Swan Magazine July, 2020

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EDITORIAL GOODBYE, FAREWELL AND AMEN

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hen I was very young, say thirteen or so, I was a voracious reader and the summer I spent with my grandparents when my mum was so very ill was an absolute treasure trove for me.

My granny’s library consisted of novels from the late Victorian era to the First World War (The Bells of Enderby, Little Women, Daddy Long Legs and so on ) along with collections of what we’d call ‘popular’ poetry - Patience Strong, Emily Dickenson and Ella Wheeler Willcox among others.

In one of Mrs Willcox’s anthologies, Poems of Passion and Pleasure I came across a poem entitled This Too Shall Pass Away.

The poem, in rhyming couplets, retells of a monarch in ancient times who seeks a philosophy:

‘Almighty monarch in the days of old

Made offer of high honour, wealth and gold,

To one who should produce in form concise A motto for his guidance, terse yet wise--

Many the maxims sent the king, men say.

The one he chose: This too shall pass away.

As these few words. Go write them on your heart And make them of your daily life a part.’

In each monthly edition we profiled one local personality, often using their story to promote an issue dear to their hearts - theatre, a particular charity, various good causes and on one memorable occasion, genital cancer.

Early on we heard about SAFE, an organisation devoted to Saving Animals from Euthanasia, set up by Sue Hedley OAM and for fifteen years we gave them a full page to promote their organisation, particular dogs and cats up for adoption or fostering and general visibility.

For quite a long time we had a 130% success rate - often the pet advertised was adopted, and enquiries led to others being adopted. We are very proud of our long association with SAFE.

About twelve years in we did a quick calculation about the number of sheets of paper we had used and despite the fact that we used oxygen-bleached recycled paper and vegetable-based inks to minimise our carbon footprint the result was staggering and embarrassing.

We decided that we’d join the twenty-first century and go digital, as first both printed and on-line, and then only on-line.

This had mixed results - as we had absolutely no control where the readers lived we lost the intimate local feel we had previously enjoyed. The magazine was particularly popular in Kentucky for some extraordinary reason and it was read all over the world - South Africa, the UK, America and a lot of readers in Washington State in the United States, who obviously mistook WA as the abbreviation for their state.

On the positive side we attracted a lot of new readers and even more new material.

We have received many thanks for what we’ve done over the years, from finding jobs and apprenticeships to support for worthy causes, so it would be appropriate for me to record my sincere thanks to the many, many people who have contributed to the Swan Magazine over the last two decades.

We have been particularly blessed in the generosity of writers, reviewers and poets - people prepared to share their own special knowledge; experiences and talent.

We have seen submissions from octogenarian poets like the late Peggy Kitchen; poems about their mothers from eight year olds; life-style suggestions from experts in sustainable living, medical advice from doctors, legal advice from lawyers, writers’ advice from writer’s self-help groups like the Katherine Susannah Prichard Writers’ Centre and the Society of Women Writers; work from established authors like Glennys Marsden, Karen R Treanor and Katy Warner, emerging authors such as John Lewington and James Forte as well as sound financial advice from the redoubtable Steve Blizzard and before him, Lesley Dewar.

Theatre has always been a love of mine and from the first we published reviews from professional and community theatre as well as the Perth Fringe - James Forte, Chris McRae, Lisa Callahan, Glennys Marsden, Jay Crisp Crow, Sharron Attwood and many, many more.

It was glorious while it lasted, but ‘this too, shall pass away’ and we all now must move on with our lives, enriched by our memories. Some to an honourable retirement, playing with their grandchildren, others to a glittering career in front of them, rich with promise.

But to you all, contributor and reader alike, my sincere and eternal thanks,

Douglas Sutherland-Bruce, publisher and editor.

Apart from the somewhat dodgy literary qualities I have found the advice to be both a comfort and a warning. In short it says ‘nothing lasts’ - not great times, nor sad.

This precept has been much on my mind these last few weeks as the inevitable end of the magazine to which I have given nearly a third of my life approaches.

We founded the Swan Magazine at the end of 2000 in a blaze of irritation and hope. Irritation at the then local newspapers willingness to have editorial policy bend to advertisers’ demands, and the huge percentage of advertising to actual content.

Hope because we thought we could do it better. And for twenty years we did. We described ourselves as a printed back fence where neighbours could chat to each other about the things that mattered - what the local Scout troop were doing; what the Shire were spending your rates on; what readings were offered at the Library and we gave space to local groups that otherwise would not be able to get coverage. Groups such as the Chronic Pain Support Group and the like.

In addition we gave space for local poets and authors to get their work published - often for the first time. We allowed student journalists to submit articles as required to complete their degrees; we ran writing competitions to encourage children to both read and write and we never, ever allowed advertising to rise above 33% at a time when 77% was common.

SWAN MAGAZINE WEBSITE:

www.swanmagazine.com.au

Email: editor@swanmagazine.com.au Registered Address: 18 Tokay Lane, The Vines, Western Australia 6069 Copyright: Swan Magazine 2020

I.S.S.N. 1833-9336

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IN THIS ISSUE FEATURES

PAGE

Books and Writing

Front Page Photograph: The House at Pooh Corner (A A Milne) Illustration: Ernest Shepard

Books and Writing 4 Bookworm’s Corner 9 Editorial 3 Fiction Announcing the Impossible 51 Fix the Fence 23 The Autumn Plague 24 Just Out 5 Poetry - Footslog 58

- Gotchas!

17 - The Land I Love 49 STC Annual Book Sale 7 The Idler 61 The Noble Recreation 41 Your Voice Matters 8 Business

Business Card Board Community

Australian Monarchist League Federal Notes Flinders University Miss Intercontinental Australia New Midland Murals Notes From Parliament

57 65 12 37 50 11 10

PAGE SAFE 66 SVRN Community Update 62 Prostate Cancer Nurse Boost 63 Third Time’s a Charm 63 Swan Hills Meals Project 50 The Compassionate Friends 67 What’s in a Name?

59 What’s On 20 Covid - 19

Message from the Premier Recovery Package

15 14

Culpeper’s Herbal Drink Film Food Footnote People in History TV with Chris

19 18 33 19 38 32

Art and Leisure Extra Curricular at MJAC Peace Art in Ellenbrook

30 31

Entertainment

Leisure

DISCLAIMER The information in this publication is of a general nature. The articles contained herein are not intended to provide a complete discussion on each subject and or issues canvassed. Swan Magazine does not accept any liability for any statements or any opinion, or for any errors or omissions contained herein.

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BOOKS AND WRITING WINTER AT KSP WRITERS SHANNON COYLE

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OVID-19 Update: The KSP Writers’ Centre is back open! We welcome you back to our newly socially distanced (and heated) facility to join in a writing group, retreat or workshop.

READ LIKE A WRITER WORKSHOP Saturday 18 July 2020, 1.00-4.0pm For adult poets, fiction and non-fiction writers – any level of experience

Writers learn to write by writing and by reading. In this workshop, local Perth authors Melinda Tognini and Rashida Murphy reflect on the books that writers read or ought to read.

Participants will reflect and unpack the ways in which reading like a writer makes for better writers.

Come prepared to defend, debate, read and write.

Tickets from just $20.

Limited seats; advance booking is essential.

KSP WRITER-IN-RESIDENCE APPLICATIONS Application deadlines in July and September

The KSP Writers' Centre is proud to support the development of literary work by hosting a number of annual residencies and fellowships. Some positions offer a salary and opportunity to present workshops.

Please visit our website for criteria and application details for the 2021 program.

KSP SPRING STORY RETREAT Deadline to apply 30 August – only one position left!

This unique retreat for fiction writers offers an intensive long weekend to develop a draft manuscript in the beautiful Perth hills with esteemed West Australian author, Dr Laurie Steed.

The retreat offers private mentoring, workshops, group critiquing sessions, interaction with fellow authors, KSP membership, bottle of wine to share plus breakfast and lunch supplies. The retreat will be held 17-20 September 2020 and a fee applies.

KSP WRITING COMPETITIONS Entry deadlines in September and October

In 2020, KSP is offering two writing competitions in the categories of Short Fiction and Poetry. Entry costs for adults start at $10; youth can enter for free thanks to sponsorship from the Shire of Mundaring.

Cash prizes and certificates on offer.

For more details on any of these activities please visit the KSP website www.kspwriterscentre.com or email us on office@ kspwriterscentre.com

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BOOKS AND WRITING JUST OUT Title: Author: Publisher: ISBN:

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he was a correspondent for the St. Petersburg Times and a crime reporter for the Tampa Tribune, and he played defensive end for Auburn University football.

Author Site: www.AceAtkins.com. ~oOo~

The Revelators Ace Atkins Little, Brown Book Group 9781 4721 5503 0

Title: Dappled Author: Lisa Brown Publisher: Trigg Press ISBN: 9780 6468 1472 8

n this gripping new crime novel from the New York Times-bestselling author, Quinn Colson is about to find out whether his quest for justice can coexist with his loyalty to the law...

Shot up and left for dead, Sheriff Quinn Colson has revenge on his mind.

With the help of his new wife Maggie, rehabilitation, and sheer force of will, he’s walking again, eager to resume his work as a southern lawman and track down those responsible for his attempted murder.

But someone is standing in his way: an interim sheriff, appointed by the newly elected Governor Vardaman, the man who Quinn knows ordered his murder.

Vardaman sits at the top of the state’s power structure - both legal and criminal - and little does he know Quinn is still alive.

And coming for him.

Quinn will enlist the help of his most trusted friends, including federal agent Jon Holliday, U.S. Marshal Lillie Virgil, and Donnie Varner, a childhood buddy now working for the Feds as an informant. Since Quinn’s been gone, the criminal element in north Mississippi has flourished, with queen-pin Fannie Hathcock enjoying unbridled freedom.

As an ice storm bears down on north Mississippi and Memphis, and Tibbehah County is isolated from the outside world, the killers will return to finish the job.

But this time, Quinn Colson and company will be waiting, ready to bust apart a criminal empire running on a rigged system for far too long. This is the battle of Jericho, the epic showdown that’s been years in the making. In the end, the war will end - for better or worse.

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ome people leave you forever changed. And maybe some wounds are just too big to heal. But Jane is coming to realise that confronting her past is the only hope she has of saving herself.

Jane has a skin condition, vitiligo, which makes her look a little different. But at least she’s become pretty skilled in the art of camouflage.

On the surface of things, Jane leads a good life. She’s a health professional with an active social life, who meets lots of handsome, successful men… they just tend to be all the wrong ones.

Perhaps it’s also because no one she meets will ever quite compare to who she once had.

Jane finds her mind frequently travels back to her younger years, back to when she lived in the coastal tree-lined town of Denmark in a timber cottage on stilts with her artistic mother, Colleen, who was beautiful, vibrant, larger than life – and deeply troubled.

She remembers the broken glass, mysterious cuts, and their isolation.

The storm cloud days.

But most vivid in Jane’s recollections is that kind and goofy, crinkle-beamed boy who made her feel warm inside, who somehow made it all better. Try as she might, he’ll always have a piece of her heart.

About the author

Lisa lives in sunny Perth, Western Australia with her partner Matthew (who has a penchant for building robots and spreadsheeting their holidays) and their two young, rambunctious boys, Adam and Joshua. They inhabit a chaotic, loving home strewn with books, Lego and unidentifiable electronic parts.

Lisa’s school report cards always described her as being the resident class writer and story-teller. Many of her fondest memories from childhood involved long, languid weekends writing her stories.

As well as an author, Lisa is an occupational therapist, who works as a sessional university academic teaching neuropsychiatry and counselling units. She is also a group therapist at a private mental health clinic, who facilitates therapy groups for people in varying stages of their recovery journeys. Lisa loves this work and feels many of the things her patients have taught her about resilience and vulnerability have

About the author:

Ace Atkins is the author of twenty-three books, including eight Quinn Colson novels, the first two of which, The Ranger and The Lost Ones, were nominated for the Edgar Award for Best Novel (he has a third Edgar nomination for his short story Last Fair Deal Gone Down).

He is the author of seven New York Times-bestselling novels in the continuation of Robert B. Parker’s Spenser series. Before turning to fiction, 5

helped inspire her writing.

Lisa is also dappled, having vitiligo, a condition where pigment is lost from the skin, causing white patches on the body and face. While she is incredibly grateful for the life and body she has, this condition also has a significant psychological impact on her at times.

She had never read a book about anyone with vitiligo before and felt there was a great need for this, especially because one percent of the world’s population has it. She wanted others with vitiligo to be able to read the book and know there was someone out there who understood the challenges of living with the condition – but also soak up the hopeful, affirming messages she needed when she was first diagnosed as a teenager.

Lisa feels writing is often most authentic when the author writes what they know best and due to her personal and professional experiences, felt exceptionally well placed to write about vitiligo and mental illness. However, fortunately for Lisa, she also felt ideally placed to write about the healing power of self-acceptance, kindness and unconditional love, strong themes in Dappled.

virtually perfect.” – The Prairies Book Review • “It is not often you find a book that so delicately tells the story of such hard topics, whilst weaving in a story of hope, love and overcoming. It is inspiring and fills the heart to the brim!” – Goodreads review, 5 stars • “Stunningly beautiful novel.” – Amazon review, 5 stars • “I’ve heard people talk about the urge to hug certain books.

Dappled has to be the most huggable book I’ve read. It is one of those rare books you just never want to let go of.” – Amazon review, 5 stars • “A beautiful book that will remain in your memory long after the last page is turned.” – Amazon review, 5 stars • “Written with heart, soul, wit and authenticity.” – Amazon review, 5 stars • “The characters are authentic and the author voice is as tender as their love.” – Goodreads review, 5 stars ~oOo~ Title: Author: Publisher: ISBN:

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The Perfect Daughter Joseph Souza Kensington Books 9781 4967 2640 7

ith The Neighbor and Pray for the Girl, Joseph Souza proved himself a master of twisty and unpredictable psychological suspense. In this riveting new novel, a mother is unwittingly drawn into the dark underbelly of her picture-perfect Maine town . . .

Shepherd’s Bay has been home to generations of lobstermen and their families. Lately, affluent newcomers have been buying up waterfront property and mingling uneasily with the locals. Tensions are high, especially since Dakota James, a teenage boy from the wealthier side of town, disappeared weeks ago. But another disturbing incident soon follows.

When high school junior Katie Eaves and her friend, Willow Briggs, fail to come home after a night out, Katie’s mother, Isla, is frantic. Two agonizing days go by before Katie is found, bruised and bloodied, yet alive. Isla is grateful. But Willow, a wealthy newcomer from Los Angeles, is still missing. And Katie can’t remember anything about the night of their disappearance.

Isla tries to help her daughter sort through her hazy recollections, and to recall the truth of her tangled friendship with privileged, beautiful Willow. At the hair salon she owns, Isla hears dark whispers about wild parties, drug deals, and love triangles gone wrong. How much truth is in the gossip? Is Dakota’s disappearance linked to the others? And what other shocking secrets lie at the heart of Shepherd’s Bay—and of the family Isla is struggling to hold together?

What the reviewers have said: • “Masterfully written and packed with insight, compassion and hope. Brown tackles the significant theme of self-worth with the trenchantly serious message of mental health issues in her exceedingly moving, honest debut which tells the story of a woman struggling with her past and present traumas. This remarkable work of fiction from a very talented author is almost

About the author:

Joseph Souza’s award-winning short stories have been published in various literary journals throughout the country.

Winner of the Andre Dubus Award for short fiction, he also won Honorable Mention for the Al Blanchard Award and the 2013 Maine Literary Award. His mystery, Unpaved Surfaces, was 6

published by Kindle Press in 2015 and was an Amazon bestseller. Need To Find You, his crime thriller set in Portland, was the first novel to go direct-to-publish by Kindle Press.

His domestic thriller, The Neighbor (Kensington) was published in 2018.

He lives near Portland, Maine with his wife and two children and enjoys running, cooking and playing golf when not writing.

Joseph can be contacted at souzajf@ hotmail.com and on Twitter @josephsouza3. You can also visit his website to read more about Joseph: www.josephsouza.net.

What the reviewers have said: • “A complex tale of malice and mayhem, suspenseful and loaded with misdirection and surprising plot twists. This is a murder mystery that will be tough to figure out, especially as Souza keeps everyone guessing until the very end. But the clues are there for the attentive reader.” —The Kennebec Journal on Pray for the Girl • “A solid read that poses tough questions about how to help downtrodden towns undergoing social upheaval, a close look at tough personal transformations, and a mystery with a surprising solution.” —Booklist on Pray for the Girl • “The Couple Next Door meets Gone Girl in this addictive thriller. Once I started reading, I couldn’t stop.” —Charlie Donlea, USA Today bestselling author on The Neighbor • “The plot is very winding and intriguing, and you will most assuredly hope you never have neighbors like these. Almost every chapter lurches you forward in a twisting sometimes downright scary story.” —The Bangor Daily News on The Neighbor • “A subtle powder keg packed into the pages of a domestic thriller.” —Bookreporter.com on The Neighbor

BOOKS SAVE THE CHILDREN ANNUAL BOOK SALE JAMES FORTE

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or over fifty years the University of Western Australia has held an annual book sale to raise funds for Save the Children.

Thanks to the generosity of volunteers from our Branches offering thousands of quality donated books at bargain prices, Save the Children ensures all proceeds go to support children in Western Australia and around the world.

2020 can only get better. Get out there and eat, drink,

watch, catch up with friends and stock up on your reading matter.

The huge (120,000 books) Save the Children book sale is still scheduled for 14th to 19th August at the University of Western Australia.

The annual sale offers something for every kind of reader there are biographies, autobiographies, books on drama, poetry, humour, housekeeping and encyclopedias.

You can find new hard-backed novels, specialty printings such as Franklin Library and Folio Society as well as paperbacks and trade editions of thrillers, classics, crime, romance and fantasy - a cornucopia for the collector and reader.

See you there!

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YOUR VOICE MATTERS BE PREPARED SHERENE STRAHAN

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t fifteen, I talked my best friend into doing an outdoor education course that ended with an overnight trek. The aim was to take us out of our comfort zone.

In the lead up, we were supposed to construct a backpack from wood, string and plastic. The string and plastic would double as our ‘tent’.

I’m not a practical person. No experience and really, no clue. Also, I leave things to the last minute.

So I never got around to trying out the materials I’d chosen for my pack. Instead I turned up on the day and as everyone watched in disbelief, I wrestled it all into a misshapen, uncomfortable mess, hoisted it onto my shoulders and we took off.

Within minutes I realised that square dowel sticks had not been a good choice.

I still have a tendency to leap before looking.

And I still end up with metaphorical blisters like the very real ones caused by my homemade pack.

But blisters aside, the trek strengthened my friendship with Debbie (we still laugh about my cluelessness) and showed I could keep going when things got tough (really, really tough). I had no choice but to complete the two-day trek with that thing bouncing around on my spine. It was excruciating but I did it.

Getting out of our comfort zone is going to mean a little chafing and rubbing. Our choices will sometimes vex us and sometimes we will disappoint ourselves.

But it’s the only way to get from here to there.

And we don’t want to be here forever do we? ~oOo~

The most important part of consistency isn’t rigid adherence to our objectives.

Consistency is about caring enough for our audience to keep coming back, time and again, even after the rhythm of life throws us out.

We are not automata. We don’t set a schedule and stick to it NO MATTER WHAT. We are human and we stumble and we get back up. We are real.

Our audience can connect with us precisely because we are NOT automata. Real is important now.

Consistency is the part where we get back up as quickly as we can. The ‘quickly’ bit is key - we have to jump back even before we’re quite ready sometimes. Dive into the flow as the ebb is still passing.

I’ve missed a couple of deadlines lately. The ebb got me.

But now I’m back in the flow, and I hope you are there too. ~oOo~

Watching the late afternoon sun spread golden light across the landscape can be a highlight of my day.

But I haven’t always seen it with the same enthusiasm.

As a new TV reporter in the country, I spent a lot of time on the road; most days the cameraman and I would be rushing from one story to the next. A round trip might be a couple of hundred kilometres. If we were still driving back as golden light crept across the countryside, we knew it would be a mad rush to be ready for the 6 o’clock bulletin.

But necessity is a great teacher and I learnt to maximise every scrap of time so I could meet the unmissable deadlines.

I learned to anticipate what we would need even before we started, and to mentally file away the best elements as we went along.

The lines from the interview that best summed up what the story was about. Just five minutes to jot them down after the interview.

The filming we did to fit perfectly with what our subject had just talked about. Spending ten minutes to get those extra shots.

Playing with it in my head, trying out the story to get the right feel. Fifteen minutes to shape a draft well before it became a proper story.

Five, ten, fifteen - those scraps of time make all the difference to writing anything.

Five minutes to record the words or phrases that light a spark in your heart and mind.

Ten minutes to capture the image of what calls to you even if you don’t have a use for it right now.

Fifteen minutes to sort, mentally or actually, what you’ve gathered and arrange them in a way that could yield a story now or one day.

Writing doesn’t have to be huge chunks of time. Writing can be what fits into our life, and fills our heads, at any time.

Consistency is key, right? We’re told all the time - if we write for an audience (blog posts, newsletters, articles), we MUST. BE. CONSISTENT.

Set a posting schedule and stick to it, no matter what.

It’s what THEY say (I love ‘They’ - it means we can be ‘Us’).

So, when the ‘rhythm of living’ interrupts and we miss our schedule - once, twice, more - we’ve failed. Right?

Action and reaction, ebb and flow, trial and error, change.

This is the rhythm of living.

Out of our over-confidence, fear; Out of our fear, clearer vision, fresh hope.

And out of hope, progress. - Bruce Barton

Bruce Barton was one of the earliest Ad Men heroes of the United States. He’s in their advertising hall of fame. One hundred years ago, he formed the company that was the predecessor to one of the world’s biggest and most successful ad agencies today, BBDO.

He was responsible for writing the unofficial motto of the Salvation Army, ‘A man may be down but he’s never out.’

I’ve only just discovered Bruce but already I like him a lot.

Life does ebb and flow.

So, if we miss a couple of blog post deadlines, have we set ourselves back? If our newsletter skips two publishing dates, is it cause for self-flagellation? If we ebb and flow in our content, have we failed?

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BOOKWORM’S CORNER Dr. Seuss won the bet with his book Green Eggs and Ham.

0 The classic children’s book Love You Forever by Robert

Munsch was first conceived as a song about the author’s two stillborn babies.

0 An unauthorized sequel to the Harry Potter books was sold in China. The book consisted of The Hobbit, but with the names changed to Harry Potter characters.

0 The author of the book Eragon, Christopher Paolini, started writing the book at age fourteen. It was placed on the New York Times Children’s Books Best Seller list for 121 weeks.

ALL THINGS BOOKS AND BIBLIOPHILE

0 The writer behind the Iron Giant, Ted Hughes, had written the book for his two children to help explain to them the 1963 suicide death of their mother.

our excursion through the bye-ways and literary lanes Finishing of bibliophilia.

0 The collective nouns we use for animals (a gaggle of

0 If you publish a book in Norway, the government will buy 1000 copies (1,500 if a children’s book) and distribute them to libraries throughout the country.

geese, herd of deer etc.) mostly come from the Book of St Alban’s published in 1486. It also included terms for professions such as ‘a melody of harpists’, ‘a sentence of judges’ and ‘a superfluity of nuns’.

0 An Icelandic tradition called Jólabókaflóð exists, where

0 The book title 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is referring to the distance traveled and not the depth. 20,000 leagues depth would put Captain Nemo through the Earth and 15% of the distance to the moon.

books are exchanged as Christmas Eve presents and the rest of the night is spent reading them and eating chocolate.

0 While penniless and dying, Ulysses S Grant wrote a book

of memoirs so his wife could live off of the royalties. Mark Twain heard the best royalty offer was 10% and immediately offered Grant 75%. Grant’s book, was a critical and commercial success giving his wife about $450,000 in royalties.

0 The first Sherlock Holmes book A Study in Scarlet was the

0 The chap who managed Guinness Breweries in the 1950s

0 Stephen King has written a children’s book, Charlie the

first work of fiction to mention a magnifying glass being used as an investigative tool and is the reason we still connect this item with detectives today.

Choo-Choo, written under the pseudonym Beryl Evans, steams out out of the pages of King’s Dark Tower fantasy series and into bookshops. The picture book also carries a quote from King on the front – “If I were ever to write a children’s book, it would be just like this!”

went to a shooting party, where he missed his shot at a golden plover. In his defense, he argued it was the fastest game bird in Europe, but couldn’t find a reference book that proved it. That’s why he created the Guinness Book of Records.

0 In Fahrenheit 451 the government didn’t burn books

because they were an oppressive dictatorship. The people voted to ban the books because they had short attention spans didn’t want to be offended.

0 In 1963, a sixteen-year-old sent a four-question survey to

150 well-known authors (75 of whom replied) in order to prove to his English teacher that writers don’t intentionally add symbolic content to their books.

