Cockatoo

by Christopher Cummings

  Lt Hamilton led the way and the going was not as bad as Tina had feared. There was very little wait-a-while in this patch of rain forest and the ground was a gentle down slope. On reaching 400 paces Lt Hamilton showed the girls where to wait. “You are to put the costumes on when we call on the radio and then pretend you are badly hurt. One is to have an arrow stuck through them and the other has been hacked up by a tomahawk. Here are some bandages and fake blood. Don’t get it on the clothes please. And here is the arrow.”

  He handed over these items and then said to Carmen and Hayley, “You two are to come back with me and I will put you in hiding beside the road. When the company arrives you are to run out and ask for help to find your friends. The company will then do search patrols to find you and then we will do a First Aid and casualty evacuation drill. During that you will be carried out to the road on stretchers.”

  Stella looked very anxious. “But what if they don’t find us sir?”

  Lt Hamilton smiled. “Don’t worry. There will be a patrol every fifty paces. Even if they don’t see you, you will hear them and are to call out to attract their attention. And you have that radio if there are any problems and I will come immediately,” he explained.

  That satisfied Tina who was confident she could find her way out if she needed to. The others made their way back to the road and the two girls sat on their packs and waited. “We may as well make ourselves comfortable,” Tina said. “We have a couple of hours to wait.”

  The timings included an attack on the ‘French’ camp at 0930 and then there had to be briefings, roll checks and orders so it would be 1030 before the search patrols began. So both girls put up a shelter and then unrolled their groundsheets and sleeping bags under it. After changing into the costumes they sat or lay and talked. It was damp and gloomy in the jungle and Tina found it unpleasant and scary but she was glad of the training expeditions they had done.

  But that reminded her of the men with the mist nets and she began to imagine that they might be somewhere in this jungle so she started to look anxiously around whenever she heard an unusual noise- and to her most of the jungle noises were unusual. When she became aware of this she told herself to stop scaring herself by imagining things. Seeing a leech wriggling up Stella’s leg helped. Watching for them then took up much of their mental effort until the search exercise began. At the appointed time they put on their costumes. Then they waited.

  A patrol led by Stephen Bell found them and then they packed up and waited until the whole company had grouped there. The First Aid exercise and stretcher carry followed and Tina did not enjoy that she as she was scared of being dropped. But Major Wickham supervised this activity personally and there were always eight cadets carrying the stretcher so she made it safely out to the road.

  It was bright sunshine by then and Tina found the glare hard to take until her eyes adjusted. After the roll check she had lines to read to describe how she and her sister had fled the attack by the Indian war party. She also told them that their brother, a fur trapper, had seen French sailing boats on the big lake.

  After her act Tina and Stella were sent back along the road to change back into uniform. They then joined a group of Control Group cadets including all of the navy cadets at the rear of the company. At 1330hrs, after lunch, the company hoisted on their packs and began a route march. This hurt. Tina’s sore shoulder muscles and chafing at once began to bother her but she gritted her teeth and ignored it. It was now a lovely clear day, even though she could see dark rain clouds in the distance and she was determined to enjoy the exercise.

  ‘I wonder what will happen next?’ she thought.

  CHAPTER 42

  NAVAL SUPREMACY

  Tina walked along the muddy road, happy despite her aches and pains. She was now really enjoying the exercise and one of the aspects she liked most was not knowing what was going o happen next. ‘We have to get the cannon and the canoes to the lake and then set up the gun to bombard the French forts,’ she thought. But how was that going to be organized? A study of her map photocopy showed her that the nearest arm of Lake Tinaroo was about 5km away. ‘But we aren’t dragging the cannon or canoes,’ she thought.

  She had so entered into the spirit of the story that she thought they should be. ‘It isn’t right. We should be doing it as realistically as we can,’ she told herself. But she had to admit that they were all very tired and dirty and she knew she must stink from sweat. But 5km wasn’t that far. ‘We could march that in a couple of hours,’ she decided.

  But could she? After passing a gate where several safety vehicles were waiting they came out into open farm land on a fairly gentle ridge. The road went westwards through a small clump of trees and then down across a wide, grassy valley. About a kilometre away the road reached a wall of dense rainforest and that got her a bit concerned. In the distance Tina saw that there were still a mass of dark rain clouds but apart from a few light showers none fell on the company.

  After half an hour the company reached another gate at the edge of the jungle. By then Tina was really feeling the strain and wishing they could stop. She noted that the side road they were on now joined a bitumen road and her map informed her it was the Danbulla Forest Drive.

  ‘I know where I am now,’ she thought. ‘Only three kilometres to the lake.’

  But they didn’t go to the lake. The march was directed to the left around a bend past a farm house and there they found a coach and the truck parked beside the road. It took a few minutes for the truth to sink in.: They were not marching all the way but were to travel by vehicle! But where to?

