Australian photographs and stationery

Leslie married into a third-generation fishing family, which is not what you’d expect of a person who loves the desert, but does explain why you won’t find her at the market during winter: she’ll be deep into the outback with her husband Tony and the 4WD. Her interest in photography started early when her father took shots to record the family’s bush holidays. She’s always loved the isolation of the bush, with its big skies and wide, open spaces. With the kids grown up and gone, she can get back to her love of travel, which brought her to Apollo Bay in the first place.

The Geelong girl travelled the bush by herself, working two and a half years at the Carnarvon National Park in central Queensland, before coming back this way. In 1984 she came down to Bimbi Park to ride horses but “got married and got stuck,” she laughs.

Never a fan of portraits, Leslie took snaps of the tall ship The One and All when it anchored in the Bay, just outside the harbour in 1989. When people started buying her prints, she knew she had a business. It wasn’t until her kids left home in 2002 that she found the time and space to devote to her images. Leslie had her own dark room but now she does everything electronically, because “you can do more with it.” She uses it to help design her stationery, like the travel journal she has made, which is purely a product that comes from her direct experience. In an easy-to-complete format, it records all the things you want to keep track of as you go. The travel journal is just one of a range of calendars, place mats, coasters, bookmarks, cards and framed photos that Leslie makes at home.

She’s a busy woman, Leslie, but she says if you live in a tourist town you work hard during the season and travel hard after it. Her hard travelling takes her to all points of the country. If you’re headed bush yourself, talk to Leslie. She’s probably been to where you’re going.