Australian Outback Flood Plain — After La Niña Rains
849.00 $
The Diamantina River flood plains of central Queensland photographed after La Niña rainfall — the braided channel system temporarily filled, the floodplain surface reflecting the sky in thousands of shallow isolated water pools.
Description
The Diamantina River flood plain in central Queensland fills only rarely — the catchment’s annual average rainfall is under 300mm, and widespread flooding occurs perhaps once per decade during La Niña rainfall events. When it does fill, the aerial landscape is transformed from a dusty red-brown plain to a mirror-like surface of shallow water pools that reflects the sky. This photograph was made at 600 metres altitude three days after peak flooding, when the main channel had receded but the off-channel floodplain was still sheeted in shallow water between 5 and 30 centimetres deep. The water surface in these conditions acts as a near-perfect mirror for the overhead sky, and the resulting aerial image shows an inversion — the sky reflected in the ground, the water-free red-brown clay islands appearing as dark shapes against the bright reflective water. The braided main channel is visible as a darker water tone where depth increases.