  Their gear was loaded on the truck or in the bins under the coach and the cadets then checked aboard. Once the coach was full it set off and Tina was able to sit back and relax her trembling muscles. The coach went south along the winding Danbulla Drive through rolling farmland to the Gillies Highway where it turned right. It drove past Lake Barrine and then Lake Eacham and on across the rolling hills. As they went Tina got a good view of the country and of the distant mountains. She also got several glimpses of Lake Tinaroo off to her right. There was also more rain and she noted that the mountains on the far side of the Tablelands were being deluged by heavy rain.

  ‘That is the Herberton range,’ she mused. Vivid flashbacks to being chased by Danny at the New Dam caused her to shiver and she shook her head. ‘I hope those men have left the country,’ she told herself.

  Five minutes later the coach stopped in the main street of the small town of Yungaburra. To many of the cadets the place was a novelty but Tina had been there too many times to be interested. The cadets were told to unload everything and to place it in the park across the road. Here she noted the cannon parts and the canoes. ‘Looks like we start hauling from here,’ she thought.

  And they did. After an hour, during which the remainder of the company were ferried to join them and during which they were allowed to go to the shops, they were organized into work parties and began hauling or carrying. Tina and her team had the job of carrying their own gear and the canoe. The other navy cadets did likewise. The army cadets hauled the cannon and all of its parts.

  The route they followed led them north to Tinaburra. This was 3 kilometres and was along a bitumen road with houses on both sides for the first kilometre. After that it was along the crest of a wide, gentle ridge with short grass on both sides. The grassy slopes led down to two arms of the lake. Seeing the water cheered Tina and she began to look forward to being ‘naval’ again instead of military.

  Half way along the road clouds came over and it began to drizzle in intermittent showers. But there was nothing for it but to trudge on. The main problem, apart from the chafing effect of wet clothes, was that the canoe began to fill and they had to stop from time to time to empty it out. They could only carry it for about a hundred paces at a time anyway.

  It took over an hour and a half to reach their destination and it was 1630hrs by the time they reached the ‘Tinaburra Waters’ motel and caravan park.
Here they were directed to the line of pine trees on the eastern side of the motel area. By the time they arrived heavy rain was falling.

  Part of the Control Group was already there and Tina saw that they had driven in several lines of star pickets on the gentle open slope leading down to the lake. The canoes were placed upside down and the cannon parts stacked and covered with a tarpaulin. The cadets were then organized into males and females and then into pairs and they were set to work to erect their shelters between the pine trees or star pickets. Tina shared with Stella and had Carmen and Hayley in the next shelter along.

  Tina was then part of a navy cadet work party that rigged three tarpaulins between the motel rooms and the swimming pool fence. These were secured to posts and trees and quickly provided a large area of concrete which was free of rain. The cadets were then organized to have showers. These were in the caravan park facilities but Tina found it wonderful to stand under the hot shower. Her aches and pain seemed to melt away and despite the sharp itching and pains from her chafing and scratches she felt revived.

  In dry clothes and wearing a pullover and raincoat she took her wet clothes to where the officers were collecting them to be laundered and tumble dried. Luckily the cadets did not have to try to cook in the rain. A barbeque had been organized and was held under the tarpaulins outside the rooms. Two of the rooms had been hired for the night to allow the adult staff to use the showers and toilets and for the female staff to sleep in.

  Tina’s happiness increased when she went with the other girls to sit under the tarpaulins. The cadets were all seated in section lines for roll check at 1800hrs. They were then allowed to relax and mix socially. To Tina’s delight Andrew moved to sit beside her and nudged her with his elbow.

  “Do you mind if I sit here?” he asked.

  Tina was so pleased that all she could do was smile and nod. Her whole being seemed to tingle and heat up and she became so excited that she had to restrain herself from acting too soon. But she had to know so to test the situation she slowly moved so that she was leaning gently but firmly against him. To her relief and delight he made no move to end this and several times pressed against her. Taking heart from this she pressed herself firmly against him. In return he gave her another smile and a gentle hug.

  Sitting under the tarpaulin with the other cadets as it got dark became a very pleasant experience for Tina. Despite the wind and rain she felt warm and safe and loved as she snuggled against Andrew. Her main concern was that the adult staff might suspect them of fraternizing.

  But with seventy people crowded in under the tarpaulins nobody seemed to notice and after a while they had to get up and join the queue to get their food. The hamburger and grilled sausage was very welcome and when they both had theirs they stood on the side of the group and ate. From time to time their eyes met and Tina was sure that Andrew was sending her signals of affection. She chewed and in between mouthfuls chatted about the exercise. She was pleased to find that Andrew was really enjoying it as well and hoped that the second half would be as interesting.

  After an hour of socializing and eating the cadets and staff were all moved to sit in a tight group outside one of the rooms. Major Wickham then briefed them on the next part of the story, using a data projector to illustrate his talk. He then gave everyone a two page summary of the history of naval warfare on the lakes and rivers of North America in the 18th Century.

  Tina read this with amazement. She had vaguely known that there were big lakes in North America but now learned that some were like inland seas, being hundreds of kilometres across. They were so big that large ships had been constructed on their shores for both trade and warfare.

