Icefall

by Hallowes, Guy

  It was David's turn to be surprised. 'Six years?'

  She nodded. And, much to his surprise, she held his hand. 'We had so much and then you went and destroyed it all. I understand the logic, but I am not engaged in it and never will be.'

  'If you understand the science surely you realise we couldn't have done anything differently.'

  'None of my friends are taking any notice of this threat. I think we will have sacrificed the last fifteen or twenty years of our lives, all for nothing.'

  'The threat is absolutely real, I promise you that. Look at Tanya and Mark. They are smart and wealthy. Would they have made all the sacrifices they have made if they didn't truly believe they had to do so. She and Mark could easily have ignored me and done all the things the very wealthy do, like swanning round the world on luxury trips, buying fancy homes in Italy, and engaging in the high life of Sydney. Instead, their Mosman home is mortgaged to the hilt and all the funds have been invested here. They spend every spare minute here, despite their very busy lives. All our children, except Evan, believe in what we are doing. Jonathan has even convinced the military that our premise is correct, so they are likely to be the only government institution that will survive. Derain's tribe arrived at the same conclusions, completely independently.'

  Chloe looked contemptuous at this last remark, 'I'm not giving up my life in Sydney, not for anything. This is your dream, not mine. And don't think Mark is totally onside with the science, he's not.'

  David looked at her sharply. He had realised Mark had his doubts, but any withdrawal of his support would be another threat to The Settlement.

  'What do you expect me to do?'

  'We will carry on as we have been. If, and it's a very big if, your conclusions are correct, I will then make a decision to either come back here or drown with the rest of them.' She hesitated, 'I know about Caroline by the way.' She burst into tears and ran out of the room.

  Chloe contemplated leaving The Settlement altogether and discussed it with Tanya. It was an anxious moment for Tanya as Chloe's decision might threaten The Settlement, but she kept her cool.

  'Now that you both know about the other's lover, you really have the best of both worlds. There is now no reason why you can't spend as much time as you like in Sydney. If you left, it would put pressure on your lover to create something more permanent, which might destroy the relationship altogether. Then where would you be? Remember, you have many friends and much support here as well.' Tanya said nothing about the effect Chloe's departure would have on the financial affairs of The Settlement, especially if she wanted to be paid out for her share. She never said a word to David about the conversation and Chloe never raised the point again.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Bushfires

  Derain took his bush craft training duties for The Academy personnel very seriously indeed. Every member of The Academy, including Mark and Tanya, spent up to a week at a time in the bush with him and a colleague. They came away with some understanding of the wildlife and how to deal with them, to hunt them if needed, as well as the food that was available, in the form of berries and roots. Most importantly, they were shown how to navigate their way through the bush, which to the untrained eye looked very similar from one place to another.

  After two years of induction, Derain said to the often impatient Mark, 'Now we can put them to the test, each pair can go out with one of my people who will leave them in a certain place. They must find way back here by self. First test will be only one day walk from here. If no one get lost, then we can try two days walk and then three days.'

  'And if they become lost?'

  'We check. If really lost we help.'

  'What about doing this on horseback?' asked Mark.

  'People must learn to look after self first. If that okay, then they can learn look after horse and self in bush. This not easy.'

  The first exercise was completed without any major mishaps. Tanya was accompanied by her eighteen year old niece, Kim. Both Tanya and Kim were very competitive and were determined to be the first of the forty groups to return.

  Their Aboriginal guide left them at dusk. Camp was set up carefully. Tanya cleared an area for the two man tent knowing snakes would avoid open spaces, 'We'll leave a log burning overnight to keep dingoes away,' volunteered Kim.

  'Any spare food should be hung up in a tree,' said Tanya.

  Having struck camp and making sure they had left no trace of their presence, with Kim leading, they walked steadily back towards The Settlement, heading for the western gate. They had both made mental notes of the various landmarks on the way—a rock here, a tall tree there, a small glade. At one point they were in doubt as to which way to go and Tanya took the lead.

  After about an hour Tanya said, 'This is wrong, my mistake, we need to go back.'

  Arriving at the spot where they went wrong, Tanya said, 'Kim, you lead now, but if we are still to be first we need to get a move on, I've wasted two hours.'

  Just before dusk they arrived at the western gate, manned by one of the older settlers who said, 'Mark was first. They came through about twenty minutes ago, but you are second.'

  'Damn, if we hadn't made that diversion we would have arrived first,' said Tanya. In her heart of hearts she was relieved as she didn't want to keep beating Mark at his own game. All except one group returned within two hours of Kim and Tanya. The last group was eventually escorted into The Settlement by their Aboriginal guide at midnight.

  'They walk wrong way, did not look at sun,' Derain explained to Mark the next day.

  Mark didn't skite, but she could sense the relief in him that she had not beaten him home.

  Derain was a regular visitor and had established a strong relationship with David. He had managed to learn some English. Sometimes he stayed for weeks on end and then he and whoever was with him would inexplicably disappear, to reappear again weeks or months later. The people in The Settlement became quite used to his visits and talked to him about the local wildlife and the weather.

