Nilmini De Silva, Wetland Reflections (Straight Shooter: Australian Landscape)

We had camped overnight in Urunga, NSW when I woke up early to take a walk through the wetlands. This is the scene that greeted me. It is amazing to think that this is manmade wetland. After mining the area since 1969 for antimony, Broken Hill Antimony abandoned this site in 1974, leaving behind 16,000 tons of waste tailings as a spreading plume along the foreshore of this wetland. The area has been rehabilitated after widespread concerns by the community of Bellingen. This is a good news story of what we can do to rehabilitate places that have been destroyed.

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.