Cyanotype collection: Roadtrip July 2025

In July, Dan and I went on a roadtrip up to Winton, going through St George, Cunnamulla, Charleville, Longreach, Emerald, Rockhampton, Bundaberg, and Tin Can Bay. Our purpose in going to Winton was to visit the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum. My learning interests are mainly historical, and Dan's are scientific, so the subject where we intersect is dinosaurs. It was an unforgettable fortnight, with so much more than dinosaurs, including

• seeing a shooting star in St George (this was the first night, and Dan spent the rest of the trip looking for one, which he managed on our last night in the towns)
• spa soaking in the middle of nature in Cunnamulla (it was unexpectedly fancy for a town that wasn't expecting anyone)
• bilby conservation and solar astronomy in Charleville (Charleville was definitely a highlight I wasn't expecting; it was 110% worth stopping here)
• checking out an old project of Dan's at the Stockman's Hall of Fame in Longreach)
• visiting the art gallery and walking along the river in Rockhampton (they were about to have their own River Festival -- dare I say, Brisbane's little sibling?)
• checking out the distillery in Bundaberg (good old sugar cane country; it reminds me of standing at the top of the driveway when I was kid and watching the sugar cane char flutter down from the sky)
• looking for wildlife in Tin Can Bay (by this point in the trip, we were walking around with binoculars to watch the birds, so...maybe this is middle age.)

I saw aspects of Australia I never thought I'd get to see. In anticipation of our trip, I prepared a bunch of cyanotype papers, all various polaroid sizes (both Polaroid brand and Fuji, in case you're interested).

I tried to develop a lot of cyanotypes on the car dashboard while travelling, to really varied results. The roads we were driving on were proper outback roads, so there were potholes and floodways and noisy lines and road trains, and I didn't have anything to keep the design in place (like glass over the top, which seemed like a risky thing to pack). Sometimes I was moved by the location to make a cyanotype, but sometimes I'd keep bits of plants folded up in my books, ready to make a print as soon as we stopped. Part of the fun is remembering how they were developed, though, which explains some of their captions/titles.

Road-side flowers, made in the car 2