Settled on the Coast

We stand on the lookout at the edge of the escarpment looking out across the flood plain to the coast and the village that was my home as a child. The scene before us is much changed from the last time I stood here more than 10 years ago. The earthquake that devastated my outback home has changed the flood plain and the tsunami which must have followed it has thrown up boats and debris several miles from the coast. The highway that bisects the coastal plain is cracked and lifted by the earth quake and there are crevasses sending fissures and lines across the once pristine paddocks that supported the dairy industry that this area was known for. Now all that remains of the great herds of cattle are a few stray head dotted in spots where the grass has survived and the tsunami has not reached.

I stand there with tears flowing down my face as I peer out across this wasteland that was once my home. Gavin passes me the binoculars that we had brought from the Police 4 x 4 and I slowly raise them to my eyes to gain a better view of the huddle of houses on the promontory overlooking the sea. I can see the white of the house where my parents have made their home for all their married lives and the house looks undamaged as do many of the other homes up on the hill around it. There is movement in the tiny village of Gordon and this gives me hope that my parents are alive and that our group will find a welcome and safety there. 

The outback travellers reach the coast to find the destruction of tsunami and the possiblitity of not finding the welcome they had hoped to find.