Chapter 26 - Return to the Desert
The day the paper published the story all the phones rang of their hooks, both at this newspaper and at the offices of every politician. Most were women though some men rang through to lend support too, and a few brave or stupid men tried to defend the indefensible.
But how could anyone say that it was anything but criminal for these three men to have deliberately plotted to rape fourteen and fifteen year old girls and to have continued this behaviour many times over at least ten years.
Lizzie’s was the first testimony but it was generally agreed that she was by no means their first victim; all were agreed that her testimony suggested prior events and a practised method. Then there was a known second case three years later and the last case, they knew of, barely two years ago, in this case involving a fourth man.
It enraged the public beyond belief that they had been denied the opportunity to see the men face trial by a legal technicality. By the end of the day a trading halt had been called on the shares on Newcastle Transport, with a fall of over 50% percent in the listed share price. With the expansion that the firm had done over the last two years, the share holding of Mr Martin Wallis was now reduced to less than 35%. So, with the desertion of support from all the other board members, his position was untenable along with that of his three friends. By the end of the day all had lost their jobs.
The general business opinion was that nothing could save the company now, it was over geared and its business revenues would collapse due to the level of outrage across wide sections of the community, leading to demands that no future contracts with this firm be entered into. There was a wide view that all shares in the company would be worthless by the end of the month and, as soon as trading resumed, a fire-sale was expected.
Then there were also suggestions of a new trial being launched. The DPP had given an undertaking to review all evidence again to see if new grounds or offences could be found for a further trial. In addition several further girls and women had come forward claiming a similar experience and there was widespread opinion that this would give the basis for further charges. Commentators speculated on civil damages claims being launched by the injured parties as well which was considered likely to bankrupt the three individuals and perhaps affect the company further.
All this largely passed Robbie and Lizzie by. They politely declined requests for interviews. Their representatives merely re-iterated that they stood by their stories and they would leave it for others to discuss what may follow.
Lizzie spent time with her mother, brother and close friends when not with Robbie or her children. Robbie swam in the harbour and walked along the Balmain streets relying on his largely unknown status to keep his freedom from being drawn in.
But the journalists were now beginning to hound the family, to stop outside the Balmain house in the hope for doorstop interviews, to try and snap photos of the children at play, or Lizzie through the window. Lizzie was pleased that justice had been served in this strange public way, but she had no desire to continue her celebrity status.
After four days, Robbie came home from a walk and said that today some people had connected him with the case and had taken to following him with cameras and trying to ask questions. He was polite and thanked them for their well-meaning concern. But it was all becoming a complete pain in the behind.
So they made a mutual decision that enough was enough, they would take the flight tomorrow which returned to Darwin and the connecting flight to Broome the following morning.
It left early in the morning. Before the journalists woke up they were gone in a taxi to the airport. The next day they came back to Broome, on a steamy hot day, feeling pleasure in freedom.
But even here some assiduous journalists followed. So they packed up their bus, a four wheel drive camper model, and drove to the desert, down past Halls Creek.
It was late in the evening when they came to this place, the place which Cathy called Sophie’s Place, on the rock ridge gazing out across endless desert dunes. The stars were out. A low half-moon hung in the mid-sky. The five of them stood together gazing in awe at the bright desert sky. This was their place; the desert had brought them home and now welcomed them back into its endless embrace.
About the Author
Graham Wilson lives in Sydney Australia. He has completed and published nine books, including three in this Old Balmain House Series.
His first novel in this series, tells the story of a small girl who went missing 100 years ago with her best friend and was never found, leaving a trail of grief down through generations until the finally her story is discovered. It is based in the real Balmain, an early inner Sydney suburb, with its real locations and historical events providing part of the story background. This second novel in this series, ‘Lizzie's Tale’ builds on "The Old Balmain House" setting, It is the story of a working class teenage girl who lives in this same house in the 1950s and 1960s, It tells of how she becomes pregnant she is determined not to surrender her baby for adoption, and her struggle to survive. The series concludes with the book ‘Devils Choice’ which follows the life of Lizzie’s daughter Catherine and the awful choice she too must make through confronting her mother’s rapists.
Graham has also written five novels in the Crocodile Spirit Dreaming Series. The first novel ‘An English Visitor’ tells the story of an English backpacker, Susan, who visits the Northern Territory and becomes captivated and in great danger from a man who loves crocodiles. The second book in the series, ‘Creature of an Ancient Dreaming’, follows the consequences of the first book based around the discovery of this man's remains and the main character being placed on trial for murder. The third book, ‘The Empty Place’, is about the struggle of the main character to retain her sanity in jail while her family and friends desperately try to find out what really happened on that fateful day before it is too late. Book 4, ‘Lost Girls’ is the story of four missing backpackers whose lives are revealed in this man’s diary. It is also the story of the search for the main character who has vanished too. Book 5, ‘Sunlit Shadow Dance’ concludes the series and begins with a girl who appears in a remote aboriginal community with no memory and how she rebuilds her life but alongside this come dark shadows that threaten to overwhelm her.
Graham has also written a family memoir "Children of Arnhem's Kaleidoscope." It tells of his childhood in an aboriginal community in remote Arnhem Land, in Australia's Northern Territory, one of its last frontiers. It tells of the people, danger and beauty of this place, and of its transformation over the last half century with the coming of aboriginal rights and the discovery or uranium. It also tells of his surviving an attack by a large crocodile.
In his non writing life he is a veterinarian who has worked with zoo animals, on large cattle stations and in national parks.
More information about Graham and his books and writing is available from the following sites:
Graham Wilson – Australian Author on Facebook
Graham Wilson’s Publishing Web Page
www.beyondbeyondbooks.com.au
If you want to contact Graham directly please use the email:
[email protected]
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