0 Dolly Parton has a program that will mail your child a

free age-appropriate book once a month from birth to age five. No obligation, no catch, she just wants to make sure that every child has books.

0 Goosebumps author RL Stine never includes things like

divorce, drug use, abuse in his books because he didn’t want to terrify kids. He wanted kids to be sure that his stories were fantasies that could never actually happen.

0 Dr. Seuss’s editor had a wager with him for a stake of $50

that he couldn’t write a children’s book in fifty words or fewer.

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COMMUNITY NEW MIDLAND MURALS GRETA JASIAK

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wo new original works by Perth artists Jessee Lee Johns and Jack Bromell are the newest public art pieces in the City of Swan's Midland Mural Project.

Jessee's mural at Midland Public Library on Helena Street titled, Flora of the Anthropocene: An incomplete catalogue of often overlooked objects relating to public utility, sets the scope of the collection and hints at different ways of thinking about the objects themselves.

The Centrelink and Medicare building on Keane Street is home to Jack's mural, entitled A Garden for Midland, which tells a story of native flora and fauna, as well as showcasing the Swan River and iconic landmarks like the Midland Town Hall and local railways.

City of Swan Mayor Kevin Bailey said the Midland Murals Project aims to invigorate the historic Midland Town Centre with vibrant and energetic murals.

"Murals build a sense of community and make a place welcoming," he said.

"It is now a well-accepted principle of urban design that public art contributes to a community's identity, fosters community pride and a sense of belonging, and enhances the quality of life for its residents and visitors."

Jessee explained he wanted to paint something that related directly to the library - an extension of its functionality.

"I have long thought about these kinds of objects, that they are ubiquitous throughout the world, and their particular characteristics are endemic to different geographical locations," he said.

"Their design and distribution, like plants, form part of the

character of a given landscape - and that if one were familiar enough with them, one would be able to look at this collection and know that the specimens are representative of Midland.

"I also see them as nodes in a network of public utility that underpin our modern world - although I think they tend to remain unseen, they are visual reminders of those networks, and the way in which humans are social animals, and that our quality of life is due to our collective actions."

Jack said his design reflects the natural history of the Midland site, including native flora like Bottlebrush and Kangaroo paws.

"These flora provide food for local birds, with the Silvereye and Western Spinebill among the different birds depicted on the mural," he said.

"The Swan River is represented in the blue pattern at the bottom of the mural, and by drawing inspiration from the existing surrounding colours, the mural is a calming and inviting artwork for the 2,200 people of diverse backgrounds who visit the Centrelink and Medicare building each day."

The Midland Mural Project seeks to engage a series of artists for both small and large murals, and the City is investigating other sites for future commissions.

Last year the City engaged artist Mel McVee to complete a mural at Stratton Youth Centre as a community engagement project, which had a great response from residents who participated in open painting days.

Keep up to date with what's happening at the City of Swan by subscribing to the monthly community eNewsletter at www. swan.wa.gov.au/subscribe

City of Swan Mayor Kevin Bailey, Midland/Guildford Ward Councillor Rashelle Predovnik and artist Jessee Lee Johns at the completed Midland Library mural 11

FEDERAL NOTES HASLUCK HAPPENINGS THE HON KEN WYATT AM MP

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Federal Member for Hasluck, Minister for Indigenous Australians

he Morrison Government is delivering shovel-ready infrastructure projects and urgent road safety upgrades creating jobs across Australia.

We have fast-tracked the approval offifteen major infrastructure projects that will support 66,000 jobs and keep Australians in work.

We’re also committing a further $1 billion to immediately start work on small priority projects, which are shovel-ready, with $500 million targeting road safety works.

This investment will help strengthen our economy and get money flowing into communities and businesses as soon as possible.

By funding these important state-wide projects, we are backing jobs and also ensuring safer local roads for you and your family to get home safely, and to help small businesses move their products around more efficiently.

This investment in major infrastructure projects across Australia is a key part of the Morrison Government’s JobMaker plan to rebuild our economy and create more jobs.

I recently got together with a few key leaders in our community to discuss men’s health.

We had representatives from a local RSL, High School, Men’s

Shed, Advocacy Group, and a few local friends too.

We discussed how men tend to deal with mental health issues, along with how men engage with their mates and often don’t speak about certain topics.

It was great to hear the perspectives of everyone around the table and I look forward to seeing the outcomes of the plans we discussed.

If you or someone you know is struggling or needs someone to talk to, please reach out to the below services:

HOW I CAN HELP

Contact me through phone, email , or my website .

KEN WYATT AM mp FEDERAL MEMBER FOR HASLUCK

Shop 10-12 Hawaiians Forrestfield, 80 Hale Road, Forrestfield WA 6058 08 9359 0322 Ken.Wyatt.MP@aph.gov.au kenwyatt.com.au KenWyattMP Authorised by Ken Wyatt, Liberal Party, Shop 10-12 Hawaiian’s Forrestfield, 80 Hale Road,Forrestfield WA 6058.

12

MensLine Australia - 1300 78 99 78

Open Arms - 1800 011 046

Beyond Blue - 1300 22 4636

Lifeline - 13 11 14

This week the Morrison Government announced the COVID-19 Creative Economy Support Package.

This package will invest $250 million to support artists and organisations to get back in business following the disruptions caused by COVID-19.

The Morrison Government is focused on better preparing students to succeed in the jobs of the future.

From 2020, students in Hasluck will pay:

46 per cent less to study teaching, nursing, clinical psychology, English and languages;

62 per cent less to study agriculture and maths; and

20 per cent less to study health, architecture, environmental science, IT, and engineering

An additional 39,000 university places will also be provided to meet the expected increases in demand.

This is part of our government’s plan to empower future generations and stimulate our post-COVID economic recovery.

The Morrison Government is delivering over $24 million to the four local governments in Hasluck for safer and better maintained roads.

The Roads to Recovery funding in Hasluck will allow our local councils to progress a number of high-priority projects, using local knowledge to deliver the best local roads.

Our government remains committed to getting Australians home sooner and safer, no matter where they live.

For more information, visit my website: www.kenwyatt.com.au

13

COVID -19 RECOVERY PACKAGE LYNN GRIERSON

S

The expanded Lower Fees, Local Skills program will help Swan Hills’ residents to access affordable training after TAFE fees increased by up to 510 per cent under the previous Liberal National Government.

It is expected the expansion to the Lower Fees, Local Skills initiative will increase annual TAFE enrolments by more than 6,000 students, and provide fee relief to more than 27,000 new and existing students enrolled in those courses over the second half of 2020 and during 2021.

The package includes $25 million for ‘Free TAFE Short Courses’ developed in consultation with industry, to engage displaced workers and meet immediate and emerging skill requirements as the economy recovers.

Free short courses available across the metro will offer pre-employment pathways for further training, and training for emerging jobs and small business.

Free courses available in Midland and Joondalup TAFEs will include:

• Working in Community Care Skill Set – essential skills for entry level to work in community care

• Provide individual Support Skill Set – essential skills for entry level to work in individual support roles

• Commercial Kitchen Skill Set – develop an understanding of industry and essential knowledge and skills

The free short courses will provide a launch-pad for students to upskill for new jobs, provide pathways to qualifications and be used as a credit towards a qualification from the Lower Fees, Local Skills initiative.

The TAFE fees announcement is in addition to the new Apprenticeship and Traineeship Re-engagement Incentive that provides employers with a one-off payment of $6,000 for hiring an apprentice and $3,000 for hiring a trainee whose training contract was terminated on, or after, March 1, 2020.

Enrolments opened on Monday 6 July 2020.

For more information visit www.jobsandskills.wa.gov.au or contact your local Jobs and Skills Centre on 13 64 64.

wan Hills MLA Jessica Shaw has welcomed a $57 million package for the training sector that will slash TAFE fees for an additional thirty-nine courses and deliver fifteen free short courses as part of the WA Recovery Plan.

Reduced fee courses are available at TAFEs in Joondalup and also Midland, where the METRONET Trade Training Centre will complete railcar manufacturing in Midland to help keep manufacturing jobs local.

The expansion of the Lower Fees, Local Skills initiative rolled out before COVID-19 will see TAFE courses across the metro slashed by up to 72 per cent for Semester 2 2020, with reduced courses at Joondalup and Midland TAFEs to include:

• Cert. II in Automotive Electrical Technology – approx. $1,449 in 2017, reduced to $481

• Cert. II in Automotive Servicing Technology – approx. $1,781 in 2017, reduced to $591

• Cert. III in Horticulture approx. $2,885 in 2017, reduced to $948

• Cert. III in Carpentry and Joinery approx. $2876 in 2017 reduced to $1,434

• Cert. IV in Youth Work – approx. $2,584 in 2017, reduced to $1,200

• Cert. IV in Business – approx. $2,513 in 2017, reduced to $834

• Diploma in Early Childhood Education and Care – approx. $10,075 in 2017, reduced to $2,400

• Diploma of Nursing – approx.$9,467 in 2017, reduced to $2,083 for Semester 2,2020

The latest round of lower fee TAFE courses complements courses discounted at the start of Semester 1 2020 and brings the total number of reduced fee courses to more than seventy.

From Semester 2, the maximum annual fee students will pay is capped at $400 for concession students and youth, and $1,200 for non-concession students.

The heavily-reduced courses align with the State’s immediate economic needs following COVID-19.

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COVID -19 MESSAGE FROM THE PREMIER MARK MCGOWAN

Dateline 6th June, 2020.

T

he situation regarding COVID-19 around the world and in Victoria continues to evolve – with case numbers in some countries are at unbelievable levels and our friends in Victoria facing an extremely serious situation.

The level of community spread inside Victoria is something that we haven’t seen before in this country, and it’s a sobering reminder of why the measures we’ve had to put in place are so important.

There is no doubt about it – as a nation, we are entering a new and dangerous phase of this pandemic.

Today, I have been pleased to hear that common sense has prevailed and the border between Victoria and NSW will now close.

I think that’s a smart decision, and I think it has been long overdue.

Today I can report we have detected another three new cases of COVID-19 overnight, meaning we’ve now found nine new cases in the last two days.

However, all these new cases are all returned overseas travellers who flew into Perth recently and have remained in hotel quarantine.

With our hard border in place, arrivals to our State has slowed to a trickle, limited mainly to essential services such as freight and handfuls of Western Australians returning.

However, it appears, as Western Australia continues to lead the country and position itself as a safe-haven from COVID-19, new arrivals into our State has started to rise.

In recent days we have seen an uptick in air arrivals into Perth Airport both from interstate and overseas.

Arrivals are still far below pre-pandemic levels, but just the smallest increase in arrivals now needs to be taken seriously.

For example, yesterday three international flights and three domestic flights landed in Perth.

This increase in arrivals does put pressure on how we manage our border controls and our quarantine systems.

Perth is the western gateway to Australia, and over the last week we have seen a slow increase in arrivals into Perth.

Currently we have more than 1,100 people in hotel quarantine, across five hotels in Perth, as well as a large number of people in enforceable self-quarantine at home, who have mostly arrived from interstate.

However, if arrivals increase, our resources will start to spread thin.

That’s why the State Government has formally requested the Federal Government to put in place a cap on international arrivals into Perth Airport.

Consistent with the Federal Government’s support for the New South Wales’ cap, I have asked the Prime Minister to agree on a cap for Western Australia.

This would be something in the vicinity of one flight per three days. We need to slow the flow of arrivals. This will help

us manage the arrivals and quarantine arrangements to the highest standard.

In addition, Cabinet today approved the drafting of urgent legislation that will force any returning traveller – Western Australian or not – to pay for their fourteen days of hotel quarantine.

This legislation will be drafted as quickly as possible.

Once the Bill is ready and approved, we will recall Parliament if necessary for a special sitting to get this legislation through swiftly.

Clearly our hard border with the east has served us well but, our hard border is under threat.

As we know, Clive Palmer’s High Court challenge is being supported by the Federal Government.

The announcement today between NSW and Victoria to close their border is one that I support.

But the idea our hard border is being challenged in the High Court is now clearly flawed and completely unnecessary.

The High Court challenge consumes the resources of many of our top public servants, from our Solicitor General, our Chief Health Officer and our Police Commissioner.

In light of the new NSWVictoria border closure, today, I have asked the Prime Minister to formally withdraw their support from Clive Palmer’s High Court challenge.

It does not make sense for the Federal Government to be supporting a border closure between NSW and Victoria, but on the other hand, challenging WA’s border in the High Court of Australia.

Quite frankly, the legal challenge, and especially the Commonwealth’s involvement has now become ridiculous.

This nonsense has to stop. And it has to stop now.

Western Australia’s ‘island within an island’ strategy has been an integral part of our success.

WA has not recorded a community based infection since the 11th of April – that was eighty-six days ago.

As a result, WA is the most economically free and active State in Australia due to our relaxed restrictions. But we cannot get complacent.

I cannot thank the Western Australian community enough for everything they have done over the last four months.

We need to remain vigilant. That means:

• Don’t go to work if you’re sick.

• Don’t go out or visit friends and family if you’re unwell.

• Maintain a physical distance between others, where possible.

• Cough or sneeze into your elbow.

• Wash your hands regularly, and properly.

As Western Australians, we all have a personal responsibility.

The more we follow the health advice, the more chance we have of being able to continue on our roadmap to recovery.

15

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POETRY

GOTCHAS! (A WILDERNESS BEDTIME YARN)

T

WAYNE PANTALL

he bush of Australia is magic at night time.

You’ll share some excitement, if there at the right time.

So close eyes and listen – it’s ‘turn out the light time’.

A good yarn will help you to crash.

A smelly old hiking boot often attracts ‘em, (if bunyips are not out - which always distracts ‘em) for sore toes are fair game – the gripper extracts ‘em.

And gotchas’ll go for a gash.

Relax in your slumber and sniff eucalyptus.

Forget snakes and mozzies, and bugs that have nipped us and drift with the wonder, the bush night has slipped us, then morning will dawn in a flash.

A good place to find ‘em is down by the river, for gotchas love dining on crocodile liver.

If your sheila goes to the river - go wiv ‘er, and listen for rustle or splash.

In the good old Great Southern, in bush round about, You could hear the cry “Gotcha”, or similar shout, with a blood curdling scream, and there’d be not a doubt A digit had just done a dash.

The best way to catch one’s to lie on the ground where you act like you’re snoring - with bunyip type sound there, and grab his back legs while he’s sniffing your foul air, then tie him up firm with the lash.

Now gotchas are thinning, but once were prolific, from west of Fremantle, to west of Pacific, the Yowies in pain in the night were horrific, as pointy bits gave in to mash.

Now, when you do this, you could use some assistance.

These big hairy buggers sure put up resistance, and as for his jaws - well, you’d best keep your distance, and just don’t do anything rash.

For gotchas are partial to toes, ears and fingers of bunyips and people, or whatever lingers, around where they lurk in the bush, and by jingers, they’ll getcha if you’re acting brash.

His howls in the night should keep bunyips at bay then you all can sleep peaceful, until the next day when he’ll join you for breakfast, but may slip away when you thank God and undo the lash.

As any old dinky-dye bushman’ll sell ya, “A gotcha’ll know where you are, ‘cos he’ll smell ya.

He’s quick on the land, but in water, I tell ya, he’ll have ya as quick as a flash”.

The species will vary in different locations, from long legged lean ones on outlying stations to big hairy coastal type configurations, who don’t mind a bit of a bash.

The Bibbulman Track is a good place to hear ‘em.

So go tippy-toe (and be quiet when near ‘em), but don’t take your boots off – you’ve reason to fear ‘em.

You focus, and flash, and you dash.

So stay happy hikers, and watch where you feet are.

Make sure all backpackers and tourists you greet are aware that the three types of gotchas they’ll meet are, The Rustle, the Splash, and the Mash.

The caves and the rocks in the Stirlings are spot on (for gotchas to come out in daylight is not on).

They hide ‘til it’s tea time, when you put the pot on, and then they slip out for a bash.

As good Aussie hosts, make their bush trip a good one by passing on tips to our guests like, they should run, and hide until safe - and it be understood, none has ever out run a big Mash.

The big frontal claws and his tail with it’s ripper, will hold you secure, in his big triple gripper.

Forget about wearing a thong or a slipper, ‘cause right through the thing he’ll slash.

As the gotchas out there mimic sounds of the night zip your backpack up well (they’re a gotchas’ delight) and sleep well, happy campers, until morning light with an ear for Rustle and Splash.

17

DRINK LARGER THAN LIFE PIM PATTANASUK

T

he return of WA’s largest beer event, Perth Craft Beer Festival, is making the move back to where it all began, at Claremont Showgrounds for a gigantic weekend from September 4 – 6.

Activating one of the biggest beer halls Perth has yet to frolic in, with plenty of undercover areas and even firepits, the three-day event will feature an impressive range of breweries and cideries from across the country, pouring quality beverages, plus plenty of entertainment and activities to raise a glass to.

More than fifty breweries will be showcasing their produce, including West Australian favourites Beer Farm, Rocky Ridge and Boston Brewing Co – with the full line-up to be released next week.

From trusty favourites to new releases, there’ll be hundreds of quality froths to sample and sip on, but if beer and cider isn’t your thing or you just like to mix it up, there’ll be a delightful range of wines, cocktails and more to quench your thirst.

It wouldn’t be a gastronomic weekend without delicious bites. Expect pop ups from local food truck favourites to get stuck into with your bevvies. Drool over smoked meats, American BBQ, burgers, sliders and other surprises from around the globe - plus some vego and vegan friendly bites too!

With carnival games, rides, giant beer pong, silent disco, live music, Rock n Roll cover bands, DJs, dance floor, plenty of activities for the little ones and fun competitions like ‘Best Dad Bod Wet T Shirt Comp’, there truly is something for everyone.

Whether you’re looking to head for after work frothies on Friday, spend some quality time with the family on Saturday, turn it up with the crew on Saturday night or shout Dad a beer (and more) on Sunday; head down to Claremont Showgrounds and let your hair down.

18

FOOD CULPEPERS HERBAL STEPHAN DE JONGE

A

s the Covid-19 lockdown and isolation continues, we are seeing more and more attention being given to the things that really matter, such as home cooking.

As a hobby, even one born of necessity, cooking is allabsorbing, enjoyable and an area where learning never ends.

Every dish is enhanced by the use of spices and herbs, so much so that a huge part of the endeavour of the Middle Ages was to establish a secure source of spices.

Nicholas Culpeper (1616 - 1654) was an English botanist, herbalist, physician and astrologer. His book the Complete Herbal is a store of pharmaceutical and herbal knowledge.

Culpeper spent much time outdoors cataloguing hundreds of medicinal herbs.

So as a service to the readers of Swan Magazine we’re going to give a brief overview of some common herbs and spices.

Enjoy, learn and have fun trying them out.

from cooler parts of Europe and Asia. It is thought to be an aphrodisiac and it was presented to Alexander the Great as a wedding present. I hope he was pleased.

Like Onion and Garlic, it is rich in Sulfur.

The best Chives come from Germany.

CORIANDER

Coriander powder is the seeds of the Apiaceae herb which have been ground..

Cooking with: Pork, Lamb, Cheese making, Bread Baking, Stewed Fruit, Potatoes Cuisine: Thai, Middle Eastern, Mexican, Malaysian, Italian, Indian, Chinese

CHIVES

Chives grow in clumps from a bulb and are a kind of a leek.

They have a slight onion flavour. Chives are a member of the onion family which also includes garlic and shallots.

Cooking with: Fish, Cheese making, Eggs, Potatoes, Salad Dressings and Salads, Soups Cuisines: Thai, Middle Eastern, Mexican, Malaysian, Italian, Chinese Usage : Used to add flavour and colour to your culinary dish.

Great with egg dishes, sour cream, mashed potatoes, salad dressings, seafood, white sauce and chicken meals.

It is an essential ingredient of the traditional French blend Fines herbes, with chervil, parsley and tarragon.

DO NOT EAT RAW! It may cause headaches and possibly dizziness.

Medicinal Usage: Not generally regarded as having medicinal properties. It may help fight colds and the flu, may have mild antiseptic properties and it may reduce blood pressure.

Fun Facts:

The history of chives starts 5000 years ago. It comes

Coriander leaves and seeds - Apiaceae

Usage : Adds a warm, nutty, spicy, and citrus type flavour to food. Also used to add a citrus flavour to beer. For use in curries, sweet cakes or chicken and seafood cooking. Mixes well with many other spices, it is an amalgamating spice.

Medicinal Usage: Coriander is anti-bacterial and its antioxidants may delay food spoilage. It is active against salmonella so it may be worthwhile adding Coriander to susceptible foods.

Fun Facts: A minority of people find the smell of Coriander reminiscent of soap, and thus find it offensive in food.

Oil of coriander, extracted from the seeds, are used in perfumes or to flavour sweets, meet and liquors. It also helps masking offensive odors in medicines.

During the Middle Ages, Coriander was considered as a possible aphrodisiac and was used in love potions.

Known as Cilantro in the United States. The best Coriander comes from India.

Courtesy of Culpepers

www.culpepers.net.au

www.culpepers.net.au 19

WHAT’S ON IF YOU WOULD LIKE AN EVENT LISTED IN THIS COLUMN RING our office on 0418 934 850 Entries for non-profit entities are free.

SWAN VALLEY COMMUNITY CENTRE

ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS - Glen Forrest Group Every Monday evening We meet at 7.00pm at the Glen Forrest Uniting Church, Mc Glew Rd, Glen Forrest. Call Dermot 0488 905 211 or John 0448 074 536 or the Perth Office (all hours) 9325 3566.

Monday Mornings The Art Group meets at Baskerville Hall from 9am – 12pm for just $5.00 per session.

Group leader Gilly can help and advise with most media. Feel free to come and have a look and meet our local artists – they are a very friendly lot, new members welcome!

For more information call 9296 1976 or enquiries@swanvalleycommunitycentre.com www.swanvalleycommunitycentre.com

AUSTRALIAN BREASTFEEDING ASSOC. Discussion groups, guest speakers, morning tea. Free breastfeeding counselling. Expectant mothers, mothers, babies and children welcome. National Breastfeeding Helpline 1800 686 2686 is a 24 hour 7 days a week service.

EASTERN DISTRICTS MACHINE KNITTERS

Friday - second and fourth We meet from 9:00am to noon at 10 Brockman Road, Midland.

Feel welcome to join us for morning tea and see how easy it is to make your own garments.

For more information contact Pat 9309 3260; Liz 9572 7074 or Pat 9295 2793.

Swan/Mundaring Group meets every Monday, 9:30-11:30am at the Gumnuts Family Centre, 8 Mudalla Way, Koongamia. A qualified ABA counsellor is present at each meeting to give confidential information and support on breastfeeding issues.

Contact Natalie 9572 4971.

Kalamunda Group meets fortnighly on a Thursday, 9:3011:30am at the Maida Vale Baptist Church, Edney Road, High Wycombe. Contact Jenny 9252 1996.

SWAN HARMONY SINGERS

Wednesdays Come and sing with us! Swan Harmony Singers is a community choir that meets, 7-9pm, to sing music ranging from jazz to pop, plus the occasional classic. No auditions.

Join us at the Salvation Army Church Hall, 371 Morrison Rd, (opposite Swan View Primary School), Swan View. Enquiries: call Anna on 9299 7249, or Chris on 9298 9529 or 0435 062 728.

Northam Group meets each second Tuesday of the month at the Bridgeley Community Centre, Wellington Street, Northam 10am to Noon.

Fourth Tuesday each month at Toodyay Playgroup, Stirling Terrace, Toodyay. Noon to 2pm. Please phone Louisa 9574 0229.

TALKING HORSES

ELLENBROOK COMMUNITY WEIGHT LOSS CLUB

Wednesday evenings 6:00pm The WA Horse Council equestrian radio program is now in its seventh year. The programme is broadcast on the Community Radio Station 91.3 SportFM. To ensure that your club, event, breed or business gets coverage, call Diane Bennit 0409 083 617.

Every Tuesday evening We meet from 6.45pm to 8.00pm at the Woodlake Community Hall, Meeting room 1 Highpoint Blvd, Ellenbrook. Friendly support group at low cost. Male and females of all ages welcome.

Contact Shirley 9276 7938 shirleysardelich@aapt.net.au.

THE ZONTA CLUB OF SWAN HILLS

HILLS CHRONIC PAIN SUPPORT GROUP

Dinner meeting 3rd Wednesday February – November Meets Swan Mundaring area. ( venue to be advised ) Zonta International envisions a world in which women’s rights are recognized as human rights and every woman is able to achieve her full potential.

In such a world, women have access to all resources and are represented in decision making positions on an equal basis with men.

In such a world, no woman lives in fear of violence.

Guests are welcome to join us please contact Ruth 08 92729442 or ruth@amsaustralia.com.

1st Wednesday of each month Hilltop Grove Estate, 1645 Jacoby Street, Mahogany Creek.

Morning tea provided, between 10.30 - 12.00 noon.

