AustLit

'Claire watched the smoke and fire on the far hills. She saw the flames themselves through her camera's lens. They showed between the distant trees as just a few orange points. The smell of the burning eucalypts rose with the smoke that reddened the morning light. The wind came hard off the northern deserts with that burning smell upon it. Claire hoped that the fire would grow by afternoon and the hot wind that stoked the flames promised her that it would...' (Publication abstract)