Cockatoo

by Christopher Cummings

  Sarah looked and nodded and then pointed out another camp ground on the next cape south of Tinaroo. Tina looked and nodded, noting a dozen small sail boats milling about off the place. Brightly coloured tents dotted the open areas. “This lake is certainly busy during holidays,” she commented.

  They now crossed the widest part of the lake and Michael became quite anxious about the size of the waves. These were about a metre high and had been built up by the wind blowing along the southern arm. Until he commented Tina had not really noticed as she was so used to sailing and was at ease in much larger waves than that. She reassured him and when he saw how well the sail boat rode over the waves he became more relaxed.

  The crossing was about 2 kilometres of open water and took about ten minutes to sail. As they got closer to the cape Tina had to tell Sarah to make a couple of course corrections as she was aiming for the wrong point. It was clear to Tina that there were at least three points near the end and once again she was amazed at how indented the shoreline of the lake was. It was the sight of the bright orange canoe with three people standing on the bank beside it that gave them their destination. This was right on the tip of the peninsula.

  As the sail boat drew into the shore Tina was amazed to see that the Creswells were standing on a bitumen road that ran down into the lake. As Mr Creswell helped her out she pointed to it and said, “What’s this? Where does it go?”

  Mr Creswell grinned and pointed back across the lake. “Nowhere now. But before the dam was built it was the main road through the township of Danbulla. The town is under water. You must have sailed right over it.”

  Michael was even more fascinated by this idea so they stood and looked back at the rippling waves and discussed the drowning of a town to make a lake. He shook his head in disbelief and wonder. “So they just flooded a town,” he asked.

  “That’s right,” Mr Creswell agreed.

  “When?”

  “Back in the 1950s,” Mr Creswell replied.

  Sarah turned to her father. “Were there farms as well or was it all forest?”

  “Farms mostly and a bit of forest,” her father replied.

  “How could they!” Sarah cried.

  Mr Creswell shrugged. “The government decided that we needed water more than we needed one little town and a few farms I guess.”

  Sarah was even more horrified that governments could do such a thing; that they could just flood people’s homes and farms. Her father explained that there would have been compensation but she was not convinced. Nor was Tina. She tried to imagine what the buildings might be like now they had been submerged for so many years. For a few seconds she imagined being a diver swimming among the ruins but then she spooked herself by a fleeting memory of that grasping hand.

  Mr Creswell said, “Never mind. What is done is done. And you enjoy sailing on the lake so it’s not all bad. Anyway, I brought you here to see if you like it as a campsite. It is an island.”

  “An island!” Sarah cried, turning to look around.

  Tina did likewise and she saw it was true. The road ran up over a gentle rise but a hundred paces further along it dipped down into water again, only to re-appear another fifty paces away. The road then curved out of sight into open savannah woodland and long blady grass. The island was fairly clear of undergrowth and with a gentle slope into the water in all directions. There were a number of small sandy beaches. There whole thing was shaded by tall trees and she decided it was very pleasant.

  “This is a great spot. Andrew will love this,” she said.

  “How did you find it dad?” Sarah asked.

  “On a canoe trip with the Scouts when I was a boy,” Mr Creswell answered, gesturing towards Camp Barrabadeen which was clearly visible across the lake.

  Mr Creswell pointed along the road and held up his map. “This road connects with the Danbulla Forest Drive. We need to check it out as well to make sure you can get a safety vehicle in to here, just in case there is an accident or some emergency.”

  “Is it far? Sarah asked. That comment surprised Tina as even a glance at a map showed her it was quite a few kilometres.

  Mr Creswell did a quick count and said, “About seven kilometres each way.”

  “That won’t take long to drive,” Sarah said.

  Mr Creswell shook his head. “No can do. There’s a locked gate and I haven’t done the paperwork to get a permit. We will have to walk.”

  “Could we walk that this afternoon?” Tina asked.

  “Maybe. We will see how we feel when we get back to camp,” Mr Creswell answered. “Now, let’s check the place out.”

  They explored the island in a few minutes and it was decided that it had to be one of the campsites for the expedition. The thought of camping there made Tina keen to do the trip and she felt much easier as they set out on the return journey.

  It took an hour to return to the camp at Fongon Bay. This time the sailboat was able to scoot back and forth on fast reaches. This allowed them to pace the canoe but still have some sailing fun. It was only 11:00 O’clock when they returned so an early lunch was organized and then a discussion on whether they would do another expedition by boat, perhaps in the other direction, or go for the walk.

  “It will be a long walk,” Mr Creswell commented.

  “That’s alright Dad,” Sarah said. “We need to be fit for our expedition.”

  But Mrs Creswell said that she doubted that either she or young Aiden could walk that distance. At that Sarah said, “What if you only walk one way and we meet you with the canoe at our secret island? Then you could paddle back.”

  Mr Creswell nodded. “That sounds like a good idea, and if you want exercise for your expedition you and Tina can paddle the canoe there.”

  Going on the lake in a canoe was not what Tina wanted to do but she could think of no sensible thing to say to change the plan. So it was agreed and preparations begun. At 12:30 they set off. Mr and Mrs Creswell and Aiden went by vehicle to where the Python Road turned off the Danbulla Forest Drive while Tina, Sarah and Michael launched the canoe.

