Flight of the Jabiru (29 page)

Miraculously some Aussie planes made it into the air to join the American planes that had been patrolling. They began to attack the invaders, but they were far outnumbered and out maneuvered by the superior Jap planes so their retaliation made almost no impact. Then suddenly the Jap planes disappeared from the sky. A few minutes later a siren sounded the all clear.

It took a little while for Jiana and Lara to find the courage to come out of hiding. They were both in shock, but their first thoughts were to help the wounded in the harbor. They scrambled down the hill on shaking legs. Up close, the immediate scene at the water's edge was one of unimaginable horror. Bodies were already washing up on shore. Some were complete, but charred beyond recognition. The acrid smell made the girls wretch. Other bodies had limbs missing. They could see men still ablaze as they tried to swim through burning oil, but there was nothing they could do but watch in horror with tears streaming down their faces.

Army and navy personnel had begun converging on the area, doing what they could. One man in uniform ordered the girls to leave the area and get out of the city any way they could.

Peering through the drifting smoke, Lara searched for Sid amongst the survivors, but most of the wharf was gone and he was nowhere to be seen on the shore side. She could only conclude his body was in the water. What was left of the
Neptuna
was now partly submerged. The pall of black smoke from burning ships was choking and thick. The awful smell stuck in the girls' throats and clung to their clothes. Lara thought of poor Colin.

“We must find Colin,” she said to Jiana and took her by the arm. “Come on, Colin will be looking for us,” she said. In her state of mind, it didn't occur to her that Colin might've been killed.

Colin had sculled a pint while talking to a local in the bar who'd told him where he could buy some vegetables and chicken meat. Knowing he had to meet the girls, he'd headed off to Doctor's Gully, only a few minutes by car from Smith Street. The gully market garden, with a natural spring water source, was owned by George and Stella Carroll, who'd bought it from the Chinese brothers, the Ah Cheongs, in 1920. The Carrolls explained to Colin that the military were going to take over the gully, and use it as a new northern air base and headquarters for Australia's largest flying boat squadrons. So they were selling all the produce they could pick to the locals who'd remained in Darwin.

Colin had just loaded the back of the car with bags of produce when the Jap planes flew over. When he realized they were under attack, he took refuge in the gully with the Carrolls and prayed Lara and Jiana were safe in the education department building.

After the Japs had retreated, Colin and the Carrolls climbed out of the gully. Colin was quite shocked to find his car was just as he'd left it, and the Carrolls were rejoicing to find their modest home still standing. Other houses nearby were not so lucky.

As Colin drove through the smoky, burning streets of Darwin, swerving to miss fires and debris on the roads, he was numb with shock by what he saw. Many of the buildings were destroyed. He saw the dead bodies of servicemen on the pavements and injured civilians walking in a daze. The hospital had been hit and badly damaged. Nurses were helping a few injured patients to get outside where doctors were doing what they could to help them.

The post office had been blown to bits, and all the staff killed in the trench where they'd been sheltering. As Colin drove up the street towards the education department building, his heart began to race. Many government buildings on the same street had been bombed. He felt confused because he couldn't see the education department building, so he stopped his vehicle to get his bearings. As he looked at the site he realized there was now an empty space where the building had stood. It had taken a direct hit. There was a crater in the ground where it had stood, and it was surrounded by rubble and burning timber. There wasn't a sign of a survivor. Just silence — and dust.

“Oh, God, no,” Colin mumbled with heartache. A wave of nausea overcame him and he climbed out of the car, fell to his knees on the road, and vomited.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Coughing on smoke and nauseous from the smell of burnt flesh, Lara and Jiana stumbled back up Stokes Hill. There, they were confronted by chaos and destruction on a different scale. People were running aimlessly in a panic. Others, like themselves, were in a somber daze.

Trembling in shock, and almost unable to absorb more of the horror they'd just witnessed on the wharf, Lara and Jiana linked arms for support and headed in the direction of Smith Street, praying they'd find Colin and that he'd be all right. They wanted to get as far away from the city as they could, back to the sanctuary of Shady Camp and those they loved.

Army soldiers, American and Australian, were patrolling the streets, collecting dead bodies and body parts, and throwing them into the back of their truck under khaki blankets. With their resources stretched, the girls witnessed the soldiers using pieces of corrugated iron to lift badly injured survivors out of a trench and carry them to a Red Cross van. They heard one of the soldiers mutter with contempt that the Japs had attacked and severely damaged a Red Cross ship in the harbor.

“Have you been hurt?” a woman wearing a Red Cross uniform and white cap called from across the road when Lara and Jiana turned off the Esplanade into Knuckey Street.

Unable to speak, the girls shook their heads and walked on through drifting smoke, gaping in disbelief at a vacant allotment where only an hour ago a building had stood. Most of the buildings that were still standing were badly damaged by the blasts, while in some instances, others were miraculously unscathed. Children's toys, pieces of furniture, and more personal items like clothing, shoes, and a bible, were strewn on the street. Fires were burning everywhere, while emergency services tried to extinguish what they could. The city was in chaos.

