Finnish Lapphund named Betty White after the Golden Girls actor – a renowned animal lover, humanitarian and feminist. Maxwell is currently working as a teacher’s assistant at a school for children with special needs. She loves the work – “It’s so rewarding,” she says – and it allows her to scratch the travel itch. She’s just got back from three weeks in New Zealand, shooting for Nikon’s social media campaigns and some small tourism businesses.
This image is from a road trip to Kosciuszko National Park with her childhood friend Bec. They stopped at Yarrangobilly Caves, in the north of the park, to bathe in the thermal springs, then explored the South Glory Cave, which has a natural skylight in the roof. “The cave was huge, and vibrant green inside,” she says. “It felt like something from the set of Lord of the Rings.” She stood at the back of the cave and got Bec to position herself by the entrance, to give a sense of scale in the picture.
On that road trip, by the way, they got around in Bec’s Toyota Corolla – a little bigger than a Yaris, of course, but surely a squeeze to sleep two in? “We stayed in motels on that one,” Maxwell laughs. “Sleeping in cars is definitely not Bec’s thing.”
To see more of Brooke Maxwell’s photography go tohttps://www.instagram.com/brookemaxwell/