A grey gum towers over the windswept scrub that borders the path to the beach. The shadows are deep in the moonlight, but my watch lights up when I push back the cuff of my wetsuit: ten forty-five. An hour has passed since I ordered the recruits to join me at the tree. Yes, lieutenant. Sure, lieutenant. We won’t let you down, lieutenant. They’ve probably gone back to sleep.
The breeze is light, whispering through the foliage and warming my skin. Dropping my backpack at my feet, I pluck a leaf, fold it in half and then in half again. Summers in the country, long sunny days, starry skies at night. The scent of eucalyptus, the sharp and the sweet, always takes me back.
Distant applause rings out from the parade ground. HMAS Creswell is hosting an environmental summit and the delegates, seated at tables in a marquee, are attending the opening night dinner. Amplified voices suggest the speeches have started. I check my watch again: ten fifty-two, and still no sign of the recruits.
It’s a fifty-metre walk to the beach, where small but busy waves, like silver-edged ribbons, rush to the shore before dashing out again. A jetty, a solid timber structure where naval craft are moored, juts out from the wide strip of sand, and a breakwater, an artificial outcrop a hundred metres long, shelters the beach from the ocean. Four tall poles mark the end of the break, and two broad banners hang between them.
The recruits, drunk on shots and high on exam results, rowed to the breakwater at dusk, took down the official banners and strung up alternatives. In the first banner, a whale and calf float lifelessly in the water. In the second, a koala, her joey clinging desperately to her back, falls from a tree. The images are underlined with bold black text. Our leaders have blood on their hands.
How could the recruits have been so stupid?
Particularly as everyone on the base had been instructed to treat conference delegates—environmentalists, scientists, industry leaders and politicians—with discretion and respect. We’re hosts. This is a demonstration of community engagement. No controversy. I couldn’t strictly be blamed for something the recruits did off duty, but…
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