Mike Dixon

The Pagets were a strange family. David‟s mother had
gone ballistic when he quit studying but his grandparents
were right behind the move. His grandmother had inter-
viewed him for the job. She wanted to be sure David had
someone older to look after him. Tim thought about the old
woman and couldn‟t help liking her. She was a tough old bird
was Gracie … not a bit like David‟s mother.
„So why the drop-off?‟
„You mean … why do the reefs rise up suddenly?‟
„Yeah, mate.‟
„The hills along the old coast were remnants of an earlier
barrier reef,‟ David explained. „When the sea level rose again
after the Ice Age, coral came in from the continental shelf and
recolonized them. It kept growing up. The only thing that
stopped it was because it had to stay submerged. That‟s why
the tops of the reef are flat. They‟re like that because the sea
is flat.‟
Tim stroked his chin. What the kid said made sense and he
wondered why he‟d not taken more interest in it. Perhaps it
was because his brain worked differently. David wanted to
pull things apart and see how they worked. He wanted to cap-
ture them on canvas and make a picture out of them.
„It‟s just awesome!‟
David continued to rave on.
„The amazing thing is just how recent it is. The Aboriginals
were here 50 000 years ago. They would have had tribal
lands down there. The sea came in so fast whole clans could
have lost everything in just one lifetime.‟
„You mean global warming?‟
„Yeah … just like that.‟
David looked into the water and started to talk about
campfires and men with dogs. It was as if he was seeing
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