ABC Mid West and Wheatbelt WA
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Our Canola fields are just beginning to flower. In other countries I believe the plant is called Rape. Canola seed is used to make Canola oil.
Fertile red soil (Red Kandosol)
This type of soil is found in all states of Australia except Victoria and Tasmania. Most crops (on this type of soil) can be seen in the Wheatbelt of southern New South Wales.
I love getting out among the plants in the early morning when everything is still covered in dew after a cool night. The Sugar Orchid (Ericksonella saccharata or Caladenia saccharata) is a small orchid (1-2cm, 0.4-0.8 in) that is found throughout the Wheatbelt of southwestern Western Australia. We just happened to see it at Rica Erickson Reserve, named after the Australian naturalist, botanical artist, historian, author and teacher. Without any formal scientific training Rica Erickson (1908 – 2009) wrote extensively on botany and birds, as well as genealogy and general history. The new orchid genus "Ericksonella" was named in her honour.
I travelled to the Wheatbelt in Western Australia, to get this beautiful bird. The country was beautiful with flowers starting to bloom. We have had lots of rain this season. I want to learn more about the bush plants and I noticed what birds were attracted to.
I have a few photos, but this was one of the first I took upon seeing these beautiful little birds. They are tiny and hard to get shots of at first. What I love about this shot is the natural perch, for some reason I am happy with it, the curves and messiness of it, I spent a bit of time looking at the wood around me - very Australian.
A rare find in our Western Australian countryside, it was worth slamming on the brakes and doing a U-Turn or as we say in Australian slang a "Uey".
The Australian bush can be difficult to capture. It is scrappy, messy, difficult to find a pleasing balanced composition. I headed out to the Wheatbelt & found this pocket of old Wandoo, my favorite tree.
This is a 57 frame panorama of the rising Milky Way over St Philips church Culham.
This was a great night's shoot here in Western Australia but I forgot at this time of the year I should've shot the top of the sky first as the core is rising then worked my way down to meet the foreground, but I shot the first sky row above the foreground which meant I was always chasing the sky as it rose. Must remember this for next year!
A bonus in this shot is I managed to capture a meteor if you look above the head of Scorpius and Rho Ophiuchi !
EXIF
Foreground 8 frames at f/2.2 90s ISO3200
Sky tracked three rows 49 frames tracked and stacked f/2.2 60s ISO800.
Camera Nikon Z6ii
Lens Nikkor 20mm f/1.8
Lake Ninan — often described as one of the Wheatbelt’s hidden gems — is a stunning salt lake about 10 km southwest of Wongan Hills, WA. It’s a well-known astro-tourism hotspot, and I’ve been here a few times before.
But this night, I actually ended up here by accident. I was scouting two other locations about half an hour away — one didn’t quite have the charm I hoped for, and the other was packed with campers. With the night quickly approaching, I made a last-minute call to head back to Lake Ninan, this time exploring the southern side of the carpark.
By the time I got there and set up, the Milky Way core was already quite low— sitting just above 45°. The final image is a 28-panel panorama, stretching from the south-east (left) to the north-east (right), with a few extra H-alpha shots blended in for detail.
Nikon Z30
YN 11mm f/1.8Z
Star Adventurer 2i
Nikon D5500 (modded)
The reality of landscape photography: sometimes your "Plan A" is literally on fire. 🔥
I headed out to the Wheatbelt with a specific shot in mind, only to find the location closed due to a recent bushfire (I believe). With the afternoon sun dropping, I had to scout a new spot fast. I settled on this—the endless, straight roads that define this part of the country.
Even with the wind howling (making tracking nearly impossible), I couldn't pass up this view. A selfie panorama of the Summer Milky Way arching over the path I was just traveling. Sometimes the backup plan is the one worth keeping.
Many thanks for your visits, faves and comments. Cheers.
