The Grass Castle Read Free

and bounded off. In moments the valley had cleared, distant crashes marking the passage of some of the mob as they disappeared uphill into the trees. ‘What did I do?’ he asked, turning off his recorder.
    ‘They don’t know you,’ Abby said.
    ‘How can you study them if they bolt like that?’
    ‘They habituate. They don’t take much notice when it’s just me.’
    He looked down at her. ‘Maybe it’s my aftershave,’ he said, sniffing at his collar.
    ‘That’s possible.’
    ‘Don’t you like it?’ A smile hovered about his lips.
    ‘I think I’m with the kangaroos,’ she said. ‘It’s a bit sweet.’
    He switched the recorder on again, and they followed the stragglers up the valley, pausing every now and then to look at a few kangaroos half-hidden among the trees. They came across one of Abby’s radio-collared animals and she described how the government vet had come to help her fit the collars, armed with his dart rifle and sedatives. It had taken five mornings to capture sixteen animals, an even mix of males and females.
    There was a lull in conversation when Abby thought the interview might almost be finished, then Cameron looked at her and his lips tweaked. ‘What do you think about kangaroo culling?’ he asked.
    Abby hesitated a moment before answering. Quentin had warned her about this. He’d said it was likely to come up. ‘I don’t want this to be an article on culling,’ she said slowly.
    Cameron grinned knowingly. ‘It won’t be.’
    ‘So I can speak off the record?’
    ‘If that’s the way you want it.’
    ‘Yes please.’ Quentin had said she should request this if the discussion wandered onto controversial ground—if this was to be a soft-touch kangaroo story, they didn’t need to address emotive issues like culling. Abby noticed Cameron regarding her with heightened interest, but he’d turned off his recorder so she felt a little more comfortable.
    ‘I gather this is a touchy subject for you,’ he said.
    ‘Not really. But it’s a sensitive topic, isn’t it? It upsets people.’
    ‘So what’s the solution? Surely it can’t be that hard to sort out.’
    Abby almost smiled. Quentin had coached her on this too. He’d said journalists always wanted simple answers to complex problems. As a country girl, she used to think managing kangaroos ought to be straightforward, but now she’s studied ecology for a few years, she knows it isn’t. ‘It’s complicated,’ she said. ‘Kangaroos are efficient breeders, and we humans have opened up grazing land and removed predators, so there’s nothing to control them anymore. There can be so many of them they damage the environment, and that affects other species.’
    ‘So we have to shoot them? Is that what you’re saying?’
    Abby paused again. She didn’t like shooting. She hated guns. But in the absence of a suitable alternative what else was there? ‘There isn’t any other way yet,’ she said. ‘There are labs working on kangaroo contraception, but that’s years off. Shooting has its problems too. It’s a practical short-term solution, but it’s never-ending. Once you start, you have to keep doing it because the kangaroos keep breeding.’
    Cameron laughed. ‘The confused biologist!’
    ‘Not confused,’ she said, ‘but definitely challenged.’
    In a grove of twisted snow gums, Cameron paused to yank one of the springy branches, pulling off a sprig of leathery leaves which he attempted to tuck behind her ear. She ducked away, laughing, embarrassed, then jerked to a halt as a large old-man kangaroo appeared from nowhere, rearing on its hind legs, and jolting towards them in short sharp hops, snorting loudly.
    ‘Move!’ she yelled, thrusting hard against Cameron and shoving him backwards.
    He caught her urgency and leapt back while she reversed slowly, hands raised, palms open. As she put cautious distance between them, the buck subsided to a wary crouch, still watching them. He was a big lone male with sharp