Cover photograph courtesy of freepik.com

I have to thank the following people who helped me during the long process of creating this book: my son, James McLaren, who waited patiently for answers from me when I stared at him blankly; my daughter, Tanya McLaren, for her support and mature understanding of what it is I do; Christine and Alan Jackson for their expert sailing advice and the personal San Francisco reconnoitres; to Geoff Garden at the Darwin Bureau of Meteorology for his expert advice about the natural phenomenon of lightning and about storms of the Namarrkon region; Jennifer Isaacs, Albert Barunga and Sam Woolgoodja for their written and verbal advice about Wandjina and Namarrkon; Tracey Christensen, the most expert of manuscript readers; Belinda Lee a gifted editor with style; and Jill Hickson, my agent, for providing the business balm and acumen necessary for a writer to succeed.

Finally, I wish to acknowledge the Aboriginal people of Australia who are a source of constant inspiration for any writer, especially this Koori. As a kid growing up in the slums of Redfern I hoped one day someone would tell Australian stories from an Aboriginal perspective. As an adult, while living overseas, I realised I could be that storyteller.

This is a novel in which all characters and incidents are taken from my imagination. Any similarity between living characters or those deceased is coincidental.

However, Blackfellow Creek, Gibb River and King Edward River are real places and are actual sites of sacred Wandjina paintings. It is a delicious irony that the three sites do really sit on a straight line at longitude 128° 30' as I have written in my story. I discovered this by pure chance when studying a detailed map of the region.