1/19Overall Winner (originally Landscape) Ben Blanche. A fire caused by a lightning strike in Mount Barney National Park. It slowly marched over the peak as it moved around the border area of Queensland and New South Wales.
The staggering shots of nature’s fragility and firepower
Ben Blanche’s image of a swath of fire cutting through a Queensland National Park has taken out the top prize in the Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year competition. See the rest of the entries here – or at the SA Museum.
2/19Animal Behaviour Winner by Alex Kydd, Western Australia. ‘A Fever of Cownose Rays’ Cownose Ray.
3/19Animal Habitat Winner by Jari Cornelis, Western Australia ‘Storm Dragon’ Central Bearded Dragon.
4/19Junior Winner, Dainty Green Tree Frog by Tess Poyner, New South Wales. ‘Graceful and Green’ Daintree Rainforest, Queensland.
5/19Our Impact Runner-Up by Doug Gimesy, Victoria ‘Don’t forget to check for me’ This female brushtail possum, Trichosurus vulpecula, was found dead placed on the side of the road. It had probably been hit by a car and someone had moved it off the road. It still had a live joey in its pouch when found. This shows how important it is to check the pouches of any marsupial found hit by a car. The joey was taken to a wildlife shelter and survived.
6/19Junior Runner-Up by Robert Irwin. Australian Scrub Python, Queensland.
7/19Botanical Winner by Kevin De Vree, Belgium. ‘Enchanted Forest’ Unidentified Species Lamington National Park is a fairytale forest teeming with waterfalls, gigantic old trees and wildlife.
8/19Monochrome Winner by Charles Davis, Guthega New South Wales ‘Phil’s World’ Common Wombat.
9/19Animal Portrait, Runner Up by Matt Clancy, Victoria. Scaly-Tailed Possum ‘Wyulda’.
10/19Animal Behaviour Runner-Up by Richard Robinson. A female colony of Corynactis australis (Jewel anemone) spawn on mass on the wreck of the HMNZS Canterbury in Northland, New Zealand.
11/19Threatened Species Winner by Jasmine Vink, Queensland. ‘Tasmanian Devil’.
12/19Animal Habitat - Coastal Carpet Python by Ethan Mann, Queensland. ‘Rodent Control’ The coastal carpet python has taken up residence in dad’s shed. This built habitat provides a warm tin to bask in.
13/19Animal Habitat Runner-Up by Raoul Slater, Queensland. ‘Firestorm’ Black Kite. Katherine, Queensland
14/19Animal Behaviour - Roosting Bee by Ethan Mann, Queensland. Each afternoon this male blue banded bee returns to his chosen twig and clings to it with his mandibles. Sunshine Coast, Queensland.
15/19Animal Portrait by Ethan Mann, Queensland. Cascade Tree Frog ‘Through the Fern’ Sunshine Coast, Queensland.
16/19Landscape Runner-Up by Karl Strand, New South Wales. ‘The Main Range’ Kosciuszko National Park.
17/19Our Impact by Ethan Mann, Queensland. ‘A Hunter in the Shadows’ - Cat. Sunshine Coast, Queensland.
18/19Our Impact by Ethan Mann, Queensland. Long-Nosed Bandicoot ‘The Back-Shed Bandicoot’ Sunshine Coast, Queensland.
19/19Monochrome by Ethan Mann, Queensland. ‘In the Speaker’ Northern Laughing Tree Frog, Gaeta in Queensland.
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Former detective, stripper and an ambo walk into a mining town bar …
There’s something wild and untameable about Australian opal mining towns - most having the gritty, lawless feel of a Clint Eastwood western. White Cliffs, in far-west NSW, is no exception.
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