Junior School Magazine - Edition 5 (June 2018)

T he B ushfire of B arrow C reek It was sweltering hot and it was 36°C in the centre of Australia. My family was eating our breakfast under our small hut in Hawker, a village named after my great grandad, Jack Hawker. Today, we will be traveling very far away from our village to a place called Barrow Creek, because we have family there that dated back right to our earliest ancestors. Our grandma is very sick so we decided to help her. We’re all packed and ready to leave on our breathtakingly-exciting journey to Barrow Creek! ‘Come on mate, it’s time to head to Barrow Creek!’ My big brother, Mitchell called from across the small hut. ‘I’m coming Mitchell!’ I called back at him. 45 minutes later… Our family was extremely poor and central Australia is a rough place to live. Our car broke down weeks ago, and we couldn’t afford to get it fixed, so our trip to Barrow Creek was a long hike, on a small track over large hills, that would take most of the daylight hours. Dad and I were at the front of our family hiking, but mum and Mitchell are way behind us hiking. I could understand why those two were at the back, because they don’t necessarily co-operate with steep craggy mountains. ‘Come on, we found Barrow Creek!’ Dad called down from the top of the craggy mountain. It was an absolutely brilliant view from where we were standing. We could see a beautiful, sparkling river with the sun gazing down on it the light reflected on a group of trees. But then I realized that the sunlight wasn’t actually gazing down on the water, it was gazing down on a chipped piece of glass. ‘Ahhh, dad?’ I asked sheepishly. ‘Yes mate.’ ‘Umm, well the sunlight is staring down on the glass and reflecting on a few trees, should we maybe stay back?’ I said awkwardly. For a moment I thought dad was getting mad at me, but then I knew he wasn’t. He slowly turned his head northwards and saw the glass, and then he slowly turned his head southwards and saw the light reflecting on the trees. Then he started to get worried and beckoned us back toward the edge of the mountain. ‘What’s the matter dad?’ Mitchell said uncomfortably. ‘There’s a bushfire!’ dad whispered slowly to us and in the distance I could see a small spark of fire in the trees. It wasn’t long before the trees were in raging flames. ‘Come on, it’s too dangerous!’ Mum yelled but I couldn’t hear her. I was about to turn around but then I tripped over on a stone and stumbled down lots of other jagged stones into the groups of the trees. Suddenly a tree fell over onto my leg. ‘AAARRGGHHH’ I yelled, I had broken my leg and then everything started to go dark… as I lay there in silence, the SES (State Emergency Service), came to rescue me and my family and took us to the hospital in Darwin. 2 days later… I finally woke up in a place I had never been to, I woke up in Darwin in Northern Territory. I was lightheaded and confused. A doctor yelled out to another doctor that I had woken up then he went to get some testing equipment for me. Suddenly mum and dad bounded over to me and started hugging me so tight, afterwards I was gasping for air!

continued next page...

Page 60

JSM Edition 5