Photographer // Vivienne Ward

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On an Autumn weekend back in 2010, I traveled to Gulgong, a 19th century gold rush town in the Central-West of New South Wales, Australia, to see my all-time favourite singer/songwriter, Jane Siberry.

Jane is Canadian and did a world tour with just herself and her guitar. She stayed at peoples’ homes around the countryside and did performances in their backyards, living rooms, little old churches, and, in the case of Gulgong, she performed in a paddock! Watching her negotiate the grasses, tufts, and uneven ground of the Australian bush while she was singing and playing guitar is something I will always remember — magical!

I got quite a few ‘Australiana’ pics on that little trip, this being one of them. A large, arid field shouted the fact that we’d been through a long drought, but those clouds were definitely shouting something else! Not long after, it started raining like there was no tomorrow and kept raining until it flooded. You may have heard about the floods in Queensland that affected 75% of the state. That’s a huge area! So I suppose you’d call this the “before” picture.