'TINDERBOX'

The drought and dry grasslands combined with overgrown National Parks and bush lands contributed to the terrible fires in Australia recently.  Gum trees are very combustible and once the fires took hold they fueled it to incredible heights with the oil in their leaves.  The Indigenous people managed Australia by slow burn methods and it was only when the newcomers altered the environment that the huge wildfires began.  We need to listen to the old ways and put them back into use again with slow burning and not locking up National Parks and never cleaning and clearing the undergrowth in them as we have been doing.  In this painting the landscape is dry and the bush is waiting menacingly for that first lightening strike or match, a terrible combination.