# THE REDGUM HOLLOW GAZETTE ### Edition 21 — Tuesday/Wednesday This Week — *Established When It Was* *Weather: Nil. Again. The sky has the look of a man who owes you money and intends to keep it.* --- ## CONNELLY WATER: THIS EDITOR WENT AND LOOKED I will not pretend the walk was not my idea. I parked at the Henderson gate on Monday morning and Ray Connelly met me there and we walked the kitchen garden end for the better part of an hour, and yes, I took the camera, and yes, Alan Reeves drove past twice, which tells you everything you need to know about Alan Reeves's Monday. What I can report, ahead of the full feature which is coming when I am ready and not before: the gravity channel system at the Henderson place is *engineered*. That word is being used around town now and I am responsible for that and I stand by it. This is not a man who ran a pipe downhill and hoped for the best. The channel grades, the diversion points, the way it feeds the kitchen beds without waste — there is thinking behind it. Patient, specific thinking. The kind that belongs to someone who has watched water and drought for a long time, somewhere. I photographed what he let me photograph. The rest I am turning over. Ray Connelly arrived from Queensland, paid cash for this place, and receives his legal correspondence from Whitmore & Associates, Family Law, out of Cairns. That parcel Tuesday was thicker than usual — Lorraine Apps weighed it with her eyes, which are the most reliable scales in the district. I note this not to speculate. I note it because this paper prints what is true and lets the reader do the arithmetic. *The full feature runs next edition. I have earned this one.* --- ## CLINIC QUEUE A MONDAY STORY Dr Priya's Monday clinic ran long. Two people waiting outside noted it without complaint, which is itself a kind of note. "The drought's getting into the families now" is a sentence that went around the store on Monday afternoon, and it deserves to be written down in newsprint before it gets comfortable being said only in passing. The district should watch this. The water in the ground is one problem. The water in households is a slower one. Priya handles both without fuss, which is more than can be said for several arms of the state government whose name this paper declines to print this week on grounds of blood pressure. --- ## BINGO CORNER ACHIEVES INSTITUTIONAL STATUS Four regulars, same time, Tuesday. Macca moving before they sat down. *He knows their orders* was said aloud, and with the warmth people reserve for things that have decided to stay. This corner has gone from a table to a fixture in less time than most fixtures manage. Redgum Hollow has seen establishments come and go — and the Royal Hotel, let the record show, *remains open* — but a corner that functions like a corner should is worth a paragraph. Clarrie Burton was not at bingo. He was outside the store, texting. Clarrie Burton texting is an event. Nobody saw the screen. I have my own thoughts and I am keeping them for now. --- ## LETTERS TO THE EDITOR **From Alan Reeves, Reeves Road:** Marge, I was not driving past *twice.* I was doing a U-turn because I missed the Hartley's turn. It happened to coincide. I have no particular interest in Ray Connelly's garden. — *A. Reeves* *(Ed: The turn for Hartley's is six hundred metres past the Henderson gate in the opposite direction, Alan.)* --- **From a reader who prefers not to be named:** Steve-o's been eating lunch alone at the water tank every day this week. Some of us think that's his business and some of us think it's a matter of community concern, and we'd like to register that both are true. He's one of ours. — *Name supplied* --- ## AROUND THE DISTRICT **— Fuel prices at the servo continue upward. Tank up when you can and grieve in private.** **— Steve-o logged a full day at Hartley's Tuesday. Saying little. Looking like someone doing long division.** **— Tash's sourdough, Tuesday and Friday at the store. Sells out. This is not a drill.** **— Les Whitford still not sighted. The decision has been made. The road is still being watched.** **— The Bicentenary festival: Deb Forsythe says everything is on track. The saleyards are closed. Somebody should ask the question the same way twice.** *— M. Holloway, Editor, Proprietor, and sole person who remembered to order the ink.*