I painted this after a hunting trip to Ivanhoe in Central West New South Wales. The sky was spectacular, and I mentioned this to the owner of the property we visited. He said it was the best sign he’s had in two years, as they’d been in drought for that period and was starting to get worried. His property was 35,000 hectares of mostly flat plains interspersed with longitudinal, ancient, treed sand dunes. He made his living grazing on the shrubs that grew on these plains – salt bush and blue bush. He also supplemented his income by rounding up feral goats and shipping them to the Middle East. As a corollary to this scene, I was out in the bush next day and got lost in one of the many stream anabranches, so I camped out for the night. It rained all night long, and I hardly got any sleep, what with being wet through and with wild pigs squealing every time I moved.