Australia burning. A smokey Grose Valley sunrise. Blue Mountains, Australia.

A shot from back in November 2019, smoke from the Gosper Mountain fire was thick in the Valley but had not even come close to reaching it yet.

By Christmas time the Gospers Mountain fire had reached the Grose Valley and now the scars of that fire are clearly visible with vast amounts of the whole area burnt to the ground.

The Gospers Mountain fire burnt more than 500 000 hectares before it was declared extinguished and the total area burnt by fires in just NSW alone over the 2019-2020 fire season was over 5.3 million hectares!

It was a frightening time for many of my friends and family who lived nearby the fires with one friend loosing their families farm. Others had to fight to save their family members properties and I myself even had to rush to my partners parents home to gather their precious belonging when the fires approached Blackheath in the Blue Mountains.

Many lost so much more and my heart goes out to them, I also have an even deeper respect for the volunteer fire fighters who worked endlessly to fight these fires!

Hopefully this has opened the eyes of more people to the dangers we face if we do not act to stop climate change.