A Journey of Fog, Storms, and the Quiet Power of Light on the road to Burra
Some journeys start long before you hit the road. They begin in the quiet hours of the morning — in routine and intuition. Photography, at its best, teaches you to lean into the unknown. That lesson was clear as I watched a cold front edge towards South Australia. The timing felt right. Weather changes everything — light, mood, even intention. And for a while now, especially since my last trip to Western Australia, I’ve been feeling the need to make this area the destination rather than just a passage through the road to Burra.
The drive at the start felt eerie as the fog enveloped the highway for over 230 kilometres and beyond. The white lines dissolved into it like smoke — no sky, no horizon, just a ribbon of motion and the hum of forward momentum.
But eventually, the fog lifted — briefly. Then it returned. And with it, a moment I couldn’t ignore: The Little Desert Hotel bright in colour, standing out against the fog. Derelict. Forgotten. Perfect.
THE ROAD TO BURRA
This is the reality of photography on the road. The challenge that weather presents becomes light that transforms. That day, a squall line tore across the state. Wind howling. Rain relentless. Even some hail and lightning, not what I’d planned. But far more memorable.
When I finally arrived at the iconic Midnight Oil House outside Burra — the one made famous on the Diesel and Dust album cover, the sky began to break momentarily. The light came through in subtle waves. I set up a long exposure to capture the movement of clouds across its weathered face. When the textured clouds moved in, I opted for shorter exposures to capture the gnarly tail end of the storm clouds.
MIDNIGHT OIL HOUSE — A CULTURAL ICON
That house, in that light, carried more than just a memory of music. It held its own kind of ghost, a collective memory etched into the landscape by nearly four decades of midnight fans.
Even without the golden hour glow I’d hoped for, the grey hour revealed its own truth. Honest. Subtle. Enough.
Tomorrow promises clear skies, but Mother Nature has no guarantees, and yet… I’ll still rise before the sun, because you never know what’s just ahead.
You can watch the full journey from Burra to Hawker on YouTube or here in the video below.
