Reuters photographer David Gray took some new stunning aerial photos of Australia, showing wide open regions of dry, untouched land. At the beginning of the year, a heat wave gripped large parts of south Australia, sparking wildfires and blackouts.
Burnt trees line a small creek in a field charred by a fire on the outskirts of Melbourne in a photo taken in March.
A small dam is seen on the left in a patch of dry grassland, beside a field where a fire recently occurred. Australia experienced the hottest year on record in 2013 and the extreme has continued into this year.
Roads go off in various directions next to sand dunes covered in trees and other vegetation in Western Australia's Pilbara region.
A view of dried-up rivers and a road in the Pilbara region.
The Pilbara region is about the size of Spain.
It has the world's largest known deposits of iron ore.
The area supplies nearly 45% of global trade in iron ore.
