Despite the region's inhospitable climate—five months of torrential rains followed by seven months of drought, plus infertile soil and frequent lightning-sparked bush blazes—Cape York Peninsula is home to 379 rare or endangered plant species. The region is one of Australia's most complex ecosystems, with rain forest, grassland, wetland, and scrub coexisting in close quarters.

(Photograph shot on assignment for, but not published in, "The Uneasy Magic of Australia's Cape York Peninsula," June 1996, National Geographic magazine)