The dust storm that engulfed Sydney two days ago may have snarled air traffic and made it difficult to breathe, but, for Aussie photographers, it created a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Dust particles turned the sky a brilliant red, making the city appear to be “on Mars,” some astonished citizens said. The country that gave us Mad Max, fittingly enough, was briefly transformed to a post-apocalyptic wonderland. Photographers snapped hundreds of beautiful and eerie images, like this shot of an intersection that looks just like a still from a movie:

And this picture almost exactly recaptures Sarah Connor’s nightmare from Terminator 2. Run, girls, run!:

Tom Coates has set up ‘Red Dust,’ a Flickr gallery filled with orangey goodness. It’s exceptionally well-curated and contains such beauties as the following:

Simply gorgeous — and no Photoshop required.

Then there’s this one, which Coates dubs “the most sinister photo over taken”:

That’s no understatement: it’s like a Stephen King cover come to life. Sleep well, lil’ Aussie kiddies. If the dingoes don’t eat you, the giant head will.