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.*
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**Roads go off in various directions next to sand dunes covered in trees and other vegetation in Western Australia's Pilbara region. *
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**A view of dried-up rivers and a road in the Pilbara region.*
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*The Pilbara region is about the size of Spain. *
*It has the world's largest known deposits of iron ore.*
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**The area supplies nearly 45% of global trade in iron ore.*
*SEE ALSO: The 32 Most Spectacular New Images Of Earth*
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Reported by Business Insider 4 hours ago.