company.â It was only when they had arrived in the bush a few hours earlier that life seemed to become complicated. It wasnât the roughing it he minded. That was something he loved. With his friends Roger, Stephen and Peter he spent nearly every second weekend in the bush on hikes. The friends did this so often they called themselves âThe Hiking Teamâ. However some of the new cadets plainly found the conditions a bit of a shock. Once the camp was set up the corporals and CUOs were called to HQ Platoon to be issued with radios. This was done by Peter Bronsky, the signals corporal and Grahamâs friend. The radios were small hand-held âCitizen Bandâ UHF radios with a range of about 3 or 4 kilometres and powered by three AA batteries. Each CUO and NCO got the same radio issued all year and Graham signed for his and looped the light green cord around his neck and hung the radio on his shirt. Then he did a radio check which Peter answered. The unit also had half a dozen army radios and seven larger CB pack radios for safety and control. The evening meal had been routine; a hot, fresh meal prepared by army cooks in the kitchen of the small army camp located a kilometre away on the other side of the highway. This was delivered by army Land Rover in âhot boxesâ. The platoons had filed past one at a time to get their food. The food was ladled into their mess tins. After that the cadets had seated themselves on the ground in platoon areas to eat. There had been no problem with that as the weather was fine and likely to remain so. In this part of North Queensland in September rain was a rarity. The weather was usually dry and fairly hot (Fairly being a relative term, as they came from Cairns, which was even closer to the equator than where they now. To them temperatures of 30 degrees C were not considered anything unusual). The place was familiar to Graham as he had done a ten day promotion course at the Bunyip River Army Camp the previous December. Part of this course had included navigation exercises during which he had walked through the area they were now bivouacked in. Thus, as he prepared his section for a night navigation exercise, he at least had no worries about getting lost. It quickly became apparent that some of his cadets were feeling a bit stressed. The first real sign was when Cadet Andrews mumbled that he was feeling sick. âIt must be the heat,â he moaned. âCan I stay here?â âNo,â Graham replied. âBut Iâm sick,â Andrews moaned. That threw Graham a bit. He did not want to lose members of his section from any activity so he cast around for some convincing argument. Finding none he could only suggest that Andrews go and see Sgt Grenfell. To his surprise Dianne then said she wasnât feeling very well either. Both were taken to Sgt Grenfell who questioned them. Only then did it begin to dawn on Graham that the real problem was that it was getting dark and they were in the bush. Sgt Grenfell wasnât very sympathetic but commented in a scornful voice that if they wanted to they could go to see the officers, âif you really are sick.â Neither did. It was when they were walking back to the section area in the gathering dusk that Graham noted Dianne glancing anxiously from side to side. âWhatâs wrong?âhe asked as gently as he could. âI... it... I... itâs very dark isnât it,â Dianne replied. They were back at the hutchies by then and Graham looked around in the gloom. He could see quite well and several torches were flickering around the area. âIt will be alright. The moon will come up later,â he said. But he said it without conviction as he wasnât sure what time moonrise was. âBut there are no lights,â Dianne wailed. Graham realised that Kirsty had moved to stand close beside him. âYou donât need lights,â he said, trying to sound confident.