Purple-backed Fairy-wren (prior to 2018 called verigated fairy wren)
Scientific Name: Malurus assimilis
Description: The purple-backed fairywren is on average 14.5 cm (5.5 in) long.[citation needed] Like other fairywrens, it is notable for its marked sexual dimorphism, males adopting a highly visible breeding plumage of brilliant iridescent blue and chestnut contrasting with black and grey-brown. The brightly coloured crown and ear tufts are prominently featured in breeding displays. The male in breeding plumage has striking bright blue ear coverts and blue-purple crown and forehead, a black throat and nape, a blue-purple upper back, chestnut shoulders and a bluish-grey tail. The wings are drab brown and the belly white. Within subspecies assimilis, the plumage of both sexes is becomes paler from east to west across its range, with those of northwestern Australia paler still. Non-breeding males, females and juveniles of subspecies assimilis are predominantly grey-brown in colour, while those of subspecies rogersi and dulcis are mainly blue-grey. Males of all subspecies have a black bill and lores (eye-ring and bare skin between eyes and bill), while females of subspecies assimilis and rogersi have a red-brown bill and bright rufous lores, and those of subspecies dulcis have white lores. Immature males will develop black bills by six months of age, and moult into breeding plumage the first breeding season after hatching, though this may be incomplete with residual brownish plumage and may take another year or two to perfect. Both sexes moult in autumn after breeding, with males assuming an eclipse non-breeding plumage. They will moult again into nuptial plumage in winter or spring. The blue coloured plumage, particularly the ear-coverts, of the breeding males is highly iridescent due to the flattened and twisted surface of the barbules. The blue plumage also reflects ultraviolet light strongly, and so may be even more prominent to other fairywrens, whose colour vision extends into that part of the spectrum.
Distribution and habitat: The purple-backed fairywren is widely distributed over much of the Australian continent. It is replaced in southwestern Western Australia by the red-winged and blue-breasted fairywrens, and by the lovely fairywren north of a line between Normanton and Townsville in north Queensland. Some early evidence suggested subspecies assimilis may be nomadic, but later more detailed fieldwork indicated it was generally sedentary, with pairs of purple-backed fairywrens maintaining territories year-round. There is little information on the other subspecies.
It is found in scrubland with plenty of vegetation providing dense cover. It prefers rocky outcrops and patches of Acacia, Eremophila or lignum in inland and northern Australia. Fieldwork in the Northern Territory showed that the species preferred open woodland dominated by thickets of lancewood (Acacia shirleyi) and bullwaddy (Macropteranthes kekwickii) than eucalyptus. Chenopod scrubland with plants such as saltbush, bluebush, black rolypoly (Sclerolaena muricata), nitre goosefoot (Chenopodium nitrariaceum), grass tussocks, and overstory plants such as black box (Eucalyptus largiflorens) and native cypress (Callitris).
Clearing of native vegetation for agriculture in the Western Australian wheatbelt and Murray-Mallee region of Victoria had a negative impact on the species, as does the consumption of saltbush by cattle.
Breeding: Breeding can occur at any time in inland Australia, with birds taking the opportunity to nest after heavy rains, although only one brood is usually raised each year.
The nest is a round or domed structure made of loosely woven grasses, twigs, bark and spider webs, with an entrance in one side, and is often larger than those of other fairywrens. Nest measured at Shark Bay ranged from 9 to 11 cm tall and 5 to 9 cm wide.
My entry "Australian Rural Life" genre, Perth Royal Show 37th Perth National Photographic Exhibition.
Sometimes simplicity hits the hardest. Just one tree standing proud in the paddock… and above it, the mighty Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of our Milky Way, glowing softly across the southern sky.
Captured during a still night somewhere between in the Wheatbelt — lots of fog, airglow and light pollution from a farm nearby. These are the moments that remind me why I chase the night.
There was a lot of IFN dust popping through which I ended up toning down. The sky is a 2-shot stack of 20x60s each blended with a 120s single image foreground.