  As she climbed into the bow of the canoe Tina felt physically ill. She was gripped by an intense sensation of dread and kept trying to think up a reason to abandon the trip. But she could not think of one that would sound plausible. ‘They will think I am going crazy,’ she thought.

  Reluctantly she dug her paddle in and began paddling as Michael settled behind her. ‘We have to go,’ she told herself. ‘Mr and Mrs Creswell will think we have drowned if we don’t arrive at Python Point.’

  Fearing that might very well be the case she turned her head to look across the lake.

  CHAPTER 29

  UNEXPECTED DRAMA

  There was no problem on the way. It was only 4km and they covered this distance in an hour with no real effort. The course they took was straight across to the south shore of that arm of the lake and then westwards, cutting directly across the mouth of each bay from point to point. The waves were small and apart from the wash of a few passing powerboats they had no stability problems. Tina even began to relax and enjoy herself.

  It was only after they had rounded the most westerly point that her anxieties returned. First she stared across the lake at the town of Tinaroo and at where she knew the dam wall was. At that distance she could not see it but once again she remembered the dream and felt irrational fears about being drawn over the spillway by a mysterious current.

  But there was no mysterious current, just a few large waves as the canoe headed south across the half kilometre of open water to their secret island. About half way across Tina saw what she mentally called ‘The Secret Road’. It was a tiny strip of bitumen coming down to vanish in the lake a few hundred metres to her left.

  Pointing towards it she called over her shoulder, “There’s that old bitumen road again. Let’s go and have a look at it.”

  Sarah looked doubtful and said, “What if mum and dad are waiting at the point?”

  “We would be able to see
them,” Tina replied. “Besides, they won’t be there yet. They have to walk seven or eight kilometres and that will take a couple of hours. We’ve plenty of time.”

  Sarah agreed so they changed course and paddled south east across that arm of the lake to where the old road ran back into the water. As they got closer Tina began to doubt the wisdom of her request as she saw that the water in that bay looked black and stagnant and the shoreline was all lined with reeds and long grass. Once again she suffered images from her dream

  A sudden splash nearby made Tina cry out in fright and flinch. Sarah cried out as well, but happily. “Did you see that?” she said.

  “What?” Tina answered, her eyes scanning the water for signs of a grasping hand.

  “Huge fish! It must have been nearly half a metre long. It jumped right out of the water,” Sarah answered.

  Tina had trouble calming her racing heart and found she was trembling. She wanted to go back but again knew she would look silly if she came up with a lame excuse. So they paddled in and beached the canoe on the bitumen. Thankfully Tina climbed out and hauled the canoe higher, then walked a few metres away from the water and looked around.

  She saw that the old road went up a gentle rise and then curved to the right out of sight among savannah woodland and long blady grass. That matched what she had thought it would do.

  Sarah pointed to the side of the road. “Lots of people must land here. Look at all that rubbish.”

  Tina saw empty drink cans and bottles and a litter of picnic waste. It disgusted her and she wondered how people could be such irresponsible grubs. Michael pointed to wheel tracks in the grass beside the road.

  “Cars come here too,” he commented.

  The trio walked along the old road for a hundred metres or so and Tina noted the remains of several campfires and more rubbish. They found where a rough vehicle track, just two wheel ruts in long grass, came in on the left at the point where the road curved to the right. From there they could see right along to where the road dipped underwater again before re-emerging on their secret island.

  Michael then suggested seeing if they could paddle the canoe right around the secret island. But Tina did not want to get back in the canoe, again being seized by emotions she labelled premonitions but which she feared might just be ordinary funk. But this time several reasons occurred to her and she said, “You might have trouble getting through those trees there on the right. And this is a better place to wait. If we land on the island we will have to wade that bit of road and will get our shoes wet. Your parents have to come along this vehicle track. If we wait here we stay dry and so do they.”

  Michael wasn’t happy with that but Sarah saw the logic and agreed. So they stayed at the junction and waited. Tina took the opportunity to go along the other track out of sight to go to the toilet. But no sooner was she out of sight of the others than she regretted it. All around her was bush and she began to peer anxiously into it. As quickly as she could she finished relieving herself and then hurried back to join the others.

  Michael quickly became bored and went exploring and then began tossing sticks and small stones into the water. Tina sat and watched birds but there were none she hadn’t seen before and she kept wishing she would spot an unusual one. Her eyes became tired from peering through her binoculars. It was a relief when the Creswells appeared just after 3pm.

  Mr Creswell greeted them cheerfully and said, “It’s a nice walk but it will test you going back up some of the hills.”

  Mrs Creswell and Aiden were helped into the canoe and sent on their homeward journey. As soon as they were well out on the water the others began walking.

  It turned out to be a harder walk than Tina had expected. The first kilometre or so was mostly along a fairly level ridge but the track was just two wheel ruts in sandy soil amid dry scrub and weeds. It then curved left and went down a steep slope through a stand of very old, tall pines until it reached the shore of the lake again- or at least the thick belt of reeds and grass that fringed it. The road then went along beside the lake for a few hundred metres before turning uphill. At this point it became a proper graded road and entered jungle.

