Free Of Ashes and Rivers that Run to the Sea by Marie Munkara

near Hawker and although it’s probably only a few hours west of Adelaide, in those days it seemed like it took all day to get there. He looked like a typical bushie with his work-worn hands and sweat-stained hat with holes in it, and his place was a big old rectangular stone homestead with wide cool verandas. It had been built on a stony hillside with more of the hillside rising up behind, dotted with tall gum trees so that it gotafternoon shade. The rooms opened off onto the veranda on one side and a hallway that ran all the way down the middle of the house. The kitchen had a big cast-iron wood stove that burnt all year round, but it had large doors and windows that caught the breeze in the summer and kept the heat away from the rest of the house. In winter when the kitchen was closed up it was snug and cosy and this was where Julie and I had our bath in a tin tub with water that had been heated on the stove. The rooms had stone fireplaces in them and the one in the lounge room was big enough for me to stand inside, the lintel was a slab of red gum. The floors were made of flagstones and the veranda posts were silvery-grey tree trunks with knots that hadn’t been smoothed out. It was a beautiful house. This is where Aubrey lived as well and he looked happy there which was a change to how he’d looked at home. Since being there he had learnt to drive and shoot which impressed me no end, and he knew about the stars as well and showed me where to find the Southern Cross.
    I loved spotlighting because it was mysterious and exciting. At home Julie and I were never allowed out after dark without our parents but on the property things were different. I got to see the moon and nocturnal creatures like possums and owls, and I got to stand in the back of the truck with the wind in my face while I held on to the side, searching the bush for eyes reflecting in the light. Whether we were on twisty bits or straight road, UncleGeorge drove flat-out while I clung on with delirious and reckless joy. The only crappy part was knowing that the sole purpose of going out was to shoot roos for the dogs’ meat. The roos’ bodies were stuck in the back with me and Aubrey or whoever else was there. Any rabbits and foxes were shot as well and left to rot where they fell, apart from a few rabbits that were brought back for the pot.
    Everyone seemed really happy here, our father left me alone and our mother would sit on the veranda and crotchet or do her tatting, which left Julie and me in peace to go and play in the bush around the homestead. We were constantly warned about snakes but as keen as I was to find one, it never happened. Maybe it was because I was looking in the wrong places or maybe they weren’t in such abundance as everyone thought they were.
    One day Aubrey took us out the back and lifted up a piece of corrugated iron. I was hoping to see a snake but underneath was a lizard that looked like a blue tongue with scales of orange and black. It didn’t seem to mind the intrusion and I held it while it sat there quietly in my hands, then we let it go and watched it plod across the back grass and into the bush.
    The bush was dry and dusty and always beautiful especially at dawn or sunset, and the rivers were filled with massive red gums in the dry riverbeds. We learnt from Uncle George that big underground rivers watered the trees and they ran all the way through the Flinders Ranges.Sometimes we’d go down to the riverbed for a picnic in the shade of the ancient trees and stay there until the air cooled, then we’d pack up and head home to bed. I would fall asleep to the call of the mopokes hooting in the gums behind the homestead or dingoes howling in the distance. It was magic.
    When it rained the river would fill in a matter of hours and run like crazy. Julie and I would make boats out of newspapers and watch them sailing away on the currents. Over the next few days the river would slow then gradually dry