Shock report
the robots taking over our lives
People thought Edwina Robertson had lost her mind when she set off across Australia in an ancient 4WD called Alice with no one but her dog, Jordie, for company, bartering her skills as a photographer for food and petrol.
It would be fair to say that Edwina had some pre-trip anxiety too. Before she set off on her practice run in January last year, she was so nervous that she threw up in aisle two of her local Coles. And just weeks before departure for the main event in
May, she admitted herself to hospital suffering an emotional breakdown. She had been working around the clock as a wedding photographer. “I was run-down, burnt out,” she explains. “I found myself in a really bad spot – I would have been classed as suicidal.” Her friends tried to convince her to postpone the trip but, she says, “I’d been planning this for two years and I knew I needed it. I needed to escape the hustle and bustle, and expectations and pressures.”
Inspired by her hero, Robyn Davidson, who had crossed the continent by camel back in 1977, Edwina used her fears “as stepping stones rather than stumbling blocks”. She spent four days in hospital, then started packing. “Within three days of getting on the road, I was a new person. I felt happier and safer than I ever had. It was the best thing I could have done.”
In the hundred days that followed, Edwina covered 27,000km and spent time with 80 remote families. She kept a small sum in a bank account for emergency mechanical repairs but
she travelled without cash. She sent call-outs via social media and everywhere she went, people invited her to visit and photograph their families, their lives and their land.
“The older I get, the more connected I feel with my country roots,” says Edwina, now 32, who grew up on a mixed farm in New England, northern NSW. “One of the ideas behind the trip was to bridge the divide between the bush and our city mates.
“I’m hoping, by sharing these images, to bring about a bit more awareness of what life is like when you have to travel 300km to collect your mail,” she says.
Edwina gained her first insight into just how powerful an image can be two years ago when a photograph she’d taken at a wedding in far western Queensland went viral on social media.
“A week before the wedding, the bride’s family had de-stocked their property. They’d been in drought for four years, there was no rain forecast and they’d had to sell the last of their sheep. When I stopped in town, I sensed the sadness in the district and I could see that every business was suffering. So the wedding was bittersweet.
“When I came home, I posted a shot called ‘Wedding Party Walking through the Dust’ and I added a note saying that, every time the photo was shared, I would donate $3 to Tie Up the Black Dog, which is a volunteer group raising money for mental health services in rural Queensland. I thought the photo would be shared maybe
100 times. It was shared 4974 times in 24 hours. It was in The New York Times and on CNN News. It went all over the world and people still come up to me and talk about it. It’s nice to be known for that.
“Anyway, thank God I had the money. I was about to buy a car, so that had to wait for a while. I ended up donating $15,000 of my own money and then we raised another $25,000. In the end, Tie Up the Black Dog sent it all to the Royal Flying Doctor Service and it paid for a clinical counsellor position in western Queensland. So it paid for someone to go directly back to the area where it all started and offer support to those families through the tough times.” Edwina was inspired by the people she met all over the outback on her 100-day odyssey. Mothers homeschooling their kids because they don’t have an option; a family living in remote WA who had a child with cerebral palsy and had to travel thousands of kilometres to see specialists; people who had lost everything to drought. Anyone who lives that remotely has an inspiring story to tell.”
There were a few close calls along the way. An asthma attack, with no medication, 50km from the nearest town; a wrong turn on a 1200km
Anyone who lives that remotely has a story to tell.
drive that left her short of petrol. “I had to send an emergency social media call-out, asking whether there was anyone in the area who would like some photos in exchange for filling my tank. Within 25 minutes I had an offer,” she grins.
Then there was the time she rolled Alice on a dirt track 200km north-west of Alice Springs. “The first thing I did was check on my dog, Jordie. He was fine. Then I checked myself and I was fine – not even a scratch.
“I tried to get my satellite phone working but couldn’t.
I was just wondering what to do when a car-load of Aboriginal guys stopped and offered me a lift. I got some new parts in town and basically rebuilt the car in a backyard over two days. This trip showed me that I could do things I’d never thought possible.”
In the south-west of WA, Edwina met a farmer who joined her for a week travelling between Kalgoorlie and Uluru. “We had the best week of our lives,” she laughs. “It was love at first sight, we spoke about getting married, babies, all that stuff. It was the love story every girl dreams of. He even joined me for a TV interview at
Alice Springs and we professed our love on national television. Then, 48 hours after the filming, he said he had to go back to work and I haven’t heard from him since. That was one of the best and worst things that happened on the trip”.
Now back at home in southern Queensland, Edwina says that what she truly fell in love with on the trip was the outback, and she’s eager to share the stories of the people who live there. Her journey has also thoroughly renewed her love of life.
“It was such a positive experience. I had no money, I didn’t know where I was going, I didn’t know the people I’d be staying with until I got there, but I have never been as happy as I was on this trip – ever in my entire life,” she says.
It was the love story every girl dreams of.