Peter Weaving
PDWPhotographics

35 years on and the dust storm of February 1983 is still sprinkled through our conciseness.

It was a hot Tuesday and I was working taking images for The Emerald Hill & Sandridge Times.

Being in the area, I saw the storm front approaching fast across the bay. I was aware a frontal change was forecast and seeing the size of it I thought this is going to make for some great images. But were to go? I parked my 120Y in Pier Road, Catani Gardens, St Kilda. Many people were blissfully unaware of what was coming, cooling down at the beach.

So with my Nikon FM2 and a 35mm lens I waited to see what would happened but not to far from the car just in case. The closer it got the more ominous it look, the best images were before because after it rolled over me it became dark and visibility reduced amazingly. I have to say now that I was surprised by its intensity and had difficult standing up in the gale force wind. When standing out in the storm you could feel the dust particles hitting you, not great if you need to change a roll of film.

I was reasonable happy with the images but always wondered weather their was a better spot to have photograph the event. Just imagine if this event happened now, how many photos would be uploaded for newspapers to published. Not the case back in 1983, the image won an award for the Newspaper and I. Being a newspaper photographer was more about being a recorder of history. Hardly anyone carried a camera around then, especial to the beach.