Stillwater Creek (34 page)

‘Things happen to kids,' Peter said, ‘and they walk away from them and put them behind them.'

‘The ones that survive do,' she said.

Now she knew that Jingera wasn't quite the sanctuary she'd been looking for. It hadn't turned out to be a safe haven. Perhaps there was no such place and she would have to stop looking for it.

‘Zidra's a survivor, Ilona, and we'll look after her.'

She noted the plural and turned to look at him. Gazing at the ocean, he seemed tired and there were fine lines around his
eyes that she hadn't noticed before. The lines moved her deeply. They made him seem vulnerable. When she reached out to touch his cheek, he took her hand in his. It was warm and dry. Perhaps he was a safe place: she was going to find that out.

She also kept a watchful eye on Zidra, still standing with Jim above the line of the surf. They seemed sober, like middle-aged folk, but today almost everyone was subdued. Subdued by the heat; subdued by all that had gone wrong; subdued by the fire and then by the death of Mr Bates. As well, the knowledge that Bates was a paedophile was probably even now beginning to circulate among the evacuees. Whether or not it would be believed was another matter.

Shortly she would go and get Zidra. But for the moment she stayed where she was, watching the waves and the dense smoke that was very slowly dispersing.

Now she noticed that Zidra had begun to push at Jim and they were flicking water at one another. She is a little better now, Ilona thought. For a moment, she has forgotten her troubles, but she will need to be closely observed.

Peter said, ‘I came to see you today. That's why I was in Jingera. I wanted to ask you if you'd like to come out to look at Ferndale.'

‘I should love to see Ferndale,' she said gently. ‘It sounds very beautiful, from what you have told me. Although on no account am I to swim in the sea on your beach.'

He laughed.

‘Perhaps you will show us how to care for Joey who has lost his mother. A big loss. So many will have lost so much today.'

‘But the town is saved and the bridge is still standing. The fires moved around Jingera without affecting any of the buildings except the pub. Incredibly lucky, but the power will be out for a day or so and the roads to the south are still shut.'

‘How is your farm?'

‘Seems as if the fire didn't get that far north. I'll be driving back this evening, I hope.'

‘Perhaps you would like to have something to eat with us first. If we can go back home tonight. It is too far for you to drive without first having the meal of the evening, and you can show Zidra how to feed Joey.'

‘You could do with a baby's bottle. The Burtons might have a spare. Or if they don't, an old eye-dropper might do.'

Together they watched the waves slowly advance up the beach. ‘It's coming,' Peter said after some minutes.

‘What is?'

‘The southerly change. You'll feel it any minute.'

‘How do you know?'

‘Instinct.' Smiling at her expression of disbelief, he pointed south. An army of purple and black clouds was advancing north, driving in front of it the pall of smoke. Then the wind hit them, a blast of cool air. ‘What did I tell you?'

‘The southerly change.'

‘It will pour in a few minutes. That will put out the last of the fires.'

The temperature dropped so rapidly she started to shiver and hugged Joey to her. All over the beach people began to cheer. Zidra and Jim ran up the sand. ‘I'll take Joey,' Zidra said. ‘Jim and I'll look after him. Jim said his mother has a bag we can put him in.'

Ilona handed over the little creature, still sleeping in the towel. As the children hurried along the beach to find George and Eileen, she felt the first heavy drops of rain on her bare arms and face.

‘It's over,' Peter said. ‘And now for some wonderful, wonderful rain.'

Warm thanks to Peter Bishop, Catherine Blyth, Karen Colston, Beverley Cousins, Chris Kunz, Sara Maitland, Kathy Mossop and Lyn Tranter for their many helpful suggestions, and to the staff at RHA. I am especially grateful to Maggie Hamand and Kirsten Tranter for their perceptive comments about the structure of the manuscript. Part of the book was written while I was on a Varuna Long-lines Fellowship, awarded by the Eleanor Dark Foundation.

Background reading came from the book by Mark McKenna (2002),
Looking for Blackfellas' Point: An Australian History of Place,
Sydney: UNSW Press, as well as from the Australian War Memorial research website for the history of Australian pilots' involvement in the Second World War.

