A search for life, a triumph of outback spirit . . .
Australian journalist Robert Wainwright's tragic but ultimately uplifting and triumphant tribute tells the story of how one child's disappearance united an entire community and the wider Northern Territory of Australia.
In 1993 eight-year-old Clinton Liebelt went missing from the Dunmarra roadhouse, between Darwin and Alice Springs - one of the most desolate places in the world. He'd gone off on a motorbike in pursuit of his father to help search for an escaped horse.
Clinton lived at the roadhouse with his parents, Adele and Steve, who ran the place. He was told never to cross the Stuart Highway, on the other side of where they lived, because of how inhospitable the desert terrain was. But cross it he did and he went missing, sparking the biggest search in the Northern Territory's history.
As the search for Clinton got under way, it became obvious that Clinton had kept to his father's strict advice to "follow the sun" for the way home, not realising that as he had crossed the highway this was leading him further and further away from safety and into the heart of the desert.
The search for Clinton proved an inspiration for the Territory, and a shining example of a community uniting in a crisis and its triumph over adversity. Hundreds joined the search, from army volunteers and tourists passing by to footballers who abandoned a match at Katherine 300 kilometres away. A make-shift camp grew up on either side of the roadhouse, a radio vigil was kept and clergy from across the territory spent days counselling searchers and family as the search intensified.
The desert outback fascinates all Australian city-dwellers, who are frightened by it but attracted at the same time. The book also touches on the fear of losing children, which has been such a constant theme recently - true crime without the crime.
Robert Wainwright followed the story as a journalist ten years ago and he has compiled the story from personal interviews, newspaper articles and official history.
