These photos were taken during our bike rides in south west Queensland, where it is dry – in contrast to the coast and the north, where it is tropical . Like so much of Australia, this is country which in summer sees temperatures soaring in to the 40’s – along with the ever present danger of bushfires.

We usually stay at basic caravan parks where for a small fee, we can put our tent down and there are  toilets and showers – and that most precious resource, water.

The haunting time of sunset in the bush

Iron grids for preventing cattle and sheep from straying are impossible to ride over on a bike – a regular part of any ride out here is getting off and carefully negotiating the grid

On some of the back roads, the slightest gust – or a passing vehicle – can fill the air with dust as fine as smoke

An old picture theatre in a typical small town – its long been abandoned and remains locked up. Once, long ago, when there were far more people living on the land, ‘the walkie talkies’ was  the biggest attraction for miles around.

Until the early 20th century, horse drawn coaches were the main means of transport. Here a replica of one in the museum in the town of Surat.

Hard to imagine having to travel in a coach, in blistering heat

Or engulfing floods

Floods? They’re not happening anymore in the west, even though there are many flood plains which during aboriginal times filled regularly. Global climate change, the reality of which is fanatically denied by Australia’s politicians and media outlets, has seen the west turned into a dust bowl.