Robert Drewe - Montebello

Firstly I want to thank Gerri Sutton, whose generous assistance made this book possible.

Special thanks for their patience and hospitality to Brent Johnson, former Principal Technical Officer, Fauna Conservation, and Dr Andy Smith, former Senior Research Scientist (Fauna Translocations), Wildlife Research Centre, Department of Environment and Conservation, Western Australia. And for their willingness to share their specialist conservation knowledge and Montebello experiences, Im immensely grateful to Dr Andrew Burbidge and Peter Kendrick.

For their help, time and assorted kindnesses, Im indebted to Dirk Avery; Carmel Bird; Robbie Burns; Dana Burrows; Patrick and Maxine Coverley; Tracy Coverley; Bill Drewe; Tony Gibson; Jack and Nancy Harrison; Janet Hocken; Mark Holden; Chris Mews; Nelson and Julie Mews; Rusty Miller and Tricia Shantz; Kim Newman; Ross Nobel; Jan Purcell; Sagaro at Lightforce Computers; Dr Catherine Samson; Moya Sayer-Jones; Brian Sierakowski; Peter Temple; and Stephen Van Mil.

For their publishing support, thanks as always to Julie Gibbs, Fiona Inglis, Jocelyn Hungerford and Bob Sessions.

Some early fragments of this book were first published in Granta; When the Wild Comes Leaping Up: Personal Encounters with Nature (edited by David Suzuki); Best Australian Essays 2006; Best Australian Short Stories 2008; Sand (with John Kinsella); Westerly; the Saturday Age; West Weekend; Sunday Life; the Bulletin; and the Weekend Australian Magazine.

The following works are acknowledged: For literature and history: New Voyage Round the World, by William Dampier; William Dampier in New Holland, by Alex S. George; Youth, by Joseph Conrad; Kangaroo, by D.H. Lawrence; The Island of Dr Moreau, by H.G. Wells; My Family and Other Animals, by Gerald Durrell; Prosperos Cell and Reflections on a Marine Venus, by Lawrence Durrell; Henry Lawson The Peoples Poet: Women and the Bush: Forces of Desire in the Australian Cultural Tradition, by Kay Schaffer; Herzog, by Saul Bellow; A Move Abroad, by Ian McEwan; Point Omega, by Don DeLillo; Quote from Prosperos Cell reproduced with permission of Curtis Brown Group Ltd, London on behalf of the Estate of Lawrence Durrell. Copyright Lawrence Durrell, 1945; Quote from Reflections on a Marine Venus reproduced with permission of Curtis Brown Group Ltd, London on behalf of the Estate of Lawrence Durrell. Copyright Lawrence Durrell, 1945; Monster of God: The Man-Eating Predator in the Jungles of History and the Mind, by David Quammen; Time and Tide: History of Byron Bay, by S.J. Dening; and Byron Bay: The History, Beauty and Spirit, by Peter Duke.

On conservation matters: Landscope (Department of the Environment and Conservation, W.A.); The Western Australian Naturalist, Vol. 24, No. 2, 2003: Mass Deaths of Sea Turtles on the Montebello Islands, October 1953, Following Operation Hurricane, by Peter Kendrick; Exploiting Green and Hawksbill Turtles in Western Australia: A Case Study of Commercial Marine Turtle Fishing 1869 1973, by Brooke Halkyard; Radiation Management Plan, Montebello Islands Conservation Park, and Management Proposals for the Montebello Islands and Surrounding Waters (Department of Conservation and Land Management, W.A.).

On nuclear testing: Max Kimbers ABC interviews; Beyond Belief, by Roger Cross and Avon Hudson; Atomic Fallout, publication of the Atomic Ex-Servicemens Association; Wayward Governance: Illegality and Its Control in the Public Sector: Chapter 16: A Toxic Legacy British Nuclear Weapons Testing in Australia, by P.N. Grabowsky (Australian Institute of Criminology); The Story of Operation Hurricane, a 1977 paper by J.J. McEnhill (National Archives of Australia); Radiation Hazard Assessment and Monitoring Programme for the Montebello Islands (Western Radiation Services).

Credits: Blueberry Hill was recorded by Fats Domino in 1956 and written by Vincent Rose, Al Lewis and Larry Stock in 1940; Groundhog Day (1993) was directed by Harold Ramis and written by Danny Rubin and Harold Ramis; and Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959) was directed by Alain Resnais and written by Marguerite Duras.