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‘In the shower.’ Emma’s face filled the screen as she leaned in closer to the camera on her computer. ‘You okay?’

‘I’ll be quick before she gets out. Tell me as soon as you hear her.’

‘What’s wrong?’

‘You’re not going to believe this, but I think she’s been right all along. There’s something going on at our old place. I saw it with my own eyes.’

‘Something like what?’

She quickly filled Emma in on everything she’d seen; first the trucks, then the earthworks and suspicious construction next to the river, and finally her trip to the farm, including meeting Susan Sordina and being run off the property.

‘Ellie, I don’t like the sound of this. It makes sense of something else I was going to tell you too.’

‘What else?’

There was a long silence at the other end.

‘Em?’

‘After you left I read some of the emails Mum got from one of the action groups. Right now there’s a parliamentary committee looking into exploration applications in the north of the Territory. For fracking and seabed mining.’

‘Are you serious?’

She glanced across at the living room window and saw her face reflected back at her. The sudden realisation that anyone out there could see her clearly in the brightly lit room sent a shiver down her spine. She jumped up and pulled down the rarely used blind behind the curtains.

‘The emails were from a guy at Mary River. He said there’s been a heap of discussion over the past month about moving the border of Kakadu south to allow for hydraulic fracking up on South Alligator River, but it’s been kept quiet. A company called Black Coal Holdings is pushing for a licence to drill. From all accounts there is a big shale gas deposit there. And I looked at the map.’

Ellie shook her head. No way. ‘The South Alligator River is part of the border of the old farm.’ Her mind was spinning with the implications. ‘Why hasn’t there been an uproar about this? There’s always been opposition to mining in the national park and it is traditional land across the river. Remember all the demonstrations at the Ranger mine when we were kids? And Panos owns the farm so where does this Black Coal Holdings company come into it? I’m going to see Bill Jarragah again tonight. He must know something.’

‘You mean Bill who used to work on the farm?’

‘Yeah, Heather’s dad. There was an article in the paper the other day about Sordina meeting with his Aboriginal council. He’s been acting strangely ever since.’ Ellie took a deep breath. ‘Do you know what fracking does to the environment?’ She’d read up on it when she’d been looking for the article she’d seen on Kane’s iPad.

‘No, only what’s been in the emails to Mum.’

‘Even though they reckon it could be really good for the economy, there are so many risks involved. It’s scary stuff. Read some of the articles on the internet. The chemicals they use can leach into the water table. They’ve even blamed earthquakes and global warming on fracking in other parts of the world.’ She turned to pace back the other way. ‘God, I cannot believe this. I wonder if Dad knew about the gas deposits.’ A memory of a conversation tugged at her mind.

Emma’s voice was firm. ‘Promise me you won’t go back to the farm. I have a bad feeling about this. You don’t want to alert them to anything.’

‘Them? Who?’

‘Whoever’s behind it. Whoever owns that company. There’s so much money to be made out of all that stuff in the ground. Are you sure you want to stir up trouble?’

Ellie burred up. ‘I love this place and there’s no way I’m going to let the environment be destroyed. I don’t care that it’s on our old farm, I’d fight it wherever it was.’

‘You’re so like Dad.’

‘I’m sorry, Em, but I can’t sit back and watch this happen. There’s too much apathy in the world today. This is Kakadu, a World Heritage site, for God’s sake.’

‘I know. But I’m worried about you. I just wish you’d move over here with us and leave it all behind. You could get a job flying out of Cairns to the reef.’

‘I don’t want to leave here; you know that. This is my home. I love the Territory.’

Ellie pinched her nose hard until her eyes watered. ‘There’s something else. When I was out there today, Susan Sordina gave me a box of Dad’s stuff.’

‘What was in it?’

‘School reports and merit certificates for the three of us. It was taken from my room today while I was at work.’