The Caravan Moves On

The detectives from Task Force Phoenix have set up an information caravan in the main street of Yea, in the heart of the country ravaged by bushfire ten weeks ago today. With my crew, I drive nearly two hours to join them.

Naturally, the cops want further scraps of information from the locals, to help them consolidate the case they are already building against the man they believe lit the fire that destroyed thousands of hectares, dozens of lives, and the town of Marysville.

The man in the frame for arson is said to be a CFA firefighter. This stains the CFA, but is hardly a great surprise. Arsonists are attracted to fire.

This one started - was started - at the abandoned Murrundindi Sawmill, 20km to the southeast, whcih we visit later in the day. It is a Hollywood backlot disaster scene. Blackened, burned and twisted, huge iron walls swinging in the breeze, utterly silent, and hemmed in on all sides by massive, heavily timbered mountains bearing the black and brown scars of a recent hell.

The media are - to put it mildly - excited at the prospect of an arrest.

In response to reporters' questions, the detective superintendent tut-tuts and calls our speculation about a suspect "unhelpful." I like cops, but they do tend to want it all their own way. They deiberately leak information to the media, so we let the public know they are making progress on the case - but when we try to pursue their lead, they purse their lips and reproach us for failing to allow the law to take its course.

The way these things often turn out, within a week or two, the police become confident that their case is strong enough to sustain a conviction, and they will swoop.

But before they do, they must ensure they have squeezed out every reliable drop of information from every available source, and assembled it into a watertight argument. They will have one chance to prosecute the man they suspect of responsibility for dozens of deaths, and property damage measured in the hundreds of millions.

They had better get it right.

The man they suspect must be very uncomfortable.