AustLit

Following an argument between a couple, the drive along a mountain road is filled with tension, and their two children sit silently in the back. In an instant, the vehicle is bouncing down the side of a mountain. As the injured mother collects her children and sets off to reach help, she desperately tries to remember the last words she had said to her now dead husband.

Four friends succeed in their quest to find a mysterious underground river deep in the rainforest. Their next challenge is to canoe down it from the source to their distant campsite. They navigate the river through forest and caves and arrive safe, but mystified.

A phone call in the middle of the night precipitates a return journey to England for Douglas, whose father is dying in hospital. The journey also triggers memories of growing up, and the complex interactions between people, time and place.

Their fifteen year age difference has never mattered to Sheila and Angus. After Angus's retirement, they plan a holiday to his native Scotland. However, before they can do so, dementia afflicts Angus and robs him, and Sheila, of their future.

An elderly lady extracts a promise from a country veterinarian to euthanise her dog when she dies. He reluctantly agrees. However, when three weeks after the old lady's death her granddaughter bursts angrily in to the vet's surgery, his inability to carry out her wishes is revealed.

Sitting at a cenotaph on the eve of Anzac Day, an old soldier encounters another young soldier who has quite a tale to tell.

Setting out for an Easter camping trip, a traveller finds herself, along with others, stranded by wet weather at a unique guest house. As the rain holds them together for months, it provides them with an opportunity to become re-acquainted with the joys of nature.

Calling in on a friend, a woman is surprised to find her caring for a blind and deaf geriatric mouse. When she phones the next day, she is not surprised to hear that the mouse had had a heart attack but survived because its owner had administered Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation.

Two men decide it is time to shift their store of illicit goods when a policeman moves in a few doors down. When a hapless kangaroo crosses the path of their ute and upsets their load, fiesty Dan engages the roo in a brawl.

The pupils of a small country town school loved their teacher. When floods threatened the school, all but the teacher and two children evacuated. As the waters rose the teacher and remaining pupils tried to find higher ground and waited to be rescued. They were found after three days, but it was too late for the teacher.