  For the next three kilometres the road continued uphill. In places it was so steep that Tina found herself puffing and falling behind. The road was mostly in good condition with a sandy surface but some parts were washed out and rutted and there was a fair litter of deadfall. In places where the sunlight was able to get through there was long grass growing along the sides and in the centre between the wheel tracks.

  It was on one of these sections that they had their first minor drama. Michael and his father were walking in front along the wheel tracks, Michael on the left when Mr Creswell suddenly sprang into the air. “Snake!” he yelled.

  Both he and Michael appeared to dance and jump back. Tina looked down as fear surged through her. Into her flustered gaze flitted an image of liquid black and a flash of red. Even as her mind registered the words ‘Red-bellied black snake’ the reptile slid between her legs. She shrieked in fright and tried to spring away. But she was so flustered and the snake so quick she could not work out which way to jump and ended up dancing up and down.

  “Oh! Oh! Where did it go?” she sobbed.

  Sarah had also jumped but was able to point over behind Tina. “There! It has gone into the jungle.”

  Tina was just able to focus her eyes in time to glimpse the snake’s tail vanishing into the leaf litter on the edge of the rain forest. She stopped dancing and stood trembling and sobbing.

  Mr Creswell and Michael both burst out laughing and that made Sarah angry as she had also burst into tears. “It’s not funny!” she shouted.

  “Yes it is,” Mr Creswell replied. “Nobody got bitten.”

  “I nearly stood on it!” cried Michael. He spread his hands wide apart and added, “It was this big!”

  Tina doubted that but did concede that it had been more than a metre long. ‘Certainly big enough to be deadly,’ she thought. Apparently it had been coiled up in the grass between the wheel ruts and had slid between Mr Creswell’s legs and then past Tina.

  Mr Creswell patted Sarah to calm her and then added, “I think the snake got a bigger fright than us.”

  “He did not!” Tina replied with conviction, her heart still hammering strongly.

  They continued on but much more cautiously where there was any long grass. Luckily this was not very often and Tina’s nerves were able to settle down. She was helped in this by the birds. A dozen times she saw scrub turkeys scuttling off into the undergrowth and once she heard a rifle bird. That brought to mind that magical moment on Mt Tiptree when she had seen the Victoria’s Riflebird raise its wings into the signature crescent shape before flitting away.

  And there were white cockatoos- hundreds of them- in big, noisy flocks. They began to cackle and screech long before the group reached the trees they were roosting in and kept up the hideous din until long after they had passed underneath. Tina got frequent glimpses of them but they did not really interest her- until the thought crossed her mind that there were lots of birds.

  ‘This would be a good place for those bird poachers to hang up their mist nets,’ she thought. With the idea came fear and she anxiously scanned the jungle on either side then the road ahead. She even began to get creepy feelings up her back and she several times looked fearfully back to check they weren’t being followed. She tried to tell herself she was being stupid and paranoid but it took quite a while before the fear subsided back to an almost subconscious gnawing sensation.

  She was helped in this by having to puff her way up several steep sections of road. The group passed a road junction going off to the right and at last came to the top of Python Hill. This was a relief but also a disappointment as the jungle was so dense that there was no view at all beyond the wall of vegetation.

  From there the road went downhill for a kilometre to another road junction, this time on the left. They continued on and started up another slope, th
e road littered with twigs and dead leaves. As she went up the slope Tina heard a bird somewhere ahead and looked up- only to walk into Mr Creswell who had suddenly stopped.

  “Wha.. what?” she gasped.

  “Another snake,” Mr Creswell replied.

  Tina’s heart again began to hammer and the adrenaline gushed but Mr Creswell spoke calmly and had Michael by the arm. With his other arm he pointed and Tina saw movement.

  “Only a little one,” Michael said in a disappointed tone.

  Then Tina was able to calm down and focus her eyes. As she did she was not sure if she should believe what she was seeing. It was another black snake and only about half a metre long and finger thin- but it had a blue underbelly.

  “It’s blue!” she said in surprise. She had seen both red-bellied and yellow-bellied black snakes but had never even heard of blue-bellied ones. But now there was one right in front of her and it was raised up in a warning posture and hissing at them.

  “It’s got a blue tongue too,” Sarah added.

  The snake was so small and far enough away not to be a direct threat so Tina got control of herself and thought to use her camera. She took several photos, moving around to get the light at the best angle to do so. The snake shifted position to face her as she did and then suddenly turned and slid away into the jungle.

  The group resumed walking, discussing the blue-bellied snake as they went. The conversation then shifted to another flock of white cockatoos that squarked at them from the tall trees beside the road. It was only after she had passed beside a half a dozen that the trees finally caught Tina’s attention.

  “What huge trees!” she said, pointing to a giant that was more than three metres in diameter. It was so tall she had to lean right back to look up. She marvelled at how tall and straight the trunk was and noted that there were no branches at all for about thirty metres. The tree was so tall it stuck up out of the main canopy of the rain forest.