Possums' Campus

By Richard Hyde

The fifth novel in the George and Julie series. A new country and change of career prove an unexpectedly bumpy ride for the couple. The huge environmental damage caused throughout Australia by the mining industry and the ruthless protection of its interests, academic corruption, misogyny and crime are challenged by progressive legal change and resolute commitment to academic integrity.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Richard Hyde
• Release date: Dec 28, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223667278

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Possums’ Campus – Preface

This novel follows on from the four earlier George and Julie novels - ‘The Island of the Red Queen’, ‘Untroubled Places – Sometimes’, ‘The Pestilence Years’ and ‘Sinking Cities’. This relates their further experiences in the totally new geographical, social and above all, professional environment of Australia.

Possums Campus, as its name suggests, is a work of fiction and as such, the main characters are creations of the author’s mind and are not intended to be confused with any real persons, living or dead. However, it has been necessary, in order to create a novel that is credible and authentic, to mention certain organisations, public personalities, events and places and to evoke the period of the book’s setting in the early decades of the 21st century. I also take complete responsibility for any words I have put in the mouths of Vice-Chancellor Professor Gardener and Reserve Bank Governor, Michele Bullock – but I venture to hope they would approve – or will at least forgive my presumption.

The novel is dedicated with affection and respect to Libby – in spite of the multiplicity of life’s curveballs thrown at her, she is the unassuming and successful practitioner of ‘Shit happens – just deal with it’.

In gratitude to my muse and wife, Nena; Dag Nissen who first encouraged my writing, Sarah Speers, my faithful fan and to my readers in many countries – hopefully impatient to catch up with my latest meanderings. But above all this novel is inspired by Australia’s outgoing, inventive and energetic people.

This is the fifth novel in the George and Julie series.

Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire. — W.B. Yeats, 1865 – 1939, nevertheless I am beginning this story with a quote from Mark Twain from the preface to his novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Fin: Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot.

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Leadbeater's Possum - Central Highlands Of Victoria, Australia - Painting Art by Elizabeth Cogley

Leadbeater’s possum - Gymnobelideus leadbeateri, Elizabeth Cogley, artist

Emblem of the State of Victoria

Mining in South Eastern Australia – Courtesy of Lincoln University

PROLOGUE

George Fielding was a recently minted English economist when he found his first job as a short-term consultant with the World Bank office in Madagascar. There he met and eventually married Julie Rakoto, a Malagasy-Australian economics Master. Both of their careers blossomed and after a very eventful 18 years spent in South East Asia, George decided that his post as the World Bank’s Country Director in Vietnam would be his last before joining the ranks of academia in Australia’s cultural capital, Melbourne. A year earlier they had spent a month in the city where an unconscious George had only narrowly escaped a determined attempt at sexual assault, foiled when Julie’s uncle had attacked his assailant, breaking his wrist in the process.

Julie too, while pursuing her provocative career as an economic, big-business, environmental gad fly and mischievous general stirrer, also returned to lecturing and the pair of them are just about to kick off with their new professions as lecturers and researchers in the Business and Economics faculty of Monash University in Melbourne.

CHAPTER 1

After a tiring night flight from Bangkok, George and Julie were met at the airport by her aunt and uncle, Doreen and Bruce. ‘Glad to see your hand is out of plaster at last, Bruce. ‘Yes, he groaned and Doreen is making me do a ton of gardening now. But how are you both – looking well I see’. Doreen chipped in - ‘we are hoping you’ll be staying with us for a few days while you are getting your house in order. All of your luggage has arrived safely from Ha Noi and we’ve installed new locks – more about that later’.

The city was looking good in the summer sunshine and Bruce took the long way round so they could admire the sights – the river, the botanical gardens, the Flinders Street station with its attendant trams and horse drawn carriages, St Pauls Cathedral, before finally arriving outside the handsome pair of classical Victorian houses, one of which was to be their home for the foreseeable future.

‘Bruce, I can see that you’ve been putting in a lot of work to make sure the gardens are looking great’.

‘Blame Doreen for that – if I hadn’t done a good job I’d be sleeping on the couch for the next month’.

‘No Bruce, I’d have let you off with a week – but yes, you did do a good job so you deserve a hug when we get inside. Now I know you two must be exhausted and jet lagged after your month-long travels across three continents so it’ll be a light lunch and you can get your heads down for a few hours before we go next door to look at your new home’. They were delighted to see that the tenants had left the house in an immaculate condition; the walls were painted a simple white but it was obvious that most of the furniture was in urgent need of replacement. Fortunately, the kitchen seemed to be in good nick with all the normal appliances. ‘The cooker looks great but we must both learn how to use it first. Our cooking lessons in Vietnam were useful but were all outside on open gas or charcoal stoves. Doreen, can we watch you in your kitchen when you are preparing our meals?’

‘Oh, yes, you certainly can’ and glancing at Bruce, ‘I can definitely use a bit of help there’. At this Bruce had the good grace to look uncomfortable.

‘We’ll start going round the stores tomorrow and we’ll have to sort out our telephones and internet too – then look through all our boxes; there must be a hundred to open but the first thing, after buying a bed will be a home office for us in the second bedroom. There should be enough space there for both of us’.

