The Search for Quong

By Ian Burns

Who is he?
Is he a kangaroo? Does he live in a rain forest? Does he eat possums? Or children?!
What does the encyclopaedia say?
‘Quong was a creature of the olden olden days, even before grandmother. He was a short fellow, with long, thin legs and an even longer, thinner tail. His face was fat and wrinkly, and big bushy eyebrows kept out the sun and flies. He lived far away from anywhere, especially where you live.’
Well, that’s encouraging, except that the encyclopaedia said “was” and “was” and “was”. And “lived”. Not “is”. Or “lives”.
So?
Well, Lissie Pendle is an “is” kind of girl, who “lives” in the country, and who “knows” that there are quongs, and that they must live near where she lives.
And she will find them.
And, being the kind of girl she is, she will allow some boys to come along with her. As long as they do what they’re told.
What Rebecca wrote:
Rebecca, from Wangaratta wrote:
I was the first one of the kids [in our family] to read it. I read it the day after we got it. My favourite character was Quong because he is silly and funny. The best part of the book was chapter 7, “Across the River” where Snuffledropper drops us in it and goes...I would recommend the book to other kids. It’s got all funny names for animals and other creatures.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ian Burns
• Release date: Mar 19, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476465463

Ian Burns

Ian is the fourth generation in his family to become a published author, his maternal grandfather, Bernard Capes, Bernard's uncle,and Bernard's son, Renalt, preceding him.Ian’s own writing began in secondary school, and extended into comedy sketches and lyrics for the stage in his early twenties. Later he found himself writing for the Education Department, and, after going into private practice, writing reports, proposals, and scripts for training videos and some television commercials.The catalyst for fiction writing was a story a colleague told him one day about a bunch of kids riding home on the back of a huge horse, which insisted on walking through a dam!This led to his first book, Scratcher (1987).Since then he has written and published Lissie Pendle, The Search for Quong, Ranga Plays Australia, The Day and Night Machine, Possum and Python, Twevven and the big bigger biggest baby burp, and Twevven in a very dangerous situation for children and, for adults, Thomas Bulford’s English Companion, Thomas Bulford’s Essays on Life, Language & Love, Ranga Plays Australia, and The Alone Man.Ian is active in his local community, having being involved in Scouting for more than thirty years, founded a Friends environmental rehabilitation group and is an active member of another, was President of a badminton association for seven years, and has arranged for a group of family and friends to provide long-term support to third-world women seeking financial assistance to grow their businesses. He received a Commonwealth Community Australia Day Award in 2006.He has three adult children and nine grand-children.Currently he is Chairman of Fairy Green Australia Pty Ltd, a company dedicated to inspiring and connecting the children of the world through an internet project titled The Great Hall of Dreams.

Book preview

The Search for Quong

The third Niamong book

by

Ian Burns

Copyright Ian Burns 2006

National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry (pbk)

Creator: Burns, Ian, 1939- author.

Title: The search for quong / Ian Burns.

ISBN: 9780980642926 (paperback)

Target Audience: For primary school age.

Subjects: Children's stories, Australian.

Adventure stories, Australian.

Dewey Number: A823.3

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the written permission of the copyright owner.

Cover photograph: Ian Burns

Web http://www.twevven.com

Email: [e-mail]

By Ian Burns

These are also available to download, and as eBooks

Scratcher first Niamong story first

Lissie Pendle second Niamong story first Niamong story first Niamong story

Possum and Python

The Alone Man

The Search for Quong third Niamong story

Thomas Bulford’s English Companion

Thomas Bulford’s Essays on Life, Language & Love

Ranga Plays Australia fourth Niamong story

The Day and Night Machine first Jess story

Twevven and the horrible big bigger biggest baby burp

Twevven in a very dangerous situation

The Package on the Tram second Jess story

The Wisdom of Harkishen Singh

Messing With Your Mind

Beethoven: a play with music

The Once Shredded Rainbow and Other Stories from Down Under

The Search for Quong

Table of Contents

1 The Beginning 1

2 Getting Ready 14

3 Off 28

4 Into the Forest 41

5 Trees 54

6 Through the Forest 71

7 Across the River 84

8 To the Mountains 101

9 ? and ! 118

10 Return 136

1 The Beginning

Where Miss Hendley doesn’t believe me, but the

others do.

‘They’re real, Miss Hendley. I know they are. They have long tails and lots of hair on their eyebrows, and they can jump around like anything . . .’

‘That sounds like a kangaroo or a wallaby, Liss. There are lots of those around Niamong. Up in the hills and down in the gullies.’

‘No, Miss Hendley! I know about kangaroos and wallabies. Jemmy has them for stew sometimes, and his dad says they’re a pest sometimes, when they break down his fences and let the sheep out. No, quongs are real, and magical, and they can do all sorts of

things kangaroos and wallabies can’t, and nor can wombats.’

It was Show and Tell time at school. I was in Grade 4, long before all those other things happened to me and the others, and I’d decided to tell the grade that I was going to find a quong. I’m not too good at beginning things, especially when I don’t want to. Something has to be really interesting before I’ll start it, like building dams in a creek, or making cubby houses out the back, under the grass trees, or swimming under the old trestle bridge, or even cooking a damper over orange coals. School work and shopping and visiting Mum’s friends were definitely not my cup of tea.

But this seemed like a good thing to begin, something that I should really do.

‘Where do you think these things, these quongs, live, Liss?’

Standing there out the front of the class on my own I could see the girls getting a bit restless, but Jingo and Jemmy, and Scratcher of course, seemed pretty interested. In fact the three of them were each leaning forward with their hands cupped under their chins and their elbows on the desks. Not even the blowflies made them move.

‘Well,’ I said, because I didn’t really know the answer, ‘well...I think they might be up there in the hills. Or the gullies. Or even further away. It’s hard to say, ’cause no–one’s really seen one.’

‘Wow!’ said Jemmy and Jingo.

‘Weeow!’ said Scratcher, who always seemed to have a bit more to say than anyone else.

‘Yes, and you probably have to go out of Niamong to find them. Through the forest

and across the river and into the mountains!’

‘Weeow!’ said Jemmy and Jingo.

‘Weeowee!’ said Scratcher.

‘And I bet I could find one!’ I said, excited by the boys’ excitement. ‘And I will!’

‘Weeowee!’ said Jemmy and Jingo.

‘Weeoweearoo!’ said Scratcher.

‘Well, yes, I’m sure you will,’ said Miss Hendley. ‘Now, has anyone else got anything to show or tell? No? All right, get out your arithmetic books and we’ll do some sums.’

I went back to my desk, blushing a bit because the boys were staring at me and whispering. Last night I’d hardly slept a wink, thinking about quong. Was he really real? Could I find him? What would I do when I found him? Was he really fat and wrinkly with a long tail and bushy eyebrows? Would he like me?

Would I like him? And do the eyebrows really keep out the flies?

What if there weren’t any flies?!

It was very hard to do arithmetic. Where should I go? As nobody that I’d believe had ever seen a quong I supposed that meant that they were pretty shy or pretty rare, even though