Chapter 49

Spring turned out to be dreadful. Oh, nothing catastrophic happened where we were concerned. And Al and Cait were a stable couple. But strange things happened after the "new" house was purchased.

Julia Gillard resigned, Kevin Rudd became Prime Minister again, but it was a futile campaign: despite Rudd's attitudes towards native Australians and his acceptance of same-sex marriage, the voters just weren't going to let him continue. Labor was sure to lose in the coming elections.

But prior to that, it was only a few days into August when there was a knock on our door. I opened it to find two Sydney police officers: one male, one female.

"Mr. Hollister?"

"Yes?" I didn't have a good feeling.

"Is your wife in?"

"Yes, of course. But might I see your IDs?"

They each produced a laminated photo.

"May we come in?"

"Certainly. Rachel! You're wanted."

"Can I help you?" she looked worried.

"Well," said the woman. "We're not sure. Do you know where your parents are?"

"They were in Canberra last night. We spoke to them."

There was a sigh. "Well, that makes things a lot easier. We had a call from Perth this morning. They hadn't been able to locate your parents or your brother..."

Rachel laughed nervously. "He moved recently. From UNSW to Macquarrie."

"Well, there's an explanation."

"Could you give us yours?" I asked.

"Of course." He glanced at a note pad. "Late last night there was an explosion outside your parents' home. Two cars – a Toyota and a Land Rover – had been dynamited. [Rachel gasped.] The front of your parents' place was scorched and the cars were totaled. The Perth PD and the ACT will be talking to your parents in a bit. Do you know which hotel they're in?"

"The City Walk."

"Right. Now. Can you help us? Who might want to off your parents?"

"My father-in-law's with the CSIRO. They're going to be moving to Black Mountain. I can't imagine anyone angry with him, much less that angry."

"And your mum?"

"A stay-at-home mother," I said. "Doubtless a jealous rival in flower-arranging."

"Pat! Stop! This is serious!"

"Yes, it is. Sorry. Might I suggest you ask my father?" I gave them the UWA and home numbers. "He or my mother might have some notion."

"Thank you both. Might we ask you not to call your parents for the next few hours? That will give the police first bash at them."

"No problem."

They both bid their adieux and I let them out. Rachel just looked at me. "This is awful, just awful!"

"Yes. But look at the bright side."

"Bright side?"

"No one's hurt. Your parents won't have to get rid of or move the cars. And they'll get a good deal of cash from the insurers. And when they find and convict the imbecile, they can get damages."

That was the beginning. Skipping ahead it seems it was the same developer (Avery Darrell) from Geraldton who had been angry with my dad over a decade ago. His business had been going downhill because of the regulations on coastal development and water table and he must have just lost it. Learning that it wasn't my dad but a different CSIRO chap who had been involved in the water survey, he thought he'd avenge himself. Stupidly, he'd used explosives purchased by his own company. The police had traced him using the RFID tags.

Using RFID tags, mining companies can keep their eye firmly locked on the prize, tracking the progress of explosives from ordering through delivery and onto final detonation.

By using RFID technology, mining companies can provide safe storage, security, tracking and regularity compliance in the use of explosives.

RFID tags are Automatic Identification and Data Capture (AIDC) devices with the capacity for safe, fast and robust reading/writing, storage and remote retrieval of data via radio waves.

RFID can integrate an Explosive Tracking Code (ETC) into current inventory systems, improve security and accountability of explosives between manufacturing and field application and even improve tracking of explosives and detonators in the field for better post-blast analysis.

Global Tracking Solutions (GTS) implementation and development manager Jim Cash told Australian Mining that RFID tags can now supply users with information on where their explosives have come from.

"RFID tags are read/write, so it is possible to add information to a basic tag, providing the owner with information on where it was manufactured, its life, where it has been stored, and the last user," Cash said. Mining Australia, 22 July 2008

But it was a bizarre period. It was my dad who remembered Darrell and Sue (now retired) who confirmed the threats and strange behavior. Darrell was remanded for psychiatric evaluation and found not to be competent to stand trial. They installed him in the forensic maximum security unit at Graylands, in Claremont.

While this was proceeding, Rudd stepped down again. As was predicted, Labor lost and Tony Abbott became prime minister. I consider him the worst thing to happen to the country in my lifetime. There's a Facebook page calling him Australia's worst prime minister. That might well be true. He's a sexist; anti-abortion; climate-change denier; anti-same-sex marriage; and who knows what more. [Abbott quotes: 'I think it would be folly to expect that women will ever dominate or even approach equal representation in a large number of areas simply because their aptitudes, abilities and interests are different for physiological reasons'; 'Climate change is absolute crap'; 'Western civilization came to this country in 1788 and I'm proud of that... '

But, despite everything, the Eyres found a house in Turner, a nice area in the ACT. My parents moved without a great deal of fuss and Sarah decided to "drop out" till February and then enter either Macquarrie or UNSW.