‘Take your time – we are happy for you to stay with us for as long as you need and Bruce will be driving you round the shops and offices. Incidentally, one thing we did when the children came along was to build an attic room which gave them a bit more privacy. Your father never got round to it before he left for Madagascar but in the longer term it may be worth thinking about. Finally, it wasn’t too costly and the foundations here were perfectly ok for the extra weight. But we did have to comply with the Victoria Heritage Foundation rules which are not too onerous and may even make you eligible for a grant’.

‘Oh George, thank goodness we allowed for a ten-day gap before taking up our new jobs – there’s so much to do and to learn here about everyday life. But Doreen, you mentioned something about the locks?’

‘Yes, we have installed new ones throughout, including all the windows and one thing you should absolutely do is to set up cctv cameras around the house. Although Melbourne is a wonderful and rewarding city to live in, we do have a fast growing problem here of burglary. You’ll even find that many house insurance policies are actually beginning to specify cctv cameras in their contracts.  Camera prices are very reasonable and you’ll probably find you can do this at the same time as you are organising your internet and phone connections.  Now let’s go back to our house and get some supper – I remember from your visit last year that you enjoyed Victoria’s favourite dish, so I’ve made you chicken parmigiana’.

Replete after a great meal George and Julie stumbled up to the guest room at the back of the house. ‘George, I’m in desperate need of a really big hug but I think I’m starting to become an old lady and I’m just too exhausted and jetlagged to even think about anything but sleep so just hold me tight and I’ll be asleep in seconds’. It only seemed minutes later that George heard a noise of breaking glass from outside followed by the sound of splitting wood.

‘Wake up Julie’, he whispered, open the video camera app on the smartphone but don’t turn on the light. I think our house is being broken into’. They crept up to their window and could clearly see two figures in the next-door garden outside their own backdoor, one appearing to be trying to jimmy open the locked door. As Julie began to film the door gave way and the two burglars disappeared inside only to come out a moment later with two of their unopened boxes. George took over the smartphone, asking Julie to wake up Bruce and Doreen and to tell them to call the police. Doubtless the thieves, sensing the movements in the next-door house, hurriedly dropped their loot and ran off, jumping over the garden wall. George heard a grunt followed by an expletive and realized that one of them must have injured themselves.

The police turned up minutes later – ‘Sergeant Kay and Senior Constable Thompson. We happened to be on patrol in the area and picked up these two guys in the street and one of them was limping badly; I think he’s probably broken his leg so we’ll be taking one to the hospital and the other straight to police cells. Come outside and have a look at them – are they the pair you saw robbing your house?’

‘I can’t be certain but we filmed them while they trying to jimmy open the back door with a crowbar; perhaps they will have left their prints on it as well as on the two boxes they abandoned in the garden’.

One of the policemen turned towards Julie’s uncle – ‘I recognise you, aren’t you the guy who broke that rapist’s jaw last year? Couldn’t have happened to a nicer person, but I was sorry that you broke your wrist in the process. But luckily you didn’t take on these two – one of them was carrying a pretty vicious knife . . . . ’

‘Oh no, I learned my lesson with my wrist in plaster for 4 months and at 65, I reckon my fighting days are over, though at school I had a bit of a reputation as a scrapper; it was the only way for us smaller ones to survive’.

The police copied the video from Julie’s smartphone – ‘Its four thirty in the morning but I’d like all of you to come down to the police station around mid-day to make a statement’ only to be interrupted by a shout from the police car – ‘can’t you see I’m in great pain and I need to go to hospital immediately’.

‘Shut your mouth you stupid bugger - we’ll take you to hospital when we’re well and ready; let it teach you a lesson not to be such a useless burglar’.

‘That wasn’t a very sympathetic answer to a man in considerable pain, was it?’ said Bruce.

‘No, it wasn’t, was it’ replied Sergeant Kay with a broad smile on his face – ‘I’ll just have to work a bit harder on my people skills, won’t I’.

Doreen blinked and rubbed her eyes - ‘George, It’s unbelievable that the police arrived so fast and it was only 45 minutes ago that you were woken up by the sound of breaking glass, let’s all get some sleep and I’ll organise our late breakfast for ten’. Over the excellent local coffee they discussed the night’s events and Bruce, always practical, commented -  

‘Julie, I’m worried that your back door is broken; do you mind if I get the handyman who usually works for us to mend it today and maybe measure up for it to be behind a fresh steel grille gate’.

‘What a good idea but it it’ll be important for any grille to match the ironwork on the balcony too’.

‘He’s a competent guy who can turn his hand to anything and I know he’ll enjoy welding up something like that’.

The first thing they did was to get local sim cards for their smartphones and the provider also covered their internet and television too. It proved to be a real one-stop shop so they were able to arrange for cctv, a burglar alarm to be installed the next day and bought an enormous flat screen television too. ‘It’ll help me to unwind with a few soaps when I’m tired after a long day’s lecturing or trying to sabotage the mining companies – when I was small, I used to enjoy watching Neighbours’.

