In the Land of Giants and the Dreaming

I went back to the scene of 'The Kiss" Koondarook and Barham towns (Koonarook and Caladonia) on which the book is based. The towns and story are fictional but based on real people real events or amalgamations of them. As I looked around at the River, Bridge, Towns and Bush it was as though the character were there right with me, riding on my shoulder it was amazing! That story has become so real for me, I could see every story every event in the very atoms of the places and sights. The mind is a wonderful and creative thing.

A highlight of the trip was meeting Yorta Yorta elder George Mc Gee what a delight he was to meet again. We had first met a few years ago when I talked to  him briefly towards the end of the writng o showing him the manusript.  Maureen and I chewed the fat for a couple of hours taking about his people and the stories. I had sent him a copy around the time of the launch. He loved the dreaming stories and the the snakes, it reminded him of the old people and his grandfather. As we left a Sacred Ibis landed nearby blessing our meeting.

"When I started reading it I could not put it down" he said.

Meeting the people of Koondarook and district took me back to the days of the story. (1950s) Bert Selleck old friend of my father and bushman was a special treat, his sence of humour and humility are  astounding and remind us of a time gone now. Stepping into the bar of the Barham Hotel and engaging with the locals was like reentering this world and amazed me with its oldworldliness.

But sitting on the banks of the great Murray (Binde Binde) under the branches of the red gums and dreaming of that great Ponde drifting beneath its surface, then looking up to see the eagle souring was surreal. I knew then I was back in the land of the Giants and the Dreaming.

John Condliffe with Yort Yorta Elder George McGee

Maybe it is always with us, maybe it always will be.

From The kiss of the King Brown

The animals said : 'We will all wither away and die away if we do not have the light of Yhi and the Marmoo will come to rule us if Bahloo is to die'.
They sent Nompie the Eagle to speak with him. Nompie flew up and up to speak with Nooralie...he not not afraid that big bird fella...