📍Southern Hemisphere skies
✨ Featuring the LMC, 163,000 light years away
Nikon D5500 (modded) - 50mm f/1.8
Star Adventurer 2i
Hoya UV/IR Cut
I recently wandered back to Greenhills — a tiny historical town in the heart of the Wheatbelt, surrounded by rolling countryside.
This spot wasn’t my main target for the night (I’ve shot here before), but after wrapping up a timelapse at the Old Greenhills Bakery, the night still felt too young to call it quits.
So I made my way back to St. Andrew’s Church, where Orion — the Hunter — was just beginning to rise behind it. 🌌
I’d forgotten how tricky this place can be… with so many trees, barely any starlight makes it through. A touch of low-level lighting helped bring the scene to life.
The final image is a 1x2 vertical panorama — a quiet moment beneath the rising Hunter.
Nikon Z30 - 11mm f/1.8
Nikon D5500 (modded) - 24mm f/1.4
The Jurokine Coach House stands as one of the few remaining relics from the late 19th century that supported travel and settlement across the Western Australian Wheatbelt.
Back in its day, it offered weary travellers, horses, and coaches a much-needed rest — a silent witness to the movement of pioneers and perhaps even the gold rush days.
This was one of the spots I’d hoped would bloom with canola this season, but instead found golden wheat waving under the stars — maybe next year! 🌾
The image is a 4x3 panorama, capturing the Milky Way rising behind the old Coach House, surrounded by wheat.
You can also spot the Large Magellanic Cloud in the top-right corner.
Nikon D5500 (modded) - 24mm f/1.4
Star Adventurer 2i
As you head further east in the wheatbelt of Western Australia the land degrades as it becomes drier and a struggle to farm. This is an illustration of what happens after years of land-clearing for farming in a marginal area.
This is between Hyden and the point where the Holland Track crosses the Hyden-Norseman Road.
Holland Track by Fatbike – September 2016 - #Holland 27
No need to worry about disturbing the neighbours tonight. Our camp site at Baladjie Rock in the eastern Wheatbelt region of Western Australia.
Many thanks for your visits, faves and comments. Cheers.
Seems to be a nervous, but very active bird here, preferring to stick to the thicket, rarely coming out in the open, unlike their cousin the Splendid Fairy Wren.
Purple-backed Fairywren
Scientific Name: Malurus assimilis
It was long considered a subspecies of the variegated fairywren until its genetic distinctness led to it once again becoming a separate species in 2018.
Description: The purple-backed fairywren is on average 14.5 cm (5.5 in) long.[citation needed] Like other fairywrens, it is notable for its marked sexual dimorphism, males adopting a highly visible breeding plumage of brilliant iridescent blue and chestnut contrasting with black and grey-brown. The brightly coloured crown and ear tufts are prominently featured in breeding displays. The male in breeding plumage has striking bright blue ear coverts and blue-purple crown and forehead, a black throat and nape, a blue-purple upper back, chestnut shoulders and a bluish-grey tail. The wings are drab brown and the belly white. Within subspecies assimilis, the plumage of both sexes is becomes paler from east to west across its range, with those of northwestern Australia paler still. Non-breeding males, females and juveniles of subspecies assimilis are predominantly grey-brown in colour, while those of subspecies rogersi and dulcis are mainly blue-grey. Males of all subspecies have a black bill and lores (eye-ring and bare skin between eyes and bill), while females of subspecies assimilis and rogersi have a red-brown bill and bright rufous lores, and those of subspecies dulcis have white lores. Immature males will develop black bills by six months of age, and moult into breeding plumage the first breeding season after hatching, though this may be incomplete with residual brownish plumage and may take another year or two to perfect.[23] Both sexes moult in autumn after breeding, with males assuming an eclipse non-breeding plumage. They will moult again into nuptial plumage in winter or spring. The blue coloured plumage, particularly the ear-coverts, of the breeding males is highly iridescent due to the flattened and twisted surface of the barbules. The blue plumage also reflects ultraviolet light strongly, and so may be even more prominent to other fairywrens, whose colour vision extends into that part of the spectrum.
