The Right Place At The Right Time

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"The water was also teeming with aquatic birds, with swans, ducks, Teal, shags, divers and Pelicans; while the reeds and other cover, as well as the trees, which adorned the banks, revealed the Red-Bill, Nankeen birds and Water-hen. The White-headed Eagle, and the Oprey (the latter now very rarely seen) with many hundreds of cranes, some of them snow-white, were also often to be seen quietly perched in some neighbourin g trees, or fishing in the water. The water itself was literally swarming with fish of all kinds.

"Nor was this all, for the Blacks - then in considerable numbers - were often to be seen in their little bark canoes, moving slowly along which added considerably to the picturesqueness of the scene, usually one man in each canoe standing with a long slender pole in hand, plying it with alternative strokes on either side, his lubra, generally with her picaninny, squatting behind him before a little smouldering fire on the bottom of the canoe resting on a proctecting basement of clay, both of them with eyes intent upon the water, when if a shoal of fish was approaching, the man with catlike stealth and motions would, stooping and crouching, reach for his (usually) five pronged spear and, with eager eyes intent upon his prey, suddenly launch it.

"I must also speak of the countless flocks of beautiful parrots to be seen or heard in those days - constantly passing with a rush, or joyously screaming while busily engaged gathering honey from the flowers of the forest trees, the wedge-tailed eagle soaring far above us in the heavens...large flocks of pigeons in dense vine-draped bush, and at night thousands of flying foxes on the wing...the sparkle of innumerable fireflies, while the voice of the More-pork, the scream of the curlew, the screech of the possums, the howl of the dingoes, and the croaking of frogs in chorus, with at times the mirthful shouting of the poor Blacks heard from their distant camps - then unsuspicious and in happy ignorance of their future...."

Augustus Rudder, son of the first settler, Macleay Valley, NSW, Australia.

Well how did you explain that? The fires that leapt up along the coast? The alarm that spread rapidly through the indigenous people? First contact. That giant seabird bobbing off the coast. What did they think? They didn't think, there's a boy standing at the end of the street. They didn't think, this apartment's too expensive but I love it. They didn't think, the heat, the heat, where's it going to end, why watch him when there were so many others to watch, why prepare to be free when there were so many others in chains, why admire the journalist who got the last Pol Pot interview when he was drunk and in tears; the concern of all his colleagues, come be prepared, come walk with me, the shadows had disappeared like alarm bells ringing, jumbled images, if you've got one foot in the past and one foot in the future all you can do is piss on today. He laughed. I haven't heard that one before, he said, although he had heard many similar: yesterday's history, tomorrow's a mystery, all there is is today.

Well maybe it was true. It happened just as he had predicted. The minute he lashed out and bought a new laptop Ross showed up offering him his; a perfectly good laptop. Always handy to have two, he thought, after having none, going from poverty to wealth, from embarrassment to confidence, from long dreary nights when he could not sleep no matter what, and stalked the mists on Wilson Street, the water dripping through the trees and the darkened houses, scared, although there was nothing to be scared of but clapped out ice junkies who had been up all night and could barely put up a fight; travelling, travelling, through the circus towns and the flickering evil and the places where they could never be seen, through street vendors and flooded streets, through negotiated settlements and elegant restaurants. I used to be one of the owners of Studio 54, the man said, I partied with Madonna and all the rest of them, in giant houses amongst the rich, and nothing could convince me I had a problem with alcohol. If anybody had said anything, and they didn't dare, I would have just shrugged. So?

There were times when he could have been free. There were times when he was chained to that News Limited building as if there was no other life, as if the universe had centred here, the people he knew, the news they manufactured, the gripes as they smoked cigarettes on the roof, the tension as he filed and retrieved, the past as he knew it, the future as he dared to think, the times that offered no relief, the screens that had collapsed and not been replaced, so that everyting hit like a giant thumping hand and he quivered into the chequered carpet and could barely see his way clear to type another sentence, make another call, talk to anther chief of staff, be briefed on another story; in the cars heading west; holding hands in a place where no one held hands, content to be labelled eccentric; and the days passed and he grew into sometihng he had never wanted to be. Old.

The boy took photographs of them together and then got them processed and framed on the same day; and put them around the apartment. Boyfriend, he declared; and later, a little uncertain, you don't mind? He shook his head. No, he didn't mind, just surprised, that's all. No one had shown him such direct affection for a long time. Even the previous one, blind drunk and blaring dancing in the early dawn, Mr John Number One, was driven by greed and ease of manipulation and he shook his head in disbelief: who knew what would happen next. The times would suit him; that he could sense. Are you disappointed the 90-year-old paedophile didn't get a run, someone asked; and he shook his head. There'll be a landslide with a thousand dead or something else will happen, and I'll be in the middle of it, and that's fine. Life is short, disappointments are many, but brief, passing, like pain, like our days; temporary, fleeting, magnificent, short. Our triumphs are as shortlived as our failings; and he nustled up closer to an over-heated body, gasping for air; convinced, for once, he was in the right place at the right time.

THE BIGGER STORY:

www.heraldsun.com.au

PRIME Minister Julia Gillard is preparing to announce a more "effective" policy on asylum seekers this week, declaring she understands the concerns of people who see boats looming on the horizon.
"There's nothing humanitarian about people being on boats and potentially at risk of losing their lives at sea," she said in an exclusive interview with the Sunday Herald Sun.

In comments that appear to prepare the ground for a strong policy statement, Ms Gillard said people who were concerned about asylum seekers were not racist or intolerant and that political correctness should be "swept out of the way" in such sensitive national debates.

She also leapt to the defence of an arch-rival, former prime minister John Howard over his cricket controversy, saying he was "most certainly" not a racist.

Ms Gillard said she would oppose any attempt to close debate by labelling people concerned about border security as racist.

"I certainly dismiss labels like intolerant or racist because people raise concerns about border security, but we've also got to be very alive to the complexity of this, that there's no quick fix," she said.

"This is an area where we need to make sure the things we are doing are effective."

Ms Gillard said labelling someone intolerant was a "cheap shot" designed to marginalise people who were worried about border security.

She also said she did not think "people should be labelled as not caring about border security because they express a concern about kids in detention - I don't think the labelling helps".

The Opposition called on Ms Gillard to adopt a tough response on border security, arguing since Labor's election people smugglers had probably earned $25 million for illegally ferrying people here.

www.abc.com.au

Two Australian soldiers have been wounded in an attack by insurgents while on patrol in central Afghanistan.

The Defence Department says Australian and Afghan soldiers were out on patrol on Friday in Mirabad Valley in Uruzgan province when roadside bombs went off.

The soldiers then came under enemy fire.

Commanding officer of the task force, Lieutenant Colonel Mark Jennings, said the soldiers received immediate first-aid from their patrol mates and emergency trauma care at a multi-national base in Tarin Kowt.

"Both soldiers were well looked after by the medical team and are in a fair condition with minor wounds," Lieutenant Colonel Jennings said in a statement.

Two Afghan soldiers were also wounded.

Colonel Jennings says the soldiers had to be evacuated by an International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) helicopter.

Photograph: Peter Newman, taken on his recent bicycle trip through Laos.