When the Creeks are Running Series

this is the first in a series of fictional plots featuring the creek family, and in particular burra creek, however, in this adventure to fords beach, it is burra’s long time friend and drinking partner, cliffy hill who accompanies him on a journey far from home to the seaside where they are to become caretakers for an old mate who they have not seen for many years, and now is in need of assistance as a family tragedy is about to occur within a short period of time. burra is more than happy to assist his old friend wally grimm out. wally just happens to own and run a vehicle wreckers yard in amongst a small community at fords beach. both burra and cliffy have never been to fords beach nor as a matter of fact, ever heard of the place. although slightly wary of taking on what might be a demanding position, once wally establishes the fact that fords beach has a pub, as well as a few other tempting considerations, the two men cannot resist the lure of the beach, beer and...naked bodies that wally faithfully promises will be there. naturally as married men, burra and cliffy are forced to clear a number of hurdles before leaving on their work experience adventure. the hurdles involve both wives, namely edith and mavis, who at first demand to be taken along. the obstacles are removed one by one as burra uses a combination of unsavory methods to ensure that this is not really going to be any picnic, and the usual comforts of home will be obsolete. burra and cliffy’s stay at fords beach offers a blending of highs and lows. unfortunately in true creek tradition, the lows outnumber the highs due to burra’s inability to see past the alluring captivating images ahead of him. being out of his own environment causes a number of troublesome mishaps for burra through failure to apportion blame upon himself, which eventually lead to many destructive outcomes. one message that becomes loud and clear to burra and cliffy is...in future, any long lost friend can remain so if an offer of inducement is put forward which requires leaving their own dunghill. once burra can put things right with edith, she will never have to face another lonely night without him...that is burra’s declaration at this point, but of course once the hurt subsides, burra’s memory fades quickly.

the lure of shares in a promised fortune is too much for burra to ignore when a gnarled old bloke in the pub claims that he has lived his life as a gold prospector, and so paints an alluring mental picture of a life that is productive as well as being adventurous. once burra has been infected by gold fever, the prospector named pete takes burra on a mental journey on how a nugget nominated as the rhubarb leaf was lost and now lies hidden in a deserted goldfield, waiting to be reclaimed. with each anecdote pete provides: plus being backed up by his assistant ralph, burra soon becomes besotted with the promise of a small fortune, so offers his hand to find this fabled nugget named the rhubarb leaf,. although burra insists through negotiation that one of his sons accompany him on the rush to fairy dell. once all the details are finalized, not only burra and his son archie are joining pete and ralph, but also two acquaintances of archie’s; ned and shaun have offered their services as well, but burra demands one stipulation that is set in concrete as far as he is concerned...there must be no involvement from women who might derail the entire project, but this demand is squashed when the crew gathers to leave, for pete admits that he lives with his daughter and she is to join them as the cook, but the crew isn’t complete yet. burra is blamed for offering clarence, a religious crank, a spot on the team, which naturally burra denies, and with the addition of clarence everything appeared finalized until pete realized burra has forgot to bring the guns, so there is another hold up until burra fixes the problem, and on arrival back at home, another of burra’s sons, Arty, decides at the last minute to join the rush to fairy dell. there are many twists and turns involving each member of the crew and plenty of surprises involving personnel and situations in the quest for the hidden nugget. I will finish by mentioning that gold is found, but for the reader to know by who and how the gold is distributed you must read on.

burra appears to have become the luckiest man on earth. he is one of two winners in a competition for a two week holiday in a tropical paradise resort at cerulean waters, but one point slips his mind amongst the adoration. burra cannot recall entering any raffle, but what does it matter, burra wins it and once again burra uses his devious skills to deter edith from joining him on the holiday, and once more burra raises mavis’ ire with his tactics to secure his best mate cliffy as his right hand man on this trip after the organizers demanded that burra take edith along. burra meets up with the other competition winners, noel and kerry, at a hamlet named sawcut crossing, and from there they drive in convey. burra and cliffy are both slightly wary of noel’s abrupt and aggressive nature. unfortunately behind the façade and glossary of verbal promises, burra finds himself continually getting into situations that were never initially mentioned, but his luck in raffles continues to blossom, although the winning prizes have all got a sting in the tail for burra, and therefore become more of a hindrance than a desirable claim. with ready cash becoming scarce through bad investments, burra and cliffy are forced to take on offered courier jobs for some very shady characters that promise the world but deliver little. in fact, burra and cliffy only receive enough funds to keep them based in cerulean waters, and barely enough until their next courier job is offered, but they never receive enough funds to pay for fuel that will see them home. after one particularly scary courier situation, burra declares that enough is enough, and come what may, it’s time to escape the confines of cerulean waters, but it is then on the verge of departing that burra is cornered by noel and he finally realizes why he won the raffle without buying a ticket, and why edith is supposed to be with him. burra and cliffy have one more unwanted courier job on their hands, and this courier job is at least a delivery on their way home, but it is the only reason why burra was lured to cerulean waters in the first place, but if burra thought that his life was in danger at cerulean waters from the thugs that he dealt with, then he is wrong. edith’s mother has a very unpleasant surprise for him.