As the girls walked, the wounded called out to them for help. Instinctively they stopped and offered assistance where they could until the soldiers or the Red Cross reached them. In most cases the injuries were horrific and there wasn't anything they could do but hold that person's hand, or mumble a few comforting words, and hope they didn't die. For the first time Lara could appreciate why the city had been evacuated. She couldn't imagine all the women and children who otherwise might've been casualties. She was terribly worried for Colin, but she didn't divulge her concerns to Jiana.

It was all too much for Jiana, who broke down in a flood of tears. Lara could easily have joined her, but she fought to keep her emotions in check. She was desperate to find Colin and know that he was all right.

Supporting Jiana, Lara urged her to keep moving. They came upon Mitchell Street, the main retail precinct, to find it had been blocked off by army trucks, as fires raged through the rubble of destroyed shops. The black smoke was thick. Mixed with dust, it made the air difficult to breath. All but a few shops had been closed before the attack, but soldiers with dogs searched buildings that they could get near, looking for occupants who might've survived.

When the girls turned into Smith Street, they gasped in disbelief. Most of the street had been destroyed by a bomb that had landed right in the middle of the road, leaving an enormous crater that stretched from one side of the road to the other and was at least twenty-feet deep. They stared at the crater, trying to gather their bearings.

“Isn't that where ... where Colin's car had been parked?” Lara asked Jiana. He'd left it three doors from the hotel because an army truck had been parked right outside the hotel.

Jiana nodded. “Where ... is it?” she whispered, sniffing.

There were bits of metal and glass on the street amid settling dust, smoke, and rubble. Lara even thought she recognized the block of an engine. “Oh, God,” she whispered. “I don't know.” In her mind she could see the Jeffries children's faces. It was too much.

The Victoria Hotel was badly damaged, but miraculously it was one of three buildings on the street that was still standing. Peggy's words about the hotel surviving two cyclones, flashed through Lara's mind. She didn't know what to think. She prayed that Colin hadn't been waiting for them in his car, but there was hope he might've survived if he'd been in the hotel.

Lara's legs were shaking as she and Jiana trampled through the rubble of what had been a busy hardware store, now just two damaged walls, and a few collapsed ceiling beams, to avoid the crater and get to the hotel. The door to the front bar had been blown away. As they stepped inside, they heard a soldier further along the street shout, “Keep out. That building is unsafe.” They ignored him.

The bar was a complete shambles. All the glasses and bottles were smashed and the windows had been blown out. The ceiling was also partially collapsed, exposing the beams to the upper floor. Lara couldn't see anyone; no one wounded, and thankfully no one dead. Followed by Jiana, she called Colin's name as she walked through to the entrance foyer, gingerly picking her way through glass and rubble on the floor. The beautiful mahogany hallstand in the reception area had miraculously survived and now looked out of place, but the antique vase had been destroyed, and the glass mirror smashed. The carpet was covered in white-plaster dust and small rubble from the partially fallen ceiling. White plaster dust covered the potted palms, making them look like snow covered Christmas trees.

Peggy Parker, and her publican husband, Desmond, appeared with their suitcases. At the same time the engine of an army truck could be heard nearby. Peggy had a bandage on her head and her arms had cuts and bruises. Her husband's badly broken arm was in a sling. He also had abrasions and bruises on his face and arms.

“What are you doing in the city, Miss Penrose?” Peggy asked, surprised, and confused to see her. She immediately noticed blood on Lara's hands. “You're hurt.”

Lara glanced at her shaking fingers. “That's not my blood,” she said. “We helped a man who was bleeding badly from a terrible wound...” Tears sprang to her eyes. The image of his suffering would stay with her forever.

Peggy noticed that Lara had a few scratches on her arms and legs and her companion didn't look any worse off. She determined the girls had guardian angels.

“I'm looking for Colin Jeffries, the man who picked me up from here when I was staying with you,” Lara said to Peggy. “Do you remember him? He was in the bar earlier this morning.”

Peggy nodded. She'd always had a good memory for faces.

“We were to meet him in the street by his car, but the car ... has gone...” A lump caught in Lara's throat. “I was hoping he'd be here and not...” She couldn't finish the sentence.

“There's no one here now, except us, and we're leaving. We'd been determined to stay for a few loyal customers, but we're lucky to be alive,” Peggy said emotionally. “We'd certainly be dead if we hadn't had a fire in the kitchen.”

“Were the men ... in the bar ... killed?”

“No. Luckily, they all came out to the kitchen to help us put the fire out and that's what saved all our lives. No one in the bar would've survived the bomb blast.”

Lara glanced through an open doorway to see the blackened kitchen. “Was Colin one of those who helped you?”

