Vanishing Point (2 page)

The swirling plume of fine, reddish dust, thick behind their old Kombi extruded as a dense, billowing cloud behind the moving vehicle. It rapidly thinned and spread out across the landscape changing the vivid blue sky into a dusty haze. Dust hung in the still air like a fine mist then gently wafted far over the scattered scrub before finally settling, blanketing the harsh landscape. Bushes with ochre stems and leaves near the track were densely coated with desert dust. The Kombi bumped its way along the track that ran parallel to the dog fence. The fence, designed to keep wild dogs and dingoes to the north and away from the sheep that lived on most of Eyre Peninsula to the south, stretched through hundreds of kilometres of the Australian outback. The small, central ridge helping define the track occasionally scraped the bottom of the vehicle. Resistant shrubs and grasses, and even a few small grevillea bushes, brushed against this mechanical intrusion into their world.

Inside the vehicle, partly cocooned from the dust of the road and oblivious of the way in which the vehicle noisily disrupted nature's harmony, baby Carolyn slept soundly. Under a soft pink rabbit blanket she was no longer ‘new' at four months. A carefully planned safety harness held her bassinette securely in place. Alec designed it himself so that it held firm in spite of the bumpy road. No father could be more proud of both wife and child.

Alec's appearance would not make him stand out in a crowd. He well suited the statistician's view of the average Australian male standing five seven in stockinged feet, with broad shoulders and a well-proportioned body. His sandy brown hair lived its own life in spite of a morning training session with a brush and comb, a slight natural curl made it always look as if blown about in a gale. His unexceptional looks did not make an immediate impact on those he met, but striking deep blue eyes caused comment from everyone who met him for the first time. When emotionally aroused they flashed with a fire of their own.

Alec and Katherine were involved in one of their interminable arguments, or discussions, as he preferred to call them.

It all started because Alec had failed to get a better-paid position at the university. Alec's parents had little money since his father was a parish priest more interested in matters moral than pecuniary. However, Alec's strong motivation had driven him through university, largely by way of part-time jobs ranging from a salesman at John Martin's department store to driving an excavator for the Department of Main Roads. At Adelaide University he achieved an average grade Honours degree but it was enough to allow him to enrol to do research towards his doctorate. Alec always maintained brilliance was not necessary to be successful at university; it was more important to want to achieve.

A post-graduate research grant had been arranged through the efforts of Dr Jones, his supervisor, making this the first time that funding was not a major problem. Dr Jones had identified a kindred spirit in the hard-working young student who somehow got near, but always failed to achieve, the top marks. He recognised that such students commonly matured after the set examinations and blossomed into very capable research workers. Independent thought and dedication were as important as memorising facts. What's more, he needed more work done on his own pet projects so that his list of publications could grow. A post-graduate student could do the hackwork, he could take most of the credit. By increasing his list of publications he would become more eligible for the ever-decreasing source of research funds for pure sciences, those with no direct link to immediate, perceived economic benefit or social change.

In Alec Thompson, Dr Jones recognised a hard worker, a motivated student and someone who, in time, could ‘go places' in academia. After all, Alec was only twenty-four, much younger than most of the other doctoral students at the Mawson Laboratories. Named for the University's most famous Professor of Geology, Sir Douglas Mawson, Antarctic explorer and survivor, the building was a three-storey brick oblong, more functional than attractive. It had been a second home to Alec ever since he started as an undergraduate student. Already two papers had emerged from his and Dr Jones' work, and this in spite of the fact that Alec, soon after starting his research, had unexpectedly married the girl in the zoology department across the road. Who would have thought that he, of all people, would have had to get married and so jeopardise his possible career? In addition to marriage, fatherhood and research, young Alec accepted a position as Tutor in the department, to supplement his meagre research grant. He had applied for the more lucrative position of Senior Tutor, but it was awarded to the only female Tutor.

‘She didn't even have any publications, compared with my two papers,' Alec was telling Katherine, a grumble not heard for the first time.

