‘A cone to stop her chewing her stitches.’

‘Cool,’ Max said. ‘She looks like an alien.’

At that moment Shane’s ute roared up the street, headlights swinging towards the house, illuminating them all. Leon stood by helplessly as Shane strode up the path and checked out the dog. ‘What the fuck?’

‘She fell off your ute again, Shane,’ Wendy said. ‘And look what’s happened.’

‘She’s fine now.’ Leon couldn’t help putting in.

Shane squinted at him. ‘Did you have something to do with this?’

It was an accusation, not a thank you—but before Leon could respond, Max shouted, ‘Leon saved Rosie, Dad. Look how big the hole was. And Leon got her fixed. She might have died, but he saved her.’

Obviously it was easy to be a hero for a kid.

‘Should have bloody died,’ Shane muttered. ‘It would have been cheaper.’

‘Don’t worry,’ Leon said. ‘It’s all sorted. The vet wanted to do it straight away, so I paid. I couldn’t leave her with a great hole in her side.’ He backed away, taking the moment of confusion to exit.

Shane was scowling, but Max’s face shone with delight, and Wendy gave a quiet nod. At least she understood he’d done it out of compassion for the dog, even if Shane didn’t appreciate it.

Later that evening, Leon sat on the floor in front of the fire with Grandpa’s book on his lap. It was a hardback, a historical document outlining the story of the main sawmills that had existed in southern Tasmania. He flicked through it. The text was detailed and included anecdotes and facts about logging going all the way back to the mid-1800s. But what caught his eye were the photographs—they seemed alive to him, and they told the tales of the old timber cutters and tramways better than any words could.

The photos were mostly black and white. Some were faded and had deteriorated with age. And others were so clear, you’d think they’d been taken yesterday—until you looked at the people and the clothes they were wearing, the activities they were doing, the cars and trucks they were driving. There were photos of tramways being constructed from timber. Horses waiting patiently to begin dragging a log along a tramway. Steam locomotives hauling logs. Old timber-town settlements. Steamships that carried sawn timber to overseas markets. Timber cutters with their wives and families. Sawmills and bridges being built.