by Sarah Hay
‘Wow, this is amazing,’ said Laura.
‘It covers a lot of country,’ said Susannah.
She turned off the engine. It was impressive, perhaps because it was so unexpected. The way you came upon it; it was like a great secret suddenly revealed, although what you saw was only the surface and there was no indication of depth. She looked over her shoulder. Both boys had fallen asleep. She wound down the windows and the hot thick air enveloped them. Above the water lightning sparked in sheets and the occasional spear of light shot from a ridge of dark cloud. Ollie started to moan.
He complained of the heat and it woke Ned. Susannah turned the engine on again.
‘We could get an ice cream.’
Susannah drove on to a building beside a caravan park. A woman was locking the door of the kiosk.
Susannah turned to Laura. ‘We better get going. It looks like it’s going to rain.’
Water splattered the windscreen in big drops and the wipers worked to remove them intermittently. The country was fading in the grey light. Trees were dark, irregular shapes that twisted out of the landscape. Laura seemed deep in thought. Perhaps in her mind she had already left. The rain was getting heavier and Susannah slowed down to negotiate the slippery wet road.
Suddenly it became cooler and easier to breathe. The boys were chatting quietly to themselves.
‘What will you do?’
Texas Susannah was startled by Laura’s question. She didn’t answer for a moment.
‘Things have changed a bit since you left.’ She glanced in the rear-vision mirror as though to check on the boys. ‘We’ve worked out a few things. I’m going to be more involved with what John’s doing. I don’t know whether I want to do any mustering but at least I get to know what’s going on and we’re getting someone to help look after the children.’
Perhaps none of it would have happened if Laura hadn’t worked on the place.
‘Really, I’m pleased for you,’ said Laura. ‘I thought you might leave.’
‘No,’ she smiled. ‘I’m not leaving.’
Acknowledgements
This story takes place in the Kimberley region of Western Australia and although some features of the country I describe may be familiar to some people, it was not my intention to locate it on any particular station. Nor is any character based on any person, living or dead. However, Irish’s yarn, which begins on page 38, was inspired by a true event that was told to Bruce Shaw by Jack Sullivan and recorded in Banggaiyerri: The Story of Jack Sullivan, pages 70–74. Another version of that story is referred to by John on page 78 and by Texas on page 174. Other accounts of the same event involving a pastoralist called Jack Kelly and an Aboriginal man named Major who lived in the East Kimberley in the early 1900s are found in the same Bruce Shaw publication, pages 215–219, and in Mary Durack’s Sons in the Saddle, pages 195–197.
In most cases I have attempted to reproduce the idiosyncratic use of language in that area from my own experience in the Kimberley as a jillaroo and journalist, but I have also consulted Bruce Shaw’s Banggaiyerri: The Story of Jack Sullivan. I am grateful to Kevin Shaw for sharing with me his knowledge of the Kimberley and the terms ‘fifty-fifty’, page 168; ‘Toyota and footwalking road’, page 213; and the story of the ‘frontier men’, page 224.
Chapter titles are taken from the titles of Westerns published by Cleveland Publishing Company, Brookvale, NSW, with the exception of Men fell prey to her angel eyes and her killing ways, which was the title of a WB Longley Western, Paperjacks, Toronto, Canada. I am also grateful to Cleveland Publishing for permission to use the following extracts. The extract on page 9 is from page 7 of Violent Sundown by Kirk Hamilton, Cleveland Publishing, and the extract on page 193 is from page 97 of Red River Crossing by Brett Iverson, Cleveland Publishing. The Western Susannah reads on pages 225–229 is an abridged version of By Sundown by Ben Jefferson, Cleveland Publishing.
Lyrics from ‘God bless Robert E Lee’ by Borchers & Vickery on page 206, published by Sony/ATV Music Publishing, are used with permission by Sony/ATV Music Publishing (Australia) Pty Limited.
The reference to a cookbook on page 107 and the recipe on page 113 are from The CWA Cookery Book and Household Hints, 1936, King Street, Perth.
Texas This book was written in part during two residencies, one at the University of Western Australia through the Westerly Centre and the other at Varuna, The Writers House, through the CAL Second Book Project.
I would like to thank the many people who made this book possible. They are Janine Milne, Wendy and Dave Thornbury, Gemma and Jamie Laurisson, Kevin Shaw, Alasdair Cooke, Pete Harold, Ash Bosworth, Helen Renshaw, Antonia Wise and Peter Bishop. I also thank those who had a direct involvement in the developing manuscript: my family including Jamie Venerys, Ian and Jan Hay, Lisa Revelins, Robert Purdew and Nancy Hay; Brenda Walker who has offered advice and encouragement throughout the project; and the very professional team at Allen & Unwin, in particular Annette Barlow, Catherine Milne, Clara Finlay and Julia Stiles.