‘Nearly everyone agreed she benefited from Prof's own affirmative action policy.' He was referring to Professor Morna Nash, the Head of Department, a rare appointment in senior academia, especially geology. What Katherine recognised and her husband seemed to fail to see was that Nash was prescient in understanding that it was only a matter of time before the introduction of legal or other requirements to fast-track women into more senior positions. Already President Johnson in the USA had introduced such legislation. Since it was a policy with which Alec disagreed, Katherine found herself as the protagonist in this particular discussion.

‘It's a crazy policy,' Alec intoned. ‘If it's implemented then in the end it becomes self-defeating. After a while one has to ask if a person is appointed because they are the best person for the job, or if it's just because they are female.'

Although not yet implemented elsewhere in the University, Prof. Nash's proposal was that minority groups, women in particular, should be given priority in more senior appointments. Alec had long been opposed to the principle of affirmative action, an opposition making him unpopular with his peers in the University Staff Association. It was not wise to be vocally opposed to the new politically correct philosophies now starting to permeate some of the university departments. He felt that it was not just a case of sour grapes because he had missed out on the senior tutorship. This was the crux of their current argument.

Alec's high cheek bones had a flush of pink about them, features that Katherine had long ago recognised as a characteristic of high emotion and passion, usually anger. The discussion was really a monologue as Alec expressed his views; he was not one to do much listening.

A brief pause suggested that Katherine make a response.

‘But if they don't make a start on appointing some women into more senior positions then when is the cycle going to be broken?'

Alec snorted but did not respond so Katherine continued. ‘I mean, look at Mary. She's spent her entire life as a Senior Tutor way below her capabilities, at a lower salary than men and continually passed over for promotion. It really isn't fair.' She paused, expecting a response. Since Alec simply sniffed, she continued. ‘They used to say it was because a woman may get married, have children and leave the job. All that training for nothing. But Mary's a confirmed spinster married to the job. It really wasn't fair. She was exploited just because she was a woman —'

‘Fair? What's fair?' Alec's interruption was almost vehement. ‘Life isn't fair and never will be. Let's face it, nothing is fair. The sooner we all accept that the happier we'll all be.'

Katherine opened her mouth to respond. ‘But —'

Alec spoke over her as he continued his diatribe. ‘It can never be totally fair. Gender differences, intelligence variability, physical differences to start with. Everything depends on something else. Historically and socially lots wasn't fair by today's standards. Like discrimination against women. We can't apply the same sort of unfairness now to another group, in this case blokes, just to even up the score. I mean, does anyone suggest we enslave the Arabs and Europeans to make up for the African slave trade?'

‘Oh, Alec! You're going to extremes again. All they're trying to do is a bit of catch up. If women don't get into these more senior roles they won't get the experience to be able to compete on an equal basis with men.'

Alec started to answer when, from the back of the Kombi, came the sound of Carolyn gently whimpering: the sound that causes a mother's instincts to recognise her infant's needs. Indeed, Katherine's breasts were taut and hard, and the sound alone caused milk to seep and form two damp patches on her blouse. It ended all discussion and directed both parents' attention to their child.

Katherine unbuckled the safety belt, not found in most cars but put in at Alec's insistence. She scrambled between the two front seats and across the open space to sit on the back seat, which could fold out to convert to a double bed. She leaned over and gently lifted the baby from the bassinette. Alec instinctively slowed the vehicle. Once Katherine had made her way back to the front, re-seated herself and buckled up, he relaxed slightly and pressed a little harder on the accelerator.

‘Okay?' Alec asked.

‘Yeah, okay. She's wet through, though. Can we pull over somewhere so I can change her and give her a feed? I think we both need that!'

The track was located on the south side of a very remote and rarely visited area, the Yumburra Conservation Area. It was one of several such areas recognised by the State as having some plants and an ecology worth preserving, but not important enough to be a fully-fledged national park. Like most of the vegetation in outback Australia, the plants had adapted to their harsh environment, in this case the southern limit of the Great Victorian Desert. To the north lay the true desert, to the south the marginal wheat and sheep country of Eyre Peninsula.