  Within the community, there had been a few less than successful attempts at hunting kangaroos to supplement the meat supply. People often went out, but only bagged the occasional animal.

  David mentioned this to Derain, who said, 'I fix.'

  In time there were many in The Academy who became skilled kangaroo hunters, even in the thick forests of the Blue Mountains. The meat became a regular feature on many dining tables.

  David had offered to build him a cottage, but Derain preferred his humpy, claiming, 'Big house make us all ill.'

  One day, a woman came screaming out of her home yelling, 'Snake, snake.'

  Derain calmly went into the house with a sturdy stick and emerged carrying the live snake on the stick. He released the terrified snake near the edge of the built-up area.

  Her husband, Dave, made to kill it with a spade.

  'No kill, no kill,' said Derain gently, restraining the man. 'Snake go away now, not return. 'I show you how to treat snakes.' He took Dave into the nearby bush for a day, picking up snakes on a stick, much as he had shown Chloe. Dave was soon able to lift the snakes quite competently. He became the snake expert, in Derain's absence, and removed any snakes that appeared.

  On another visit Derain sought David out. 'Big fire, this year.'

  'What do you mean by that?' asked David anxiously; he had noticed the surrounding bush drying out. While there had been occasional small fires, easily dealt with, since the early days, David knew that periodically the Australian bush caught fire in the most dramatic and spectacular fashion. After such an event, the bush naturally regenerated itself.

  'Very dry, big fires this year.'

  'Okay, is there anything we can do?'

  'Yes, start burn now before big summer heat.'

  'Where?'

  'I show you, first inside. Afterwards, maybe outside.'

  David understood that to mean they should arrange a controlled burn at the northern end of The Settlement, at least to start wit
h.

  David held a meeting in the community centre, persuading everyone they would burn the one thousand hectares of bush they had enclosed.

  Derain kept his interpreter nearby during the burn. 'Only start the burn after midday, the wind strength and direction is usually more settled in the afternoon,' she translated. 'The fire should be started with the wind behind the burn and there should be people behind the fire making sure it only burns in one direction. Then we must back burn towards the main fire. This means the fire will burn itself out.'

  They selected a small area first, to practise. With one hundred settlers assisting, they successfully burnt an area of about one hundred metres by one hundred metres. Each fire-fighter had a damp sack, with people detailed to maintain a water supply from the nearby settlement fire truck.

  On the next attempt, they chose a two hundred metre front and the aim was to burn to a depth of about one kilometre. This was done very successfully and by late afternoon the main burn and the back burn had met. As Derain had told them, the fires automatically extinguished themselves. People were left on duty to make sure all fires were indeed out and that no embers could escape into the unburnt areas.

  One of the more active members of the community, Gervais, approached David and said, 'We burnt about twenty hectares today; how many hectares in this section?'

  'About a thousand.'

  'So it will take us fifty days or so to complete the exercise. Don't we need to move more quickly than this? Our participation rate will drop off if it takes too long and then we might be in trouble.'

  So the next day they burnt an area with a front of five hundred metres and a depth of two kilometres. The wind was gentle and although the fire escaped several times there was no difficulty in containing it.

  'That's about one hundred hectares,' said Gervais. 'Much better. Maybe we could extend the area again tomorrow to finish the job quickly.'

  'Must watch wind,' said Derain. 'Too much wind then everything will burn, whoosh,' he waved his arms upwards, 'maybe some house too. Must respect fire, he very powerful.'

  'We seem to have coped very well up to now. Aren't we being too cautious?' remonstrated Gervais.

  'Better than burning people or houses,' said David.

  Gervais grunted dismissively. 'The bloody houses are three kilometres away!'

  'Fire jump many big distance,' said Derain heatedly, 'even right over village.'

  Gervais ignored him.

  The following day all one hundred firefighters gathered ready for the fray. Many had developed an unwarranted confidence from the little experience they now had and felt they could cope with anything. By midday, there was a steady and strengthening westerly breeze.

  Derain approached David. 'No burn today. Too much wind.'

  Amid some grumbling the burn was abandoned for that day and then the next. On the third day they were about to abandon the burn when Gervais said, 'This is nonsense, we agreed to controlled burns and I think we should just get on with it.'

  'No,' said David. 'The situation should be easier tomorrow, and rain is forecast in a few days. It will be safer then.'

  David returned to his office for a spell, then looked for Gervais to see if he could convince him they were doing the right thing.

  'He's not here,' said his wife when David knocked on the door of Gervais' cottage. 'He didn't return with the rest of the firefighters.'

  David was about to deal with other matters when he noticed a thin plume of smoke coming from the bushland area. He hesitated for a minute and then called Joe and several others. It was on occasions like this that he missed Fred. 'The stupid buggers have gone ahead and started a burn and the wind is getting up. We need some people here manning the hosepipes and keeping every house damp. The rest of us will go to the bushland area. Those people will shortly be in real trouble. How many of them are there?'

  'Less than a dozen.'