Enquiries Terina 9572 1655.

MORRIS DANCING

All welcome. It’s like bush dancing, with sticks and bells. It’s aerobic exercise and great fun!

Tuesdays 7-9pm practice, Guildford Town Hall, cnr James St and Meadow St, Guildford. And drinks later at the Woodbridge Hotel with live Irish music For more information please contact: Christine Hogan: 9279 8778 Email: madtattersmorris@iinet.Net.Au Website: madtattersmorris.myclub.org.au

JUST A PIECE - TEXTILE KINSHIP Fortnightly Fridays This textile art group meets every fortnight Fridays 9.30 to 12.00 at Just Add Passion on Richardson Rd Stoneville. $5 per session, everyone welcome Check us out on Facebook or text Janette on 0407 633 771.

SWAN WOODTURNERS GROUP

The group meets in the rear hall of The Senior Citizens’ Centre, The Avenue, Midland, at 1-00pm. on 1st, 3rd, 4th, and 5th. Tuesday, and at 7-00pm. on 2nd Tuesday of each month. A demonstration and cuppa are the norm. Men and Women are welcome. Enquiries to Ted 9295 4438.

ELLENBROOK AND DISTRICT MENS SHED INC.

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday We are open at 4 Transit Way Ellenbrook from 10.00am to 3.00pm. Potential members can turn up on those days and there will be someone to explain what we do and give membership 20

WHAT’S ON details. Annual fees are low and members can do their own thing, participate in projects for the community or simply just come in for a chat and a cuppa.

We are considering extending our days to include Saturdays or evenings if there is enough interest.

MUSTARD SEED - DISCOVERING COMPUTERS

Mustard Seed is a nineteen year old non-profit organisation and teaches all aspects of everyday computing. Ability levels from beginners onwards.

Want help with Windows 10? In need of instruction with your Mac computer? Have an iPad or Android tablet and don’t know what it will do? We can help. Cost is $2 per session.

Classes are held at 56 McGlew Road, Glen Forrest. To gain a place enrol now by phoning 0491 044 805 or emailing: mustardcomputers@gmail.com W: noodlebytes.com

SWAN VALLEY COMMUNITY CENTRE SWAN VALLEY HOMESCHOOL FAMILY PLAYGROUP

Thursday mornings 9:15am to 11:15am Older siblings welcome to join playgroup in a rural setting in the Swan Valley. Normal playgroup guidelines apply for children zero to five years old.

Baskerville Hall, 129 Memorial Drive, Baskerville. For more information ring 0419 922 792 or email enquiries@ swanvalleycommunitycentre.com

MIDLAND MEN’S SHED

Call us on 0407 888 759 or email: singaustraliaswanvalley@outlook.com for inquiries.

THE HILLS CHOIR

Monday Evenings Do you enjoy singing and joining with others to make beautiful music? Come and join the Hills Choir. We meet from 7.30 to 9.30pm at the Uniting Church on Stoneville Road, Mundaring.

Contact Margie on 9295 6103 for further information.

DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT THIS YEAR - SING!

If you enjoy singing and have been thinking about joining a choir, now is the ideal time to do it. Community choirs are starting to learn a new repertoire of songs, which means you get in on the ground floor as everyone is learning together, and you don’t have to worry about catching up with the rest of the group.

Swan Harmony Singers are always keen to welcome new members at the start of a new year. They meet every Wednesday night from 7-9pm, and have just moved to a new home at the Midland Arts Centre in Cale Street (opposite Midland Gate).

You don’t need to have a musical background and there are no auditions. You just need to enjoy singing and be prepared to make a reasonable commitment to attend rehearsals regularly.

The choir sings a wide variety of music ranging from jazz and pop to the occasional classical piece, and gives performances towards the end of the year.

Interested? Come along on a Wednesday evening and give it a try. If you’d like to know more, contact Maureen on 9299 6588.

Every Tuesday morning We meet socially every Tuesday morning from 9.30am to 11.30am in the Bellevue Baptist Church Hall and our usual attendance is around fifty-five. At least once a month we have a guest speaker on a range of topics.

We also go on excursions to various places of interest (e.g.

HMAS Stirling, Aviation Museum, Fremantle Ports, ALCOA, etc.).

Our workshop with wood working and metal working is in Midvale and for the opening hours and further details please contact Brian Beer on 0411 833 055. Also in operation is our music group – the Rockin’ Shedders which is going from strength to strength and their repertoire of songs increases each week.

For more information on the Shed please contact Kevin Buckland on 0417 961 971 or email: kebinsv@tpg.com.au.

THE HILLS CHOIR Mondays We practice on Mondays from 7:30 pm to 9:30 pm at the Uniting Church in Stoneville Road, Mundaring. We are looking for Sopranos, Altos, Tenors and Basses over the age of sixteen to join us. We sing a range of sacred and secular music in four parts.

Please phone Margie on 9295 6103, email the thehillschoir@ gmail.com or visit their website www.hillschoir.org.au.

SING AUSTRALIA SWAN VALLEY Monday nights We are a community singing group in the Swan Valley and welcome anyone who loves to sing.

There are no auditions or expectations on ability. We welcome absolute beginners and experienced singers.

Singing has enormous health and wellbeing benefits which helps promote joy and positivity in people’s lives.

Come along, give it a go and bring a friend for a great night of singing. The group meets 7.30 to 9.30pm in Baskerville Hall, 129 Memorial Ave, Baskerville.

21

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22

FICTION FIX THE FENCE SUE MORLEY

D

ear old Uncle Bert, eighty eight years old and still driving his trusty, rusty EK Holden.

“Nothing wrong with that, good on him.” Did I hear you say?

“True enough.” I'd reply, if only he knew what day or year it was, he's a menace to all road users.

“It's time to stop driving Bert!” I'd told the stubborn old codger often enough for it to become boring.

“I've been driving since before you were born, don't tell me I can't drive.” That was his standard reply.

The family had tried to get his family doctor on board on numerous occasions, but he was as set in his ways as Bert, and also getting on in years. Maybe he was projecting a time when someone would try to take his driver’s licence away too.

“I don't think you need to worry just yet.” He'd say in Bert’s defense. “After all he only drives very locally I understand. It would probably make him quite depressed if he was reliant on others to drive him around.”

It seemed no argument was going to change the doctor’s mind on this subject and he proclaimed him mentally fit to take a practical driving assessment.

The day of the test came around, the weather was fine after the rain of the previous evening although the roads were still quite wet. I offered to accompany my Uncle as I was sure he wouldn't pass and I'd have to drive him home.

“Come on you old bugger, let's get it over with.” I said locking his front door. “ I'll drive.”

“Where are we going?” Bert asked several times on the way, running his hand through the few wisps of hair left on his head.

“I told you Bert, for a driving test.”

Bert nodded his head as if he understood, then asked. “ Where are we going again?”

I tried to keep calm and answered once more. “You're going to have a driving test Bert.”

“ Oh yes, righto, why do I have to do that?”

I gritted my teeth and thought that surely the assessor would pick up that this old man was not safe to drive a car and that it would be a kindness to both Bert and the rest of the community to get this man off the road. ~oOo~

getting on famously, he'll feel sorry for the old bloke and pass him.”

I watched as Bert got into the driver’s seat and they took off. There was no indication as he drew away, nor any as they rounded the roundabout at the end of the road, and I waited for them to return.

I could hear the familiar sounds of the old car before it came into sight after only ten minutes. As they pulled into the parking space reserved for driving tests, I saw that they were still deep in conversation and both of the men were smiling.

The examiner opened the car door and I could hear that they were still talking about old cars. “ Don't forget Bert come around and see my old Holden anytime, you have my number, just give us a call.”

I groaned, he'd obviously passed him! ~oOo~

As we sped through school zones and turned into roads without any indication, Bert was totally ignoring the horns of other road users. I gripped on to my seat, incredulous that this man had been given yet another licence.

“Slow down Bert, schools are coming out!”

“I've been driving since before you were born.”

“Red light!” I screamed as we sailed through the intersection into the on coming traffic.

We miraculously missed several vehicles and Bert panicked and accelerated, we crashed through a brick wall and into the lounge room of a very surprised lady who was just finishing her afternoon cup of tea.

The car stopped just a few feet away from her and for a minute no one said a word as we all sat covered in brick dust, rubble and broken glass.

“I'll have to fix that fence.” Bert muttered.

The driving examiner was very friendly, he explained, “There's nothing to be worried about Mr Spencer, it's just a little test to show me you can still drive safely. We won't go too far.”

I sat on a low wall outside of the licensing centre and watched as the two men walked to where Bert’s old banger was parked.

“Nice car Mr Spencer, not seen one of these around for a while, I had one of these when I was eighteen.”

Bert was in his element now talking about his car, he always sounded so knowledgeable and mentally with it when speaking on his favourite subject.

“Oh no.” I sighed, putting my head in my hands. “They're 23

FICTION THE AUTUMN PLAGUE K R W TREANOR

The Autumn Plague Book One in the Reckoning of Souls trilogy by K R W Treanor

Would you want to be the scientist who tells the President that 88% of the population will be dead in nine days? John Callan is the man, and he has worse news to follow: even when the Nanjing Flu’s disease vector is identified, there’s not enough time left to stop it.

How Callan leaves his ivory tower and learns to live in the new and frightening real world is the theme of The Autumn Plague, Book I in a planned trilogy. Follow Callan and the survivors into a place without convenience stores and a cop on the corner, and discover the human pioneer spirit waking from its long sleep.

This is a timely book, opening a door into a world that might be not that far away.

Be on the lookout for Book Two, The Dark Spring, which takes the story six months down the track from Day Nine, and Book Three, The Inn at the End of the World, which is set several centuries further on.

simplest if we all just introduce ourselves. I’m the President, which I suppose you all know, and I failed 12th grade chemistry.”

This got a small laugh, which eased the atmosphere a bit. The President was famous for his ability to develop a rapport with whatever group he was with. By no means a stupid man, he never minded saying he didn’t understand something, which had led many to underestimate him. He nodded at Kamala, who said “Kamala Mehr, Rapahannock Labs, haematologist.”

“John Callan, Rapahannock Labs, epidemiology and virology.”

“Miles Shapnik, Johns Hopkins, er, microbiologist.”

“Greg Wilton, National Science Adviser”

“Mary Hawthorne, Harvard, toxicology.”

The rest of the group duly identified themselves. The President said, “This is a preliminary meeting to share what information we have; I apologise for the late hour, but several items have come up which seemed too urgent to leave until a more civilised time. Dr. Wilton will chair the meeting.” With that, the President leaned back and put on an expression of keen interest.

“Perhaps Dr. Callan would lead off,” said Wilton, a tall spare man who looked as if he’d be more at home in a library than in

"It was about the beginning of September 1664 that I, among the rest of my neighbors, heard ... that the plague was returned again ...''

Daniel Defoe A Journal of the Plague Year Continued from the June edition:

It wasn’t until the work of Stetter and Folk that serious scientists finally began to look for the infinitesimal life forms--and found them everywhere. One scientist suggested that there were more nanobacteria on earth than all other life forms put together. The little things were all over the planet: in rocks, in rust, at the bottom of the ocean, clinging to thermal pools, in the Dead Sea, in Lake Baikal and everywhere in between.

It was a relatively new science and only a few commercially useful applications had been found for the creatures, the most important one probably being their ability to gobble up toxic waste and barely burp afterwards. Several huge oil slicks had been prevented from ravaging the coastline by the deploying of hundreds of trillions of specialised nanobacteria, which obligingly ate the oil and then disappeared.

The door opened and a round little man with a fright wig of grey hair and skewed tortoiseshell glasses entered.

“Kamala, my dear, how nice to see you,” he burbled, coming straight to her seat and managing to upset a coffee cup as he shook her hand. The National Security Advisor cleared her throat loudly and said, “Professor Shapnik, may I introduce you to the President?”

“President? Oh, yes, to be sure, yes,” he said, pushing his glasses up his nose where they clung for a moment before subsiding to their original position. “Delighted, I’m sure, my dear sir,” he said, bustling around the table and pumping the President’s arm so vigorously one of the security men took a few steps towards him.

“Sit here, Professor, so I can ask questions without raising my voice. I’m sure there will be lots of them.” The President pulled out a chair on his left. “I think it will be 24

such a high profile position.

“Briefly, we noticed that blood groups seemed to correlate to the death rates, so we did a bit of digging and this is what we came up with,” said Callan. At the end of his brief presentation, Wilton said, “That’s extremely interesting, and it might tie in with what Professor Shapnik has to say. Professor?”

Knocking his glasses further askew and dropping his pencil, Professor Shapnik stood up and said, “I’ve been looking at the slides from the autopsies, hoping to find a smoking gun, or at least a smoking bacterium. I was about to give up when I thought I’d run the slides through the electron microscope; nothing had shown up in the greatest magnification of the optical ‘scopes.

Almost at the edge of vision, so to speak, I found this.” He pulled a large black and white photograph from a battered briefcase. It looked like a picture of spaghetti and meatballs.

“It’s a nanobacteria that can metabolise iron.”

“How does this explain the Flu?” asked the President.

“I’m not sure, but when you recall that human red blood cells require iron to function, one’s antennae start to twitch,” said Shapnik.

“So is this the disease germ?” asked Devore, staring at the picture.

“No, I don’t think so. In fact, I’m beginning to incline to the view that we may not be looking for a disease germ, as you call it.

I don’t think this is influenza, not in the classical sense.”

“Then what?”

“Perhaps a toxin. Dr. Hawthorne may shed some light on that,” Wilton put in

Dr. Mary Hawthorne stood up and said “We have run tests for everything starting, with arsenic and running through to uranium. The only finding we came up with was an absence, not a presence. The absence is iron, which could tie in with both the other findings. None of the specimens we were given had anywhere like the concentration of iron in the blood that should be there.”

“So we have a few clues, that’s good, isn’t it?” The President

asked, his eyes sweeping the table.

“Yes, sir, but what we don’t have so far is how this--call it a disease for now--gets into people, and we don’t know where it came from,” Kamala said.

“Well, we’ll just have to find out, then, won’t we?” The President stood up. “Thank you all for coming; you’ll forgive me for leaving, but I’m not likely to be able to contribute any scientific insight. There’s food and coffee in the next room and I hope you’ll stay and do a bit of brainstorming over the croissants for a while.” He left the room, dogged by his silent security detail.

The atmosphere became less formal at once: they might all be high-powered scientists, but that man was the most powerful man in the world, if one believed the newspapers. Talking freely to him wasn’t something that came easily.

Dr. Wilton opened the door to a small sitting room with a buffet table that looked inviting. Professor Shapnik went over to Kamala and slipped his arm through hers. “It must be two years, at least. How have you been, and how is Feroze?”

Dr. Wilton stepped over to Dr. Hawthorne and they were soon deep in a conversation that revolved around the doings of the Boston Red Sox. The other scientists coalesced into three other small groups.

Observing this, Melusine Devore said to Callan, “Well, you scientists are a cliquey lot, aren’t you?”

“What? Oh, I suppose we are, in a way. Probably because most of us forget how to speak plain English and nobody but other scientists understand us.”

“Come have something to eat and tell me about what you do at your lab when you’re not trying to save Western Civilisation,” she said. Callan thought she did look rather hungry, and it would be rude to refuse. They filled their plates and she led him to a two-seater couch in the corner of the room.

“It’s not just Western Civilisation,” he said seriously.

“Whatever this thing is, it’s going to affect the entire world. If our theory about blood types is correct, most of the world’s population is at risk. We don’t know how much risk, because we don’t know what the vector, the thing that moves this disease around, is. And we don’t know the cause, whether it was a one-off thing, like a volcano puffing out something nasty, or an ongoing condition, a process of some sort.”

“Do you think it could have come out of a volcano?”

“No, that was just a ‘for instance’. I should have found a better example; I’m not really very good talking to people.

When I used to lecture, my assistant often stopped me and translated for the students.”

She laughed at this. “I’m sure you exaggerate. I thought you did very well in there, and the President clearly thought so too. Greg had better look to his laurels.”

“No fear there; I couldn’t possibly do what he does, stand up in public and be hammered by reporters.” Callan bit into a ham and cheese croissant and 25

realised he was ravenous despite having had a good supper.

“So how long have you worked with Kamala? And does she work in that amazing outfit?” Melusine Devore looked at the peacock-coloured tunic over the deep purple trousers that made Kamala look like a tropical bird in a hen house.

“She was all set to go to a concert when this blew up, and didn’t have time to go home and change. And as for our working together, we’ve known each other for years and when I set up the lab, she was my first choice for haematology. She was newly widowed, so it took a bit of persuading on my part, but I think it helped her.” Callan said, starting on a corn muffin speckled with bacon bits.

Around the coffee urn, Kamala, Professor Shapnik and Mary Hawthorne were comparing notes and looking sombre.

“This isn’t good, Giles,” Mary said. “With every other major disease we’ve faced we had some idea of how it killed, how it moved about, where it came from.”

“To be fair, this is only the first week. With the AIDS epidemic, we didn’t even know we had an epidemic until hundreds had died.”

“But we identified the pathogen and we came up with some

practical advice about how to avoid it pretty quickly, once we knew there was something going on. So far, this thing is having everything its own way.”

“It’s got to start in the blood,” Kamala said. “All the autopsies on recent deaths, bar a handful, show the blood is hypercoagulated. Whatever it is, is must be able to upset haemostasis, and very quickly, too.”

“What are the handful?” asked Wilton, joining the group.

Kamala said, “Ignoring the deaths from obvious causes, such as gunshot and car accidents, the handful of people who didn’t die with coagulated blood were haemophiliac, people who have severely compromised blood clotting abilities. And there are several who weren’t haemophiliacs, but whom I’d bank on being on some sort of drug, a heparin derivative or coumarin maybe. We can check on that.”

Callan and Devore came over to the table and Devore said, “Does that mean we could cure this thing if we gave everyone heparin?”

“Well, no; not really,” Callan put in. “It thins the blood, and if you give it to people who aren’t in imminent danger of dying of clotting, it makes the blood too thin, and they could bleed to death from a nick, just like real haemophiliacs. Perhaps if you knew someone was incubating the disease, if that’s how it works, you could start an anticoagulant drip.

“But the problem is this thing comes on so damn fast: people are alive one minute and dead the next. There are a few reports that a dry cough and feeling of fatigue precedes the onset of the illness, which is why they tagged it as influenza originally. Without knowing what the cause is, we can’t devise a test to see who’s at risk. Right now all we can say is it looks like everyone on earth who has type O or type A blood is in danger.

Even some AB people may be. The ones who are safe seem to be straight type B blood types.”

Wilton broke in. “Wait a minute, I did a bit of data scanning while you were en route and I saw in the raw figures at least 1.02% of the deaths were type B.”

“My guess is we’ll find those were cases of misdiagnoses, people who died of pneumonia or something. In fact, I’d order second autopsies on those people if I were in charge. If I’m right, then we could at least tell the AB and B people they will probably survive. That’s something.”

“But the corollary of that is letting the type A and O people know they probably haven’t got a hope. Think of the panic that could cause,” Devore said.

“Oh,” said Callan, who hadn’t thought of that. “Well, I guess that puts us back to where we were: tell people to stay home, and we keep slogging away at this until we find out how it’s getting around and what to do about it.” He looked at his watch.

“I suggest we all go home, we can do more good in our own labs than we can here. But let’s keep in touch. Perhaps a central clearing house for information has already been set up?” He looked at Wilton and Devore, both of whom looked suddenly blank.

“Well, no, now that you mention it. NDIC was told to share what they had with any researcher who contacts them, but not to broadcast it. That was an oversight; I’ll get something set up this morning. I’ll email you all with the details, and if you can disseminate them to all your contacts, we should be able to give the whole scientific community a heads-up by evening. We’ve DISCLAIMER The information in this publication is of a general nature.

The articles contained herein are not intended to provide a complete discussion on each subject and or issues canvassed.

Swan Magazine does not accept any liability for any statements or any opinion, or for any errors or omissions contained herein.

26

got a data base of all universities and laboratories, but there’s always someone who gets missed out.” Wilton looked irritated.

“Retired researchers and professors for instance,” Kamala put in. “They might be very useful, even if they just sit and think, and this could be a lot more interesting than playing backgammon or whatever they’re all doing these days.”

“Right,” said Wilton, giving her an admiring glance and tapping something into his phone.

“Doctor Callan, your helicopter is here,” said a young woman in a dark suit who had just materialised at his elbow.

“Doesn’t that sound grand? In less desperate circumstances, I’d be impressed as all get out,” Callan said to the room at large. “Goodbye, all. Keep in touch.” Taking his laptop he followed the young woman to the door, Kamala beside him.

On the trip back, neither spoke much, but when they had been let off the noisy machine they stood on the front steps and watched a shooting star burning its way across the pre-dawn sky.

“It could have come from something like that, have you wondered about it?” Callan said, pushing the night bell beside the front door.

“Like something out of H G Wells? Would that it were that simple, we’d just have to wait for the friendly bacteria to do away with the creepy crawlies,” Kamala said.

Joe opened the door and let them in. “There’s a pot of coffee just made,” he said. “Figured you could use it.”

Leaving Joe to continue his patrol, Callan and Kamala went to the cafeteria and gratefully filled large mugs.

“Tea might do it for the English, but give me coffee every time,” Callan said. “Right, what are we going to do next? After I get the lawyers in, that is. I haven’t forgotten what I said earlier.”

“Don’t be a doom-sayer, that’s not like you,” said Kamala.

“Spit it out, what’s your blood type, A? O? “

“No, it’s AB, but that doesn’t seem to give me a free ride, not from the data we’ve got. ABs are dying at lesser rates, but they’re still dying. If I had to take a punt, I’d say it is related to the A half of the AB equation. You’re the blood expert, you make a guess.”

“OK, I’d guess that somehow, don’t ask how, those nanobacteria are either doing, or expediting the doing, of something in the blood that binds and degrades the iron.

Possibly involving one of the clotting factors, like Protein S or one of the others. It’s like galloping reverse haemophilia.”

“And the nanobacteria get into people how?”

“Air or water are the most likely, only because they’re the most universal. If this were a food-borne disease, like salmonella, you’d expect concentrations in particular places, with radiating secondary outbreaks.

Same thing if this were a normal infectious disease like flu. No, it’s got to be caused by something that happened all over the world within a short time”

“Terrorists setting off aerosol bombs? Tom Clancy stuff?”

“No, you’d still have concentrations and then radiating secondaries. I’d put terrorists at the bottom of the heap of suspects.”

Callan finished his coffee. “Go home.

Come in when you feel like it, I’m going to crash here, no point in going anywhere else.”

“What about Ping and Pong?” she said, taking both mugs and leaving them in the sink for Mrs. McWherrie. Having no resident family, Callan was devoted to a pair of mad Siamese cats who shared his apartment.

“They’ve got the automatic feeder, and Maria will be in to do her weekly tornado of cleaning this morning. She’ll amuse them for a while. Go on, out you go.”

He watched her leaving, the gold threads on the peacock tunic winking in the security lights along the hall that led to the foyer. With a sigh, he left the cafeteria and headed for his office.

Joe was returning from his patrol. “I’m going to crash for a while.

Can you give me a poke with a sharp stick at 6:30, Joe?”

“Will do, Doctor C. Sleep well.”

Callan headed for the bed he had so recently vacated, wondering if he’d ever sleep again, given what he’d learned in the past few hours. But nature took over and sent him into a dreamless sleep almost before he got his shoes off.

He woke to the smell of coffee and bacon. Kamala was standing there with a tray. “Don’t yell at Joe, I countermanded your order. It’s eight o’clock, plenty early given your schedule recently. Eat, drink, have a shower, and put on something comfortable. I stopped by your place and petted the cats and got Maria to pack me a few things for you. See you in twenty minutes.”

She left before he was fully conscious, but he fumbled his way to the coffee blindly, like a calf to a teat. Once he got that down and ate the sandwich he felt better. He appreciated what a sacrifice cooking bacon must have been for Kamala, who was a devout Zoroastrian, and ate neither pork nor beef. Taking the overnight bag with him to the shower, he boiled himself for a while, dressed, and felt almost human by the time he got to his office.

Kamala was there with a pile of print-outs. “Giles has been a busy little bee, he said he knew better than to try and sleep, so he’s got some more data for us. He says he got to thinking about how iron-loving nanobacteria could have become so widespread as to show up in every autopsy, and he thinks he’s on to something. Look.”

She spread out a map of the Atlantic. Grey blotches floated here and there on the very basic graphic.

“Oil spills. Three of them, unusual to have so many so close together, but if you will truck the stuff around in substandard boats, that’s what you must expect,” Kamala said. “For all three, they were so big and so widespread that floating caissons weren’t any use, so they used nanobacteria, the kind that likes hydrocarbon sludge.”

“I thought they just disappeared after the oil was gone.”

Callan said.

“That’s what everyone thought. But Giles got on to

27

take 3 days for one division. Not like good old shigella which divides almost as fast as you can count it.”

