AustLit

'It was a Saturday night in March 1969 when I performed a financially successful variety show in the small but prosperous Queensland cattle town of Taroom. ...'

'Throughout my numerous travels of our vast continent, I have come across a few supposedly haunted lagoons, billabongs and creeks. Most such places of ill-repute had originally earned their bad reputation countless years earlier when tagged as spots to be avoided by the Aboriginal tribes who inhabited their immediate surroundings. ...'

''Turn back! Turn back! It must be from outer space1" the near hysterical command was virtually screamed at the driver of the vehicle towing a fifteen foot caravan along the lonely bush track in Outback Australia. ...'

'It was early in the nineteen sixties, I had just finished another of my many touring variety shows, shows that were performed across the vast expanses of the far Australian outback. ...'

'It was soon after the untimely death of the unfortunate Elvis Presley when I noticed a news paper article station that an eminent spiritualist was arranging a seance in which he hoped to communication with the deceased singer who as we all know had left millions of mourning fans. ...'

'I was about seven years of age when I first camped with my father in the rough bush homestead of our small cattle property. ...'

'In the latter part of the last century, gold was discovered in the bed of a North Queensland River. This discovery of gold started a rush to the area that was to become known as the Palmer fields and the virtually unheard of Palmer River was soon famous throughout the world as Queensland's unique 'River of Gold'. ...'

recorded by Paula Smith

'Maybe perhaps because of the well deserved reputation and awe inspiring deeds of the famed British Commandoes, Australians have a tendency to forget that we in this country also once had a somewhat similar specially trained striking force. In fact, I was myself an original of the Second Sixth Commando Squadron. ...'