Distribution and habitat: The purple-backed fairywren is widely distributed over much of the Australian continent. It is replaced in southwestern Western Australia by the red-winged and blue-breasted fairywrens, and by the lovely fairywren north of a line between Normanton and Townsville in north Queensland. Some early evidence suggested subspecies assimilis may be nomadic, but later more detailed fieldwork indicated it was generally sedentary, with pairs of purple-backed fairywrens maintaining territories year-round. There is little information on the other subspecies. It is found in scrubland with plenty of vegetation providing dense cover. It prefers rocky outcrops and patches of Acacia, Eremophila or lignum in inland and northern Australia. Fieldwork in the Northern Territory showed that the species preferred open woodland dominated by thickets of lancewood (Acacia shirleyi) and bullwaddy (Macropteranthes kekwickii) than eucalyptus.[29] Chenopod scrubland with plants such as saltbush, bluebush, black rolypoly (Sclerolaena muricata), nitre goosefoot (Chenopodium nitrariaceum), grass tussocks, and overstory plants such as black box (Eucalyptus largiflorens) and native cypress (Callitris). Clearing of native vegetation for agriculture in the Western Australian wheatbelt and Murray-Mallee region of Victoria had a negative impact on the species, as does the consumption of saltbush by cattle.
Breeding: Breeding can occur at any time in inland Australia, with birds taking the opportunity to nest after heavy rains, although only one brood is usually raised each year. The nest is a round or domed structure made of loosely woven grasses, twigs, bark and spider webs, with an entrance in one side, and is often larger than those of other fairywrens. Nest measured at Shark Bay ranged from 9 to 11 cm tall and 5 to 9 cm wide.
(Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purple-backed_fairywren)
© Chris Burns 2025
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All rights reserved.
This image may not be copied, reproduced, distributed, republished, downloaded, displayed, posted or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic, mechanical, photocopying and recording without my written consent.
Former Commercial Bank of Australia
An old Australian saying if you haven’t got a “Brass Razoo”, means you are broke or penniless.
The Milky Way core starts to clear the trees in a typical Wheatbelt scene. The skies here were so clear, dark and a barnstorming Bortle 2! It really was a treat for the naked eye let alone the camera, you could clearly see the dark nebulas such as The Coalsack and also the two satellite galaxies of the SMC and the LMC. This image is a blend of two images,one tracked for the sky and another for the foreground.
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Foreground f2.2 90s ISO3200
Sky tracked f2.2 60s ISO800
Camera 📷 Nikon Z6ii
Lens Nikkor 20mm 1.8S
Milkyway Core rising above Toodyay
The Milky Way core starts to clear the church doors in a typical Wheatbelt Church setting. The image is from later in the night and you can clearly see in these dark Bortle 2 skies the Small Sagittarius Gas Cloud just above the roof of the church. Also you could clearly see the dark nebula areas such as The Norma region. This image is a stitched pano of two panels three frames per panel.
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Foreground f2.2 60s ISO800
Sky tracked f2.2 60s ISO800
Camera 📷 Nikon Z6ii
Lens Nikkor 20mm 1.8S
A raspberry coloured Hakea with floppy pins. A tall messy plant, making it difficult to photograph the flower. There are many forms of Hakea, I have not seen this one before & I cannot find an ID. Growing in a Wandoo forest near Brookton, Western Australia.
YORK Town, Western Australia.
(Wikipedia)
York is the oldest inland town in Western Australia, situated on the Avon River, 98 kilometres (61 mi) east of Perth in the Wheatbelt, on Ballardong Nyoongar land, and is the seat of the Shire of York.
The name of the region was suggested by JS Clarkson during an expedition in October 1830 because of its similarity to his own county in England, Yorkshire.
After thousands of years of occupation by Ballardong Nyoongar people, the area was first settled by Europeans in 1831, two years after Perth was settled in 1829. A town was established in 1835 with the release of town allotments and the first buildings were erected in 1836.