  David just shook his head.

  About eighty people accompanied David back to the bushland area. Others remained behind to look after the houses in the village. David asked the doctor, a nurse, and the ambulance to accompany them.

  'Wind change,' Derain observed, pointing. 'Those people will burn, we hurry.'

  When the party arrived they could see a large area was burning out of control. There was no sign of Gervais and the others. Derain had a quick word with David and then ran into the bush on his own.

  'We'll try a back burn from the area we have already burnt,' David instructed. The group spread out and lit the bush adjoining the already burnt out area. The heat was intense and two people had to be given first aid by the medical staff. There was no sign of Derain or Gervais.

  David could see they were making some progress in the area where they were established, but the fire had leapt to another area. He left forty people in the original back burn area and took another forty to start a further back burn to try and block the new threat.

  After several hours, David's team were exhausted. There was smoke everywhere, so visibility was down to a few metres. They had no idea whether they were making any kind of progress.

  Derain appeared through the smoke. 'Two die, two burn bad, others maybe okay,' he told David. Someone appeared with a water truck. 'All gone hospital,' Derain added. He then directed David to change the focus of their attack on the fire and the other forty people joined them. They spent the night there, upright and continuing to fight while people brought food from The Settlement.

  'Three houses burnt,' David was told.

  'Anyone hurt?'

  'No, I don't think so.'

  Towards morning Derain emerged out of the smoke, smiling. 'Rain come, one hour or two.'

  Within an hour, a heavy shower drenched all the firefighters and helped to put out the fires.

  Derain said to David, 'You go, leave ten people here.'

  David was greeted by a lot of very tired and disgruntled settlers when the firefighters returned to the village.

  They told him Derain had run into the bushland where Gervais and the others were being overwhelmed by the fire. He made them pick up the two dead bodies and led the group of ten out of the fire area.

  'We were trying to get away in the opposite direction. If it wasn't for him we would all be dead,' said one of the survivors.

  Three houses had been burnt by embers and one had completely burnt to the ground. David could see it was Gervais' own cottage.

  Divine retribution, he thought.

  Gervais was one of those being treated in the hospital. He had been burnt on his legs and hands, but would survive. One of the others died shortly after being admitted to the hospital. The rest would live, although one was badly disfigured and would need a wheelchair for the rest of his life.

  David asked the whole community to attend a meeting at the community centre. He stood on the small stage and waited for silence. His clothing was ragged and covered in burn marks, hair dishevelled, and face black with soot, much the same as most in the community.

  'The community has suffered a great shock over the past twenty-four hours. Some people have lost their lives, others have lost houses and other possessions, and we still have to complete the project to burn off the northern bush area. Our deepest sympathy goes out to all those who have suffered losses, particularly of loved ones. Please do not make assumptions about what happened. I have already asked one of the legal fraternity among us to conduct an enquiry which will be completed within a few days. We can then take action. Do not, I repeat, do not take any action individually. It will just make matters worse.'

  'It was that silly bugger Ger—'

  David interrupted sharply, 'Wait for the enquiry to be completed. We can then take action. The community will be kept informed.'

  'Will there be a court case like Fred's?'

  'It's conceivable, I don't know yet,' answered David patiently. He was determined not to prejudge the situation and not let anyone else make the same mistake.

  The enquiry report was publishe
d three days later in The Settlement newspaper. It found that Gervais and several others had deliberately ignored instructions from David and had endangered the whole community with their actions. The enquiry named all the people involved, including those that had died as a result of their own foolishness. As a footnote, it praised the role Derain had played to mitigate the disaster. Gervais and two others were still in hospital and would remain there for some weeks. Gervais' family were staying with friends in the community.

  David wondered what action should be taken. Tanya had been absent during the controlled burn, but said when consulted, 'This is almost as bad as the business with Fred. They did not mean deliberate harm, but there was considerable damage to the community through wilful disregard of instructions. If we take him to trial what sanctions can be imposed?'

  'We could expel him, indeed all of them, the same as Fred. We could impose some sort of community service. That's about all.'

  Many in the community expected Gervais and the others involved just to leave the community once they had been released from hospital. None of them did.

  The Settlement's second trial drew another large crowd. Many in the community were angry with Gervais and his friends and wanted them expelled. Everyone was astonished when Tanya appeared as the advocate for the defence.

  There were seven people in the dock. The prosecution opened by stating the offence and referring to the details of the enquiry. 'I will show that the actions of all the accused resulted in the deaths of three people plus considerable damage to the community. I am going to demand they be expelled from the community and forfeit all their assets in The Settlement.'

  Tanya asked if she could read out a statement signed by all the accused.

  The prosecution and defence were requested to approach the bench, where followed an animated, whispered conversation.

  Tanya then read out the following statement. 'We,' she read out all the names of the people involved, 'collectively recognise that we deliberately ignored instructions, that we caused the death of three people, and unnecessary damage to the community. We unreservedly apologise to the community for our actions and we submit ourselves to the mercy of this court, whose jurisdiction we accept.'