“I might as well go home and play with the cats, you’ve got it all covered,” Callan said, feeling ever so slightly miffed.

“No, you can’t do that, you’re the epidemiologist: now we’ve got a lead, you have to do the hard work.”

“Which is?”

“Figure out how fast this thing can spread and how to stop it.” Kamala squared up her pile of print-outs on the desk, and left.

Callan switched on his computer and stared at the screen for a long moment.

He was about to begin putting down some thoughts when the phone rang. “It’s a Dr. Wilton for you,” Mindy said.

“Callan? Is your TV on?” Wilton’s voice someone at the weather bureau and it seems there was some was hoarse and for no reason sent a chill down Callan’s spine. pretty fierce weather in the south Atlantic during the time of the

“No, hang on,” Callan said, rummaging for the remote second and third spills. control and switching on the overhead television. “What

“He’s got a working theory, which he admits may be channel?” rubbish, that the nanobes could have been sucked up into the

“It almost doesn’t matter.” atmosphere, caught up in the stratospheric winds and sent all

Callan’s screen filled with pictures of what seemed to be over the place, to hang in the air for months. Some of them thousands of people, jostling and shouting. The camera panned would come down with rain and snow; some would float for long around and he could see that he was viewing a huge crowd on periods. They weigh next to nothing, millions would fit on the the Mall, centred on the Washington Monument. point of a pin, a puff of air would keep them aloft forever.”

“What’s going on?” Callan asked.

“But they’re supposed to be harmless.”

“You mentioned Armageddon last night. This might be the

“Thalidomide was supposed to be harmless. Nicotine dress rehearsal.

Somehow someone decided that the Nanjing was supposed to be harmless. DDT was supposed to be Flu is a case of wilful genocide by whites against blacks, and this harmless, for that matter. The history of science is littered with is the result.

We’re sending some Marines out to you, just in case. pronouncements of the harmlessness of things.”

It’s only a matter of time before some idiot decides that Science

“All right, say that the culprit is this nanobacteria. How is to blame.

And you’ll be no use to us dead, quite frankly. I’ve set does it do what it does?” up what you asked for, here’s the email address and the phone

“Sixty-four thousand dollar question. I’m working on it numbers of the information clearing house. now, and so’s the rest of the crew. I had a very expensive little

“We’ve got four people on deck at NDIC, we can put more if phial of the critters Fed-exed first thing this morning. We’re we need to. That’s if the mob doesn’t tear down everything first. seeing what hoops they’ll jump through. It’s going to be slow, The Vice President has been whisked off to Camp David in the because they don’t replicate like other bacteria, some of them company of carefully selected guards who all have type B blood. You think that wasn’t a tricky thing to arrange?”

KAREN R TREANOR At this point Wilton’s voice gave out and there was a loud swallowing sound KAREN Treanor has been writing since the in the earpiece Callan held in a death age of six. Discovering bandicoots in her grip. backyard, and learning that nobody was “Sorry, gotta take a break for a while.” writing about these engaging little beasts, she started Quenda Books, which publishes Wilton croaked. the Scoot, Scoot, Bandicoot® series, in 2003.

“Anything new turn up this morning?

For many years she was a frequent visitor “No, Kamala and the rest of the crew at Western Australian schools and libraries, are hard at work, I’ll let you know. talking about bandicoots and book Have a nap and gargle with aspirin. publishing.

One thing you might consider doing is Karen worked for Swan Publishing for releasing the relative mortality tables several years, and her book reviews, poems to the press. Once people see that and short stories have appeared often in the blacks aren’t dying any faster than Swan Magazine. whites, this hysteria may pass. But She lived in Mundaring with many visiting don’t give them the blood-type figures bandicoots, possums, bobtail lizards, and magpies; plus some resident chickens, cats or you’ll have a whole new mess on and a very tolerant husband until 2014, when your hands.” she packed up the cats and husband, and Callan hung up and snapped off the Karen R W Treanor moved to Tasmania where she spends her television. He didn’t see what could be (Photograph by Rob Watson) time wallaby wrangling, making sourdough gained by letting his staff know about bread, and writing. what was going on in Washington.

28

With luck, the mob would give up and go home. Or more likely go on a looting rampage, which seemed to be mankind’s response to fear and frustration these days.

He thought briefly about what might happen if no cure could be found. What if all the types O and A died, leaving a population 12 or 13% its present size? Could a remnant population keep itself from sliding into a new Dark Age? He took himself mentally by the scruff of the neck and went into the lab.

Morbid introspection wasn’t going to get them anywhere, but some hard slog at the microscope just might.

“Morning, folks,” he said, beginning the day the way he always did. If it wasn’t quite as bright and cheery as usual, nobody cared to comment.

Back at the Capital, Dr. Wilton prescribed himself half an ounce of whisky mixed with lemon juice, honey and boiling water. It was his great-aunt’s surefire cure for any throat or chest problem. Maybe it wasn’t high-tech, but it tasted pretty good and gave you a temporary lift. Sucking a peppermint, he headed for the Oval Office.

Gathered around the coffee table were the President, Melusine Devore, the Chief of Police, and the Mayor of Washington DC, the eponymously named Washington Goodbody Brown, who liked to joke that his name not only told you where he lived but what he was.

The President looked up. “I thought I told you to go to bed, or better yet, to a doctor.”

“I’ve taken something for it,” croaked Wilton, “and I’ve got an idea from Dr. Callan that I wanted to pass on before I went to bed. He suggests you release the mortality figures to the press, to prove to worried black people that whites are dying just as fast, in fact, they’re dying in slightly higher numbers. But he cautioned against letting the other data out just yet.”

“They did that in the days of the last big plague in London,” the President said, half to himself. “Bills of mortality for every parish were posted up where people could read them. It’s a pretty grim idea, but it might just turn the tide. What do you think, Chief?”

The police chief gave the idea a quick frisking and said, “Hard to tell what the response would be, but it might help.”

“What’s the other data you mentioned?” The mayor asked.

“Oh, just some raw figures that would probably be more confusing than helpful,” Devore quickly interjected, giving Wilton a hard look. The fewer people who knew about how blood type figured in the progression of the disease, the better.

It wasn’t possible to keep it under wraps forever, but Callan and the others needed all the time they could get to find a cure, a treatment, an answer.

“Well, if Dr. Wilton can provide me with some plain and understandable notes and some big charts, I’ll go out on the Mall and talk to people. It’ll be a good way to see if all those folks who claim they voted for me when they see me on the street really did. ‘Course if they’re liars…..well, I always fancied one of those fancy bronzed wood coffins,” the Mayor said.

There was a second’s silence, a couple of cleared throats, and then the President said, “Hot damn, you’re not just a pretty face, Wash; that’s the bravest offer I’ve ever heard. Real stupid, of course, but brave.”

The President and Mayor Brown went way back, having served in the same army unit over 25 years ago. Since being elected to their respective posts, they’d often found themselves at loggerheads over certain issues, but this one had brought them back together.

“Wait a minute, let’s just think about this,” Devore said, a calculating look in her eyes. “I think His Honour has a good point. He’s well known, he’s well-liked, we could send out some gorillas in plainclothes ahead of him to spread themselves

around the area he’ll be approaching. I think it might work.

What other choice do we have? If we can’t short-circuit this now, sooner or later we’ll have to use force, and that’s a real voteloser for both of you.”

Arguments flared and flowed, but ten minutes later Wilton was instructing his assistant on what was wanted, a graphics expert on one side and the head of the White House print shop at the other. An electronics tech fiddled around the mayor with a cordless microphone and pocket transmitter, giving him a crash course in its operation.

“Make sure this button stays put, so we can hear what’s happening,” the tech said, fastening what looked like a little American flag to the mayor’s lapel.

Forty minutes later, a very nervous but smiling Washington Brown was shaking hands and slapping backs on the Mall, two beefy young men at his side with a couple of flip charts and a hastily-located kitchen step stool under their arms. “Friends, neighbours, I want you to listen to me,” Brown bellowed into the cordless microphone he pulled from his pocket, hoping he’d pushed the right switch to make it work.

There were some boos and catcalls and a lot of shushing noises. Brown hoisted his substantial bulk to the top step of the three-step ladder, and steadying himself with the shoulder of one of the beefy young men, he said, “There’s a lot of wild talk floating around. I’m here to tell you it ain’t true, not a scrap of it. I got some charts that show who’s died and what colour they were. See, this line here,” he held up the first page of the chart, “this shows people who’ve died, that’s this dotted line, see?

“And here,” he flipped over a large transparency, “here’s the black people that have died, this green line. With me so far?”

There was a grumble that was more or less in agreement. “OK, now here,” he flipped over the next transparency, “this here red line, this is the white people who died. Now what do y’all see from this chart? You, boy with the Yankees cap, you say what you see.” He held out the microphone towards a youth of about 14 who was being pushed forward by his three buddies for his 15 seconds of fame.

“Come on, young man, what do you see?”

“There’s more white folks dead than black folks. Say, this true?” The boy pushed back his cap and peered more closely at the chart.

“Sure as my name’s Washington Brown,” said the mayor.

“Anyone else want to come up here and have a look at this? You, lady with the hair-do, you come along over here!” he ordered.

Looking a bit self-conscious, a woman with intricately beaded braids pushed her way to the front and also looked at the chart.

“The kid was right, seems one thousand two hundred and three more whites died than blacks,” she said in a pronounced Bronx accent.

“OK, people, I’m getting dizzy up here on this stool. Let’s get down to business.” Pulling out the microphone, the mayor spoke from the notes Dr. Wilton had provided, explaining that the best minds in the country were working to find a cure for this awful disease, and advising people that the best and safest thing to do was to go home, stay home, and stay tuned to the news.

“Use this time to clean out the garage, fix up that attic like you been promising the little woman you would, play ball with your kids. Come on, people; you won’t get many free days off like this, put ‘em to good use. I’ll be in my office every day for anyone who needs me, but now, please go home. Go on. Get a quart of Ben and Jerry’s and take yourselves home and pig out. Now, I gotta go; gotta see a man about somethin’.”

As Brown got off the rickety steps, the crowd had begun to drift off in various directions. Outside the White House, policemen felt their shoulders fall from the level of their ears to almost normal.

Concluded on page 68 ...

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ART AND LEISURE EXTRA CURRICULAR AT MJAC

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JESS BOYCE

elebrating the work of visual arts teachers from Perth’s eastern region; Extra Curricular sheds light on the creative impulses that drive high school art educators.

On display at Midland Junction Arts Centre until the 22nd August, the first iteration of the biennial exhibition presents work by Adam Derums, Claire Eden, John Eden, Franci Hepburn and Vivienne O’Neill.

All of these teachers maintain active independent practices, and present a selection of their work to spark a discussion about the role of creative skills in schools and our community.

From digital design and oil painting to meticulous mark making and en plein air drawing, Extra Curricular celebrates the persistence of creating work beyond the classroom.

Claire Eden is fascinated by patterns and textiles, turning her watercolour and gouache artworks into digital designs printed on natural fibres for her slow fashion brand

Franci Hepburn fuses aesthetics with the social, historical, political, geographical and cultural cross-pollination of a globalised world. The South African born artist’s work Migration explores movement beyond borders and the experience of new landscapes through a series of large ink on paper panels.

John Eden painting en plein air during a bike ride.

Vivienne O’Neill’s expressive paintings use her direct experiences and memories to respond to the area of Yagan Bridge and related sites between Guildford and Walyunga National Park, where the Swan River becomes the Avon River.

O’Neill is currently completing her Phd in Fine Art at Curtin University whilst also teaching full time at Youth Futures Community School in Midland.

To highlight the process of these educators work, Extra Curricular will present a selection of artist journals, books, studies and custom made tools alongside more resolved works, offering a glimpse into the artist’s methods.

L-R: Vivienne O’Neill, Blueprint, 2019, oil on linen, 140 x 100cm; Adam Derums, A Night of Sighs, A Morning of Fresh Tears, 2018, oil on canvas, 230 x 168 cm; Claire Eden, Protea (detail), 2017-2020, digital print on fabric.

‘Dreamy+Eden’. Eden does this whilst sharing her passion with students of Visual Arts and Design at Kalamunda Senior High School, “As an educator I attempt to spark a love of creativity and learning in my students”.

Also teaching art at Kalamunda Senior High School, John Eden finds time for his practice during walks and bicycle rides, ensuring he carries drawing and watercolour materials to document his exploration of new places. After completing small initial studies, Eden might return many times to develop his larger, more detailed works or to experience the area under different light.

Adam Derums instead finds his creative energy in the early hours of the morning before going to work at Guildford Grammar School. Over many months he gently drips paint onto canvas, carefully guiding it using compressed air, as it runs across the face of the painting. This slow and meticulous production results in flower like forms that embody the energy of the movement used to create them.

Head Teacher in the Arts at Parkerville Christian College,

Whilst Visual Art Educators are required to develop comprehensive skills in all areas of visual art and support the creativity of others, Extra Curricular provides a moment of spotlight for those involved, allowing a showcase of their own work and creativity.

Also on display at Midland Junction Arts Centre the exhibition Palestinian Threads and Stitches has been extended until 22 August.

This exhibition celebrates the living diversity of Palestinian identity within the Western Australian community with handmade, traditional tatreez embroidery pieces. The project is a partnership with CAN and twelve local Palestinian women, whose individual tatreez have been stitched together into a single cloth, just as the stories of the women who made them are stitched together with the common threads of identity and culture.

Midland Junction Arts Centre: 276 Great Eastern Hwy, Midland 9250 8062 Wed – Fri 10am – 5pm, Sat 11am – 3pm 30

ART AND LEISURE PEACE ART IN ELLENBROOK

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llenbrook is being inundated with peace art with a display at Ellenbrook Central throughout June and Ellenbrook Arts until July 17.

The art consists of abstract works by Indian artist Sri Chinmoy and local art by school children from Riverlands Montessori who were also inspired to join the artistic project dedicated to peace.

Sri Chinmoy’s art has previously been exhibited at Parliament House, Canberra, at the Carrousel du Louvre, Paris, the foyer of the United Nations Headquarters in New York and the Commonwealth Institute in London.

So impactful has the message been from the art it has drawn comments from Nobel Peace Laureates Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela and Mikhail Gorbachev.

Entry is free during opening hours and while not for sale the art offers an important message Ellenbrook Arts Executive Director Gemma Ben-Ary said, “Art is one of our main ways of expression. Images are part of our story telling and it has importantly been missing for the last few months. This exhibition looks at the idea of peace, something that the world has considered for a long time and it still needs to be considered as a message today.”

The contributions from local children was welcomed.

“Peace is something that we can all have more of,”said Grahak Cunningham who helped organize the exhibition. “It might mean being happy, more self-giving and just inspired and the art definitely has this message.”

All the framed original pieces carry the artists signature birds which Sri Chinmoy viewed as messengers of peace and freedom. “The bird,” he said, “knows no boundaries. It is a messenger of peace and freedom, born in the garden of the soul and taking flight in the heart.”

“The City of Swan is a great example of people from all walks of life, cultures and backgrounds coming together to live or visit this special area. It is a perfect place to have an exhibition that promotes peace.” says organizer Grahak Cunningham.

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TV WITH CHRIS Title: Platform: Reviewer:

a bubbling love story as Eliza Hamilton (Phillipa Soo) questions her husband’s loyalties and sister Angelica Schuyler (Renee Elise Goldsberry) drawn towards Alexander.

With rave reviews and huge box office takings, this musical came with huge expectations both from those who have seen it abroad and those who have yet to take it in.

With a live production scheduled to hit Sydney in 2021, it couldn’t be better timing for Australian musical theatre lovers.

Often, it is hard to translate the atmosphere and nature of live theatre to screen but this is more than just a filmed theatre show. It is meticulously shot with cameras positioned at numerous angles, capturing the intricately crafted set which consists of battlement style staircases and gantry as well as a revolving stage which is very cleverly used throughout the show.

Hamilton Disney Plus Chris McRae

T

he cultural theatre phenomenon of a generation is now the streaming event of the year with Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Tony Award winning masterpiece Hamilton dropping on Disney Plus last week!

Debuting on Broadway in 2015, this scintillating version features the original Broadway cast and was filmed live at the Richard Rogers Theatre in New York in 2016. It was nominated for sixteen Tony Awards, winning eleven of those, including Best Musical and won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Inspired by Ron Chernow’s 2004 biography Alexander Hamilton, this electrifying musical takes a historically based story, turns it on its head, infuses hip hop, R&B, musical theatre and jazz into its soundtrack and dialogue and turns the energy up to eleven as the stellar cast tears its way through this unmissable story of the founding fathers and their road to putting America on the map.

The brains behind the show, Lin-Manuel Miranda, stars in the titular role as Alexander Hamilton, who arrives in New York in 1776, meeting Aaron Burr (Leslie Odom Jr.), John Laurens (Anthony Ramos), the Marquis de Lafayette (Daveed Diggs) and Hercules Mulligan (Okieriete Onaodowan).

Hamilton quickly accepts a position as George Washington’s (Christopher Jackson) right hand man before The Siege of Yorktown.

After the battle and the birth of his son, Hamilton is elected Secretary of the Treasury by the newly elected President Washington. What ensues is cabinet meetings, new presidents, betrayals and animosity as Burr is left seeking vengeance after Hamilton endorses Thomas Jefferson as the next president of the United States after John Adams.

From the British perspective, King George (Johnathan Groff) is consistently challenging the US government, questioning their every move. Beneath the surface is

Cameras positioned upstage also mean that the audience receives a view very rarely seen as well as close up shots which really allow viewers to be drawn into the actors’ facial expressions.

The lighting is perfection with the right use of colour and shade to communicate symbolic meaning and focus being drawn exactly where it needs to be.

It is used in every possible way, even with focused squares to represent rooms or patterns merged into the set in artistic ways.

Lin-Manuel Miranda is verbally strong as the powerful Alexander Hamilton but is placed in the shade by the powerhouse performance of Leslie Odom Jr. as Aaron Burr. Not only can Odom Jr. sing and rap up a storm, his movement, presence and use of stillness on stage is second to none.

Also notable is Phillipa Soo bringing all the sass, power and tenderness as the multi layered Angelica, Daveed Diggs in duel roles as the sarcastically brilliant Lafayette and the energetic and feisty Thomas Jefferson.

Johnathan Groff as the hilariously snooty King George nearly steals the show in his three scenes in which he questions America’s leadership.

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FILM REVIEW Title: Director: Reviewer:

The Romance of Old Paper he Booksellers is not a film for everyone.

But if you love literature, the turn of a beautiful phrase, printed in an elegant font on fine paper, bound in handsome hard covers, then this documentary is for you.

Or if you appreciate the well-thumbed and battered paperback version of the book, rather than re-watching old sitcoms on television during the Covid-19 self-isolation, then this is also for you.

The cinemas and theatres are reopening. Heaven be praised. And even if we have yet to face a likely second wave of the dreaded pandemic, we can enjoy them – and the bookshops for a while.

The film laments the passing of the great streets of specialized bookshops. Fourth Avenue in New York, Charing Cross Road in London, George Street in Sydney.

I suppose Perth was never quite big enough. Its largest bookshop was Alberts in Forrest Place, but there was also Terrace Arcade for literature, London Court for children’s books, Rellims for technical stuff, the wood paneled palace at UWA for the academics.

Later we had the super bookstore in Hay Street opposite

T

But by far the star of the show is Miranda’s pumped up, bold and brash musical score and lyrics which are smashed out of the park by the talented company.

Clocking in at an incredible average of 144 words per minute, the dialogue is more than just rap, it is rhythmic spoken word with powerful storytelling capabilities and an incredible drive. The articulation of the actors is incredible which is juxtaposed by their abilities to bring melodic tenderness to the ballads and slower paced tracks. Hip Hop meets Jazz merged with R&B and musical theatre and the cast handle every single note and syllable with ease.

Hamilton is not just a musical, it is a must see cultural experience second to none. Not only does it breathe new life into a historic story, it reinvents it, casting actors of colour and multicultural backgrounds as some of America’s greatest figures. It has been referred to as “the story of America then, told

by America now”.

With current events, it is more relevant than ever and this masterpiece has translated perfectly to the filmed medium.

There is nothing that will match the thrill of live theatre but this is the next best thing. With the musical hitting Australian shores next year, seeing it live may be an option soon. Until then, your living room can be the ‘room where it happens’ as this cultural phenomenon is shared with the world.

Not only highly recommended but one which should be seen by any musical, history or culture enthusiast. Breathtaking and brilliant!

The Booksellers DW Young James Forte

The historical Alexander Hamilton 33

searching. Now it takes you ten minutes. Instant gratification.

That thrill (almost an orgasm when you find the missing item from that forty volume set) is gone.

Directed by D W Young and consisting primarily of conversations with eccentric bookshop owners, the film makes some important points. Books are not dying, they are changing. They are no longer the primary repository of knowledge, instead they are artifacts to own. Unlike art collectors (the ‘look at my etchings’ mob) book collectors love their treasure. Books are rarely bought as an investment.

I know at least one major bibliophile who is reducing their library by as much as a third, replacing reading copies with epubs for convenience and hardcovers and first editions for looking at, holding and cherishing.

The Booksellers opened at Luna Cinemas on 2nd July. It is a two-hour loving celebration of book culture. Highly recommended.

Four stars.

EDITOR: There is also always the annual Save the Children Book Sale at the University of WA - See page 7

Aherns. They are all gone. We still have Boffins and Dymocks in the city for new books. And for fossicking for that special title you’ve always wanted (and coming across unknown gems while you are doing it) there is still Elizabeths in Hay Street, Mainly Books in Highgate and Robert Muir in North Perth.

Instead of a friendly human expert suggesting that if you liked A then you might also like to try B, there is the Internet. Much more efficient. But no soul. No curling up in a corner to read a chapter to see if you liked it.

By now you will have realized that this film is about nostalgia. It pays homage to the New York antique book trade. It is about the psychology of the dealer and the mania of collectors. The sort of people who are in business because they love it. And if no one comes in today to buy a book – who cares? It touches on book fairs, auctions and deceased estate. You hear comments like “The moment he croaks, I’m on the phone to Sotheby’s”.

It is all about the thrill of the hunt. And the computer has removed it. One could spend a lifetime

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Title: Director: Reviewer:

A White, White Day Hlynur Pálmason James Forte

Scary Iceland White, White Day is scary. Not in a ‘Dracula is about to sink his fangs into some poor girl’s long white neck’ sort of way. It is much more character based.

The audience is never sure what craziness the protagonist is going to carry out next. And the film is unsettling in its focus on strong people in a small town in a barren, hostile landscape.

Coming after Woman at War (reviewed in Swan Magazine in April 2019), I will now be on the look out for Icelandic movies.

The plot is reasonably straightforward.

In a rural community on the Icelandic coast, a senior policeman (I was never too sure whether he had retired or was on some extended form of compassionate leave) has lost his wife in a car accident.

He is renovating a house in a scenic setting a long way from anywhere; it will be a home for his daughter and her family. He also spends a great deal of time looking after his (eight going on nine years old) grand-daughter.

He is disturbed by his wife’s death – did she have a secret life – and is becoming increasingly erratic.

Written and directed by Hlynur Pálmason, the film is agonizingly slow. It has the pace, but also the power, of a glacier.

It works because it is such a spectacular contrast to the ‘thrill-aminute’ Hollywood style.

It has a prolonged opening sequence with a raised camera following a car along an empty road through bleak scenery in poor visibility. Time and again the driver strays over the continuous central line. It is a white, white day – a day when the living can talk to the dead.

The acting is first class. Ingvar Sigurdsson won the Critic’s week best actor award at Cannes for his portrayal of Ingimundur, the policeman. Also memorable is Ida Mekkin Hlynsdóttir in the supporting role as his granddaughter, Salka.

A White, White Day is in Icelandic with English subtitles. It

A

is currently being shown as previews at Luna Cinemas. It will be opening for a full season in the near future.

Recommended for anyone interested in how powerful a film can be, using unconventional approaches.

Four stars.

[Editor: Icelandic naming traditions have either son (son) or dóttir (daughter) at the end of the father’s name, and married women retain their birth names, so a family of father, wife and a son and daughter will have four different surnames - for example, Ingvar Sigurdsson and his wife Ida Mekkinsdottir’s two children might be Ingvar Ingvarsson and Mekkin Ingvarsdottir.

Consquently the Icelandic telephone book is arranged alphabetically by given names.]

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WE HAVE MOVED

Now Open

36

FLINDERS UNIVERSITY NEW AUSTRALIAN PLANT SPECIES FOSSIL

F

resh examination of an Australian fossil – believed to be among the earliest plants on Earth - has revealed evidence of a new plant species that existed in Australia more than 359 Million years ago.

Antoine Champreux, a PhD student in the Global Ecology Lab at Flinders University, has catalogued the discovery of the new fern-like plant species as part of an international effort to examine the Australian fossil in greater detail.