a long and arduous journey seeking riches again results from a little aside by burra's grandson 'stinky,' who provides burra with a wisp of information on the huge benefits on offer from wildlife smuggling and spoken in confidence by a friend who's father is deeply involved. with figures in his head of vast riches from trapping wildlife, burra, along with cliffy, and sons archie and arty take the gamble and join the kangaroo shooter's cult hoping to benefit from trapping endangered wildlife, but on arrival in billabrook discover trapping wildlife is only a part of a large illegal organization involved in many different fields, and they are advised to not venture into areas controlled by their arch rivals, the barramundi fishermen. burra, cliffy, archie and arty quickly discover that those who employed them are basically only themselves on the bottom rung of a very long ladder and as they meet those higher on the hierarchy scale, the creeks are split up and forced to perform duties for the good of the kangaroo shooters cult, but not necessarily for the good of burra, his boys, and cliffy. burra’s inability to stay away from members of the opposite sex tend to lead him into temptation, but then the temptation leads him into more precarious situations that push him to the abyss on expeditions that he has been seconded to. cliffy finds a niche working in the clubhouse as a cleaner, and archie along with arty have been placed under the control of an abrupt and impatient german named adolf who is in charge of dispatch. the creeks final act of employment is to swap a dog that burra had finally tracked down. once the swap has been made, they are free to drive home, but with all the gains made by burra, certain incidents quickly eat into any of these gains he has made after arriving home. funnily, archie, arty and cliffy do quite well out of the billabrook traps.

Following archie and arty securing a job for two days at the agricultural show helping out with the running of a side show event... the ghost train, burra is surprised and amazed how much his boys are offered by eddie goldstein the employer for just two days work, but what pleases him more is to see his boys in meaningful employment again. however, eddie goldstein’s promise is just that, a promise without substance, and this infuriates burra no end. archie and arty have been duped, and in burra’s consciousness, anybody who makes a fool of a creek is in line for summary justice, so burra declares forcefully that he will lead archie and arty to confront eddie goldstein and claim their promised wages. two unexpected obstacles happen to get into burra’s way before the journey begins, and these needed to be overcome quickly. firstly, his eldest son ‘croppa’ arrived unexpectedly after breaking out of jail again, and secondly, cliffy adamantly and steadfast refuses to even consider joining burra on another fruitless journey, but as always, burra has something up his sleeve for cliffy, and once again cliffy finds himself in the middle of a creek dilemma. following in the tracks of the ghost train operator eddie goldstein, burra’s informants keep advising him that eddie is one step ahead of him at a fair, carnival or show that the ghost train will be attending, however due to incidents both in and out of his control, burra is constantly frustrated by diversions, so his family continually arrives at the intended destinations too late for a confrontation with eddie goldstein. when the confrontation finally does arrive between burra and the ghost train operators, the past is not helpful to burra and the consequences are once again dire for him, but nowhere near as embarrassing for burra after a letter arrives in the mail for him that he mistakenly assumes that he is responsible for an act he cannot recall but needs to be resolved.

burra’s blood pressure is constantly on the upper side of being dangerously close to him becoming a medical disaster because each member of his family has got themselves into considerable debt through misuse of facilities and being just plain neglectful. the family’s inconsideration is highlighted on to burra because he is expected to pay their way out of looming trouble that is not too far ahead. but to top this off, burra is then informed that his eleven year old grandson, stinky, has sullied the creek name, but his mind then drifts onto another tangent that brings a smile to his face when believing that stinky’s indiscretion could be the godsend to pay off his family’s debt, but as per normal, burra gets his wires crossed and threats of a lynching are thrown at burra who not only has to protect stinky, but himself as well. just as everything appears to have gone pear shaped, a brilliant idea from edith’s mother comes off and the creek families come into a substantial amount of money that everybody wants to selfishly spend upon themselves. edith’s insistence about what she intends to do with her share persuades the other members in her family to follow suit, especially from burra who deems that stinky needs to be taken as far away as possible until things die down, and so he agrees with edith that darwin should be far enough away, even if she is going for a different reason. edith wants to enjoy the company of her bank manager son ross. once the decision is made, stinky promises burra that he will pay back every cent that his indiscretion cost burra. the trip to darwin is full of what can be classed as normal creek disasters that are very costly but because they are ‘loaded’ then money is no object. the holiday in darwin offers little respite, although burra is mindful that the money is disappearing quicker than even he expected, and because of this, when offered part time work, burra cajoles his boys into joining him, but again in true creek style, the cost outsizes the gains, so when the creeks leave darwin for the trip home, they are on the verge of being broke with barely enough money for fuel. luckily for the creeks, burra and his boys are offered a job by a wily old fisherman named harry, but of course either burra didn’t listen properly, or cagey harry has played burra for a sucker. there is more trouble for burra after arriving home, and it sends burra to the brink. thinking of a way to avoid bankruptcy, burra plays everyone for a fool until he receives a message that stinky came good with his promise to repay burra, however burra’s acting at playing everyone for a fool is too convincing for his own good.