Chapter 10

Sunday was total chaos. The reasons might not have been those for the tumult at the beginning of Anna Karenina, but I'm sure the nuttiness was much the same.

My mum was first — before 8 am, as she'd forgotten about the time difference. She was more worried by my arm than anything else. I showered and shaved, dressed and went down to breakfast. Weena had already fed Patrick. I took the phone and sat down near him — but not near enough that he could smear his breakfast on my shirt. Weena brought me a mug of coffee.

"Just toast?"

"Do we have any bacon?"

"Some."

"Could I have toast and bacon?"

"Sure, my little telly star."

"Patrick, too."

"Yes, sweetheart, you too."

I relaxed a bit. At about a microsecond after nine, the phone rang.

"Hollister ... Hi, Rob ... Yes, she phoned in the afternoon ... You do? Thanks. Thanks ... I'll tell her. Love to Mary."

"Anything interesting?"

"They saw it on the eight o'clock this morning. I guess they're re-running it. He thinks this is going to be good for me."

"I think he's right. You made the CSIRO and the military and natural resources the heroes and the politicos and the merchants look like villains. And you holding Patrick like that!"

The phone went again.

"Hollister ... Hey, Maggie! ... Oh ... Oh ... Really? Tomorrow? Right. My office. Right ... Wow! I'll tell her. Bye."

"And what was that?"

"Well, Maggie, of course. She just had a call from some fancy lawyer who wants to talk to me. His firm is representing the aboriginal land claims here in Western Australia. He's going to call me tomorrow."

"Thank God it's not today!"

"Remember, Maggie warned me about the aboriginal land claims. I'll have to look it up, but it's a lot of the state. Chaz might know."

"See Rachel?"

"Maybe, Patrick. I'll phone them later."

"'Kay. Play now?"

"I'll liberate you. Daddy will be on the phone again soon." I got myself more coffee and then called Chaz.

"Hey, telly star! Nice of you to call."

"Yeah. Yeah. I just had a call from Maggie. She'd had a call from a lawyer whose firm is handling the Noongar claim. Do you know about it?"

"I sure do. Do you have a few hours available?"

"That much?"

"And more."

"You guys free today?"

"I think so."

"Why don't we meet at City Beach at one? The kids can play and we can talk."

"Good idea. And Michiko and Weena can talk about babies. There's parking west of Challenger Parade."

I laughed, got off and told Weena of our plan.

On 19 September 2006 the Federal Court of Australia brought down a judgment which recognised native title in an area over the city of Perth and its surrounds, known as Bennell v State of Western Australia [2006] FCA 1243 ... The remainder of the larger "Single Noongar Claim" area, covering 193,956 km² of the south-west of Western Australia, remains outstanding, and will hinge on the outcome of this appeal process. In the interim, the Noongar people continue to be involved in Native Title negotiations with the Government of Western Australia and are represented by the South West Aboriginal Land and Sea Council.

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