  She now learned that two lakes in particular had been of vital strategic importance: Lakes George and Champlain. The French had built a huge stone fort, which they named Fort Carillon but which the British and Americans called Fort Ticonderoga at the narrowest point of Lake Champlain. The pictures quite amazed her. ‘I have heard of Ticonderoga,’ she thought, ‘but I had no idea it was like this.’ She had always assumed it was all log huts and timber stockades, but not stone barracks and huge stone walls topped by dozens of heavy cannons and with a regular army garrison.

  She read how in 1758 the French, led by the Marquis Montcalm had moved south along Lake George in hundreds of bateaux (Flat bottomed lake boats) and canoes with 1500 regular French soldiers plus hundreds of couriers du bois (Messengers of the woods- French hunters and tappers who acted as scouts and messengers) and Indians.

  Major Wickham put up another picture showing Mohawk Indians using tomahawks to kill white people, including women and children. “Some of you will have read a book called ‘The Last of the Mohicans’ or perhaps seen the movie of that name,” he said. “This was the incident when the British garrison of Fort William Henry surrendered to Montcalm and were allowed to leave but most were then murdered by the Indians.”

  He then showed a picture painted at the time of thousands of boats and canoes on a lake. “The British did a counter-offensive with 6,300 British regular troops, thousands of American colonial militiamen and hundreds of Indians. This is the force moving north and the canoes stretched from one side of the lake to the other and 15 kilometres long. Unfortunately, through bad generalship they lost the battle and were driven back.”

  Next he put up a map of the area and showed how a British force of 3,600 regulars and colonials had travelled 430 miles up the Mohawk River and across to Lake Ontario, then along the lake to capture Fort Frontenac at the eastern end of that lake, thereby cutting French North America in half. “They did 84 portages and fought dozens of skirmishes with the Indians. It is this expedition which gave me the idea for this exercise,” he explained.

  ‘And a good idea too!’ Tina thought.

  Major Wickham then quickly summarised how Fort Ticonderoga had been captured and recaptured by both sides during the American War of Independence. “This time both sides built fleets of small ships: schooners, gunboats and even brigs to gain control of the waterway. The British even built a three-masted ship, a sloop-of-war named HMS Inflexible with 18 cannons. There was a naval battle which the British won, mainly because they had bigger and better ships and had drafted crews from their Royal Navy warships to man them.”

  Tina studied the pictures of the ships and the battle and was again amazed. ‘Building big ships so far from the sea,’ she thought. ‘They must have been very determined.’ She now learned that there were even bigger naval battles with bigger ships on the large lakes of the ‘Great Lakes’ system during an event called the War of 1812. ‘I didn’t even know that Britain and America fought such a war,’ she thought. It was all a bit of a revelation.

  Major Wickham now faced the navy cadets. “Your mission over the next two days is to gain naval supremacy of the lake. For reasons of safety and expedience we are going to ignore reality a bit and will be starting from this end of the lake instead of from the north end. You will be divided into two teams, each with four sailboats. You are to pretend that the sailboats are actually small warships with cannons and you are to seek each other out and then we will decide who wins by how well the two fleets manoeuvre.”

  That idea really appealed to Tina and she listened with interest as the rules of the ‘naval battle’ were explained. “This will be really good!” she commented, to which Andrew agreed. They were part of the ‘British’ fleet and would start from where they were. The other half of the navy cadet group were the ‘French’ and their start point was not revealed. The army cadets were to be moved by coach back to where they had been picked up and were to march to the lake.

  The first major objective was to get the cannon to the lake at its narrowest point. When Tina studied the map photocopy they were all give she gave a little cry of delight. “That is Python Point, our secret island,” she said. Images of the recent holiday added to her pleasure.

  The cadets were then sent to bed. As she made her way out into the wind and drizzle Tina experienced a stron
g urge to cuddle up to Andrew but she resisted this and just walked with the other girls and said a casual ‘good night’ to him. But as she lay in her sleeping bag she found herself wishing that she was snuggling up to him, even if it meant they ended up doing some very naughty things. ‘He can do it if he likes,’ she told herself.

  Despite frequent heavy rain Tina slept well that night. She woke feeling refreshed and happy to a grey world of dense fog. The cadets did a check parade at 0600 for roll call and then they settled to their morning routine. The rain had stopped but during breakfast Tina heard the weather report on the radio news which informed her that there was still very heavy rain on the Herberton Range.

  The effect of the rain was obvious when they went to launch the canoes and sailboats. The level of the lake was up by about half a metre and brown plumes of silty flood water were coming down the creeks to mingle with the darker waters of the lake. While the navy cadets worked at preparing their boats dark clouds began building and showers and drizzle swept over them.

  By the time the army cadets boarded their coach it was raining steadily. The army cadets, including a grinning Graham, hurried aboard and soon afterwards were driven away. So were half the navy cadets- the ‘Blue Team’ representing the French. With them went the canoe trailers. Tina and her friends donned raincoats and hats and continued their preparations. Their bags were placed in the truck and then four ‘Laser’ sailboats were unloaded off their trailers. Only a bag with a waterbottle and lunch plus radios and other safety gear were taken on the sailboats.