‘I'm surprised that this so-called desert has so much plant cover. I would never have believed it if we hadn't been on this trip,' Katherine commented.

‘Well, of course it's only technically a desert based on the low rainfall. The plants have really adapted to dry conditions so it looks lush. Even so, there are not many trees for a good campsite. They're all too stunted.'

‘Speak of the devil. There's one!' Katherine pointed ahead. ‘Pull over there. It's an almost perfect place.' A large, white-barked eucalypt with grey-green foliage grew just north of the dog fence and cast a shadow over the scrub between the fence and the two gutters of track. Alec slowed the Kombi and eased it over the ridges into the shade, its front hard against the netting of the fence. Some of the lower supporting wire strands were broken and lay useless on the ground.

Alec turned off the engine, stretched, opened the driver's door and slid out. He wiggled his bottom and leaned from left to right.

‘I hope I'm not going to get back problems so early in life,' he quipped. ‘This driving is not all that comfortable for long stretches on this track.'

‘You should let me do more of the driving.'

No reply. Once in the driver's seat Alec was not easy to move. On the one occasion Katherine had driven she found it very difficult to control the vehicle in the sandy track and a frustrated Alec had taken over after only a short distance.

Katherine picked up the baby and moved to the back of the Kombi to start the automatic process of nappy changing. Almost without looking she took out the necessary items from the cupboard on the side and put them on the seat, ready for use. While she started to undo the nappy pins she glanced up to see Alec filling a plastic bowl with water. They worked silently as a parental team, each knowing what was needed. Alec opened the central side doors and put the bowl on the floor.

‘We've plenty of water. And, thinking positive, in this hot weather we don't have to warm the water for washing her.'

‘True.'

‘Look, it's so late and I'm tired of driving. Why don't we just make camp here? I know it's close to the track but we've not seen another vehicle since we came up here, so we're unlikely to have dust storms from passing traffic.'

‘Sounds like a good idea to me.'

‘Great. We can set off early tomorrow, fuel up in Ceduna and be home by tomorrow night.'

‘Okay. Why don't you make a fire for the evening meal and we can finish off most of what's left of the food? I'll change and feed Carolyn and we can have an early night.'

Now that the excursion was over Alec relaxed slightly. He had been a little nervous about taking his family on this rock collecting expedition. However, Katherine insisted on coming with him, much against her widowed mother's wishes. Her mother felt it foolish and dangerous for such a young baby to be carted all over the country and remote country at that. Always the protective mother, she had shielded Katherine from the harsh realities of life so that Katherine remained naive about many issues. Her time at the university had been a real eye-opener.

Alec tended to agree with his mother-in-law's reservations, but Katherine was adamant. She was almost as stubborn as her father had been, and made up her mind that she would not be left behind nursing a baby in their small rented flat at Henley Beach while her husband explored the country. In any event, it was a short field trip. Alec planned to be back in Adelaide within ten days.

It wasn't even the best time of year for outdoor travel and camping in this part of the world. Freezing cold nights followed uncomfortably hot days. However, the timing was determined by the fact that Alec had to squeeze his collecting in to a period between the end of lectures and the start of examination marking. So it was October when they left Adelaide. The fact that this year good winter rains had broken the prolonged drought leading to an abundance of wild flowers made the trip very worthwhile as far as Katherine was concerned.

To collect his rock samples, Alec had been north of the track into the scrubby bush as far as his vehicle could travel. Then he set off on foot to collect samples of exposed granite for his research. The Kombi roof rack contained several boxes of samples and others were sitting on the raised luggage compartment above the rear engine. Normally a four-wheel drive vehicle, well equipped with radio and extra water, would have been used for a trip into such a remote area but University funding was limited. Alec decided to take his own second-hand Kombi even though he recognised that his lack of mechanical skills was an added risk.