An Australian wedding photographer completed a 27,000-kilometer round-trip of the country, most of which included traveling through outback terrain, without spending any money. Instead, she traded her photo services with people she met along the way in return for food and fuel.
With just her pet dog, Jordie, for company during the majority of the trip, Edwina Robertson, a wedding photographer by trade, set out to document what life in the bush is really like. She wanted to “highlight the extremes people have to put up with in the bush” and to bring them to the forefront. This isn’t the first time Robertson’s work has garnered media attention. Back in 2015, one of her wedding photos went viral for featuring a bridal party in dirt, in what was an attempt to shed light on the suffering of Australian farmers at the hands of harsh drought conditions.
Over the last few years, I've really realized how much of a disadvantage people in the bush have, even basic services like education, health, Internet, and access to doctors. I think there's this perception that people in the bush are a bit redneck, but they're very well educated, very resilient, patient, and hospitable. I wanted to show these character traits.
On the journey, Robertson moved from property to property, speaking to rural folk and listening to their respective stories. She relied on their hospitality, taking photos of and for them in return for necessities, spending virtually nothing her entire trip.
In her interview with The Daily Mail, she talks about her experiences encountering strangers in the bush, how she flipped her car, and meeting a man she thought she’d marry before he left and never contacted her again. Read the full story here or find more of her work on her website and Instagram.
Lead image credit: Kaique Rocha from Pexels, used under Creative Commons.
[via The Daily Mail]
Wow, what a story! Thanks for sharing. I really like her work.
You must live a positively thrilling, safe, life. Kayaking on the Amazon is very different to driving around in a 4WD here in Australia.
It's funny, you can tell the people who've never done anything like it. He's probably never been to Australia, and likely doesn't even realise that South America and Australia are different continents! I guess the only harm these types usually cause from their comfy armchairs is a bit of a chuckle for the rest of us...
"It's funny, you can tell the people who've never done anything like it" Really? Please, tell me how.
For sure, if you are guessing, odds are in your favor because a percentage of people who do things like this die in the run.
I love to know about the adventure of this girl. But if we can call it "adventure" is precisely because involves danger at one level or another.
I agree that they are places more dangerous than others but in the end, there's no safe place on earth. Not even cops or military are recommended to go alone.
Go alone is a personal decisión but not the safest or recommended thing to do.
Oh, there's no need to guess, or even rely on probability. The pure naysayers give themselves away as people who have always been too afraid to choose for themselves to do anything like it. They're the ones who hear someone's hopes, plans or stories of adventure and can only respond with negativity and a complete lack of anything constructive to say. They've never done otherwise to know otherwise. At best they did something once that scared them, often as a child, and that is the extent of their experience.
Of course you are correct that everything in life involves risk, and a girl travelling by herself can carry a greater risk than some other forms of travel.
However, those who have had similar experiences of adventure don't simply belittle the plans or stories of others by only sprouting negativity about risk. Experienced people can identify with the spirit of adventure, and so they reflect that in their response. They usually speak of risk in a solution-focussed way. If they have concerns about potential high risks but no experience in the particular venture they are hearing about, then they point the adventurer towards others who have already done something like what the potential risk taker is proposing. People who have had experience in similar ventures do not point to the misfortunes of someone who undertook an unrelated venture. They speak from the position of experience instead.
Here we have a story of a woman who is very experienced in traveling through rural Australia, who successfully drives around Australia (primarily on the well maintained sealed roads if the map in the linked article is to be believed), without carrying cash. This is an interesting and exciting adventure, but as someone who has travelled a lot more extensively (and remotely) than this woman's journey, I can confirm it is not a particularly dangerous one. Especially for someone with her high level of experience of Australian outback culture.
So we can safely conclude that the guy who responded to the story with pure negativity about risk, including an irrelevant anecdote about a completely different scenario, has never done anything like it. If he had, then his response would have been completely different.
Well, and it is not possible that someone with a lot of adventurer experiences comments about the dangers they know better than the average people because they went through a lot? You think only people who "never done otherwise to know otherwise" talk about the danger that these adventures entail?
I'm really lost here now: "those who have had similar experiences of adventure don't simply belittle the plans or stories of others by only sprouting negativity about risk". Who do you mean? This thread began with a comment from Bob who didn't belittle or disrespect anyone with it, neither sprouted negativity (we read the same post?), and at some moment you insult him without any provocation. You have a great imagination, that is clear.
And last: "So we can safely conclude..." My God, are you for real? You have to mature, man. Respect the opinions of the others even if you don't share it and don't insult with or without provocation. And think about the differences between reality and imagination and stop asserting things you can't possibly know.
"we read the same post?" Seemingly not. Little or no communication appears to have been achieved - I don't know whether this is due to deliberate obfustication or some kind of misunderstanding. So I'll agree to disagree with you and leave it at that.
I agree to that. Have a nice day, man!
Thanks man, you too!
Truly amazing and inspiring!!!
Or, she could have taken up 2-3 proper paid shoot and fund her entire travel : P
That would be nowhere near as much fun, and nowhere near as good a story to tell! 😛
Fascinating! Good on her, what a champ. I'd love to see an accurate map of where she really went. That map on the article in the link has her going nowhere near Uluru or Alice Springs. Yet she's photographed at Uluru, and has sent messages from Alice Springs.
Fortunately, here in Australia, the taxation system is not quite as draconion as that of the US. It might surpise some US readers that when you win the lottery in Australia for, say, $6 million, you get to take home $6 million. No tax, no payments over 25 years, just a big fat $6 million!
It is a good question! Businesses who barter with each other are liable to pay tax on those exchanges, but individuals aren't. So, as an individual on holiday around Australia, she'd be unlikely to be pursued by the Australian Tax Office.
They would also have a hard time making a case against her anyway, even if her bartering was subject to tax. The journey is a very long way to travel for a tax assessor to research each instance of her bartering, trying to build a brief of evidence against her. A great job for someone, though, on the public purse!
Oh she's the lady who took the dusty wedding party photo.