The fossil was found in the 1960s by amateur geologist Mr John Irving, on the bank of the Manilla River in Barraba, New South Wales. The fossil was exposed after major flooding events in 1964, and Mr Irving gave the fossil to the geological survey of New South Wales, where it remained for more than fifty years without being studied.

It was dated from the end of the Late Devonian period, approximately 372-to-359 million years ago - a time when Australia was part of the Southern hemisphere supercontinent Gondwana. Plants and animals had just started to colonise continents, and the first trees appeared.

Yet while diverse fish species were in the oceans, continents had no flowering plants, no mammals, no dinosaurs, and the first plants had just acquired proper leaves and the earliest types of seeds.

Well-preserved fossils from this era are rare – elevating the significance of the Barraba plant fossil.

The fossil is currently in France, where Brigitte MeyerBerthaud, an international expert studying the first plants on Earth, leads a team at the French laboratory of Botany and Modelling of Plant Architecture and Vegetation in Montpellier. This French laboratory is particularly interested in further examination of Australian fossils from the

Co-author Anne-Laure Decombeix excavating the Barraba fossil site during an expedition in 2013

Antoine Champreux is a palaeoecologist and palaeobotanist interested in how landscapes changed through time. He combines information from dynamic vegetation models and fossil records to understand how vegetation and ecosystem responded to climate change in Central and South America since the Last Glacial Maximum (~ 19,000 years ago). His research focuses on megafauna extinctions, fire regime changes, and human colonisation.

Devonian-Carboniferous geological period, to build a more detailed understanding of plant evolution during this era.

Mr Champreux studied the fern-like fossil during his master’s degree internship and completed writing his research paper during his current PhD studies at Flinders University.

“It’s nothing much to look at – just a fossilised stick – but it’s far more interesting once we cut it and had a look inside,” says Mr Champreux. “The anatomy is preserved, meaning that we can still observe the walls of million-year-old cells. We compared the plant with other plants from the same period based on its anatomy only, which provide a lot of information.”

He found that this plant represents a new species, and even a new genus of plant, sharing some similarities with modern ferns and horsetails. “ It is an extraordinary discovery, since such exquisitely-preserved fossils from this period are extremely rare,” he says. “We named the genus Keraphyton (like the horn plant in Greek), and the species Keraphyton mawsoniae, in honour of our partner Professor Ruth Mawson, a distinguished Australian palaeontologist who died in 2019.”

An article describing the new plant - Keraphyton gen. nov., a new Late Devonian fern-like plant from Australia, by A Champreux, B MeyerBerthaud and A-L Decombeix - has been published in the scientific journal PeerJ – and it reinforces the partnership between the lab in Montpellier, France and Flinders University.

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FOOTNOTE PEOPLE IN HISTORY LORENZ PETER ELFRED FREUCHEN (1886 - 1957)

L

orenz Peter Elfred Freuchen (February 20, 1886 – September 2, 1957) was a Danish explorer, author, journalist and anthropologist, notable for his role in Arctic exploration, namely the Thule Expeditions.

Freuchen was born in Nykøbing Falster, Denmark, the son of Anne and Lorentz, a businessman. Freuchen was baptized in the local church and attended the University of Copenhagen where for a time he studied medicine. At full growth he stood 6 foot seven inches tall

In 1906, aged twenty, he went on his first expedition to Greenland as a member of the Danish expedition. Between 1910 and 1924, he undertook several expeditions, often with the noted Polar explorer Knud Rasmussen.

In 1910, Knud Rasmussen and Peter Freuchen established the Thule Trading Station at Cape York, Greenland, as a trading base. The name was chosen because it was the most northerly trading post in the world. It is named after the Latin phrase ultima Thule (literally farthest Thule), an expression referencing the most distant place beyond the borders of the known world.

In Thule the daily mean temperature is twelve degrees below zero. Negative-twelve. Fahrenheit. As an average daily temperature. The only way of staying warm was fire or wearing furs, leather, and wool.

Thule Trading Station became the home base for a series of seven expeditions, known as the Thule Expeditions, between 1912 and 1933.

The First Thule Expedition (1912) aimed to test Robert Lorenz Peter Elfred Freuchen (1886 – 1957) Peary’s claim that a channel divided Peary Land from Greenland.

They proved this was not the case in a 1,000 km journey across the native peoples of Greenland. the inland ice that almost killed both of them.

Today Thule is home to a United States Air Force base.

At one point he was caught in a blizzard and ended up

Freuchen was married three times. First, in 1911, to being buried in an cocoon of ice so tightly packed he could Navarana Mequpaluk an Inuit woman who accompanied him on barely move. After thirty hours trapped in the frosty tomb he several expeditions. The two had two children, who were given escaped certain death by fashioning his own frozen faeces into the names of Mequsaq Avataq Igimaqssusuktoranguapaluk and a dagger and using it to carve through the solid wall of ice, then Pipaluk Jette Tukuminguaq Kasaluk Palika Hager. Navarana crawling another three hours back died in the Spanish Flu epidemic in to base camp where he found his 1921. toes had gangrene, and then had to

His second marriage was to amputate them with a pair of pliers Magdalene Lauridsen in 1924 who and a hammer, without anesthesia. was from a very wealthy family.

When he got back to safety he From 1926 to 1932 he served as the had his leg amputated. He had a editor-in-chief of Ude og Hjemme, a peg leg for the rest of his life. This magazine owned by the family of his did not stop him from going back to second wife. The magazine is still in Greenland, often. circulation today – it’s the longest Both Freuchen and Rasmussen running magazine in Danish history. almost died on the trip, but they

From 1926 to 1940, became national heroes overnight Freuchen owned the Danish island for their accomplishment.

Enehoje on Nakskov Fjord. During

Freuchen wrote personal this period he wrote several books accounts of this journey (and others) and articles and entertained guests. in Vagrant Viking (1953) and I Sailed

He wrote nearly thirty books with Rasmussen (1958). He states in in his career as a bestselling author.

Vagrant Viking that only one other Most of his works were focused dogsled trip across Greenland was on Inuit culture and survival, but ever successful. he also wrote about the oceans,

Freuchen lived in Thule for sailing, and put out some pulp the next decade, learning fluent fiction stories. At this time, Inuit and incidentally becoming the Freuchen became heavily invested Freuchen with his first wife, Navarana world’s first and foremost expert on in socialism and anti-fascism.

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creating an Eskimo cairn near the place where he left Denmark for Greenland in 1906. It is situated east of Langeliniebroen in central Copenhagen and not far from the statue of The Little Mermaid.

During World War II, Freuchen was actively involved with the Danish resistance movement against the occupation by Nazi Germany, despite having lost a leg.

He openly claimed to be Jewish whenever he witnessed anti-semitism. Freuchen was imprisoned by the Germans, and was sentenced to death, but he managed to escape and flee to Sweden, where he continued his subversive activities.

His second marriage was dissolved in 1944.

In 1945 he moved to New York City where he met and married Danish-Jewish designer Dagmar Freuchen-Gale, a fashion illustrator who worked with Vogue, Nearly sixty years old by now, Freuchen joined the New York Explorer’s Club As he related in Vagrant Viking, he was friends with the royal families of Scandinavia and other countries, and his movie work in New York City and Hollywood brought him into the 'royalty' of moving pictures, becoming friends with Mae West, and having bench-pressed Jean Harlow at a party once as well as becoming familiar with the political world of Washington, D.C. Freuchen and his wife Dagmar lived in New York City, and maintained a second home in Noank, Connecticut.

In 1956 Freuchen became only the fifth person to win $64,000 on The $64,000 Question, an American TV quiz-show on the subject of ‘The Seven Seas’.

The preface of his last work, Book of the Seven Seas, is dated August 30, 1957 in Noank. He died of a heart attack three days later at the Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage, Alaska.

After his death, his ashes were scattered on the famous table-shaped Mount Dundas outside of Thule.

Freuchen’s grandson, Peter Ittinuar, was the first Inuk in Canada to be elected as an MP, and represented the electoral district of Nunatsiaq in the House of Commons of Canada from 1979 to 1984.

Freuchen with his third wife. His coat is made from the fur of a polar bear that he killed himself

In 1932 Freuchen returned to Greenland. This time the expedition was financed by the American Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film-studios.

He was employed as a consultant and scriptwriter, specializing in Arcticrelated scripts.

One of Freuchen’ books about the Inuit was turned into a movie in 1933. Telling the tale of a fictional Inuit warrior’s adventures in the Arctic, the film’s dialogue was entirely in Inuit with ADVERTISEMENT English subtitles. Freuchen wrote the story, translated the dialogue, was an interpreter on the set, helped the film crew survive on set, and took a role in it.

The film was MGM’s Oscar-winning Member 1933 Eskimo aka Mala The Magnificent starring Ray Mala, and featuring Freuchen as Ship Captain, the movie’s villain.

During the premier of Eskimo, Freuchen apparently picked up Nazi director Leni Reifenstahl, held her over his head, and spun around in a circle, laughing. She did not enjoy this. He couldn’t even use the excuse that he was wasted at the time, because Peter Freuchen was a teetotaller.

In 1938 he founded The Adventurer's Club (Eventyrernes Klub), which still exists. They later honoured his memory by planting an oak tree and

Donna Faragher JP MLC

WESTERN AUSTRALIA

for East Metropolitan Region

Here to help!

Contact Donna 9379 0840 | faragher.eastmetro@mp.wa.gov.au donnafaragher.com.au DonnaFaragherMLC Ground Floor 108 Swan Street, Guildford WA 6055 Authorised by S.Calabrese, Liberal Party, 2/12 Parliament Place, West Perth WA 6005.

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40

NON - FICTION THE NOBLE RECREATION

DOUGLAS SUTHERLAND-BRUCE “The Golden Age, when every cabinet minister had a thriller by his bedside and all detectives were titled” - Peter Schaffer.

THE GOLDEN AGE 1920 - 1945

W

e continue our examination of the Golden Age masters, mistresses and monarchs.

WILLARD HUNTINGTON WRIGHT (1888 - 1939)

Willard Huntington Wright who wrote under the pseudonym of S. S. Van Dine was born in Charlottesville, Virginia.

His younger brother, Stanton Macdonald-Wright, became a respected painter, one of the first American abstract artists

Willard, a largely self-taught writer, attended St. Vincent College, Pomona College, and Harvard University without graduating.

At the age twenty-one, Wright began his professional writing career as literary editor of the Los Angeles Times, where – describing himself as “’Esthetic expert and psychological shark” – he was known for his scathing book reviews and irreverent opinions. He was particularly caustic about romance and detective fiction.

In 1909, Wright wrote a perceptive profile of Edgar Allan Poe. He worked as editor of the New York literary magazine The Smart Set, from 1912 to 1914, when he was fired for intentionally provoking their middle-class readership. He visited Paris and Munich, seeing Impressionist and Synchromist works of art. He wrote an article about the art, which brought the abstract art to public attention in the US.

Wright’s energies were devoted to numerous projects, reflecting his wide range of interests. His book What Nietzsche Taught appeared in 1915. Wright was, however, most respected in intellectual circles for his writing about art. In Modern Painting: Its Tendency and Meaning he surveyed the important art movements of the last hundred years from Manet to Cubism.

A Germanophile, Wright did not support America’s decision to join the Allied cause in World War I, and he was accused of spying for Germany, an episode that became a much-publicized scandal. Though cleared, his favourable view of Prussian militarism cost him his friendships.

Wright took any freelance work that came his way but lived a restless, impoverished existence and by 1923, he was seriously ill, the result of a breakdown from overwork, he claimed. Confined to bed for more than two years, he began in frustration and boredom reading hundreds of volumes of crime and detection.

As a direct result of this exhaustive study, Wright decided to try his own hand at detective fiction that would feature an affluent, snobbish amateur sleuth, a Jazz Age Manhattan setting, and lively topical references. In 1926, the first Philo Vance book, The Benson Murder Case, was published under the pseudonym “S.S. Van Dine”. Within two years, following the publication of The Canary Murder Case and The Greene Murder Case, Wright was one of the best-selling authors in the United States.

He went on to write twelve mysteries in total, though their author’s identity was unmasked by 1928. The first few books about the distinctive Philo Vance were so popular that Wright became wealthy. But Wright’s later books declined in both

Willard H Wright (1888 - 1939)

quality and popularity.

The reading public’s tastes changed, and the “hard-boiled” school of detective fiction became the dominant style in the 1930s.

Philo Vance is described by Julian Symons as ‘a monster of snobbish affectation’ Vance might be called Wimsey’s American cousin and certainly represents Wright’s idealised self. Vance is described as ‘a young social aristocrat who spent some time at Oxford and later transferred his residence to a villa outside Florence’, although all his cases take place in urban America.

Just under six feet tall, slender, sinewy and graceful, he had what was even then a slightly outdated Byronic charm: ‘His chiseled regular features gave his face the attraction of strength and uniform modeling’ although ‘his sardonic coldness of expression precluded the designation of handsome.’ Like Wimsey he wears a monocle, and drops the ‘g’ off words like amazin’ and distressin’. His mode of speech is ludicrous and almost unreadable today; ‘I note that our upliftin’ press bedecked its front pages this morning with headlines about a pogrom at the old Greene Mansion last night. Wherefore?’

Vance has an encyclopedic knowledge about absolutely everything or at least about everything related to the cases in which he is concerned. A knowledge supported by a tremendous apparatus of foot-notes. This learning is continually and unnecessarily obtruded, so that he answers a question from 41

the wooden-headed Sergeant Heath about what he has been doing by saying (or sayin’) ‘I’ve been immersed in the terracotta ornamentation of Renaissance facades and other such trivialities, since I saw you last.’

Despite the almost intolerable detective of the stories, of which there are twelve, are not without a certain intriguing merit. The research in all cases is painstaking and absolutely accurate. Even the most bizarre murders and methods of murder can be shown to have been taken from real life.

The popular view was captured by Ogden Nash in his brief, pithy, verse:

Philo Vance

Needs a kick in the pance. ~oOo~

Scotland and during her vacations worked at a convalescent home in Inverness as a Voluntary Aid Detachment nurse.

The curriculum for “physical training” included much more than athletics. Tey used her school experience in Miss Pym Disposes when describing the subjects taught at the school, and the types of bruises and other injuries sustained by the pupils.

When she graduated, Tey worked in a physiotherapy clinic in Leeds, then taught in schools, where she was injured. A boom in the gymnasium fell on her face. Tey re-purposed this incident as a method of murder in Miss Pym Disposes.

A youthful romance ended with her soldier friend’s death in the Somme battles.

In 1923, she returned to Inverness permanently to care for her invalid mother, and stayed after her mother’s death that year to keep house for her father.

While caring for her father she began her career as a writer. Her first published work was in The Westminster Gazette in 1925, under the name Gordon Daviot.

She continued publishing verse and short stories in The Westminster Review, The Glasgow Herald and the Literary Review.

Her first novel, Kif: An Unvarnished History, was well received at the time with good reviews.

In 1929 her first mystery novel, The Man in the Queue, was published

by Benn, Methuen. It was awarded the Dutton Mystery Prize when published in America. This is the first appearance of her detective, Inspector Alan Grant.

To be candid the mystery is excellent, but the writing is very much of the time - the word ‘dago’ is used and daggers are considered ‘a foreigner’s weapon’.

It would another seven years before she wrote another mystery - A Shilling for Candles (later filmed by Alfred Hitchcock as Young and Innocent), and a further twelve before she revisited the genre with The Franchise Affair.

MacKintosh’s real ambition had been to write a play which would receive a run in London’s West End. Her play Richard of Bordeaux was produced in 1932 at the New Theatre (now the Noël Coward Theatre) under the Daviot pseudonym.

She stated she was inspired by John Gielgud’s performance in Hamlet and by the Royal Tournament, the world’s oldest military tattoo (1880-1999).

Tey had an excellent knowledge of military tactics, which she put to good use in several of her books. Two more of her plays were produced at the New Theatre, The Laughing Woman (1934) and Queen of Scots (1934).

She wrote about a dozen one-act plays and another dozen full-length plays, many with biblical or historical themes, under the name of Gordon Daviot. How she chose the name of Gordon

ELIZABETH MACKINTOSH (1896 - 1952)

Writing plays as Gordon Daviot and mysteries as Josephine Tey, MacKintosh was born in Inverness, the oldest of three daughters of Colin MacKintosh.

She attended Inverness Royal Academy and then, in 1914, Anstey Physical Training College in Erdington. She taught physical training at various schools in England and

Elizabeth MacIntosh ‘Josephoine Tey’ (1896 - 1952) 42

Sir John Gielgud as Richard of Bordeau

is unknown, but Daviot was the name of a scenic locale near Inverness where she had spent many happy holidays with her family.

Only four of her plays were produced during her lifetime. Richard of Bordeaux was spectacularly successful, running for fourteen months and making a household name of its young leading man and director, John Gielgud. (Tey writes of Inspector Alan Grant that “he had in his youth seen Richard of Bordeaux; four times he had seen it.”)

Her only non-fiction book, Claverhouse, was written as a vindication of John Graham, 1st Viscount Dundee, whom she regarded as a libeled hero: “It is strange that a man whose life was so simple in pattern and so forthright in spirit should have become a peg for every legend, bloody or brave, that belonged to his time.”

MacKintosh’s best-known books were written under the name of Josephine Tey, which was the name of her Suffolk greatgreat grandmother.

In five of the mystery novels, all of which except the first she wrote under the name of Tey, the hero is Scotland Yard Inspector Alan Grant. Grant appears briefly in a sixth, The Franchise Affair, as a minor character.) The most famous of these is The Daughter of Time, in which Grant, laid up in hospital, has friends research reference books and contemporary documents so that he can puzzle out the mystery of whether King Richard III of England murdered his nephews, the Princes in the Tower.

Grant comes to the firm conclusion that King Richard was totally innocent of the death of the Princes.

The Franchise Affair also has a historical context: although

set in the 1940s, it is based on the 18th-century case of Elizabeth Canning.

The Daughter of Time was the last of Tey’s books published during her lifetime. Her penultimate work, The Privateer (1952), was a romantic novel based on the life of the privateer Henry Morgan.

Her last work, a further crime novel, The Singing Sands, was found in her papers and published posthumously.

Tey was intensely private, shunning all publicity throughout her life. During her last year, when she knew that she was mortally ill, she resolutely avoided all her friends as well.

She died of liver cancer at her sister Mary’s home in London on 13 February 1952. Most of her friends were unaware that she was even ill, including Gielgud, who was shocked to read news of it in The Times during a matinee performance of Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale.

Her death notice in The Times appeared under her “Gordon Daviot” pseudonym, with no mention of her real name or “Josephine Tey”.

Proceeds from Tey’s estate, including royalties from her books, were assigned to the National Trust.

Author Nicola Upson has written a series of murder mystery books in which Josephine Tey appears as a main character - the “Josephine Tey Mysteries”.

The first in the series, An Expert in Murder (2008), is a detective story woven around the original production of Richard of Bordeaux. The cast of the novel are a mix of real and imaginary, some thinly disguised. John Gielgud is barely hidden as ‘John Terry’ (Gielgud’s mother was a member of the famous Terry family of actors).

Tey’s really fairly small output of eight mystery novels is in inverse relation to her influence on the genre. The present author considers her Miss Pym Disposes and Brat Farrar two of the best mystery novels ever written.

The Daughter of Time as well as triggering a serious re-appraisal of the role of Richard III, influenced later mystery writers, notably Barbara Mertz. Mertz, writing as Elizabeth Peters, refers explicitly to Tey in The Murders of Richard III, which sets a country house murder mystery among a group who believe that Richard III was innocent.

The Daughter of Time was voted greatest mystery novel of all time by the Crime Writers’ Association in 1990.

In 2012, Peter Hitchens wrote that “Josephine Tey’s clarity of mind, and her loathing of fakes and of propaganda, are like pure, cold spring water in a weary land”, and that “what she loves above all is to show that things are very often not what they seem to be, that we are too easily fooled, that ready acceptance of conventional wisdom is not just dangerous, but a result of laziness, incuriosity and of a resistance to reason”.

In 2015, Val McDermid argued that Tey “cracked open the door” for later writers such as Patricia Highsmith and Ruth Rendell to explore the darker side of humanity, creating a bridge between the Golden Age of Detective Fiction and contemporary crime novels, because “Tey opened up the possibility of unconventional secrets. Homosexual desire, cross-dressing, sexual perversion – they were all hinted at, glimpsed in the shadows as a door closed or a curtain twitched. Tey was never vulgar nor titillating.... Nevertheless, her world revealed a different set of psychological motivations.”

43

~oOo~

piracy on the Essex salt marshes called Blackerchief Dick. It was published when she was a teenager, but her earliest published work for which she earned a fee was at the age of eight, for a story printed in her aunt’s magazine.

In 1920 she went to London to study drama and speech training at Regent Street Polytechnic, which cured a stammer from which she had suffered since childhood.

At this time she first met her future husband, Philip Youngman Carter, whom she married in 1927. He collaborated with her and designed the jackets for many of her books, beginning when she was just seventeen. He had his own career as artist and an editor for The Tatler, but for the whole of their married life he was her literary advisor, unofficial collaborator and after her death, completed her last book - Cargo of Eagles.

(1968)

Her career as a mystery writer began shortly after her marriage to Phillip and falls into two categories, separated by the Second World War. The first, pre-war books are fast-moving adventures with considerable physical action.

Her breakthrough occurred in 1929 with the publication of The Crime at Black Dudley. This introduced Albert Campion, initially as a minor character, possibly intended as a parody of Dorothy Sayers’s Lord Peter Wimsey. Campion returned in Mystery Mile, in part as a result of pressure from her American publishers, who had been taken with the character.

With a strong central character and a format to work in, she began to produce a series of Campion novels. At first she also continued writing short stories and articles for magazines such as The Strand Magazine, but as her Campion saga went on her sales grew steadily. Campion proved so successful that Allingham made him the centrepiece of another seventeen novels and more than twenty short stories, continuing into the 1960s.

Campion is a mysterious upper-class character (early novels hint that his family is in the line of succession to the throne), working under an assumed name. He floats between the upper echelons of the nobility and government on the one hand, and the shady world of the criminal class on the other, often accompanied by his scurrilous ex-burglar servant Magersfontein Lugg. During the course of his career Campion is sometimes a detective, sometimes an adventurer.

The first three Campion novels, The Crime at Black Dudley, Mystery Mile and Look to the Lady, were all written

MARGERY LOUISE ALLINGHAM (1904 - 1966)

In one of Dick Francis’ novels (The Edge) a character said ‘I didn’t know if I had genuine talent or I was just the victim of a literary background’.

If anyone can claim that, it is Margery Allingham. Her family had been prominent in literary circles since the early nineteenth century.

Her grandfather was James William Allingham, using his bequest from his father to found The Christian Globe, a non-denominational penny weekly mainly funded by patent medicine advertising.

Her father was Herbert John Allingham and Emily Jane Hughes, both writers. Her father was editor of the Christian Globe for his father and The New London Journal, to which Margery later contributed articles and Sexton Blake stories.

A young Margery Allingham (Courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery)

Later Herbert left journalism to become a freelance pulp fiction writer for both children and adults.

In 1886, Allingham’s uncle, John Allingham (better known as Ralph Rollington), launched The New Boys’ Paper penny weekly, in which Herbert published Barrington’s Fag, a “true tale of school life”.

Margery had a younger brother Philip William, and a younger sister Emily Joyce Allingham.

According to Miss Allingham her family ‘regarded writing as the only reasonable way of passing time, let alone earning a living.’

She began her writing career at the tender age of seven, penning an exciting novel of smuggling and

Campion on TV - Magersfontein Lugg (Brian Glover) and Albert Campion (Peter Davison) 44

by what Allingham referred to as the “plum pudding” method, focusing less on methods of murder or the formal strictures of the whodunit and more on mixing possibilities together.

As the series progresses, however, Campion comes to work more closely with the police and MI6 counterintelligence. He also falls in love, gets married and has a child, and as time goes by he grows in wisdom and matures emotionally.

So too, the style and format of the books moved on: while the early novels are light-hearted whodunnits or “fantastical” adventures, The Tiger in the Smoke (1952) is more a character study than a crime novel, focusing on the serial killer Jack Havoc. Tiger in the Smoke is widely regarded as her best book.

In many of the later books Campion plays a subsidiary role, no more prominent than the roles of his wife Lady Amanda and his police associates, and in the last novel he is a minor character.

Post war, the books tend to have more three-dimensional characterisation and include commentary on aspects of British social life such as the art world, the publishing industry and the theatre.

Partly this may be because her hero, Campion, was conceived as a parody and his idiosyncrasies are so exaggerated that they were impossible to sustain. His conception appears to be a mesalliance between Sir Percy Blakeney and Philo Vance with strong overtones of Peter Wimsey.

Colin Watson in his delightful book Snobbery With Violence has this to say about him: ‘the double living hero was a convention of musical comedy, and the more effete was his ostensible character, the better was everyone pleased when he turned into The Red Shadow of something of the kind in the last act [The Desert Song, Zorro, Beau Gest et al].