The region was important throughout the 19th century for sheep and grain farming, sandalwood, cattle, goats, pigs and horse breeding.
York boomed during the gold rush as it was one of the last rail stops before the walk to the goldfields.
Today, the town attracts tourists for its beauty, history, buildings, festivals and art.
As we traveled to this location there was controlled burning being undertaken in the area and we saw glimpses through the trees of fires that were being lit and the DPAW vehicles in attendance. We’d checked all the weather apps before we set off which changed our minds and this location wasn’t our first choice as we were headed further inland to the Wheatbelt but blanket cloud was forecast there. Now we were worried the smoke might cover the sky in the direction we planned to shoot on our Plan B.
When we first arrived we were met by two farmers who at first thought we were pig hunters! When they saw our tripods they were relieved and we had a good chat with them and they gave us permission to go into the paddock, they didn’t chat for long though as they’d be working in this very field at 5:30AM!
After a successful night shooting the core we then drove for another hour to camp for the night as our intended campsite was full! Once our tents were up we bedded down for the remaining few hours of the night content with ourselves but smelling very smokey due to the controlled burns!
I created this image with Sagittarius breaking the horizon as the smoke accentuated the bright stars of that constellation as it moved through the atmospheric haze.
At the top of the image you can see the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex, it's directly in line with the chimney stack of the old ruin with the bright star Antares shining brightly.
EXIF
A blended image of four frames, two tracked frames for the sky and two for the foreground all @ f/2.8 60s ISO800.
Camera 🎥 Nikon Z6ii 👀 20mm 1.8S
I thought on this night I’d give the nifty fifty a go, and decided against my better judgement to shoot an arch of the galaxy, beginning at the zenith and shooting down to the horizon. I was very very lucky this night as my buddies had already finished their shoot and were waiting on me finishing the arch and as I was packing my gear hastily into the car I forgot my tripod and geared head, which was standing next to the car.
Luckily we were shooting two locations that night so when we got to the next location no tripod! My mate had a spare so I used his heavy duty wildlife tripod then after the second shoot we drove back an hour to pickup my tripod which luckily was still there, otherwise it would’ve been a very expensive night’s Astro !
EXIF
The image is an 82 shot panorama all at f/2.2 5s ISO6400 50mm.
Camera Nikon Z6ii
Lens Nikkor 1.8S 50mm
Weerhalle is a town of some 300 people in the wheatbelt of central western New South Wales. In 2016 a number of similar small and struggling towns in country Victoria had become overnight tourism success stories on the back of similar silo art projects. In the first half of 2017 Weethalle employed the well known street artist, Heesco to create this artwork on a silo that sits right beside the highway that runs through the town. The project was completed in two weeks during the month of June and was officially opened on 1 July 2017. As expected, it has become a spectacular landmark and a popular tourist drawcard.
© Irwin Reynolds, all rights reserved. If you are interested in using one of my images or would like a high quality fine art print, please send me an email (irwinreynolds@me.com).
I saw an interesting pattern of dry lakes on a satellite map. Since it cannot be seen from ground level I took to the air with a drone. The broad valley is the continuation of a system of salt lakes in Western Australia's Wheatbelt, an area that has seen large scale clearing of vegetation and replacement with crops. The Wheatbelt landscape of today is very flat and the ancient river valleys (palaeochannels) have become filled with sediment. Surface drainage into disconnected chains of salt lakes occurs, however they only link up and flow into one another during exceptionally wet years. The photo is a panorama stitched from 8 vertical files.
The Holland Track, also known as the John Holland Way, is a bush track between Broomehill and Coolgardie in Western Australia.With a total length of around 700 kilometres (435 mi), the track passes through parts of the Great Southern, Wheatbelt and Goldfields regions including the biologically diverse Great Western Woodlands, which is the largest intact area of Mediterranean climate woodland left in the world.The track was pioneered by John Holland in 1893 as a short cut through to the Goldfields.