‘Oh, Julie, I see you’ve already set your mind on yet another confrontational research programme . . . .’

‘You bet I have, George, and I’ve already forewarned the University that such is my intention’ replied Julie with a roguish grin.

At the police station the four of them spent an hour with Sergeant Kay writing out the night’s events and signed them off.  ‘Will we have to be present as witnesses if there is a trial? 

‘Well, there’ll certainly be a trial and in fact the uninjured guy was arraigned only this morning. Subject to the medical condition of the guy in hospital the judge has set a trial date for two weeks from now so they’ll both be on remand in the meantime. Because of the huge increase in burglaries over the past months the judge is not likely to grant bail.  But I’m sorry I can’t answer your question as it will be for the prosecution to decide if your presence will be required. Now both of them have turned their eighteenth birthdays and both have prior run ins with the law so it’ll be the big house for them which I rather cynically call the University of Crime where they can learn their trade. Until their trial they’ll both be residing in the MAP – the Melbourne Assessment Prison. Actually, I do feel a little sorry for the guy who broke his leg - he’s easily led and has only one previous conviction when, once again, he paired with the same guy who already had a string of convictions behind him, starting with shoplifting when he was eleven years old. Perhaps I’ll have word with the prosecutor and MAP to suggest they can be sentenced individually and not sent to the same prison. I sense that ‘broken leg’ is potentially salvageable, but his mate is probably a lost cause’.

‘Thanks for that – it looks as if you are as keen on preventing youngsters becoming criminals as catching them. Now, it’s a bit late now but this morning we bought a burglar alarm which will be installed tomorrow – apparently, we have to register it with you so when it goes off, you’ll be automatically contacted’.

‘Hardly late – you’ve been in our fair city for less than twenty-four hours and done a lot. I’ll call in our alarm guy and you can give him your brand-new phone numbers as well as your email addresses so you should be fully set’.

‘But excuse me – you are not looking your usual happy and cynical self?’

‘Yes, you’re right – last night there was another incident; two young boys, 16 and 13, ran a red light, crashed and were seriously injured. We had solid reason to believe that they were involved in a number of attempted burglaries and were trying to escape from the police car chasing them. Their future is not promising; months in hospital, some permanent injuries then substantial prison sentences in juvenile lock ups. It all makes me sad to see two more wasted lives. And, believe it or not, there were four more accomplices, thankfully uninjured, in the car who will taking obligatory extended holidays financed by the taxpayers of our fair state’.

CHAPTER 2

Before they had finished with the police, they both received e-mail messages from the Monash Chancellorship instructing them to present themselves in the lecture theatre at ten on the morning of 27 February at the Caulfield campus where Professor Margaret Gardner, Vice-Chancellor and President, would formally welcome them to Monash University. ‘She’s an economist and the first woman head of the university – a very tough cookie who, according to Wikipedia, survived a major scandal without it impinging on her stellar career’ commented Julie. The e-mail added that they should bring passports or driving licences to identify themselves.

The next six days were rather boringly spent in furniture shops, buying curtains and bedding and catching up with thousands of e-mails.

Julie took the opportunity to make a call on the local office of the Guardian which had been alerted about her arrival by Euan in London and she was met by Jane Black, the branch head, ‘He’s a wonderful eccentric and a very fine journalist to boot. He told me that apart from your op-eds – for which many congratulations – you had also completed another op-ed on brexit. Not an issue of any particular interest here except for the fact that the Australians are elated to have got a bargain end of the trade agreement with the UK. My colleagues in Canberra told me the British negotiators were so anxious to get the agreement sewn up quickly that they seemed prepared to agree to just about anything.

Now I saw the print out of your interview a couple of years back with Elsa Cox, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s stringer in Bangkok, and can only say congratulations – we need strong women’s voices here as, in spite of a few high-profile appointments of women in government, Victoria remains a pretty misogynistic place and the country as a whole remains a major blackspot in the West for what seems to me to be a visceral lack of respect for women’s rights – actually starting in the very top in Australia’s federal parliament and consequently being reflected all the way down to grass roots’.

‘Over the past few years there have been a multitude of press articles and studies highlighting this but with minimal effect; I’m afraid toxic masculinity seems permanently embedded in Australia’s DNA. You may like to have a chat with Melbourne University’s Anet McClintock who has just produced a scathing article on the issue in the journal of the Australian Institute of International Affairs’.

‘Now if that’s not enough to whet your appetite for punishment, Euan has told me about your run ins with the monster chemical and agricultural industries hell bent on destroying our ecology but here you can add mining to the list of environmental vandals. I know it’s patronising for me to say this but do be careful – these guys don’t play by the rules. As far as we can we’ll have your back and, in spite of a fair proportion of Monash University’s research income coming from this industry, I think that you’ll find it supportive too’.

Three days later George and Julie found themselves queuing outside the Vice-Chancellorship’s lecture hall among a group of some fifty prospective lecturers – many of them seeming slightly apprehensive about working for such a prestigious university. The reason for the queues became clear when they were asked to look at the camera in front of each of check-in desks. This will produce your University id card as well as a lanyard card which you should wear whenever you are on campus and will get you into most of the buildings here as well as