Beyond the Crossing

In 'Beyond the Crossing', Liz and her partner Martin, lived together in Melbourne in the early 1970s. Nearly everyone was attending antiwar protests and smoking dope in dimly lit folk clubs. They found they had inadvertently joined the rat race and decided to move to outback Australia and work in an Aboriginal community. It changes their lives forever.Lorraine Watts, author, is passionate about the regional, rural, and remote parts of Australia and the people who live there. She has lived in capital cities too, but it is the outback of Australia that captures her heart and provides much of the raw material for her writing. In this short story, Beyond the Crossing, two of the main characters, Liz and Martin, met and started their lives together in 1972 in Melbourne. This was a time when it seemed that nearly everyone was attending anti- Vietnam war protests, and smoking dope in dimly lit folk clubs in city basements. Liz and Martin, along with thousands of other young people, saw a need and opportunity to change the world to a kinder more loving place. They wanted a revolution.A few short years later, they married, had two young children, and were grinding their way through the rat race along with the rest of the population. That is, until an exciting opportunity arose for them to go north to a remote Aboriginal community in Arnhem Land. This experience was to shape their future together: for better or worse. They returned to Melbourne in 1981 but not for long. Next time they went to Fitzroy Crossing in West Australia's North West. This very different experience brought about a crisis in their lives. This story commences with the main character, Liz, in 2003, as she reflects on her time at the Crossing and wonders what the future holds for her. I hope you enjoy this story and that it gives you some insight into the human condition we all share.