(Image: Dean Sewell)

THIS grey kangaroo probably died from starvation at the peak of Australia’s recent 15-year drought, and then quickly became half-buried in the country’s iconic red dirt, carried in scorching dry winds blowing across the desert.

It was those winds that, in 2009, blanketed Australia’s east coast in an eerie red cloud – what became known as the East Australian dust storm. When photographer Dean Sewell saw the spectacular storm engulf Sydney, he decided to head west and investigate its source.

He came across this dead kangaroo in Tibooburra, one of the places the dust was found to originate, about 1200 kilometres north-west of Sydney. “There was no vegetation out there at all,” says Sewell. “It was as bare as you’ve ever seen it. And daily there were dust storms blowing around.”


This image forms part of a lifelong project to examine the region, known as the Murray-Darling basin after one of Australia’s most significant river systems. Sewell says he returns again and again to capture the consequences of climate change and human activity.

The photograph is on display as part of the Syngenta Photography Award 2015: Scarcity–Waste exhibition at Somerset House in London from 11 March to 10 April.

This article appeared in print under the headline “Frozen in dirt”