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16

Two:   A commitment

        "Beware of enterprises that require new clothes."       -- H.D. Thoreau.

The red brick cottage was used by some of us in the Ecology Group as a quiet place to work.   Built before Macquarie University was established, it was on the edge of the campus, some distance from the main offices and laboratories.   On the eleventh of November, 1975, I was working there alone, finishing some writing-up of my research on kangaroos. At about three in the afternoon the telephone rang.   This was annoying.   I could usually count on being left in peace there.   Barry Fox, a fellow postgraduate student in the group, was calling from our laboratory:

        "Whitlam has been sacked!"

        "Very funny."

        "No.   It's true - listen to the radio."

        I walked outside and turned on my car radio.   It was true!   The news of the sacking was streaming in from Canberra.

        Stunned, I forgot about the kangaroos and set off for home.   At each major intersection I drove slowly, looking for troops or road blocks.   Ws this a revolution?   An armed insurrection?   How could the

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