Part 11 (2/2)

'And miss all this fun!' laughed Caroline as the two women walked down into the garden.

Julie watched David Cooper try his luck at the hoop-la. She couldn't help but smile at the anthropologist who was wearing a check s.h.i.+rt with the sleeves rolled up and slacks. He was the only male in sight not in shorts. Julie walked across the lawn to join him.

A neighbour stopped Julie. 'This is a wonderful event. Such fun, and so good to see the community working together. We simply can't let that dreadful bypa.s.s go through. You've done a wonderful job.'

'Thank my mother. She's pulled all this together,' said Julie. In fact she'd been amazed at how Caroline had taken on all the work with her small committee. Julie had helped with the promotion of the fete, but had been too busy at work to do as much as she'd have liked. Caroline had run things marvellously.

'This place is so beautiful. It makes you realise how much work and history are in the old gardens in this neighbourhood,' added the woman.

'Exactly. My great grandmother Winifred helped plant this. She was a keen gardener like her mother. But both my grandmother and Mum have worked hard to maintain it,' answered Julie.

David Cooper turned from the hoopla stall and smiled as Julie approached. 'I've just donated some money to the cause. I didn't win a thing.'

'It's going well, isn't it? Mum and her mates have done a brilliant job.'

'You certainly got the word out there,' said David.

'There's still a long way to go,' said Julie. 'We need to raise a heap more money to make our voice heard and get support from other parts of the city, not just locally. People must realise that these beautiful old homes and gardens are worth preserving.'

'True. You don't want to come across just as ”Not in my Backyarders.” I've been looking at the ramifications of this bypa.s.s and if it's established it could set a precedent for other parts of Brisbane,' said David.

'That's the message we have to get across,' said Julie firmly.

As they walked through the crowded garden, David was thoughtful. 'It's interesting that the council has gone very quiet on the matter. They say they are consulting.'

'Consulting with whom? Not with any of us,' said Julie.

'Want to try one of those home-made fruit punch drinks? Looks very delicious,' said David, stopping by a stall that was selling freshly squeezed juices made from mangoes and other tropical fruit piled in baskets. As they sipped their smoothies and watched groups of people chatting and enjoying themselves with their friends and families, Julie said, 'If what you say is right, and the council has gone quiet, maybe putting the bypa.s.s on the back burner until things quieten down, perhaps I could leave town for a short break.'

'I suppose so,' said David. 'I'll have to leave Brisbane, too. Work calls, but I don't think anyone will consider us deserters. Where're you going?'

'Malaysia.'

'What? Really!' David looked elated. 'My stamping ground. Have I piqued your interest?'

'In a way, yes. Actually, I suppose I thought of this trip because of you,' began Julie.

'You won't regret it!' broke in David, now quite excited. 'You must let me show you around ...'

'Hang about,' laughed Julie. 'I've been asked to stay with my cousins at Utopia plantation.'

'Shane and Peter Elliott?'

'That's right. After you met them and asked them about Bette's book, they wrote to us, inviting us to go and visit. My parents don't want to go right now, but my mother has been telling me stories about my grand mother's time in Malaya when she went there as a bride. Gran told Mum that they were the happiest years of her life.'

'Then do you have any idea why your Aunt Bette would write a book on the Iban?'

'No, none at all, because by then my grandmother wasn't speaking to her.'

'So it's a mystery?' asked David.

'Yes, Gran wouldn't tell Mum about anything after the war broke out in Malaya. The story just kind of stops. So now I'm curious about the family plantation and I'm also rather intrigued by Bette, though I doubt I'll find out much more about her.'

'Knowing what she wrote, she must have been quite adventurous. An interesting woman. It's a shame you didn't know her. What was your grandmother like?'

'Ever since I can remember, my grandmother lived in this house. She was a strong, forthright kind of person, not sentimental or soft. I don't know anything about her sister. Gran rarely mentioned her, except to be critical, and to murmur darkly that she'd gone off and married a Chinaman. But I really want to go and see the place where my mother was born.'

'It's odd that one half of your family stayed put in Brisbane while the other half stayed in Malaysia.'

'It's how things worked out, I suppose. But because this side of the family have lived here in Brisbane for so long, I have such a strong sense of family tradition and history for this place, which is why I couldn't bear to see this house bulldozed.'

'I don't know how many of the old houses round here have had four generations of the one family living in them,' said David. 'But even if a new family has just moved in, they must appreciate the style, the beauty and history of these houses. They don't build them like this any more. What are your plans for Malaysia? I'd like to help, if I can.'

Emails flew back and forth between the cousins in Malaysia and Brisbane. Shane, the older brother, seemed to be the main contact and he wrote, if somewhat formally, to Julie giving her information about travel, some history of the plantation and what she might expect.

We are very much in a work routine here but of course we would hope to be able to take you around the district and show you some of the places with which our grandparents were connected. However, there are no 'bright lights' near us, so perhaps you might like to arrange to see other parts of Malaysia while you're here. My brother and I will be happy to meet you in KL and drive you back to Utopia. I have made arrangements for you to stay in the main guesthouse near to us. It will be a chance for us to exchange information about our families and we look forward to meeting you!

'Are you sure you won't come with me, Mum?' persisted Julie. 'This is where you were born and where your mother spent her early married life.'

'No, darling, not at the moment. I really want to stay on top of the bypa.s.s business. And I think you need a holiday, I can't remember when you last had a proper break. Are you going to meet up with David and get him to show you around a bit? He seems very knowledgeable about the country.'

'I don't really know. Perhaps we'll hook up at some stage,' said Julie.

'David's work sounds interesting,' said Caroline. 'He was telling me that he's involved in several different projects up there.'

'You've seen a lot more of him than I have these past few weeks,' said Julie.

'Don't forget, if it wasn't for David's research you wouldn't have become interested in Utopia and meeting your cousins,' Caroline reminded her.

'That's the thing, Mum. I don't know all that much about our family connection to the plantation. I think it's odd that Gran never spoke to me about it and she hardly talked to you about it at all. I just sense that there's a story behind it,' said Julie.

'Well, I have to agree. It would be interesting to find out what your cousins know,' said Caroline.

Despite what she said to Caroline, Julie did agree with her mother that it would be wise to pick David Cooper's brain, so she accepted an invitation from him to go to dinner for a briefing on her trip.

'I understand that you want to see Utopia but, if you have the opportunity, you have to see some other places. Malaysia's such an intriguing place. It's made up of several states and every state is a little bit different and proud of it. I'm sure your cousins will show you around,' he said over a pre-dinner drink.

'They sound very hospitable but I think they are very bound up in running Utopia, so I don't want them to feel obliged to drop everything for me.' so I don't want them to feel obliged to drop everything for me.'

'I wish I could visit their plantation again. You know, you can't help but see palm oil estates everywhere you go, but most of the big companies are very protective, in fact almost secretive, about what they're doing. They're not tourist stops, that's for sure.'

'You sound critical,' said Julie.

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