‘Crime fiction naturally had its schizophrenic element too. Reputed ne’re-do-wells worked undercover for Scotland Yard, for instance, while young men dismissed by one and all as mental deficients with large bank accounts proved to have been languidly but brilliantly assembling the case for the prosecution.’

Watson goes on to say: ‘The Silly Ass convention was extraordinarily pervasive in the twenties and thirties. It had developed into something quite different from the old device of dissembling and was almost a celebration of inanity as such.

‘A universally familiar figure on stage and screen was that of a young man in smart clothes, sickly grin and monocle, whose vocabulary was as limited as his means and expectations were supposed to be substantial. He was generally depicted as having difficulty of understanding the import of what other people said to him. When making his own laboured but idiotically affable contribution to dialogue, he would repeatedly squawk ‘Eh, what?’ and ‘Don’t cher know’ and address his companion as ‘Old Bean’ The public continued to think this sort of thing great fun.’

Campion wasn’t a member of The Drone s Club, but would have fitted right in.

Albert Campion, who we first meet in The Crime at Black Dudley (1929) was born in 1900 to an aristocratic English family, so aristocratic that their name is never mentioned save obliquely and with a reported hush to the voice. The child is christened Rudolph and why he chose not to claim his royal

prerogative is kept a secret throughout his long detective career.

Campion is one of the very few detectives educated at Cambridge rather than Oxford and when he makes his first appearance he is described by one character to another thus: ‘the first thing he did when he was introduced to me was to show me a conjuring trick with a two-headed penny - he’s quite inoffensive, just a silly ass. Abershaw nodded and stared covertly at the freshfaced young man with the tow-coloured hair and the foolish pale blue eyes behind tortoiseshell rimmed spectacles ... the slightly receding chin and mouth so unnecessarily full of teeth were distinctly familiar.’

In early books Campion claims to be known as Tootles Ash and Mornington Dodd and claims to be a con man who will do anything for a price, providing it is neither vulgar or sordid. These are apparently part of his cover to lull the criminals into a false sense of security since there is no evidence to support his criminal claims.

He is one of the few post-Great War detectives to employ disguise, so much a stand-by of Sherlock Holmes and his ilk. Campion is apparently an adept, once disguising himself successfully as a woman.

As Miss Allingham’s writing changed after the first half dozen books, so Campion also changed. He became more serious and began to exude an aura of confidence that caused people in trouble to turn to him.

His eyes become more thoughtful and his fair hair begins to whiten. He is described as a ‘universal uncle’ and it is these very avuncular qualities that cause young girls of society backgrounds to seek his aid.

As Campion changes so do many of the characters who appear, disappear and reappear throughout his adventures.

Only the eternally brave ‘Watson’ remains unchanged and constant - Magersfontein Lugg, a reformed burglar and Borstal graduate who has, in Capmion’s words ‘the courage of his previous convictions’.

He looks after Campion rather in the manner of a vulgarian valet. The two, before Albert’s marriage to Lady Amanda Fitton, share a bachelor pad above a police station. Lugg’s first name commemorates a notable defeat by the English during the Boer War.

He is also the speaker of the famous sentence , “It’s crackers to slip a rozzer the dropsy in snide”. [It’s madness to try to bribe a policeman with counterfeit money].

When we first meet Lady Amanda she is a gawky teenager, her inheritance threatened by a master criminal, from whose seemy clutches she is rescued by Campion.

She re-appears later having developed into a sophisticated aircraft designer and engineer. Love blossoms during The Fashion in Shrouds (1938) and the two marry after Traitor’s Purse (1941) in which Amanda helps Campion ward off amnesia and a plot to destroy England.

After Margery’s death her husband completed the last unfinished novel (Cargo of Eagles), and then wrote two more continuing the saga - Mr Campion’s Farthing (1969) and Mr Campion’s Falcon (1970).

A still yet later addition to the Canon was by crime writer Mike Ripley who undertook the challenge of completing an 45

unfinished Campion manuscript, started by Philip Youngman Carter before his death. The fragment of manuscript, which contained revisions and minor corrections but no plot outline, character synopsis or plan, became Mr Campion’s Farewell.

(2014). ~oOo~

his troupe in 1916 and touring New Zealand. For a short time in 1921 she joined the Rosemary Rees English Comedy Company, a touring company formed by actor-manager Rosemary Rees.

She then worked as a writer, producer and director for various amateur theatrical groups until 1928 when she went to England.

In London she helped found an interior decorating shop, which was highly successful until 1932, when the Great Depression destroyed the business.

From 1928 she divided her time between living in New Zealand and the United Kingdom. During all this time she had been writing, having many pieces published in the Christchurch Sun.

In 1934 she published her first mystery novel - A Man Lay Dead, set in the world of the theatre, a milieu with which she was so familiar.

Marsh’s great passion was the theatre. In 1942 she produced a modern-dress Hamlet for the Canterbury University College Drama Society, the first of many Shakespearean productions with the society until 1969. In 1944, Hamlet and a production of Othello toured a theatre-starved New Zealand to rapturous acclaim.

In 1949 her student players toured Australia with a new

DAME EDITH NGAIO MARSH (1895 – 1982)

Ngaio Marsh was born in the city of Christchurch, New Zealand, a New Zealander of British descent. Her second name, Ngaio, is a Maori word, the name of a flowering tree and also the name of an insect found in New Zealand.

She was the only child of bank clerk Henry Marsh.

Ngaio Marsh was educated at St Margaret’s College in Christchurch, where she was one of the first students when the school was founded and later a prefect.

Marsh originally intended to be a painter and studied

School Prefect Ngaio Marsh in her St. Margaret’s College school uniform, taken some time between 1910 and 1914

painting at the Canterbury College School of Art. Marsh was a member of The Group, an art association based in Christchurch, New Zealand. She exhibited with them in 1927; 1928; 1935; 1936; 1938; 1940 and 1947.

She soon changed her mind and decided to become a playwright. Her mother, Rose, had loved the theatre but chose not to make a career of it, considering the life style too Bohemian.

Marsh wrote and submitted a play to actor manager of a touring English Shakespeare company - the Allan Wilkie Company.

He rejected the play but offered her a place as an actress in

Ngaio Marsh as Hamlet - New Zealand 1940s

version of Othello and Pirandello’s Six Characters in Search of an Author. In the 1950s she was involved with the New Zealand Players, a relatively short-lived national professional touring repertory company. In 1972 she was invited by the Christchurch City Council to direct Shakespeare’s Henry V, the inaugural production for the opening of the newly constructed James Hay 46

Theatre in Christchurch. organisation. Although never sedentary, he later becomes less

She lived to see New Zealand set up with a viable active. He works for an un-named organisation during the war professional theatre industry with realistic Arts Council support, which he spends in New Zealand. with many of her protégés to the forefront. The 430-seat Ngaio

Nigel Bathgate disappears quite early and Alleyn builds a Marsh Theatre at the University of Canterbury is named in her team from Scotland Yard professionals. His constant companion honour. is Inspector Fox, whom he calls ‘br’er Fox’ or ‘Foxkin’, aided by

A Man Lay Dead was the first of her thirty-two detective Bailey the fingerprint man and assisted by Dr James (later Sir novels published between 1934 and 1982. It featured CID James) Curtis the eminent pathologist. detective Roderick ‘Rory’ Alleyn, named by Marsh in honour of

The books are amongst the very best of the Golden Age, Edward Alleyn the famous actor who founded Dulwich College in with clever characterisations, and backgrounds with which the 1605. The day before she began writing the book she had spent author was intimately acquainted. For aficionados of the novels the day at Dulwich College’s Art Gallery. there are some nice neat ‘Easter eggs’.

Alleyn’s first appearance presents him as mish-mash of In Surfeit of Lampreys, one on the children, Michael, says every other popular detective of the time.

A sort of Whimsy/Campion/Blake/Vance amalgam. He is presented as having a ‘man’ in the Bunter mould - Vassily, a Russian ex-pat, a Watson in the form of a young Nigel Bathgate, embryo journalist and a flippant delivery of facetious lines that grates on the ear.

She was, however, far too good a writer for this to continue and within a couple of books he develops and strengthens into a real personality in his own right.

Known to the press as ‘Handsome Alleyn’, he is tall, lean with good sensitive looks, a deep voice and long-fingered hands. He has a face described variously as ‘that of a Spanish Grandee’ and ‘a monk’.

As is customary in these cases he is of minor aristocratic birth. His mother is Helena, Lady Alleyn, relict of Sir George Alleyn on TV. Patrick Malahide (Alleyn) and Belinda Lang as Troy Alleyn, baronet and his elder brother is in the Inspector Alleyn Mysteries also Sir George, in the diplomatic service as the governor of some minor colony.

Rory Alleyn was apparently born around 1892-1894, he wants to be a policeman when he grows up and we meet him graduated from Oxford around 1915, served in the army for many novels later as a constable. Peregrine Jay, who we meet as three years in World War I, then spent a year (1919–1920) in the a young playwright and director in Death at the Dolphin (1967) British Foreign Service. He finally joined the Metropolitan Police we meet again as a successful impresario in Light Thickens as a constable in about 1920 or 1921.

(1982) in which his production of a performance of Macbeth is

Marsh’s novels form a chronological series that follows his detailed in fascinating and accurate process. detective career. When the series opens, Alleyn is aged about

In 1966 she received what she called ‘me Damery’ - being forty and is already a Detective Chief-Inspector in the CID at appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Scotland Yard.

Empire, for services in the arts, especially writing and theatre.

The debut was followed a year later by Enter a Murderer,

Marsh never married and had no children. also set in the theatre and The Nursing Home Murder, written in

Her home in Cashmere, a suburb of Christchurch, on the conjunction with Dr H Jellett and set in the world of medicine. northern slopes of the Port Hills is preserved as a museum.

In 1938 she published Artists in Crime, in which she used her The Ngaio Marsh Award is awarded annually for the best knowledge of art and created Agatha Troy (always called’ Troy’), New Zealand mystery, crime and thriller fiction writing. famous portrait painter and Alleyn’s love interest from their first In 2018, Harper Collins Publishers released Money in the meeting at the harbour at Suva.

Morgue by Ngaio Marsh and Stella Duffy. The book was started

Troy marries Rory and becomes a large factor in the stories, by Marsh during World War II but abandoned. even featuring as the main character. A Clutch of Constables is

Working with just the book’s title, first three chapters and presented as series of letters from Troy to Rory who only appears some notes—but no idea of the plot or motive of the villain— at the end of the book in order to arrest the murderer in a most Duffy completed the novel. ingenious and well worked plot.

Troy bears a son, also called Roderick, who grows up If you have enjoyed these articles on the history of detective sufficiently over the books to appear as a character in his own fiction, you may enjoy the book from which they are taken, right.

From Poe to Bond, a history of detective fiction by Douglas

Early in his career Alleyn is very active in the Homes style, Sutherland-Bruce. Copies may be obtained by emailing the relying as much on his physical prowess as on detection to author on editor@swanmagazine.com.au or by searching on solve his cases. This is particularly true of the first case, A Man Amazon.com.

Lay Dead, in which his life is threatened by a revolutionary 47

48

I

love a land Where the earth is warmed By the heat of the summer sun Where the winter rains Fall upon the plains Like the beating of a drum And in the spring The wild flowers bring A cloak of colourful beauty And Karri trees stand Like sentinels grand Doing natures duty I love to be Where the wild swans fly And the curlews, call at night Where a wild dog howls On a lonely ridge All bathed in the soft moonlight Where the sun comes up On a golden plain All tinged with rosy light And the sigh of the breeze In the sheok trees Bids farewell to the velvet night This is the land That I hold dear This is the land on the Western shore

POETRY THE LAND I LOVE STAN SAXON

Where the granite cliffs Like bulwarks stand And echo the oceans roar For many a verse Has been written you’ll find About the “other side” But we must try To show them now That we in the west have pride We’re proud of the heritage That we own Of all our pioneers Of those that faced The trials of the bush With all its latent fears

When your dreams have turned to doubt When the cattle all died And the station wife cried At the height Of the northern drought But hope springs eternal And their tears, they turned to smiles When the first rains came And brought the grass That stretched for mile on mile Those “others” made us stand alone They drew the “Brisbane Line” But we proved to the rest That the west is best And will be for all time

There were those who chose The southern shore To found old Frederick’s Town At Augusta, Busselton, Bunbury They settled their families down

And as I stand On the Western Shore And watch the breakers roll And glory in the sunsets All tinged with red and gold

Others they chose the northern heat Land of the red kangaroo T’was only courage Endurance and pride That carried the pioneers through

I know, though I may wander And travel far or near The land I love Is still the best And I know my peace is here

For life is tough in the outback far

49

COMMUNITY MISS INTERCONTINENTAL AUSTRALIA

T

he reigning Miss Intercontinental Australia 2019 is Hannah Swart, 22, from Western Australia.

Hannah has competed in pageants at a national level since 2015 and her hard work finally had paid off in October 2019 when she was awarded the title of Miss Intercontinental Australia.

Over the past five years Hannah has realised her passion for pageantry and has been nothing but dedicated to her goals in the industry.

She says it is a lot more than walking on a stage or pretty pictures. Preparing for a pageant can take a full year she says.

“The thing that kept me coming back to pageants was the charity and fundraising” says Hannah. “There is so much to be done in your community that you wouldn’t ever think about! If you look for it there are an array of local charities and businesses doing good for the world, why wouldn’t you want to join in!”

Last year alone, Hannah raised over $5,000 just for Make a Wish Australia, one of her favourite charities.

Hannah said there are wonderful people and friends she has made for life and so many opportunities she has been able to part take in through pageants.

Back in December 2019 the Australian queen travelled to Egypt to compete in the 48th annual Miss Intercontinental international pageant amongst an incredible ninety other countries.

The pageant ran for four weeks straight with the contestants enjoying photo shoots, lunch and dinners at various resorts, sight-seeing and activities.

Some of the amazing experiences included boat parties, snorkeling in the Red Sea and Hannah’s favourite; quad biking through the desert amongst camels.

The last week of the once in a lifetime trip was of course the judging of the competition. The girls had three days of rehearsals before the final day where the winner was crowned.

The event took place in a beautiful venue at the Sunrise Montemare Resort in Sharm El Shiek and was televised in Egypt by four different stations.

The competition was split by continent; Australia falling under the Asia and Oceania section.

Hannah managed a fantastic placement of top 5five; the second ever Australian to place so highly in the competition.

The winner was Fanni Miko from Hungary.

Being a title holder is based around being a role model in your community/country and heavily relies on public appearances, attending various events and fund raising.

Of course with the current pandemic this has been made quite difficult; however Hannah continues to post on her social media to promote positivity as well as her pageant journey.

After coming first runner up in Miss Galaxy Australia in 2019, Hannah was honoured to come back to the national final earlier this year in April as Miss Intercontinental Australia to judge the competition. “It’s funny how life works sometimes.

It just reiterates my favourite saying ‘everything happens for a reason.” says Hannah.

Hannah is to hand over her title at the end of the year at the national finals of Miss Australia pageants held on the Gold Coast. On the night the new 2020 queens will be crowned for Miss Intercontinental Australia and Miss Global Australia.

50

FICTION ANNOUNCING THE IMPOSSIBLE A CELINE DAVIS LOCKED ROOM MYSTERY JAMES FORTE

C

PART THE FIRST

eline Davies sat in the front row of the public gallery of the Perth Coroner’s Court. This was a novel experience and she was alert to all the small details of the bustle of a court of law.

She knew little about the process for an inquest in general and the details of this one in particular. But the news media had provided some basic facts of the case – sufficient for her to recognize that this was going to be a stimulating puzzle.

More than that – this mystery was personal.

And so, on a day when she had loads of other items on her ‘to do’ list, she had left college early in order to gain a seat. And she was now enjoying the logical and orderly way in which the legal professionals were organizing the evidence.

Despite the start of winter and the horror of the murder, Perth was in a self-congratulatory mood.

The Covid-19 pandemic was raging around the world but in Western Australia, through the excellent cooperation of the physicians, hospital staff, Health Department workers, epidemiologists and politicians, the first wave had been contained to only nine deaths. Nine!

Compare that with the 130,000 deaths in some other countries.

Plus, there had not been any new infections found in the last fortnight.

Restrictions were being relaxed. Restaurants, theatres, sports arenas – even the casino – were being reopened.

Upon arrival at the court, Celine was happy to see two familiar faces. This was just like old times. Douglas Cromarty (big, genial with white Colonel Sanders whiskers) waved a hello.

Detective Inspector Trevor Baird was dressed in dark casual clothes – as if to emphasise that he was in mourning but off-duty. They filed in and took their seats. The personal distance rule of a couple of metres between people was still in force - so that there were two empty seats between Celine and Douglas and then two more to Baird.

She looked forward to a stimulating comparison of notes over lunch. ~oOo~

Police constable (first class) Philip Archer had been a popular member of the Northam police station. Celine had met him on several occasions. He had always been friendly, approachable and helpful. And now he was dead. And in the strangest of circumstances.

If there was one thing that annoyed the public and enraged

the police to hypertensive extremes, Celine mused, it was the murder of a policeman. Perhaps the murder of a policewoman might be fractionally greater. In Perth, both were rare events and the public wanted someone caught. Fast.

Which was why Douglas, as editor of The Avon Messenger, had not sent his senior reporter but come himself to write the story. Baird was representing the Avon Valley police. For him it was intensely personal – Archer had been a close colleague.

Although the murder was being jointly investigated by the West Australian and Federal police under Superintendent Denis Munro, Baird was being kept ‘in the loop’.

Celine’s early arrival provided time to sketch out some material for the mathematics course she had been asked to develop. The pandemic had forced the universities into a mad scramble to convert their courses. All staff and some senior students had thrown their energies into the leap from face-toface to on-line teaching (and solving the problems of assessing students at the other end of a computer line).

Attending court for a few days would be a welcome break.

She shoveled the papers into her bag as the hearing began. ~oOo~

Two weeks earlier, Perth police had received an anonymous e-mail. It announced that a significant crime would be committed on the following day’s flight by Kimberley Airlines from Kununurra to Perth.

It appeared to have come from an e-mail account which had been created purely for the sending of that one message and then deleted, because replies from the police had bounced with ‘account unknown’ replies.

Both crank messages and genuine tip-offs are quite common for the police, but this one was different. It contained 51

a picture of a woman’s face; she looked about fifty and was assumed to be the sender. The police immediately put it through their facial recognition system of all known criminals - plus all adults in Australia who hold driver’s licenses. There were no matches.

It required a few hours more before the picture attached to the e-mail was finally identified. It had been lifted from the Face-book page of a woman living in France. Later the French police confirmed that she was totally innocent and had not left her village in the last three years. She had been interviewed but had absolutely no connections with Australia.

The Perth police named the sender ‘Madame X’.

Following the declaration of the pandemic, Western Australia had been divided into regions - like watertight compartments on a ship. Travel from one region to another was forbidden – unless there were extenuating circumstances. Over the previous ten days, exemptions had been granted to thirtyfive people in order to travel from the Kimberley to Perth.

And there was no denying, the airline industry had been badly hit by Covid-19. There were only a few flights to and from the north of the state – mainly for the mining workers in the Pilbara. Even Qantas had stood down half its staff.

So Kimberley Airlines was happy to put on special flight KX-14. Their Airbus A320 would be due for routine maintenance fairly soon. The date was brought forward. The thirty-five passengers were charged full economy fare, although only a

notified. The aircraft was carefully searched. Full details of all passengers were available from their exemption applications.

These were checked, but none were found to have been in any serious trouble with the police. All would have their baggage thoroughly searched and each would be subject to a pat down. There would be one baby plus one pre-school threeyear-old. They were also checked.

For some years Australian airlines had been examining personal identification documents at the departure gate. This time it was to be closely supervised by an airline security guard.

The police noted that there would be a fairly typical passenger profile: ninteen males and sixteen females; twelve children and twenty-three adults.

The largest group would be the Southall family of six. Myra Southall was a widow of two years – her youngest (a boy) was seventeen months, her oldest (a girl) seventeen years. When the oldest had to go to Perth for an operation, she took the whole family.

As with the Southalls, eight other passengers were being permitted to travel to Perth for medical reasons. These included Fred Everett, a farmer with psychological problems, and Kitty Silverton, a local government officer suffering stress. Then there were five aboriginal elders representing indigenous communities at funerals and delicate government negotiations.

Four unaccompanied children were returning to their Perth boarding schools – their holidays having been converted into on-line learning during the travel restrictions.

Two sailors were returning to their ship at Garden Island after leave. Three adults and a teenager had returned from Indonesia in a yacht and had now completed their fourteen days of quarantine.

Two engineers had completed a project on new farming equipment. As with Constable Archer, two nurses had been posted back to Perth where their abilities would be essential if a second wave of Corona Virus were to eventuate.

The security guard was specifically briefed and kept a close watch for anyone resembling Madame X. Everything passed scrutiny.

Constable Philip Archer was twenty-six, athletic, good-looking and single. He was seeking adventure and had successfully applied to be posted from Northam to Kununurra at the end of 2019. For females hunting for partners, the Kimberley region was a target-rich environment.

Despite all the competition, Archer had been popular and enjoyed a busy social life.

One beneficial result of the pandemic was that crime rates fell dramatically. One disastrous result was that all tourism ceased – just when it should have been ramping up. Together they led to a decision that Archer’s services could be better employed elsewhere. He was given twelve hours notice to pack, draw a Glock 22 pistol from the armoury and be on KX-14.

Details of the crank e-mail were sent to him. Captain Bentwood was notified that she would have an armed police officer in plain clothes on board. She politely replied that that was fine provided he did not fire a gun inside the pressurized shell at 30,000 feet.

The police then considered that they had done all that was reasonable to secure the safety of the flight. There were now 41 souls on board.

The hearing in the Coroner’s Court first heard a summary of the case, followed by an officer from police headquarters relating the details of the e-mail prediction of a significant crime.

basic cabin service of sandwiches and soft-drinks/coffee/tea would be available on the three-hour flight.

Two politicians demanded business-class and were told by the Premier to slum it for once.

The plane would be flown by Senior Captain Joanna Bentwood. Apart from co-pilot Ben Russell, there would be three cabin crew led by purser Charles Connaught. A total of forty souls on board.

Seating was arranged so that passengers were widely spread throughout the cabin. If two people were traveling together then they occupied an aisle and a window seat with an empty seat between them. Apart from a baby, all on board would wear a facemask over their nose and mouth.

The police were uncertain as to the importance of the e-mail. The nature of the ‘significant crime’ had not been specified. However, some added security seemed appropriate.

Kimberley Airlines, Kununurra airport and Health officials were 52

There were a few questions as to how Constable Archer was selected and how any civilian e-mail sender could not possibly have known he would be on flight KX-14.

Next was Mr Norman Bayliss, the security guard of Kimberley Airlines. He appeared in a video link from Kununurra.

He clearly relished his moment of fame and was determined to relate in poetical terms how he had been stood down by the airline and then specially recalled to work for this particular flight. His loquaciousness could not be constrained despite comments and social cues to keep his evidence to the point.

Bayliss related how it was a fine morning and good to see the airport open for this special flight. First to be checked were the flight crew in their royal blue uniforms. The passengers had all been on time. First was the Southall family. Myra had been wearing a pale green outfit and carrying the baby on her hip.

She had been followed, like a mother duck, by her other four chicks – wearing distinct and brightly patriotic hats (red, white, blue, gold) and carrying all the cabin baggage. Brenda Elliott – from the mining company – had been next with a smart new green hat. Then Philip Archer - wearing cream shirt and trousers and…

At this point Mr Bayliss was told that the court did not wish to hear any more about clothing. He should get on with any special aspects of the passengers from a security point of view.

There were none.

The Coroner’s Court then heard from Captain Joanna Bentwood that the flight was without problems. The Airbus took off into a clear morning sky and encountered only a slight headwind all the way. The approach to an almost deserted Perth Airport was also entirely without incident. From a flying point of view, she had never had a more routine flight.

The head steward, Charles Connaught then took the stand.

Apparently, with only half an hour to go, Archer had become aware that something was odd. People were moving freely around the cabin, but there was someone sitting in a previously unoccupied area. And despite the mask, that someone had a face which did not quite tally with any he had seen in the departure lounge.

He had decided to give his legs some exercise by walking the length of the cabin – twice. In fact he was scrutinizing faces and counting heads. There was no doubt about it; there were thirty-seven passengers, counting himself. He consulted with Connaught who also conducted a count – with the same incredible result.

It was company policy that there must be at last two people in the cockpit for the entire duration of the flight. Flight attendant Christine Wheeler was sent in to keep the co-pilot company. The cockpit door was locked, while Captain Bentwood consulted with Constable Archer in the empty business-class cabin.

