I have just been on another trip into the Australian outback, and this time I took a trip down ‘that red dirt road’ which Rhiannon drives on as she heads to work at the Back O’ Bourke. I haven’t spent a lot of time in this part of the world, and it’s a coincidence that after writing my 7th book, life seems to be landing me right in the middle of the places I have been writing about!
I’ve never been down this particular road, but the Brooks and Dunn song lyrics played out in my head:
We’d turn out the headlightsAnd drive by the moonlightTalk about what the future might holdDown that red dirt road
It’s where I drank my first beerIt’s where I found JesusWhere I wrecked my first carI tore it all to pieces
This is when we came across a roadside memorial. When you are on an isolated road and see large buckets of bright flowers and a rock with a plaque, you have to stop.
My writer’s mind went to so many different places. The real story is always worse than any fictional story I could create. I can’t even imagine the ripple effect of this accident on this red dirt road.
Road trauma is something I have experience with. The shock, followed by the long, tangled journey towards acceptance can be debilitating.
1979 seems like a lifetime ago. I was seven years old. I wondered, in such an isolated, lonely place, how would they have called for help? We drove for 100km and did not pass one single vehicle. There are farm properties out here, but they are few and far between. How long before someone discovered what happened? And what about the survivors, and the emergency services? How have they coped? What have their lives been like? Are they okay?
After some Googling, I discovered an Australian Story episode ‘Out of the Dust’, which I was unable to watch but could read the transcript. This gives an incredible insight into how road trauma changes the lives of those left behind forever – it doesn’t just affect families and friends, but whole communities.
In my last Book News, I wrote “At some point I believe we make a conscious choice not to let our trauma define us completely.” And as this Australian Story episode reveals, the sister of one of the young boys who died, Dani Haski, made a very brave and conscious choice to face her trauma. Twenty-five years on, she returned to the accident site and brought together many people who were there on that day, and the families they left behind, to create this memorial which I stood beside.
The way people, in the wake of such tragedy, can walk into the void and change the narrative they’ve lived with for so long is nothing short of miraculous.
We do this not only for ourselves, but to honour the memories of those we have lost and the joy they brought to our lives.
Melissa x