Pies bake in foil trays beneath a bed of hot coals in the Great Victorian Desert.

While Tjuntjuntjara community is normally around 200 strong, during times of ceremony and other gatherings the population can grow to more than 1000 people. Tjuntjuntjara’s outskirts are dotted with campsites, make-shift shelters – and even beds.

For the people of the Great Victoria Desert, the art of burning spinifex is a way of life. Highly flammable, these tough, resin-rich grasses burn easily to provide warmth, light and evening entertainment.

Local Ned Grant shares a front seat with a camp dog for the bus ride to camp.

These dead and fallen mallee limbs are lasting relics of a fire in this mulga woodland many years earlier. Fire and erratic rainfall are the essence of habitat renewal in this arid terrain.

The Tjuntjuntjara community is fringed by an open woodland of Western Myall (Acacia papyrocarpa). These hardy trees dominate the limestone plains on the southern margins of the Great Victoria Desert.

Tjuntjuntjara might be one of the most remote settlements in Australia but technology is part of the life here. In this isolated setting, the advent of the internet and other communication tools are much appreciated as a way of sharing news and stories. (Pictured: Tyrell Donegan and Jarman Goodwin)

Avid hunter Leonard Walker stitches up the stomach of a red kangaroo prior to baking it in the coals. Thanks to recent cataract surgery, Leonard’s marksmanship is as good as new.

Community arts coordinator Ange Leech with an example of Punu art from the Tjuntjuntjara community.

In the early morning light large spinifex hummocks glow a golden yellow against the red desert sands. One of the most widespread species in the region is lobed spinifex (Triodia Basedowii).

Chef Simon Bryant (right) serves Marilyn Walker and Nancy Donnegan his outback version of beggar’s chicken – Barossa Valley-farmed chooks wrapped in lotus leaves and slow cooked within a clay crust.

As night falls, the first of dozens of spinifex fires are lit around camp. Traditionally, fire was also used as a way for family groups to signal their presence in country – a message to neighbours near and far.

There’s a buzz of excitement aboard the old AAT Kings bus, as the Spinifex mob and their camp dogs make the journey to a bush camp near Carlisle Lakes, a short drive from Tjuntjuntjara.