The Ancient Australian Prince

By Ken Le Roux

Who is the Australian Prince and who is hiding him?
What strange creature lurks in the waters of the Hawkesbury Estuary? Four young people search for answers to these questions and soon find themselves in a world where adventure, folklore, myth, rumour and reality meet with most amazing consequences.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Jul 22, 2018
• ISBN: 9780244401610

Book preview

Ken Le Roux

Copyright

  © Ken Le Roux 2009

All rights reserved. The contents of this book, or any portion thereof, may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review or scholarly journal.

The Ancient Australian Prince

Who is the Australian Prince and who is hiding him? What strange creature lurks in the waters of the Hawkesbury Estuary?

Four young people search for answers to these questions and soon find themselves in a world where folklore, myth, rumour and reality meet with amazing consequences.

Acknowledgements

A special thank you to my daughters who encouraged me to write and helped with the publishing process.

Paranorma and Psychic Australian January 1978 - UFO base under The Blue Mountains

Paranorma and Psychic Australian May 1978 - Katoomba UFO encounters

Aboriginal Traditions - Bird Man

Paranorma and Psychic Australian July 1978

The Yowies of Katoomba -

(All by Rex Gilroy)

All News Web 2.1.2009 - UFO traffic and Australia's Bermuda Triangle

Wikipedia - Cox's River

New South Wales Government - Department of Lands - Six Foot Track

The Australian Government - Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

Advance Australia Fair (Peter Dodds Mc Cormick)

Chapter One

[Australians all let us rejoice for we are young and free]

The young boy walked briskly down the long corridor, behind his new headmaster. He wished that he were back in South Africa in his old school and with the friends that he had left behind but he was not. He was in Sydney and in an Australian school, where he had no friends.

Mr. Price, the portly bald headed headmaster, stopped and knocked on a classroom door marked 6C and a slim, pretty young teacher with blonde hair and smiling blue eyes appeared.

Miss Welsh, this is Billy Daniels the young man we have been expecting. Billy this is your teacher Miss Welsh.

Thank you Mr. Price; we will take good care of him. Come and meet your new classmates Billy.

They stood in front of the class; the tall, slim teacher in her bright yellow silk blouse and wide, snow white skirt and the eleven-year-old boy. He was tall for his age with a tanned, serious face and straight sandy hair combed forward with a short fringe. Billy looked shy and awkward in his obviously new school uniform and shoes. His blue eyes surveyed the curious, staring faces before him and he cleared his throat nervously.

Miss Welsh said quietly,

Boys and girls this is Billy Daniels who has come all the way from South Africa and lives here now. I am sure that you will all go out of your way to welcome him and make him feel at home. Try to imagine what it would feel like if this were your first day at school in South Africa and you were standing in front of the class, looking at the strange faces of your new classmates. I think that you would feel shy, lonely and a bit lost, don't you? I imagine that Billy has many interesting stories to tell about his life and adventures in Africa.

Billy shut his eyes involuntarily as he was blinded by a sudden flash of light. When he opened them he still saw little white objects dancing around and blurring his vision.

Miss Welsh said sternly,

Jenny Jordan! Just how many times have I asked you not to take photographs during lessons? Now give me that camera and you may collect it at the headmaster's office after school, when you explain your disobedient behaviour to him.

The class waited in suspense. Jenny always, always wanted to have the last word. They were not disappointed when she whined,

But Miss Welsh this isn't a lesson. You were busy introducing the new boy and I needed a photograph for the school magazine. I wouldn't have done it if you were teaching.

The new boy has a name Jenny. It is Billy and I am teaching. The lesson is just for you; to teach you not to disobey my instructions and not to make excuses every time you do.

Everyone laughed as Jenny stomped up to Miss Welsh's desk, handed the camera to her and then stuck her tongue out at the class as she turned to walk back to her desk. Billy laughed too when he saw what she did. She stopped at an unoccupied desk, gestured to him to sit there and curtsied so low that her long pigtails almost touched the floor. She had the bluest of blue eyes. Of course her red hair came with freckles; not too many, and mainly around her small nose. Billy couldn't decide whether the expression on her pretty face was cheeky or just determined.

Miss Welsh struggled not to laugh as she brought the class to order, telling her pupils to continue writing their stories. She gave Billy a pile of books and explained what his classmates were doing. She said that he could join them and compose his own story if he felt up to it. He could write about anything interesting that had happened to him recently.

Billy loved writing stories and he soon settled down to write about his journey from Durban to Sydney. He wrote about saying goodbye to his friends and his teachers; about flying over the ocean and seeing giant icebergs from the South Pole floating on the water and going, 'Who knows where?' He described his surprise when he realized how big the country was, as they flew over land for many hours after their first glimpse of the Western Australian coastline. Australia looked so much smaller on the map of the world. His new home was perched on a cliff overlooking the great Hawkesbury Estuary and surrounded by trees, shrubs and indigenous bush. To tide him over until he had friends and company, his father Bob, who was a writer, had bought him a small boat with a motor. Billy explored the coves and inlets from Bobbin Head to Lion Island and beyond as he became accustomed to the boat and his surroundings. Often he would leave the small craft on a sandy beach in a cove and take short bushwalks along the many tracks which he found when he became more familiar with the area.

He described an occasion when he arrived home after one of his jaunts to find his parents watching from the lounge doorway, a distance of ten meters, as a King Parrot enjoyed an afternoon snack. The bowl of nuts happened to be on one of three desks in the office and the desk belonged to Billy's mother, Doctor Rae Daniels. Rae was a dentist and their unexpected guest was making an awful mess of her files but his three observers enjoyed every minute of his comical performance. It was not a sight which they could have observed in an average South African home.

