Gunshot Road

Gunshot Road

Adrian Hyland

This is a story of many things, of murder, of hate, of greed and of violence all told over the haunting music of the outback, deep in the heart of Australia. It begins when Emily Tempest is part of a Young Man’s Time ceremony where she is joining with the women of the group in their song.

'You could imagine those great song cycles rolling across country, taking their shape from what they encountered scraps of language, minerals and dreams, a hawk’s flight, a feather’s fall, the flash of a meteorite.'

Emily Tempest is just back from training and is to start as Aboriginal Community Police Officer for her outback township Bluebush. This will be an odd job for Emily for although she is well educated, intelligent and part of the community she has always resisted authority herself. But she has a sense of the rhythms of her people and can see below the surface of the obvious problems of alcohol, prejudice, poverty and now drugs. One of her problems will be her new boss who is new to the territory and is a by the book  kind of man named Sergeant Cockburn.

 

Before her first day is over there is the murder of an old geologist who was getting a little crazy and an old friend of his is arrested. Knowing the men Emily can’t accept the pat verdict that the rest of the force is eager to swallow to settle the case. The old man, Doc as he was known had been surveying the Fuego Desert. He had traversed it from east to west and mapped it completely including ranges, ridges glaciers and water fields.

Emily convinces Sergeant Cockburn to let her take a trip out there. Along with her, against regulations she takes along people who know the area well. She meets one old man called Eli Windmill. The specific area that she is headed to is Eli’s dreaming. It is called Dingo Springs and Eli called it a fire-dreaming place.

Windmill is blind but when the party gets to Dingo springs Eli knows something is terribly wrong. Other members of the mob also can sense some thing wrong and they leave immediately. The difficulty is this is all too vague for Emily to bring to Cockburn. Now however there are attempts being made on Emily’s life and the violence escalates. Emily’s wits are all that help her because she has a tendency to tackle everything on her own. 

Adrian Hyland began writing about Emily Tempest in his first book of the series called MOONLIGHT DOWNS. She grew up half in the Aboriginal world and half in the white. Her language is colourful and peppered with words that start with f. She is a fascinating character and it is through her dialogue  and internal monologues that the reader gets a sure taste of the beauty and the ugliness of the outback. When things are good, they are very, very good, but when they are bad they are horrid. But as Emily says, she and her people are above all else survivors.