Photo Stories
Taking a few days to escape to the country and capture the breathtaking beauty of the unlikely sounding Dunns Swamp
This month featuring an Australian swamp and a massive medieval cathedral
Despite the rather uninspiring name, Dunns Swamp is a beautiful spot hidden in the Wollemi National Park, 230km northwest of Sydney, Australia. Tucked away in the hills, it is a great place to simply relax or go bushwalking, birdwatching, kayaking, swimming, fishing – or all of the above…
Dunns Swamp, to which the local indigenous Australians refer to as Ganguddy, is part of the Cungegong River, dammed in the 1920s to supply water by pipeline to a nearby – but now defunct – cement works. The result is a clear, placid, reedlined… well… swamp, which is enclosed by 200-millionyear-old sandstone rock formations. I took my camper van and camera gear to the swamp for a few days in March, on the first weekend that the weather let us know
Each morning the air was still and cold, with a wonderful steam of fog rising from the water
we had left summer behind, so the mornings were quite crisp. My aim was to set up the camper van so I could simply fall out of bed for the sunrise. Each morning the air was still and cold, with a wonderful steam of fog rising from the water and, with my sturdy Manfrotto and ND grad filter, I was able to capture the mist drifting slowly by in the golden light. I still like to use filters as I don’t have an enormous amount of patience with the processing side of things, preferring to be outside taking photos instead.
In the late afternoon I protected my camera in a dry bag and kayaked to a cliff face I had spied earlier in the day, and where I predicted the sun would highlight the sheer, sandstone cliffs surrounding the swamp. Following the afternoon shoots it was nice to settle down in front of a roaring fire with a local red, knowing that you’ve packed some photography, bushwalking, kayaking and birdwatching all into one day.
I hope I have captured the serenity of the area and the grandeur of the surrounding rock formations, which make Dunns Swamp such a special place, even if its name belies its beauty.