Redcoat, as they named him, was quite tame and he became a regular visitor. He was given a special unpainted wooden table on the suspended, slatted verandah, and his bowl of nuts was replenished daily. Bob's writing table was just inside the office, looking out over the Hawkesbury. On warm days, the glass sliding doors were left open and he would write busily, while Redcoat ate his nuts or hung upside down on the clothesline; quite unconcerned about the tapping sounds from the keyboard.

On another occasion Billy had gone out before dawn, on a Sunday morning, and anchored twenty metres from the shore. He was sitting quietly, thinking about the track that he saw leading from a cleft rock and disappearing up the hillside into the bush. Suddenly a wallaby emerged from the gap between the two halves of the rock. It looked around, quite unperturbed by Billy’s presence and then hopped along the track and into the bush.

One day, as Billy pushed away from the jetty, Redcoat swooped down and sat on the bow of the boat. He was not at all startled when Billy started the motor and headed toward Cottage Point. Since that day Redcoat had kept him company every time he went out in the boat but somehow knew that he should stay at home when Billy went out with his parents, in the car, or rode off alone on his bicycle.

Sometimes Redcoat would leave the boat and investigate something that he had noticed in the bush. He always found the boat again, no matter where it was, and returned to his favourite spot on the bow. Billy had a can of nuts, cable-tied to the boat, for when Redcoat felt peckish during an outing.

The many adventures described in Billy's story sounded exciting and the scenes which he described made the Hawkesbury Estuary seem exactly like the vast, beautiful, peaceful paradise that it was. Miss Welsh enjoyed the essay immensely and he reluctantly read it out loud when she pleaded with him to share his interesting experiences with his classmates.

Later, in the playground, Arnold Start and several other boys questioned him about South Africa and about his frequent boat trips.

Jenny Jordan sent her friend, Lucy Chan, to ask for his permission to print his story and a photograph of him and Redcoat in the school magazine. Billy said that he would think about it. He was sorry that he had ever mentioned Redcoat. He wouldn't have if he had known that he would have to read the story to the rest of the class. Eventually he agreed to the story being published but refused to upset Redcoat by allowing Jenny to photograph the bird. The editor of the school press-club, Maggie Warburton, advised Jenny to respect Billy's wishes and perhaps take photographs of some of the places described in the story instead. Maggie was in year twelve and knew from experience that it was always better to obtain permission before taking photos of private individuals.

During the following three weeks Billy did his homework each afternoon and then continued to explore a different section of the river every day. He found it strange, recently, that each time he cut the motor on his boat he heard a distinct echo as it spluttered to a stop. He couldn't understand why he hadn't heard the echo before but thought that it could have something to do with the cliff formations in some of the coves.

Sometimes he detected a stench near the boat; like the odour emitted by a compost heap. The odour came and went and he decided to look on the internet to see if there was any mention of sulphur deposits, hot springs or anything else that might produce the rather unpleasant pungent smell in the Hawkesbury waters.

One evening after sunset he cut the motor, heard the familiar echo and, ignoring the sound, sat still for a while. He watched the beach to see if there was any movement on the track that led from the water's edge to the rock ledges above. Suddenly, a flash illuminated the area around the boat and, a split second later, Redcoat squawked and took off into the bush.       Billy turned to see a dismayed Jenny Jordan, ten metres away, balancing precariously on the bow of her large boat; her camera still poised after having taken the picture. With her in the boat was Lucy Chan who had covered her mouth with her hands when she saw how the flash had startled Redcoat.

The Boy was very angry. He searched the shadows for signs of Redcoat then glared at them and asked:

Are you satisfied now? The poor bird has done you no harm. He didn't deserve to be frightened like that. Now you know why I didn't want you photographing him. Don't you ever think before you do things? I hope that you and your magazine are happy with what you've done. I also hope that the poor bird doesn't injure himself and that he will find his way home in the dark.

Billy started the outboard motor and sped away. He was almost sure that Redcoat was only startled and would find his way home but he was anxious to get home and check because the parrot really didn't see very well at night. Suddenly it occurred to him that the echo he had been hearing was Jenny's motor being turned off each time she saw him stop. He wondered for just how long she had been following him in order to get the picture of Redcoat without his permission.

Jenny sobbed, What am I going to do Lucy? I didn't mean that to happen. He is so angry. He will never speak to me again! You know that I only wanted to follow Maggie's advice and photograph some of the places that Billy visits. When we got so close without his hearing us I just couldn't resist taking the picture. It was a sudden impulse. I didn't plan it.

Lucy's parents worked at the Chinese Consulate. She was always cheerful, optimistic and full of fun. She had been best friends with Jenny since her arrival in Sydney three years earlier. She ran her fingers through her short, shiny black hair; looking worried as she commiserated with her friend and said:

You didn't know that you would frighten the parrot away Jenny. Can't you take photos without the flash? It's the flash that always gets you into trouble you know.

Jenny was very subdued and sad after the episode with Redcoat on the river. Miss Welsh and Jenny's classmates noticed; observing that she was following the teacher's instructions and answering politely when spoken to. Miss Welsh was worried. This was not the usually wilful, spirited person whom she was accustomed to but a strange, new, quiet Jenny. She hoped that the girl was not ill or coming down with something.

In fact, for the first time in her life, Jenny was contrite, shy and uncertain about what she should do. She admitted to herself that Billy was right. People should think before doing things. She was always in trouble because she acted first and thought about her actions afterwards. If she had thought about why Billy didn't want the bird photographed then she would have known that he would spit the dummy when she went against his wishes. He was, of course, only thinking of Redcoat. She wanted to apologise to Billy but didn't know how, or what she could say to persuade him to forgive her. She didn't even know whether or not the poor parrot was safe and unhurt. Her friend Lucy was too afraid to go and ask him. She complained that she didn't want her head bitten off again by