One of the great strengths of the novel is the powerful description of the landscape, and the impact that it has on the principal characters. What does the township of Jingera represent to each of the main characters in the novel?

Each views the town differently. For Ilona, it's the last refuge, and somewhere to eke out her dwindling savings and earn a living. For Peter, it's somewhere to surf, drink a few beers at the local hotel and then escape, when he is fed up with people, back to his isolated property. For Zidra, the town is a mixture of freedom and exposure to prejudice, but it allows her to form an important new friendship with the Aboriginal girl Lorna. For Jim, Jingera also offers freedom to run wild in the bush and on the beach, but it is also somewhere from which he must get away if he is to develop. For Cherry, the town has brought her happiness through an illicit love affair that can only flourish if she leaves. For George, the town and its environs are his love and his livelihood. He represents the goodness of small-town life.

 

Jingera seems almost like a character in its own right. Did you intend this to happen and is Jingera based on a real place?

Jingera is a fictitious town, although there are many small townships on the southern coast of New South Wales to which it could be related. The book is about the arrival of a new family into this apparently peaceful coastal town, and how this triggers a series of events that profoundly affect the lives of many of the people living there.

While originally Jingera was intended simply to be the setting of the novel, it developed a life of its own. Each character responds differently to the distinct beauty of the place, and the story also explores how the relationship to the land and other aspects of the natural world can heal and sustain the spirit of some of the characters. One example is George and his stargazing, another is Peter and his relationship to the land.

 

The novel is set in 1957. Does the choice of year matter to the narrative and, if so, why?

I chose 1957 because I wanted a time period in which child pornography and abuse were not on the social radar, and in which part-Aboriginal children were being taken from their parents by a paternalistic regime. In part this was because I wanted to focus on the moral dilemma arising when a woman discovers her husband has a collection of child pornography, and this raises her suspicions that he might engage in paedophile acts. The additional moral dilemma is about forcibly removing children from their families. Both are closely linked in the novel, not only because each concerns the rights of children but also because the removal of the Aboriginal girl Lorna makes it possible for her close friend Zidra to become threatened by the paedophile.

An additional reason for choosing 1957 was that some of the adult characters were still bearing the scars of the war and the enormous upheaval it caused in peoples' lives. This made it easy to compare the lives of immigrants with Aborigines, both of whom were on the fringes of society. While this could of course be done in the present time, because we are still a society in which both Aborigines and asylum-seekers might be thought of as fringe dwellers, I wanted to tell the story historically. I really like the long view that an historical setting affords. In part this is because the broader events are better understood, at least to my mind, when they are in the past than in the present.

 

One of the main themes in the novel seems to be the human flaw of prejudice. How does the paedophilia relate to this prejudice?

That's a good question. The police officer's prejudice means that he doesn't see Aboriginal people as human beings. Prejudice is also there in the reduction of people to names – wogs, dagoes, reffoes, and Abos – and most evil of all, tattooed numbers – that downgrade their humanity. But the way people feel about paedophiles is not a form of prejudice like racism. Judgement of paedophiles is based on the unjust action, and not on the person's status or skin colour.

 

Another great strength of the novel is its profoundly humanistic vision and the tenderness with which the characters are portrayed. Are any of them based on real life?

No. They bear no resemblance to anyone I've met. They're entirely fictitious and turned up on the page unannounced. Some of them even brought friends, whom I turned away!

1. Music is extremely important to Ilona as a means of self expression. Does music serve any other purpose in
   Stillwater Creek
   ?
   
2. Discuss the importance of the scene of the two girls, Zidra and Lorna, borrowing George Cadwallader's boat, getting into difficulties and being rescued by Bill Bates. Do you consider this is a pivotal scene in the story?
   
3. Lorna's point of view is never explicitly given and yet she is a vital character. Why do you think the author chose not to present Lorna's point of view?
   
4. What role does the little green elephant play in the plot?
   
5. The novel is written from six different viewpoints. Did you want to hear from more of Jingera's townfolk? Who do you think gave you the most insight into the town, and why?
   
6. What are the obstacles that each of these six characters must overcome?
   
7. In what way does the Christmas Dance develop the narrative?
   
8. Discuss how each of the characters have changed by the end of the novel.