November 2002

Book three, “Deadly Tide“, is going through the publication process, with a release date of February 2003, and I’m doing the research for book four.

Part of that research entailed a trip to Carnarvon Gorge, north of Roma in Central Queensland. The drought has been cruel to the farmers and graziers, and the country is living up to Dorothea McKellar’s description of “wide, brown land”. Desperate graziers are droving scrawny cattle along the roadside, and everyone’s praying for rain.

Carnarvon Creek never runs dry, but the creeks in the side gorges are either dry or mere trickles. In spite of the dryness, the gorge has a rugged beauty, and features like The Ampitheatre took our breath away. Photos couldn’t capture the grandeur, nor words the sense of awe we felt as we sat and absorbed the silence of millennia.

The Carnarvon Gorge Wilderness Lodge was a great place to stay, very friendly staff, and the manager, Trish Parsons, was most helpful with my research.