Together they came up with a plan. The captain would return to the controls and announce over the PA system that for company marketing purposes, a video would be taken of the cabin - to demonstrate the safety and seating precautions during the Covid-19 crisis. If anyone had any objections to being filmed – either on religious or privacy grounds – they should identify themselves.

The purser would then walk along the aisle with a video camera, followed by the other flight attendant, Jill Otto, with her i-Phone. The two resulting video files would then be sent to Perth. Meanwhile, as a precaution, Archer would sit just behind the young woman whose masked face did not tally with anyone’s memory. He chuckled reassuringly as he pointed out that what they could see of her face did not look anything like the photo attached to the e-mail.

No one objected and the filming of the passenger cabin

went smoothly. The mystery woman was in aisle seat 17C. He had filmed her and the area around her thoroughly. Archer had shifted to seat 18C directly behind her. In other parts of the cabin there had been some moving around. One of the private school boys was sitting particularly close and holding the hand of the eldest Southall girl. He had to be firmly instructed to maintain a social distance.

Five minutes after the videos were transmitted to Perth, word came back from security at Perth Airport. The combination of the e-mail warning and the appearance of an extra passenger was highly alarming. The aircraft would be met by two policemen at the air-bridge.

To avoid panic, other passengers were not to be informed of any emergency and were to be allowed to disembark as usual.

Their identities would again be checked as they entered the arrivals lounge. As normal, all passengers would be captured

by CCTV. Each would also be seen by health officials and given a sheet of instructions about self-isolation while in Perth.

Meanwhile Archer should identify himself to the suspect as a police officer and require her to remain in the cabin while the other passengers disembarked. She would then be interviewed.

Charles Connaught testified that the arrival went as planned. He personally checked off the list of thirty-five passengers as they left the aircraft through the single door. The two flight attendants assisted with the children.

The purser and the two policemen then went back into the cabin. The only person remaining was Constable Archer - who was now in 17C and appeared to be asleep. The woman had vanished.

Connaught broke down as he related how he had approached Archer - only to discover a dead body. Both the policemen on the air-bridge and the Airport security CCTV confirmed that only thirty-five passengers had left the aircraft and none looked like the young woman. The five crew members were also checked and accounted for. The A320 was then searched like no aircraft before or since.

Madame X had appeared from nowhere and had then returned to the same place. In between she had killed an alert and armed policeman – one who had been watching her.

Two pathologists gave evidence that Archer died from an injection into the right side of his throat of a large dose of a concentrated snake venom. Death would have been near instantaneous.

The source of the toxin was not known and was under investigation. It appeared to be a cocktail of more than one type of snake plus traces of an anesthetic. There was no clue as to how any hypodermic needle might have been smuggled on board.

Presumably when the extra passenger had miraculously appeared, she had brought the syringe with her. When the A320 was searched afterwards, a hypodermic containing traces of the toxin was found in the 17C seat pocket where Archer had been found.

The police then related their current attempts to identify the woman. The seat where she had been sitting was tested for foreign fibres. Also for fingerprints. Also for any traces of DNA. She had been observed using wipes, much like cabin staff and other passengers, to keep the area safe from the Corona Virus. This had been effective in removing any traces. The video footage was analysed but the mask had covered most of her face.

It also appeared likely that she had been wearing a blonde wig.

Could the ‘she’ have been a ‘he’? ~oOo~

Celine sat entranced, soaking up the information. The events were even more mysterious than she had expected.

53

Douglas noted her level of concentration and reflected on her character.

Apart from her height (1.5 metres) Celine was a typical university student. She wore any odd clothes that she could afford. She was slender and pretty – but also considered a bit of a loner.

A little too bookish, her fellow students thought. She did possess one talent - for which she was becoming increasingly recognized. She had a mania for puzzles. She herself considered it to be verging on an obsessive compulsion and worried about whether it was obvious to her friends. It was.

And this puzzle was the juiciest she had yet come across.

With the added stimulus that she had liked Philip Archer - and his killer had to be caught.

At the lunch break, Douglas informed her that he had secured an interview with one of the passengers. Would she like to join him?

Kitty Silverton had been a senior officer with the Shire Council at Kununurra for ten years. But the stress had built up to the point that she was now on sick leave. Over a coffee, she related how she had even found the flight stressful.

“That flight was like a powder keg waiting for a spark.

Everyone knew everybody else and there were a fair number of grievances to be sorted out. I expected a brawl or two. Thank God there was no alcohol on board. And we had two nurses. I was so happy to get off here in Perth – with no problems. Or so I thought at the time. It was next day… in the papers, I saw the news about Philip.”

“Could you tell us about some of the grievances?” Douglas asked.

“You’re not publishing names. Nor me as source?” Kitty replied.

“No. I’m trying to get a feel for the atmosphere.”

“It’s a long list. Let’s see. One of the nurses had just had a nasty break up with one of the engineers. Two of the aboriginal elders were arguing over how to negotiate with mining companies over land rights. There were two writers – one from Halls Creek and one from Wyndham – normally kept well apart – accusing each other of plagiarism.

the sailors has some massive gambling debts. He’d be glad to be rejoining his submarine.

“Brenda Elliott used to work with me. She’s in occupational health and safety. Was with an airline, then our council. Then she was fired for incompetence. She’s been with a mining company for two years. Myra Southall thinks her eldest girl is getting a little too flirty with the boys around town. One of them was on the flight. She’s had financial problems – late paying her rates. Although the council has managed to keep that confidential. The politicians have been doing a fact-finding trip.

It seems Fred’s farm is going to be adversely referred to in their report. I could go on and on.”

Celine smiled. And she had thought university maths departments were dens of iniquity.

However, Kitty had nothing to say about the mystery passenger. She had not even realized there was an extra person until she heard the full details at the morning’s session.

Douglas thanked her for all the background material. He went off to write up his notes and make some phone calls.

Outside, Celine bumped into Inspector Baird and he introduced her to Superintendent Munro. Munro was in his late forties and she thought he looked a little like John Thaw playing the part of Morse.

“I’ve heard about you,” Munro said.

Celine was never sure how to answer such comments.

Assuming he was referring to her successful co-operation with Baird, she asserted: “I love puzzles”.

“You love sweets,” he replied. “You’re always short of money. You’re brilliant at being able to con policemen into buying you expensive lunches. You’ve even had some new cakes named after you.”

Celine knew she was starting to turn red with embarrassment. Her face registered resentment at the insult.

But before she could think up a suitable retort, Baird jumped to her defense. “Celine has led a fairly Spartan existence. The food at her boarding school was plain. She never had any luxuries. You can’t blame her for liking sweet cakes.”

Denis Munro laughed and apologized. “I’m sorry. That was rather rude of me. It’s just that I have a daughter your age and she has the same ability.”

Celine didn’t reply so he continued: “I’ve also heard that you use some weird mathematical approach to find new areas for investigations. I need all the help I can get. Can I buy you lunch?”

Trying unsuccessfully to look cool she said stiffly: “It doesn’t need to be expensive”.

“It won’t be – not on my allowances.”

“Then, thank you.”

Munro leaned forward and quietly confided: “I’ve already started using your methods, you know. The hypodermic needle.

It wasn’t on the aircraft when it was searched before take off.

And it wasn’t in anyone’s hand luggage – passengers or crew – which were checked at security. So where did it come from?”

Celine already had a theory but she assumed the question was rhetorical. This was like conversing with a bulldozer.

“Baird showed me how to put the problem into – what do you call them? Logical propositions. Then find the false statement. Guess where it was?”

Celine offered a suggestion. “It was on the aircraft when it was searched. It was in the emergency medical kit.”

Baird and Munro nodded to each other and roared with laughter. “She’s amazing.”

They moved off to a sandwich café just up the street from the courthouse. They swapped notes.

The list of names of the adult passengers had been published, those of the children suppressed. Munro and Baird were able to supply a few details such as the age, gender and

“Fred Everett is normally a recluse on his farm. First time I’ve seen him in ages. He’s got a bad reputation about the treatment of his workers. Two died a couple of years ago from being given illegal chemicals to spray. One of them was Myra Southall’s husband. She’d like to tell him a thing or two. One of 54

occupation of each passenger.

All but the toddler had been interviewed without finding any useful information. They would be called as a part of the inquest the following day – but Munro thought it would be just a formality.

Celine asked for a copy of the two videos of the passenger cabin. Munro’s reply was a categorical ‘no’. However he conceded that she might have a supervised viewing of the two short films at police headquarters.

She could also see the CCTV footage of the passengers passing through security into the Perth arrivals hall. An appointment was made for early the next morning before the inquest resumed.

Celine also commented that Kununurra was a small town and just about everyone on the flight must have known each other. The police had already made extensive notes from their interviews. With a few minor exceptions, everyone was on first name terms with the others.

The stewardess, Christine Wheeler, had even been on more than a few social outings with Archer. After the tea and coffee had been served on the flight she had sat and chatted with him for ten minutes. There was no hint that anyone on KX-14 held any sort of grudge against the policeman, let alone a reason to kill him.

Celine pointed out that the crime had all the signs of a wellplanned operation. The announcement by e-mail of the crime, the snake venom, the taking of the syringe, the appearance and disappearance of the suspect – all indicated this. Everyone agreed.

Baird then put into words what they were all thinking. “But Archer was only put on that flight at the last minute. Therefore he was not the target. The intended victim is still alive.

Presumably in great danger. Could be any of them.”

Munro added to the gloom. “There’s something that hasn’t been mentioned in court yet. It might be kept quiet.” He glared at Celine. “So not for discussion with anyone. Archer’s police firearm has not been found. His killer took it with her when she disappeared.”

Mid afternoon, Celine had to return to College. She was quite certain of the verdict. Constable Archer had been killed by an unknown woman. The Coroner would no doubt avoid using non-legal language such as: ‘who had appeared from thin air’.

As she left the court, she passed notes to Douglas, Baird and Munro that she would do some analysis of the mystery and would contact them over Zoom.

On the bus back to the university, she mulled over the mystery. Once before she had been involved with a death in midair - in what Baird had named The Case of the Invisible Pilot. But then they had been short one person. This time they seemed to have a person to spare.

Reluctantly she had to tell herself: there were no parallels between the two cases. She hadn’t the faintest idea how to conjure a person from nowhere and then return them half an hour later. ~oOo~

That evening Celine prepared forty-two pages, each one containing the available details of a particular person on KX-14.

The next day she watched the CCTV footage and both videos of the cabin three times – stopping at each masked face to write out her impressions.

She knew that the police would have already done this – integrated with all the information from the travel-application forms plus any police records and airline data. But she had to start somewhere.

The two politicians had been seated at the front of the

cabin and the Southall family had been herded down the back. The age, gender and family relationships of the thirty-six appeared exactly as they should. Celine concentrated on the extra passenger, Madame X.

She appeared to be in her early twenties, blonde (which might be a wig) and with blue eyes (which might be contact lenses). Slim and fit. Sitting in a cramped economy-class seat it was impossible to get a precise estimate of her height or weight.

Her jacket and trousers were beige. No one resembling her had appeared on the security film. And the only way off that plane was past the security camera. ~oOo~

The following day, Celine had to admit to herself that she had little to report. She was uncertain whether Munro would want her comments anyway. But when she e-mailed him, she received a prompt reply that he was looking forward to further discussions. So they organized an on-line Zoom videoconference.

She confessed that she had made no headway. It was soon clear that neither had the police. She elaborated on her selfinvented notation to identity several areas worthy of further investigation. These were mainly in the form of questions.

Why commit murder in this way? Doing it in the enclosed space of an airliner - where it might easily be witnessed or where you would be dealing with the heightened security of airports, under fear of attack by terrorists – was brave if not foolhardy.

One really would need a guaranteed ability to appear and disappear.

Why announce your intentions by sending the e-mail?

Perhaps Madame X had expected a policeman to be put on board. And she had specifically wanted to kill a policeman. But there must be easier ways to do that.

Why attach a photograph to the e-mail? Perhaps to ensure that none of the thirty-five other passengers were excluded.

She wanted her victim on that plane and there was no one that looked anything like the photograph.

There were five female passengers in their early twenties on KX-14. All were clearly identified as separate to Madame X in the videos. Impossible as it seemed, a young woman really had appeared in mid flight and then disappeared while the passengers disembarked. How?

And how had she managed to kill an alert policeman?

Celine sat back. “I think Inspector Baird told you how I approach these things. I assemble a collection of well-defined statements which, put together, are impossible. Therefore at least one of them must be false. I’ve done that. And I can’t find any wriggle-room anywhere…”

Munro frowned. “There has to be something.”

“…yet!” Celine finished. “We thought Madame X might have had some other target. Some other person to kill. One of the politicians? Then realized there was a policeman on board. So she abandoned her mission. Then she concluded that she was trapped with a cop sitting behind her.

Telling her to sit still while the other passengers disembarked. She would have to kill him to escape. Except he’s fit, he’s trained, he’s probably armed and he’s watching you.

Maybe we’re looking for La Femme Nikita? Or Lizbeth Solander?”

Munro commented that the police had checked to see if any passenger had a knowledge of poisons and airline medical kits – to find and use the hypodermic. Apart from the cabin crew and maybe the nurses, one of the women going to Perth for medical treatment, Brenda Elliott, had been an airline Health and Safety manager. She was in her late twenties. But she had been identified at the rear of the cabin in the videos. She could not be Madame X. The whole connection was too flimsy.

55

The superintendent had kept the best for last.

“We’ve had a development. After Archer’s death we had a look at all the CCTV footage throughout the terminal. Everything looked normal. We’ve just gone over it again. There’s about ten seconds of our mystery lady – Madame X – standing by the baggage carousel. She’s staring at some of the other passengers.

Then she leaves the terminal and disappears again.”

“That’s not possible.”

“Agreed. It’s a nice little conflict for your logical equations.

One: She didn’t get off that aircraft. Two: She got off that aircraft.

She was now in the arrivals area. How did you put it?”

Celine gulped: “One of them is crap.”

“Or we’ve got a massive problem, because our security system can’t cope with invisible women.”

“I counted the thirty five on the security system too.

Madame X is not among them. The crew?”

“Still on the plane – helping with Archer. I counted them off later.” ~oOo~

turn a blind eye - while she sat down with the passengers - before the video recording started.

In other words, she was Madame X. Celine checked her notes. Nope. Wheeler testified she left Bentwood and Russell in the cockpit before locking the door and joining Otto after the video had been completed.

For all the crew to be lying in support of each other would have to be a gigantic conspiracy theory. This was all totally crazy. She spent another hour twisting the statements into knots, without making any headway. From an upright position on her bed, her body was unresisting as she collapsed sideways and slept.

She woke at three in the morning. She thought about getting undressed. Just another five minutes playing with those statements. And suddenly it was obvious. She made some notes.

She composed an e-mail and sent it off to Baird and Munro. Then she slept the sleep of the exhausted but victorious. ~oOo~

That evening Celine wrote the statements on an A3 sheet and blue tacked them to the wall of her room.

Aircraft was empty pre-boarding. (It had been thoroughly searched.) Five crew and thirty-six passengers boarded. (Each was positively identified.)

No one can get into an airliner in mid-flight. (Doors locked, Cabin pressurized.)

Connaught’s video shows thirty-seven passengers.

(Personally verified.)

Otto’s video shows Connaught’s back and thirty-seven passengers. (Personally verified.)

Videos confirmed each other and were not modified in any way. (Insufficient time.)

Pilot, copilot and Wheeler were locked in the cockpit.

(Confirmed by cabin crew.)

Five crew and thirty-five passengers disembarked. (Each was positively identified.)

One person remained and he was dead. (Medically certified.)

At least one of these statements is false.

She stared at them. She went out, made herself a coffee and then returned to stare at the wall for another half hour. She put the Brahms symphonies on her antiquated sound system. They were supposed to help her think. They didn’t work.

That number thirty-seven! It must equal the original thirty-six plus a body obtained from elsewhere. That was obvious. The only source was the crew.

Could it be Otto? Then who was doing the video? Anyway she was too old to appear as Madame X. Or could it be Wheeler? Perhaps she had somehow left the cockpit, donned a wig and scuttled past Otto and Connaught to be captured sitting with the passengers.

Really?

It could not be Connaught. It could not be the co-pilot Russell. It had to be a female.

Alright then – the captain Bentwood. Could she have smuggled an extra person on board? Then smuggled Madame X off afterwards?

Or could she have ordered her crew to

Just before lunch the next morning, another Zoom call was set up. Munro explored the results of the e-mailed suggestions.

He confirmed that her deductions appeared to be correct. He was able to fill in a few of the blanks. He wanted to know how she had solved it.

She giggled. “Didn’t Baird tell you the tradition? I keep quiet until supplied with sweet cakes in the Jacaranda Tearoom?”

“Yeah.”

“Well this time, it’s my buy.”

Munro picked her up outside St George’s College in a beautiful Jaguar with real leather seats.

“Morse,” she thought.

“Save you the petrol,” he grunted.

Douglas and Baird were waiting for them with tea and a large plate of Celines.

Celine was about to put on her academic voice, as if explaining something trivial to a first-year tutorial. Then she mentally smacked her own wrist. These were her friends.

“The most important question for me was what happened to Philip Archer. How did Madame X kill him? We may never know exactly, there were no witnesses. Unless she confesses.

56

PART TWO

But it would not have been that difficult. She was about to murder some other passenger. Ready to go. “ Then she realized that there was a policeman on the plane.

She was filmed twice. She abandoned her mission. The plane landed. Archer was sitting right behind her. He identified himself and required her to sit still while the other passengers disembarked.

She smiled at him, moved to the window seat and invited him to move into her row – into the aisle seat. She was trapping herself.

To Archer, she had not committed any crime. True, she had appeared from nowhere and so was probably traveling without a ticket. But she was being cooperative, totally compliant. And she had now placed herself under his control. He was sitting between her and the exit. They chatted as everyone else left.

Madame X was an interesting woman in her twenties. She had planned everything in fine detail. She had boarded wearing an oversized facemask and a bright green cap with her dark hair tucked up underneath. No security person was going to confiscate a small bottle of hand-sanitizer during a pandemic.

Her bottle was full of concentrated snake venom. Half way through the flight – after the sandwiches and coffee – she went to the galley. With everyone busy tidying, she removed a hypodermic from the medical kit and went into the toilet.

She filled the syringe, replaced her hat with a blonde wig and inserted contact lenses. Then she reversed her jacket which became beige and walked back to a new seat, 17C, as a new woman.

The people on that plane knew each other. Madame X would have noted Christine Wheeler sitting with Archer. So she would have used a weapon that every woman knows. Guilt.

Archer was sitting having a friendly chat with an interesting and attractive blonde when she would have looked behind him and said ‘Hello Christine’.

There is no force on earth which can prevent a man from whipping around to explain to his girlfriend that he is only having a chat. It would have taken two seconds to realize that there was no one there. But in those two seconds, Madame X would have struck. With her hypodermic she would have stabbed him in the throat. He might have called out but the pilots were in the cockpit and the other two policemen were busy on the air-bridge. She might have put a hand over his mouth. The doctors at the inquest thought that death would have been near instantaneous.

She dropped the hypodermic into the seat pocket, took Archer’s gun and climbed over his body. As she is walking forward to the door, she removes her wig and dons her cap and then takes off and reverses her jacket.

As a part of her preparation she would have practiced doing quick changes. She joins the queue going through security.

Then she realizes that she still has a chance to complete her original task. She has a gun. She can hold up her victim, take him or her to the toilets in the deserted airport and carry out an execution.

So she goes behind a pillar away from any security cameras and changes back to Madame X. She hangs around the baggage carousel. Either the victim had already left or the police patrols scare her off. She leaves.”

Douglas nodded. “That seems likely. It’s consistent with all we know. But who was Madame X and who was she after?”

Baird agreed. “I really, really want that bitch.”

Munro was puzzled. “How do you know she was wearing a green cap? She doesn’t have a hat in the cabin

videos.”

“Hold on.” Celine resumed her explanation. “I spent hours wrestling with my equations. Somehow I had to find a thirtyseventh passenger who had appeared from nowhere. It was irrefutable. We knew thirty-six had got on and now there were thirty-seven. I tried every variation of getting a crew member to become a passenger. The parts of the puzzle just would not fit together.

Did Captain Bentwood or Mr Connaught sneak someone else on board somehow? Of course not. The explanation was much simpler. So boring it was banal. A body was brought aboard. In a bag. A doll.”

“I think the cabin crew would have noticed a blow-up doll when they took the videos!” Baird snapped.

“Yes. Sorry. Not that kind of doll. A girl’s doll. The size of a baby.

In 1898 an American, Sam Loyd, made a puzzle called Get off the Earth. It was incredibly popular and sold in the millions. You can look it up on the web. It featured two circles of cardboard, one revolving inside the other. On the perimeter were pictures of twelve men.

But when the outer circle was rotated through about twenty degrees, it became thirteen. No subterfuge. All parts of the pictures were in view all the time. Twelve became thirteen by a cunning rearrangement of heads on bodies.

The Southall children went aboard wearing their facemasks and hats in distinctive styles and colours: red, white, blue, gold. The baby appeared to sleep throughout the flight. In fact a doll was substituted and the child sat up wearing the mask and red hat of the three-year-old boy.

Similarly, that boy put on the white hat of the six-year-old girl. She wore the blue hat of the older girl who was just starting high school. And that girl put on the mask and gold hat of the eldest girl who was just finishing high school. The eldest, the seventeen-year-old, put on a hat of the same style and colour – green – as that worn by Madame X when she boarded.

Voila! We now had thirty-seven passengers. Madame X probably had not expected video cameras. But it did not matter.

For disembarkation, the children resumed their original hats. The baby was carried off by one of the flight attendants.

The doll was back in the bag. There were thirty-six passengers

57

again. Actually thirty-five with one deceased.”

Baird shook his head. “That would need the complicity of Myra Southall and all her children.”

Celine completed her explanation. “Yes. Myra was being coerced. Threatened. Cooperate or else… Then the requirement would have been softened. She was told that she would be a part of a practical joke being played on someone. She practiced it with her children with the set of masks and hats which turned up one day in her letterbox.

“She thought that it had all gone okay until she woke up next morning and found the papers full of the murder of a policeman on flight KX-14. She realized that she and her children were accessories to the crime.”

“How d’you know that?” Douglas asked.

With a wave of her hand, Celine handed over to Munro.

“Celine’s e-mail suggested I re-interview Myra Southall – which I did this morning. She told me the whole story. Pretty much as Celine has said. About a week before the flight, she got a note in the mail. A photo of an older lady, who she did not recognize, was attached. The sender seemed to know about some financial problems with council rates that she had had.

Promising to keep quiet if she and her children would help with a practical joke. So she did.”

“And…” from Baird.

“She was suspicious. She decided to go ahead with it. But she also sent an e-mail to the police hinting that there might be something criminal going on. She included the woman’s picture.

She was correct. She announced a crime.

There was something else. I asked her who knew she was going to Perth. She said: ‘just about everyone’. Her eldest was going into hospital for some surgery.

Then she added an interesting comment. There were two significant people on that flight. Fred Everett is a farmer who has psychological problems. Two of his workers died when he used some banned chemicals on his fields.

One of them was Myra’s husband. Everett was prosecuted but his lawyers managed to shift the blame onto the Health and Safety Officer at the Shire Council. Got Brenda Elliott fired. She was on that flight too. Guess what? Myra’s eldest gave her gold cap to her sister and took out the green hat which had been left in their mailbox. A hat the same colour and style as the one worn

by Madame X when she boarded.

Brenda Elliott is Madame X. Everett realized she was after him and has gone into hiding. Brenda was brought in for questioning straight after I talked to Myra. We searched her hotel room and found Archer’s Glock pistol.” ~ The End ~

POETRY FOOTSLOG DF BROND

R

egardez vous the ‘umble foot the nadir of our anatomy not renowned for aesthetic look a pair perhaps unlovely.

But what are we of beauty scarce whilst through the world in tandem, they carry us with little fuss plus excess weight we endow ‘em.

In and out of numerous door along tortuous ways of strife, one step at a time, rung by rung, they tread the ways of life.

The best is always forward the other is dragging behind, and plain to see the imprints left for critical heirs to find.

On through life, one after another at times they struggle to carry, at last to teeter, one in the graveis it here they wish to tarry?

Should they take the final step across the last frontier, greet their maker-pas de deux? or get the ‘ell out of ‘ere!

When given the choice the ‘umble foot affords the ultimate projection, for nimble minds, Sin Die, shy away, but the foot ever points the direction.

58

COMMUNITY WHAT’S IN A NAME? GRETA JASIAK

A

s construction of New Junction's major public open space, Weeip Park, nears completion, the City of Swan invites the community to learn more about the name chosen by Council and the traditional owners of the land.

The City of Swan's New Junction precinct is located on land known as a meeting place by the Whadjuk Noongar and other Aboriginal peoples within the community.

In recognition and celebration of its continuing significance to the community and traditional owners of the Midland area, the City of Swan investigated an appropriate Noongar name for its most prominent public open space, which is anticipated to be open to the public by August 2020.

