Yarra's Journey

 

Yarra the toddler's epic journey - A Christmas story:
 
Back in North Queensland in the late seventies, or early eighties, as I recall, we had a Christmas event that I will never forget.
 
A bunch of us hippie types lived in our home made cabins and "houses" along the Wild River in Silver Valley on Miners' Homestead Leases granted by the Queensland Government.
 
On Christmas Day word came through that a neighbour's house had burnt down: Their kids had been playing with matches under the floor of their stump mounted home.
 
News the following day was even worse: The family, who after the fire had moved in with friends living along the Millstream (another river) some 15 kilometers away by road, were missing one of their children, Yarra, an 18 month old toddler.
 
My wife Elaine and I jumped into our car and headed for the property to take part in the search.
Upon arrival we parked alongside dozens of cars and watched people coming and going with sombre faces: No sign of Yarra anywhere and fears were rampant of his having drowned in the deep flowing Millstream.
 
Never in my life have I, before or since, been engulfed in such a sombre mood as what prevailed on that day: It was impossible to smile of laugh in any way. Like carrying a 100 lb weight of lead.
 
Suddenly, a ray of hope: Tiny footprints had been found in the sand of the driveway to the property up by the highway, far away from the river.
 
People started searching but found no sign of Yarra, but did come across a herd of feral pigs roaming the area. Again, stomach knots tightened because feral pigs are the main predators in that part of the country.
 
As evening approached, with heavy hearts, many of us started making our way home. As Elaine and I slowly made our way home along the narrow graveled Silver Valley Road, we met our neighbours, Alex and Trish, coming towards us in their car.
 
Excitedly they waved us down: "We have Yarra!". We stopped and talked briefly before they continued to bring Yarra back to his mum:
 
"We found him in our kitchen when we came home. The kitchen floor was covered with orange peels with Yarra sleeping in the middle of it all".
 
Alex and Trish's house was next door to Yarra's burnt down home, and having crossed some 10 kilometers of bushland without a guiding track, Yarra had waded across the then shallow Wild River (in which he used to play with friends), made his way to his burnt down home and moved on to his neighbours' house.
 
During the Christmas week that followed, every major newspaper in Australia had a picture of Yarra and his mum on its front page.

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