A sixteen shot panorama of the milky way over the Warrumbungles. The area has little light pollution to disturb astronomical viewing and is home to the Siding Spring observatory which is has more than a $100 million in scientific equipment including 44 telescopes. The largest is the Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT), a 3.9-metre equatorially mounted telescope, sits at an altitude of a little over 1,100 m and was ranked in 2009 as the fifth highest-impact of the world's optical telescopes. New South Wales, Australia
Tumbleweed takes over the abandoned Farmers Home Hotel in Matong. Built in 1916 on the site of an existing pub, the building serviced the local area with general goods, liquor and short term accommodation. In 2007 the hotel experienced an internal fire that destroyed the first floor area along with damage to areas on ground floor. The grass, known as hairy panic grass (panicum effusum), becomes a tumbleweed under extremely dry conditions, in an effort to disperse its seeds, and can become a nuisance in outback residential areas. Matong has a population of less than 200 people and is located in the Riverina region of south western NSW, Australia.
The sun rises through majestic river red gums over Lake Yanga within Yanga National Park. The park is now part of the larger Murrumbidgee Valley National Park created in 2010, to protect what is now the largest continuous tract of river red gum forest in the world. Over 150 species of birds call the wetlands home. The river red gum (Eucalyptus camaldulensis) is an iconic tree seen along many watercourses right across inland Australia and can live over 1000 years. Regatta Beach, Balranald, New South Wales, Australia.
