Bushfires and drought have always been a part of the natural environment. These events were deeply embedded in the psyche of colonists, who feared either their slow devastation or sudden destruction of their landscapes.

Naylor Gill, one of Victoria’s more prolific landscape painters in the early 20th century, was a well-known a painter of bush life. Bushfires were a popular theme for Gill and one of his Bush fire painting series was featured in a calendar for Melbourne-based Robur Tea Company.