I really love lakes. These huge bodies of water. Their boundaries with the land. I love the stripes – waters edge, water, lightplay, land, and sky. And the birds. I especially love salt lakes, the crunch underfoot as I tentatively walk on the surface. Beneath the salt, the mud is always slippery; I have to slow down and take small steps lest my camera and I end up base over apex, as my parents used to say.

In Victoria, the state where I live, there are hundreds of lakes. Lake Corangamite is the largest, as well as being the largest permanent salt lake in Australia. Yet it is strangely difficult to access. Surrounded by farmland, and fenced off, it is, most importantly a RAMSAR site. A protected wetland. It is quite magnificent, and so worth getting lost to find. Lake Beeac is not far from Lake Corangamite, it is also a02 RAMSAR site and when I visited in January 2022, the layer of salt stretched as far as the eye can see. Blindingly bright. Exhilarating in its wondrousness.

The photos were taken recently. The small concertina book, watercolour and collage, was created over a few evenings in October 2021, when Victoria was in the thick of our 6th lockdown, and I could only dream of long drives and salt lakes.