Two gloriously quiet nights ‘under Nylon’ close to the Wimmera River disturbed only by the flashing of parrots, an emu and the odd wallaby, whilst dipping into Jen Craig’s curly new novel Wall (and wishing I’d brought along Dad’s bird books, as there were so many tiny honey-eaters I couldn’t identify) were brought to an abrupt halt when we discovered we had a flat battery. But the RACV in Nhill came swiftly to our assistance, and we were soon motoring once more towards SA. Passing through Goroke I could feel (but failed to sight) Gerald Murnane, whose Border Districts spent the entire 3400 km trip beneath several layers of clothing at the bottom of my blue bag. A few days’ earlier we’d passed through Warracknabeal (where a sheet of A3 taped below the town sign announced ‘Birth Place of Nick Cave’) and at the local Lions Club Flora and Fauna Park I’d met a long-time fan (a woman returned recently from a couple of decades living in Europe) who knew of Nick’s father (a teacher) and loved Into My Arms. As the mercury rose, the ‘roos lounged and the budgies squabbled I felt impelled to mention that I’d been to a few careering Birthday Party gigs in Darlinghurst c.1980.