Benz World Blog » VIC

Dust Storm

Jason Benz — Mon, 04 Nov 2019 12:24:06 +0000

I drove through this dust storm shortly after crossing the border from South Australia into Victoria earlier today. I have never experienced anything like it before. I did not expect it to include bands of heavy rain. This unusual combination turned much of the traffic completely orange. At a couple of points, it overwhelmed my windscreen wipers so I had to stop and clean it by hand. The moment I opened the door I was hit by the strong winds and dust. It was how I imagine stepping onto the surface of Mars.

Tomorrow, after I clean my vans air filter, I should cross into New South Wales on my way to the Blue Mountains.

Open Road

Jason Benz — Sun, 09 Jun 2019 13:50:55 +0000

I am finally back on the road again after a prolonged wait in the Blue Mountains for my bike to clear customs following its journey from the UK. While the welcome has been warm the weather was not. There has even been snow a few times. I will start by going North to find temperatures more suited to #vanlife. After finding some suitable remote spot to photograph the Milky Way during the winter solstice I will go west into channel country where I hope to see a natural event which only happens a couple of times every 100 years.

You may have heard some parts of Australia are experiencing drought. Describing this as a natural disaster is not entirely accurate. The amount of rainfall which qualifies as a drought today would not be in the days before large scale agriculture and industry started taking huge quantities of water from the river system. The difference in the supply and demand for water is both an economic and environmental problem.

The 2018/2019 drought is mainly in the heavily used Murray-Darling basin. It is over 1 million square kilometres and covers most of New South Wales, Victoria and Australian Capital Territory and parts of Queensland and South Australia. Its proximity to all the population centres results in its intense management becoming highly politicized and the rivers have suffered.

By contrast, the mostly desert Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre basin is an untamed natural river system and one of the world’s largest internally draining ones. It covers about 1.2 million square kilometres in Queensland, South Australia, The Northern Territory and a little bit of New South Wales. Instead of flowing to the ocean it drains to Australias lowest point, a lake 15 meters below sea level. This year the lake is set to fill for the first time since I was born attracting wildlife from the whole continent. I hope to see this on my journey west.

This image has been accepted by Shutterstock for Stock Photography and is available for download here.

Australia’s Twin

Jason Benz — Tue, 12 Sep 2017 21:34:29 +0000

These are some of the limestone cliffs in Victoria, Australia. Over 7200 km (4500 miles) out to sea is another set of cliffs which mirror this coastline. They belong to Australia’s twin. 80,000,000 years ago these cliff’s were connected to the land which now lies under the ice in Antarctica. Back then the earth was a lot hotter but it had started to enter an ice age as Australia moved towards the equator. The result was temperatures in Australia were stable for a very long time when the rest of the world’s wildlife was suffering from climate change.

Today Australia is in the opposite position. The continent is still moving north which is magnifying the effect of global warming.

This image has been accepted by Shutterstock for Stock Photography and is available for download here.

Collins Street

Jason Benz — Sat, 19 Aug 2017 09:11:03 +0000

This is a view of the 3rd and 4th tallest buildings in Australia as Photographed from the 2nd tallest. The centre building is 120 Collins Street, A postmodern style heavily influenced by iconic Art Deco buildings in New York. On the right is 101 Collins Street which also would not look out of place in a Ghostbusters film. This led me to make this composite by adding purple clouds in Photoshop.

The tallest building in Australia is not in Melbourne like these, nor is it even in a state capital. It is the Q1 on the Gold Coast in Queensland. Oz answer to UK‘s Blackpool tower.

This image has been accepted by Shutterstock for Stock Photography and is available for download here.

Flinders Street

Jason Benz — Sat, 21 Jan 2017 07:48:09 +0000

This building is Flinders Street Railway Station in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

This image has been accepted by Shutterstock for Stock Photography and is available for download here.

The Grotto

Jason Benz — Tue, 30 Aug 2016 09:50:34 +0000

This is the Grotto which can be found on the Great Ocean Road in Victoria, Australia.

Cooks Endeavour

Jason Benz — Wed, 03 Aug 2016 11:06:32 +0000

This is a replica of James Cooks Endeavour. The ship was moored at the Central Pier of Melbournes Docklands in Victoria, Australia.

To process this image split toning was applied in Camera RAW.

The Apostles

Jason Benz — Fri, 16 Jan 2015 11:28:19 +0000

These limestone stacks on the coast of Victoria, Australia are know as The Twelve Apostles, despite only ever having nine of them. On 3rd July 2005 a 50 metre tall stack collapsed into the sea leaving eight. Then in 2016 five under water stack were discovered by sonar mapping.

We are planning a road trip from Southport to Sydney to drop off Karen for her flight back to the UK in a few weeks. There will also be a chance to add to mining stock photography and visit an observatory.

This image has been accepted by Shutterstock for Stock Photography and is available for download here.

Southerly Point

Jason Benz — Fri, 21 Nov 2014 11:05:09 +0000

This beach was somewhere near mainland Australia’s most southerly point in Victoria 200km from Melbourne.

Karen is planning a trip around Queensland over Christmas 2014. I am hoping my camera and lens are back from Canon by then. In the meantime I have a decade of digital data to delve through to keep the weekly photoblog going.

This image has been accepted by Shutterstock for Stock Photography and is available for download here.

Victorian Parliament

Jason Benz — Sat, 25 Oct 2014 09:34:50 +0000

This building is Melbourne Parliament House in Victoria, Australia. From 1901 to 1927 it was used by the National Government before it moved to Canberra. In that time the Victorian Parliament met at the Royal Exhibition Building.

This image has been accepted by Shutterstock for Stock Photography and is available for download here.