Summary

Photograph taken of landscape after bushfire in Lorne following Ash Wednesday.

This image was taken by Andrew Wegener on a field survey following the Ash Wednesday Bushfires on the beaches between Apollo Bay and Torquay. The survey studied the effects of bushfire on the wildlife and a number of specimens were photographed and collected that day. Andrew Wegener donated 15 of the specimens to the ornithology collection at Museum Victoria for study and research and published a paper in the Australian Bird Watcher describing the survey and its findings.

Description of Content

Image of Lorne beach viewed from cliff with burnt trees in foreground.

Significance

This series of images is significant in a number of ways. It references the effects of bushfire on wildlife and illustrates quite literally the power of the heat and ambient environment during a bushfire. Most of these animals showed no outward signs of bushfire effect. Most died from heat or smoke exhaustion. Further these images illuminate a small collections in the ornithology collection made up of samples from this survey. Whilst the images give a human context to the specimens and reveal how and when the survey was conducted they also stand as a visual identification for what are now only bones.

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