![]() “A girl has just popped out of the middle of nowhere,” he tells me. Then, rounding a soft bend 4.5 kilometres from Metung, a woman appears out of the pitch-black, running across the opposite lane towards his car. He passes the dog kennels that care for Jasper and Kiro and is now deep into farmland that gently undulates between Metung and the Tambo River. ![]() He follows Metung Road up a hill, leaving behind the town lights. And he’s driving just under the 70-kilometre speed limit because, as a local, he knows this is wombat territory. ![]() He cruises past the Metung shops, past the yacht club, and – in a decision that still haunts him – past the Rosherville Road turnoff, his regular shortcut home to Swan Reach, 10 minutes away. Macklin loads the dogs into the back of his brand-new, $60,000 Toyota RAV4 (“lovely car, great car”), into which he’s sunk his entire recent divorce payout. Now, early on this Monday morning in October 2019, the 33-year-old has driven to Shaving Point, a picnic area in nearby Metung, to give Jasper and Kiro a run and quick sausages cooked up on the public barbecue. But Daniel Macklin has just clocked off from a forklift-driving shift in Bairnsdale, in eastern Victoria. ![]() It’s just before 1am, an odd time to be walking dogs. ![]() Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size ![]()
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