To me, it's not an issue about the royal family, it's about a simple proposition that we have a head of state who's an independent umpire, if we ever need it, that no one except the people can sack. If you gave these people a model where they chose a head of state, and the only ones who can sack that head of state are the people, by referendum, I think they'd go for that. Between Wycheproof and Sea Lake, three kookaburras sit on power lines. Trees are humbled by crosswinds. The Mallee is silo territory, sentinels silently acknowledging the grain industry's long links with this corner of Victoria.
Clouds glide by, rain falls.
A tethered goat takes desultory refuge under a tree, but not even it would begrudge the district some rain. On the road between Dimboola and Nhill is Pink Lake. He grows fat lambs and crops - wheat, barley, chick peas, lentils, lupins, canola. He has finished the first year of a two-year correspondence course through Charles Sturt University, studying the science of soil. The Werners are establishing trees to combat salinity, returning their land, slowly, to full health.