Video: Hacking Through the Burnt-Out Aussie Bush

Wild bushfires ravaged much of the natural bushland near Joel’s home causing many families to evacuate, decimating much of the vegetation and covering a total 2,430 hectares. While we feel for the victims of this tragic event, this provided Joel and I with the opportunity to film something truly unique. The original concept was to wait for hazard reduction burning to occur in order to film the trails surviving and capture some interesting shots of the aftermath. We have been waiting for the opportunity to film in these conditions for quite a few months and were pretty keen to get amongst it to say the least.


After much anticipation, Joel and I headed out to some of his local trails with the plan to capture life returning to the area and see what we were left to work with. Despite the fact that some of the more interesting sections of trail were destroyed by falling debris, we managed to salvage some sections with a bit of effort and ride others which escaped relatively well. The coming months will prove to be testing for the tireless crew of trail fairies which make the riding scene what it is. You know who you are.


Afterburn aims to show the beauty and resilience of the Australian bush, in one of the many unique stages of its lifecycle by focusing a little less on the riding aspect and more on the uniqueness of this landscape. Only a month after the fire, life is already returning. With bird calls echoing throughout the many valleys, ferns sprouting, new leaves forming and kangaroos seen hopping between the bare trees in the distance. To say the least, we had quite an exhausting yet enjoyable day in the bush, seeing things usually swallowed by the scrub and letting the vastness of the land sink in.

Grab a brew, sit back and enjoy. We hope you like it as much as we enjoyed creating this little project!

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