Following consultation with local Elders and their families who have called this land home for tens of thousands of years, in December 2019 the City of Swan Council unanimously decided to name New Junction's major public open space Weeip Park.

Weeip was the traditional leader of the Boora Clan (Boya Ngura people) who were responsible for the Swan area during the first decade of European settlement.

Weeip Park is the first dedication to this significant Whadjuk leader, and he is remembered as a very important leader and family man who sought and acted to reduce the severity of the effects of imprisonment and attacks on his people and family.

After the execution of leaders Midgegooroo and Yagan in 1833, Weeip also negotiated a landmark truce with Governor Stirling in 1834 that aimed to improve relations between his clan and the British settlers.

City of Swan Mayor Kevin Bailey said the City is proud to see Weeip incorporated in New Junction for future generations to remember him and how his people contributed to Australia today.

"The name Weeip sets the stage for remembering Weeip's

leadership and celebrating our local Whadjuk Noongar culture and its incredible history dating back more than 60,000 years," he said.

"I hope it will stir peoples' curiosity to learn more about our First Australians and their connection to country, and promote pride in Australia’s Indigenous history and culture."

"The descendants of all the Whadjuk totemic Clans are deserving of gratitude from today’s citizens and visitors for the gracious and generous way they continue to welcome people and seek to responsibly share their culture and country."

The consultation included facilitating discussions with representatives of the traditional owners of the Midland area, who recommended that Council name the public open space Weeip Park.

Artist, anthropologist and traditional owner Vanessa Corunna, whose family's traditional country encompasses the New Junction development, originally submitted Weeip's name for consideration to the group as she felt she needed to put his name forward and explain his and his people's importance.

Vanessa is a descendant of Yagan's family. Her grandmother born by the Swan River in 1898, less than seventy years after European settlers began occupying the land now known as Perth metropolitan area.

"I'm hoping it will be a chain reaction where we can hear more about him," she said.

Vanessa explains that developing consultation relationships with the appropriate traditional owners is critically important for properly respecting Aboriginal protocols and to ensure the right people continue to speak for country.

"Being traditional to the area and being able to be a part of naming a place is really important because it helps us to bring back important knowledge and memories of the people of our country and its leaders, and in this case Weeip," she said.

"He was the Yoolin (a leader or Councillor) for this area, so it was really important bringing his name back to that place to be remembered again.

"That’s part of Aboriginal inclusion too, and the healing process and reconciliation, being able to bring back our stories of our people who we knew were right there when colonisation happened."

Traditional owner Bella Bropho also played a significant role in selecting the name. Bella's family has an ancestral line with Weeip on her mother's side.

"So I was very proud to come here, because that's my family connection, and to acknowledge my ancestors," she explains.

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Product Photography Let your photos do the talking!

facebook.com/TerriSchulzePhotography terrischulze.com.au terri@terrischulze.com.au 60

THE IDLER The Idle Thoughts of an Idle Mind

CONFLICT-TARED GLENNYS MARSDON

I

n late February, pre-Covid, I was riding my bike along a main street of the Perth CBD when I was stopped in my tracks. A massive machine was oozing hot black tar across one half of the road. The image was fascinating for several reasons.

Firstly, the sight wasn’t one you’d expect to see in an era that boasts twenty-seven different types of hand sanitizer.

The resultant black gluggy steaming streetscape looked like something out of a Charles Dickens novel. I fully expected an Oliver Twist-esk urchin to tug my shirttail enquiring about the whereabouts of more gruel.

Given society’s focus on clean, green environments, the mound of naked steaming sludge was rightfully confronting. The only dark sludge I’d come across in my lifetime was a welcoming bowl of Chocolate Fudge Pudding, or a dainty laver cake served up on MasterChef. Rather than instil mouth-watering glee, this slick of seeping stench left me holding my breath.

Perhaps the fascination also lay in watching something being mended. Such backbreaking labour-intensive work seemed at odds with a world that boasted verge clearances, and being able to push a button to communicate face to face with relatives on the other side of the world.

As I watched on half dozen Fluro-clad men stood chatting around the sludge generator (it’s technical name I’m sure) while one of their comrades worked on. Modern-day etiquette dictated there was only one appropriate response. I stopped to take a photograph.

As I raised my mobile phone to document the event, I wondered whether I was allowed to take said snap.

Does road resurfacing, and the resulting discussions taking part, constitute Secret Men’s Business? Would I be hauled down to the Police Station for breaking some privacy code? Would my phone be confiscated? A myriad of thoughts swirled in my head as my recalcitrant fingers quickly took the shot. No one moved to challenge me.

Having gotten away with it, I set up to take another but then noticed movement amongst the group of men. I’d been sprung.

Trying to appear as innocent as possible, I feigned intense interest in a nearby street sign as I slowly stowed my phone in my pocket.

“Hey!” one of the men yelled

out which caused the rest of the group to look in my direction.

“Hey, hey!” he hollered, forcing me to meet his gaze.

I looked at this self-appointed leader expecting to see a scowl. Instead I was rewarded with a cheeky grin that would be more at home on a fourteen year old.

“Hey, do you want this?” he added while raising his shirt and pointing to a bellybutton that was struggling for air within a hairy, middle aged spread. More blancmange than six pack if I’m honest.

“Hey,” the rest of the group joined in, smiles beaming.

I was dumbstruck.

My spontaneous reaction, driven by nature or nurture I’m not sure, was to giggle.

I’d not been privy to such a flippant display of male bravado for years. Deep in the recesses of my brain a comforting memory triggered. This was friendly fire not foe. I wasn’t in trouble. But as my lips moulded into a broad smile and my head dipped in a slight acknowledgement towards the group, another part of my brain chimed in, the part that had been worn down into a mishappened pebble.

I’d read enough articles to know that the current zeitgeist suggested, no expected, me to be horrified. And yet I wasn’t.

For a moment my thoughts lingered on simpler times.

Times when as a younger woman I knew what to expect and how to react when passing a worksite. Times when you’d stand a little taller after receiving a kerbside whistle. Now I was less sure of my actions.

What was I meant to do?

Should I have taken a photo of their faces and reported them to their bosses, or name and shamed them on social media?

Should I yell out my disgust to their lack of respect?

As I watched the leader let his shirt fall back to its rightful position, I registered a look of confusion on his part too. The exuberant smile had drained from his face, in its place a look of apprehension. We stood for a moment, looking at one another, like two World War I soldiers from opposite sides who’d found themselves in no-man’s-land on Christmas Eve. What were the rules here?

I answered his confusion with a warm smile and turned my bike to leave.

Looking over my shoulder I watched the boyish twinkle returned to his eye as he too registered friendly fire. He dropped his head in a nod and waved me goodbye.

Sure, there are sexist actions that completely step over the mark of decency. And yes, there are times when political correctness is highly valued. But I hope that as we emerge into this new world, these smaller moments of levity between men and women aren’t completely tarred over in society’s rush to present a flawless surface.

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SWAN VALLEY AND REGIONAL NETWORK COMMUNITY UPDATE SUE HURT

Have Your Say - Community Consultations - See the projects currently open for public consultation and have your say about what’s happening in your community: www.swan.wa.gov.au/Your-Community/Have-your-say

Library Look #Swanlibraryinmyhome – City of Swan Libraries have an online portal dedicated to offering a range of FREE resources and activities that you can access from home. The webpage offers boredom busters, important links, and instructions to the Libraries’ eServices, as well as access to a library of storytime sessions and other filmed activities. For more information and ideas: www.swan.wa.gov.au/Your-Services/Libraries/ Swanlibraryinmyhome

City of Swan - New Community Directory – The online Community Directory is a place for local groups to share information about who they are and what they do, in a free, easily accessible way.

It has been created to help local groups with member growth and event attraction, and to build a more involved, engaged and inclusive community. If you would like to create a listing for your community group: www.swan.wa.gov.au/Your-Community/Community-groups/ myCommunity-Portal

Leisure and Libraries - Reopening Roadmap – the City of Swan have gradually reopened some of your services and facilities, as Coronavirus restrictions are scaled back.

HelpingMinds – the team at HelpingMinds have developed a number of Webinars for you to access online including Mental Health Basics for Everyone, Raising Resilient Children for Parents, Carer Gateway Information Forum for Service Providers and Relaxing the Mind for Everyone. For more information and to register: www.helpingminds.org.au/online

City of Swan Libraries Programs – The latest news for the libraries is that our library programs have moved online including via YouTube and Facebook.

Bullsbrook Library is now open on Monday (10-5pm), Wednesday (10-5pm) and Saturday (9-2pm). You can still also organise to take part in the Click and Collect Service just request some items on the catalogue and once they come in, contact the library to organise a pick up time.

Swan Valley Memory Café - City of Swan community member, Jan O’Shea, has established the Swan Valley Memory Café and it has recently re-opened with the easing of restrictions. Please support this fantastic community initiative. See the Facebook page for members to keep up to date here: www.facebook.com/swanvalleymemorycafe/

Library2U Service – Still being provided for eligible people in the City of Swan to have their library items delivered. It is for customers over 75, and other vulnerable customers who are unable to leave their home due to health or other reasons. If you would like to take advantage of this or our Home Library Service, you can contact the library for more information.

Midlas - Building Resilient Communities - The Financial Capability service assists people to build longer-term capability to budget and manage their money and to make informed choices about their money. The Financial Capability Services are FREE, independent and confidential – funded by the Commonwealth Government. To book either a workshop or oneto-one coaching session please call 9250 2123 or email Amanda. ghouse@midlas.org.au during business hours Monday to Friday.

Thank a Volunteer Day Grant Program – the Department of Communities is currently seeking applications for the Thank a Volunteer Day Celebration Grants Program 2020. Funding assistance of up to $1,000 will be available to communities throughout Western Australia to hold an event or display on Thank a Volunteer Day/International Day of Volunteers, Saturday 5 December 2020.

The aim of the Thank a Volunteer Day Celebration Grants Program is to support both metropolitan and regional communities to celebrate Thank a Volunteer Day as a whole of community event. The Thank a Volunteer Day Grants Program 2020 is subject to Government directions on COVID-19 Safety Plans and Guidelines. Applications close at 4:00pm on Thursday 30 July 2020. The application form and guidelines can be accessed here: www.dlgc.communities.wa.gov.au/GrantsFunding/Pages/ Thank-A-Volunteer-Day-Grants-Program.aspx

The Recycling Centre – Bullsbrook is open Thursday through to Sunday 8:30am to 4:30pm Except Good Friday, Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. There will be limits inside the Tip Shop due to COVID-19 so we do ask for patience if you are asked to wait.

Family and Domestic Violence (FDV) Support – FDV can get worse during a crisis. For confidential information, counselling and support services ring 1800 737 732.

Bullsbrook College Enrolments now open – Enrolments are now open for Bullsbrook College Kindergarten and Bullsbrook Community Kindergarten. Enrolments also open for PrePrimary, Primary and Secondary or if changing School to commence 2021.

All enrolments can be received at Bullsbrook College Reception, though Community Kindergarten specific enrolments can be taken to the College or Community Kindergarten. More information available from the website, or calling the College on 9501 7600. Enrolments close Friday 24 July 2020. www.bullsbrook-college.wa.edu.au/for-our-parents/studentenrolment/

Valley Comes Alive – Local community radio station VCA 88.5fm, has kindly offered FREE ADVERTISING for businesses within the City of Swan that are continuing to trade during these difficult times. The station also streams their service via the internet which has a global reach! Send an email for more details: radiovca88.5@gmail.com.

Subscribe to the Swan Biz eNews (helping you grow your business): www.us9.list-manage.com/ subscribe?u=6deefff98db885f0d0a79efa3&id=ae41adc97b 62

SWAN VALLEY AND REGIONAL NETWORK PROSTATE CANCER NURSE BOOST THIRD TIME’S A CHARM SUE YEAP

T

he Swan Valley Visitor Centre was recognised as the best in Australia at the Australian Tourism Awards in Canberra. The Swan Valley Visitor Centre received the award ahead of five hundred visitor centres around Australia.

For the third year in a row the Swan Valley Visitor Centre won the Visitor Information Services category, presented at the Qantas Australian Tourism Awards Ceremony at the National Convention Centre.

For winning the same category in three consecutive years, the Visitor Centre was also awarded the Hall of Fame Trophy and inducted into the Hall of Fame.

First established by the Federal Government in 1985, the Australian Tourism Awards are tourism industry’s peak awards, recognising and promoting excellence in tourism.

Located in historic Guildford at the gateway to the Swan Valley, the Visitor Centre is operated by the City of Swan and opens every day of the year except Christmas Day. The Swan Valley, which boasts Western Australia’s oldest wine region and the second oldest in Australia, attracts 5.4 million visitors per annum with a visitor spend of $430 million.

In accepting the award on behalf of the City of Swan and the Visitor Centre, Mayor Kevin Bailey said it was an absolute honour for it to be recognised for the third consecutive year.

Mayor Bailey thanked the City of Swan Council and Executive, the Australian Tourism Awards, Tourism Council of Western Australia and the Swan Valley tourism industry for its ongoing support of the Visitor Centre and the City of Swan’s tourism programs.

"This recognition is excellent acknowledgment of the outstanding service and support provided by the City's Visitor Centre staff," he said. “I would also like to acknowledge and congratulate all the winners and finalists – not only for your accomplishments as touched on tonight - but for being industry leaders, particularly in the challenging environment that we currently face due to the fires and Coronavirus, and most importantly for putting all that Australia has to offer on the world stage.”

The City of Swan looks forward to continuing to provide the very best in visitor servicing and tourism into the future.

A

ustralian men with prostate cancer and their families in Pearce will benefit from an expansion of the Australian Government’s Prostate Cancer Nurses Program.

Federal Member for Pearce Christian Porter said the Government is investing $23 million in the program through the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia over the next three years to support existing prostate cancer nurses and place specialist nurses in over forty new locations.

“Prostate cancer is estimated to be the second most common cause of cancer deaths in Australian men in 2020, with an estimated 3,152 deaths,” Mr Porter said.

“Sadly, more than 16,700 Australian men are expected to be diagnosed with prostate cancer this year. “Since 2013, this program has funded the recruitment, training and placement of prostate cancer nurses in twenty-nine locations across the country.”

Mr Porter said the funding will include the employment of prostate cancer nurse services in Pearce.

“I welcome the announcement by the Minister for Health, Greg Hunt, that the Government will invest $23 million over the next three years, so prostate cancer nurses can be placed at health services and cancer services in Pearce,” Mr Porter said.

“So many Australian men and their families have had their lives turned upside down by prostate cancer, so I’m very pleased they will have the support of these specialised nurses now and into the future.

“This funding sends a message to men with prostate cancer that they do not have to face this terrible disease alone.”

The Government is committed to improving health outcomes for men with prostate cancer and provides significant investment through provision of specialised nurses, medical services though the Medicare Benefits Scheme and pharmaceuticals through the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.

SWAN VALLEY WAGON TOURS

Enquires and bookings: 0412 917 496 wagons@swanvalleywa.com www.swanvalleywa.com 63

64

COMMUNITY

THE ANTI-QUEEN AGENDA PHILIP BENWELL

S

outh Australian Greens MP, Mark Parnell, is concentrating, not on helping struggling families and businesses to survive through the current tough economic times in the State he is supposed to care for but has declared his priority to be an antiQueen agenda.

Mr Parnell plans to retire from the South Australian parliament, but before he goes, proposes to table a motion to abolish the Oath of Allegiance to the Queen for members of the parliament, judges, police and other officers of the Crown (InDaily 1/7/20).

In a similar manner to the cultural Marxist mob wanting to tear down statues representing Australia’s historical past, this MP seems intent on tearing down Australia’s system of constitutional monarchy by eroding our national symbols and promoting republicanism by stealth, even though the last time the people voted on constitutional change, they vehemently rejected a republic. What next does he and his cohorts have within their sights - the Australian flag?

Australia’s constitutional monarchy has, for over a hundred years, protected our democracy and, in so doing, has provided a way of life with continuity, safety, economic opportunity and family values. All this will be put into danger if Australia becomes a politicians’ republic

I am sure that the South Australian parliament has much better ways in which to spend their valuable time than pandering to constitutional vandalism.

Whilst the Australian Monarchist League has been active in promoting The Queen’s Covid and Easter messages, , the Republican Movement have also been busy, mainly criticising the Queen, the monarchy and the constitution but without ever telling us how the republic they propose will better the system of governance we currently enjoy.

We shouldn’t forget that politicians will come and go, recently more frequently than before, but the Crown remains as a permanent protector of our Constitution and democracy.

One such example is their new advertisement which, like most republican promotions, is both inflammatory and fundamentally wrong. It states

persons of other faiths in that office in the future. Therefore, the advertisement, like most of their propaganda, is actually promoting misinformation.

Whilst it is true that the monarch must be of the Church of England, because that is the state religion of England; in Australia, we have freedom of religion which is guaranteed by the constitution and by the Queen.

Many Catholics, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Atheists and others value the freedom of worship they enjoy under the Crown, whether in the United Kingdom or in Australia or in other realms.

The republicans are becoming more and more divisive and perhaps desperate to gain attention. It is for this reason that we do not publicly engage with them but prefer to ignore their rantings. We are, however, writing to let you know that we are on top of these manoeuvrings and are ready to act without delay, as we did when the ABC, at first, refused to broadcast the Queens message.

“Are you: Catholic?, Muslim?, Jewish?, Buddhist?, Atheist?

You’re banned from being Australia’s head of state (it’s only for those of the Church of England) why are you putting up with discrimination?”

As we all know, upon appointment, the Governor-General becomes executive head of state and any Australian can aspire to that role whatever their race or religion.

We have had so far, Jewish, Catholic and atheist GovernorsGeneral/heads of state and the likelihood is that we will have

Her Majesty, the Queen of Australia (Photograph Courtesy the House of Lords) 65

PHOTOS: SARAH’S FURTOGRAPHY & JENNIFER WILDEY, SHUTTER PAWS

#AdoptLove

The big thank you “Anything is possible when you have the right people to support you” -Misty Copeland Since its inception in 2003 SAFE Inc volunteers across our 11 branches have worked tirelessly to save and adopt over 26,000 animals. From all of us at SAFE Inc we want to thank you for your support over the years, by enabling us each month to spread our message. It is only through people like yourselves that we can successfully find loving homes for our animals.

From Sue Hedley OAM & SAFE Inc Founder “I would sincerely like to thank Douglas and his “baby” Swan Magazine for their support of SAFE throughout most of SAFE’s existence. I have wonderful memories of Douglas in SAFE’s early days of him being so willing and accommodating to support homeless animals through stories to advertise them in his popular and well-read magazine.

“You can’t make old friends” hearing these words from Kenny Roger’s song makes me think of the relationship that we have had for so many years.

Even though in animals lives I espouse quality over longevity I also acknowledge the depth where there has been an ongoing connection.

I trust Douglas will enjoy a fulfilling lifestyle away from the pressures of work in the media!

Heartfelt gratitude to Douglas and his team for many years of life saving support”.

Saving Animals From Euthanasia Inc (SAFE) is an animal rescue organisation that has saved and rehomed more than 26,000 homeless animals since its beginnings in 2003. It has grown to be WA’s largest volunteer-based animal rehoming organisation using foster care instead of cages. SAFE has 12 branches state-wide. In 2018 it was the national winner “Outstanding Rescue Group” in the Jetpets Companion Animal Rescue Awards. SAFE is the Western Australian arm of Animal Welfare League Australia (AWLA).

FOSTER CARE means animals live the lives of normal pets, with no time limits, being loved in their place of care, and socialised in the home and community. Their carers’ knowledge of how they respond to different situations means SAFE can make a great match.

Would you like to help animals on their journey to a new life? To become a foster carer, the first step is to contact our SAFE Avon Valley branch on 0409 000 259 or our Perth-based branch, SAFE Metro on 0475 346 545 or 0448 893 033.

VOLUNTEER: https://safe.org.au/volunteer/

DONATE: https://safe.org.au/donate 66

ADOPT: https://safe.org.au/find-a-pet/

COMMUNITY Compassionate Friends of Western Australia strives Tthathetochild’s support families who have lost a child, regardless of age throughout WA.

We are a non-profit, non-government funded charity that provide peer call support, group meetings, a drop in centre, sending out quarterly newsletters, Anniversary Cards, we hold Walk of remembrance and a candlelight service (non-religious) at Christmas.

We are run by volunteers and bereaved parents that are further along in their grief and wish to help others who have suffered this tragedy.

Although everybody’s grief is different it helps to talk to someone who has actually had this tragedy happen to them.

They WON”T say “I know how you feel” as no one can, but they will say “I don’t know exactly what you are feeling but this is how I felt when my child died”.

We raise funds by holding events, charity drives and donation from our members and outside bodies.

Although this is fantastic, we still struggle with the cost of keeping our doors open so any suggestion on fundraising or donations are gratefully accepted.

events along with peer support volunteers (bereaved parents) for telephone support and group meeting facilitation.

WALK OF REMEMBRANCE HELD IN MARCH EACH YEAR Events like these above give the bereaved some hope of a life after the death of their child. They connect with others that have been through the same tragic experience.

In doing so its helps them to feel that they are not alone in their grief, that there is a worldwide connection to other suffering the same.

DONATIONS Donations allow us to purchase stamps so we can send our booklets and other information to the newly bereaved, community groups, doctors surgeries and hospital throughout Western Australia.

They help us cover advertising cost in newspapers throughout Western Australia, pay for our office and utilities allowing us to have Peer Support Workers come in and contact to bereaved that wish to have contact.

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED We are always looking for volunteers to help man Sausage Sizzles, Charity Shopping Centre Drives and other

54 Simpson Street, Ardross 6107 6257

67

The Compassionate Friends of WA Inc. receives no Government funding in any way.

Concluded from page 29 ...

Holster flaps were snapped and a couple of nervous laughs floated across the lawn to where the President stood looking out his window.

When Mayor Brown was ushered back into the Oval Office, the President fixed him a stiff bourbon and ginger. “By golly, Wash, that was the best performance I’ve seen since George C Scott refused the Oscar. Where’d you learn to talk so Southern? I thought you were from Philly originally.”

“Not to brag, but I played Porgy in our high school graduation show,” said the mayor, pulling out a large handkerchief and blotting his forehead. “Glory, but I wouldn’t want to do that again in a hurry. Hope I don’t have to, but I have an uneasy feeling about that ‘other data’ Miss Devore flicked aside so coolly before I went out there.” He took a long swallow of the drink.

“I won’t lie to you, Wash, we do have some disturbing figures, but so far it’s just that, preliminary data that we’ve got a bunch of eggheads working on to see what it means. We aren’t sharing the information around widely for the very reason that we don’t yet know what it means and you know what folks are like--look what happened from just a rumour that had no basis at all. Imagine what would happen if--but let’s not think about that. You’ll be told what’s what as soon as we know exactly what what’s what is, if that makes any sense at all.”

The mayor smiled. “Yeah, I get the drift. Need to know stuff: don’t spread it any wider than you have to. Makes sense. Well, this was nice, but I’m sure there’s a couple of bushel baskets of message slips stacked up on my desk. Keep me posted. You

coming, Chief?

“We have some forward planning to do, I think.” He turned to go, looked back at DeVore and said, “You better hope nobody in the crowd goes out and does the numbers. Won’t take much for someone to figure out that total numbers dead isn’t the important thing, it’s the numbers compared to the proportion of the population that’s black or white.”

The mayor and his Chief of Police left the Oval Office. After the door shut, the President said “That man’s nobody’s fool. He’ll be drawing up contingency plans for half a dozen scenarios.”

“That’s good; let’s hope he draws up one for the most obvious contingency,” said Wilton, whose voice was improving under the application of another bourbon and lemon.

“What’s that?” asked Devore.

“How to dispose of the bodies when the morgues and funeral homes can’t cope.” Wilton swallowed the last of his drink and said, “With your permission, sir, I will take some time off now.”

“Sure, do that. I might grab a nap myself, best to get what we can while we can, because I don’t see this crisis easing in a hurry. Let’s hope those scientists come up with something soon.

And let’s hope it’s good.”

There was a long moment of silence; then the occupants of the Oval Office slipped off one by one, leaving the President staring out the window. Nobody could think of any words of comfort that wouldn’t sound hollow, so none of them said anything except ‘goodbye’.

The president kicked off his loafers and lay on the chintzcovered couch. If only he could look forward to waking up to a solution to this unspeakable horror. He closed his eyes.

Outside his door a tall Secret Service man stood, legs spread, right hand inside his jacket. He peeked in the fish-eye lens to be sure the President was alone and safe. Satisfied all was in order, he thought about his coming vacation. Bermuda or Aspen, which would be more fun?

In the Oval Office the President wasn’t alone, but his companion was invisible and silent. ~oOo~ To be continued ... elsewhere

If you have enjoyed this sample of The Autumn Plague, and would like to purchase your own kindle copy go to www.Amazon. com.

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