Julia Creek

It was a mechanism to take veterans... ex-Army, Navy, Air Force personnel and continue to give them the structure and purpose, take advantage of their training, their expertise and their commitment to Australia and to make them available following disasters.

And, you know, I've stood in Birktown and Bloomfield, Julie Creek, all these places where these incredible men and women have turned up, not just for days or weeks, but sometimes for months following a bushfire or floods or a cyclone and they have worked.

They've worked like Trojans, you know, pulling linings out of buildings or rebuilding fencing, all those jobs that have to be done.

And that was done through grant funding from the federal government.

And then it went back into the dark that it had come from.

What David found in Julia Creek, in the dirt around those cigarette butts, was an absence.

Evidence of presence, without the evidence of arrival or departure.

Every creature that walks in Mitchell grass country leaves its mark.

Now, indeed, we've got a severe thunderstorm risk this afternoon as well.

And storms, severe storms are likely across the eastern half of the Downs, up into areas of southeast Queensland, particularly across inland southeast where they're likely, you know, west of about, we'd say, Gatton, right out to go north towards around Genda as well and go right out to the Carnarvons and areas just north of charleville so it's pretty broad risk the northern marino and warrigo as mentioned there up to the carnarvons that's a likely risk of severe storms with large hail damaging winds and heavy rainfall possible and then broadly we're looking at severe storms possible across areas right up into the northern interior and down you'd say draw draw a line and say um You know, Charleville northward up to areas south of Gregory Springs, west of about Julia Creek and then south of about Rockhampton.

But that's going to also include areas around Claremont and Emerald as well.

Particularly later in the day when the activity develops to the south and then pushes up into the central highlands and coalfields.

This is The Glow of a Cigarette.

west of Julia Creek in Queensland.

The land flattens into something almost overwhelming in its scale.

The Mitchell grass plains run to every horizon without interruption.

Yeah.

And... uh Ruth hadn't driven a manual vehicle or towed a float like for a very very long time she'd never towed anything in her life um and so I kind of had to like teach her how to drive a manual before we left Julia Creek more like sort of doing a bit of bunny hopping yeah um throughout the town and then um by the end of it by the end of the two weeks she was she was a pro like she was she was even um towing the caravan after like sending me photos of her towing the caravan and i just yeah i love that i could give like the experience to my support drivers like that as well like it was an experience in itself for

them yeah for each and every one of them definitely and then it sends out those yeah ripples of healing energy as well

yeah and they really looked after me like