Can you tell us what happened at that meeting?

Well, he's a very c- canny politician, uh, Bob Hawke, and he was also...

He also had this charisma, I suppose, that people used to talk about.

And, uh, I got, I g- I got a call in my office.

Um, I was still very wet behind the ears, didn't have a clue what I was doing really.

And, um, the voice said, "Uh, Hawkie would like to see you in his office." And I thought, of course, he was gonna drop a great story or something or other.

So I grabbed my notebook and finally found my way through the, uh, labyrinth of corridors, um, to his office, and he's sitting there with a cigar, and he said, "Ah, mate, you don't need the, uh, the notebook." His purpose was twofold, I think.

Ke- Keating was known for his very sharp tongue in public but also in private, and I, I've been told that you were on the end of some particularly sharp phone calls from Paul Keating.

a

cup of tea.

And then he would stoke the fire and he would ask a question that didn't sound pointed but you would discover later on was very important.

I remember, for instance, one night we were there and he asked all of us, there were about, I don't know, five or six of us, do you have personal private insurance? Right.

Health insurance.

And we all did, as it turned out.

And he said, well, why do you have it? And I think we sort of stammered a bit and said, well, we could afford it and it was probably a good idea and blah, blah, blah.

Tony, has Pauline Hanson's resurgence surprised you? You covered her in her first period of popularity.

Interesting.

Now, the trailer where they find the men is about 12 miles from where the car was abandoned towards the northeast.

Okay.

Now, if they went from the car to the trailer, they would have had to follow these winding roads that were more like logging roads that were found in the Plumas.

And they had... been covered with snow, but then they had been cleared by a snowcat because these were new trailers and the forestry service wanted the snow cleared off the roofs.

So if the men were up in the plumas the night of the 24th and the roads were cleared on the 23rd, they could have followed those roads all the way up to the trailer.

So after they find Ted, they sort of use that area as like, all right, we're going to start from the trailer and work our way out to see if we can find any other remains.

Was this a tragic accident? Was foul play involved somehow? Was there an unknown person involved somehow, like you said, a hitchhiker or someone that came across? So what are some of those biggest theories that you've investigated? And I want to know what you think after all your research.

So before we get into the mystery of this case, who were these five young men and what were their lives like before they disappeared?

Sure, the oldest was Ted Weir.

He was 32 years old.

He was very athletic, very jovial, very fun guy to hang out with.

He loved music.

He loved Pepsi.

He loved junk food.

Sure.

Was there anything you took away from what they said to us or told us about the campaign?

I think probably the most interesting thing was that they said that Alex Dyson came and knocked on their door and talked to them at great length and admitted that he knew nothing about agriculture at that point.

And then he came back and back and learnt quite a lot.

They're environmental farmers, if you like, and so that melds pretty well with somebody who's being supported very heavily by Climate 200.

Where we are is very much a grain growing area.

It's flat and broad and easily tilled and it grows a lot of grain.

You see silos everywhere.

So Tony, I know you said you weren't going to make any predictions for this Saturday, but if this electorate does change hands for the first time in, I believe, 70 years, what does that say about the people here and what they want and the region more broadly?