“No,” Peggy said. “He came in and had a beer, but then he left.” Her husband groaned in pain. “We have to go,” she said. “Get out of the city as fast as you can.”

Out on the street, Peggy and her husband were helped into the army truck. Lara and Jiana stood at the door of the hotel, looking at the street. Jiana cried and Lara finally allowed the tears to come that she'd been trying to hold back.

“Come on, we have to go,” a soldier shouted to the girls. “The Japs will be back.”

Lara sniffed. “What?” She had heard civilians say the Japs could return to invade Darwin, but she hadn't taken it seriously until that moment when a soldier said it.

“Hurry up, we've got to get out of here,” the soldier said with urgency. When the girls seemed hesitant, he leapt from the truck and took Lara and Jiana by the arm, lead them to the back of the truck where another soldier hoisted them into the back.

The truck headed out of the city, which all looked much the same, either burning, or brought to its knees. Now and again it stopped to pick someone up. Soon there were a dozen passengers in the back, with varying injuries, and several armed soldiers, so it was cramped. Lara told one of the soldiers that they needed to get back to Shady Camp.

“We're heading to Palmerston and then to Alice Springs,” he said. “We're not going anywhere else.”

“But we have to get home,” Lara insisted. “Jiana has family waiting for her in Shady Camp and I'm the teacher there.” She couldn't think about how she was going to tell Betty and the children that Colin wasn't coming home and she knew Rick would be worried sick. She didn't want him coming to the city to look for them.

The soldier shrugged. “We have to get to safety before the bloody Japs come back and blow this place to kingdom come,” he insisted.

“What will we do?” Lara asked Jiana in a soft voice. “Can we walk home from Palmerston?”

“It's about seventy miles,” one of the soldiers said after overhearing Lara's question. “We can't let you do that with the Japs bombing us.”

Lara didn't comment, but she was desperate to get back to Rick before he did something foolish like sail into Darwin Harbor. She wouldn't feel safe again until she had his strong arms around her. She also knew that Jiana had to let her family know that she was alive and they couldn't let Betty suffer, waiting for her husband to come home. It wasn't fair.

“The truck will most likely stop somewhere along Stuart Highway,” Jiana whispered. “Maybe we can just steal away.”

The truck made what was supposed to be a brief stop in Palmerston at the Robertson Barracks medical facility, where the severely injured were unloaded. Desmond Parker needed to have his arm set before facing a long journey south, so he and Peggy were taken off the truck, along with several other civilians. While this was going on, the terrifying sound of air raid sirens began blaring again.

“Crikey! The Japs are back!” a soldier, no more than a boy, said.

“What shall we do?” one of the passengers in the truck asked in a panic.

“There's nothing we can do, but sit tight,” the soldier replied. “It's too dangerous to be on the move.”

Jiana grabbed onto Lara's arm and began crying again. Lara was so terrified that she couldn't cry or say a word. She sat in silence with her heart thudding.

After a short discussion, the driver moved the truck under some trees a short distance from the barracks, hoping they would be less visible from the air.

Through radio contact the driver learned that the Jap planes were high altitude bombing The Royal Australian Air Force base at Parap, which was a suburb of Darwin city.

“We can only pray they don't come over Palmerston to bomb the Robertson Barracks,” he told the passengers in the truck.

The soldiers in the back of the truck told the passengers that the Japs were well-informed about strategic places to bomb because there'd been many Japanese pearlers in Darwin and along the western coast of Australia. Early estimates put the number of people killed in the first raid at more than two hundred, while eight ships had been sunk in the harbor. Apparently, around twenty-four Allied aircraft had also been shot down.

After a very tense twenty minutes, sirens blared again, this time to signal the all clear.

The truck was moved back to the barracks and those deemed well enough to travel were brought out of the barracks and loaded. The driver decided to refuel in Humpty-Doo. It was the closest station, although this would mean a little detour on Arnhem Highway. Lara and Jiana exchanged a quick glance. This was a chance they would not let slip away. Then they set off down the Stuart Highway.

After eleven miles, the truck stopped in Humpty-Doo at a gas station. The able passengers were allowed to stretch their legs for a few minutes and use the rest rooms at the gas station, but they were told to hurry back to the truck because they had to get as far down the Stuart Highway as they could before the Japs returned. Jiana and Lara headed for the rest rooms, which were at the back of the station. It was then they made a dash for freedom, heading for some trees a hundred yards back from the road, where they hid from view.

As expected, the soldiers couldn't afford to waste time looking for them. After a quick scout around the building, they set off without the girls.

“Well, we're on our own now, Jiana,” Lara said, trying to pull herself together and think clearly. She wasn't sure they'd done the right thing.

Jiana was able to calm down since she was away from the city. “Are you sure you gonna walk seventy miles or more?” she asked. “That's a long walk for a white woman. You never bin walkabout in your life.”

“I'll be okay as long as you don't get us lost,” Lara insisted.