Student Showcase

Aussie Hope - Henry Knight (Year 10)

There is surely no better way to show the vast brutality of Australia than from a lofty drone, floating over 16 thousand acres of remote grazing land, recently revived by sudden flooding after several years of hellish drought. Henry Knight (Year 10) took advantage of such a unique situation early last year, showcasing a landscape that many Marist students would never have witnessed themselves. To the day boys like myself, familiar with the manicured hedges and vivid green carpets that populate the Ashgrove campus, the scene from Henry’s high-flying camera looks almost alien, but Henry assures me the monochromatic landscape pictured is nothing out of the ordinary. 

While the Knight property, located 65 kilometres from Dirranbandi, the nearest town, is mainly a sheep and cattle farm, the family will often plant a field of wheat or barley during the summer months. Despite this, the featured plot hasn’t been touched by the dusty tractor plough - which stands solitary amidst the expansive, half-cropped field - for over four years. The miraculous rains experienced during February of last year were a godsend to the family. Like many in the area, they had suffered the devastating effects of the drought since 2012.

Henry’s photo, one of the winners of last year’s AshCam competition, is not the dry wasteland that it might appear to be – ultimately, it’s an image of Aussie hope, right in the midst of the many struggles of 2020. 

Eamon Madden 12G

The Art Department is once again running the AshCam photography competition in 2021! Entries open in Term 3, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be on the lookout for the winning pic, so keep those cameras close by!