The West Australian landscape often comes across as viking-age & post-apocalyptic. Inspired by short film ‘Kung Fury’, I did a photoshoot to prove my point.
Our landscape is both beautiful and dangerous. It’s sunburnt, sweeping plains on mostly infertile soil makes it harsh and unforgiving, while the vastness of the warm, amber land makes it seemingly infinite – a humbling experience for all those who explore it. It is Australia’s largest state (WA has a total land area of 2,529,875 square kms) with a significant part of it sparsely populated due to mass outback desert, making Perth quite literally, one of the most isolated cities in the world.
Here’s a preview of my photoshoot, looking barbaric as I scan the horizon for my next victim. I’m at a dried up lake, 20 minutes drive from Joondalup centre.
Our landscape is older than the dinosaurs (scroll further down for more info on that) with plenty of fossils, rock formations, gorges and caves to prove it. These odd rock formations together with the epic vastness of land gives off an eerie vibe that is strikingly gritty and post apocalyptic-style. Drawing inspiration from this, as well as short film, “Kung Fury“, I teamed up with photographer/videographer DarkSpiritPhotography for an epic photoshoot of epic proportions – transforming myself into a cosplay take on viking babe, “Barbarianna” – with the intention of capturing the other-worldly essence of the vast and baron Western landscape, while also paying homage to epic short film, “Kung Fury”.
Thou shalt not pass in this soul-sucking forest of mine! Here I am, with an axe. I am all woman, hear me RAWR! On location at the Pine Plantation.
What is KUNG FURY?
Kung Fury is a short film by Laser Unicorns productions, directed by David Sandberg (who is also the lead star) and it’s essentially a love letter to 1980’s martial arts and police action films. Starting out on crowd-funding website Kickstarter, it surpassed its donation goal, and after it’s Youtube premiere, it became an instant cult classic, even getting the great David Hasseholf himself on board with the project. He sings the Kung Fury theme song, “True Survivor“.
Love the trailer? Watch the full YouTube movie here.
I only heard about Kung Fury when heaps of my friends said to me “hey there’s this barbarian/viking chick that looks like you in this short film, check her out”. Sure enough, as soon as I saw it, I was captivated by it all – a Kung Fu renegade cop named Kung Fury who must travel back in time to defeat ‘Ay-dolf’ Hitler, but instead, accidentally travels too far back to the viking age, where he encounters dinosaurs, laser raptors, Thor and bikini-clad viking babes with machine guns, including my very own doppelganger, Barbarianna (played by actress Eleni Young Antonia). Besotted with this hilarious creation (I’m a huge ’80s fan) and also with my lookalike Barbarianna, I set out to do a DIY cosplay attempt of her for Halloween. Check out our side-to-side comparison below (Barbarianna is on the left, I’m on the right):
The great thing about living in Perth is you that you don’t have to travel too far to get to some awesome post-apocalyptic style locations to carry out your inner barbarian/viking fantasies. On my photoshoot with DarkSpiritPhotography, we only traveled 20 minutes from Joondalup to get to some good spots that we thought would give us a gritty, post-apocalyptic vibe with dramatic lighting. Channeling my inner Barbarianna, we wanted to celebrate Kung Fury and the compelling West Australian landscape. Check out the photos below and let me know in the comments below if you think we succeeded.
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LEARN MORE: Western Australian Landscape is Ancient.
Our landscape is extremely old, estimated to have formed about 4.4 billion years ago, making it incredibly ancient and thanks to the harsh elements of nature sculpting it, there’s plenty of evidence to show for it. Uniquely shaped rock formations, fossils, gorges, caves and even preserved dinosaur footprints since the dawn of time are found right here in our majestic state, giving Western Australia’s landscape an other-worldly feel that makes it even more mysterious and compelling.
Dinosaur Footprint track that runs over 60km of coastline, made approx. 135 million years ago discovered in Broome, part of WA’s Kimberley region. Over time, the mud became rock preserving the footprints. Image via 123TopGallery
Our ancient land is special, and as such, there’s many heritage sites and reserves to protect it. When visiting any of these sites or beyond, please be safe and smart – obey signs, council regulations and respect the land. Here’s just some special landmarks that deserve to be explored on your next WA road trip:
- The Bungle Bungles in Purnululu National Park: approx. 375 million years old. Distinctive beehive-shaped towers made up of sandstones and conglomerates (rocks composed mainly of pebbles and boulders, cemented together by finer material). With combined effects of wind from the Tanami Desert and rainfall over millions of years, these ‘domes’ now have the unusual look of orange and dark grey striped banding.
- The Pinnacles in Nambung National Park: 2 hours drive north of Perth, hundreds of limestone spires pierce the land, scattered everywhere, some standing several metres tall. It almost looks like the site of an ancient alien burial ground, Perth’s answer to Egypt’s pyramids.
- Wave Rock: ‘WA’s biggest wave that is furthest from any ocean’, it looks exactly as it sounds, a natural rock formation shaped like a tall, breaking wave. It’s approx. 14m high and 110m long, shaped over 60 million years.
- Karijini National Park: arguably one of WA’s most spectacular national parks, it features cavernous gorges where you can swim beneath waterfalls and scale rocks that are over 2 billion years old.
- Kalbarri National Park: Spectacular outback coast that shows off 400 million year old river gorges and coastal rock formations.
- Stirling Range National Park: Shows of mountains that are extremely eroded and ancient, this area is regarded as an area of biodiversity and evolutionary interest, displaying the richest array of flora and fauna in the world. Epic mountain views, wildflowers, bird and animal life all seen here.
- Hamersley Range, Pilbara: earliest evidence of life on Earth in 3.5 billion year old rocks discovered here. WA’s highest peaks are also seen here, as well as the largest iron ore deposits.
- Mount Augustus in Gascoyne: the world’s largest monolith (a single upright block of stone), it’s twice the size of Uluru and therefore twice as impressive. A closer look reveals ancient rock art with caves and natural springs nearby.
Here I am, basking in the view of The Pinnacles Desert and the coastal town of Cervantes that lies ahead. The best time to visit this natural attraction is in the early morning or late afternoon, as the play of light brings out the colours and shadows of these limestone formations.
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So what do you think of my photoshoot? Do you think I successfully captured the gritty viking-age style of the WA landscape? Do you also love Kung Fury as much as I do? Please share your thoughts in the comments below, I’d love to hear them.
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