‘It’s the most beautiful country on God’s Earth. You still have teeming fauna—mutton birds migrate from Siberia every year and nest in the craggy rock outcrops. Penguins migrate from Antarctica. The sea is full of life: abalone, oysters, flounder, crayfish. You name it. It was easy to live off the land. Inland, the Nuenonne people used controlled burning to create a big area of grassland to support a strong wallaby population.’

Cavalier was patient. Haut was passionate about the area and his people.

‘Where were you when you had the vision?’ he asked.

‘It began with an apparition. I was wandering inland a short distance, at about fifty metres above sea level, when I saw one of my people placing a flintstone in a hole he had dug. I stood and watched him bury the stone. He knew I was there.’

‘About how old was he?’

‘About forty. It was five hundred years ago.’

Cavalier checked his tape again and scribbled more notes on his pad, as if there was nothing out of the ordinary about this revelation; just something very interesting.

‘Wombat told me about you seeing things without a time dimension …’

Haut nodded. ‘The Nuenonne man came from an earlier era. He was a forefather of mine. A king. I am in the direct bloodline of this man. I have the same genetic make-up. I am king of Tasmania, in effect.’

Cavalier was well practised at interviewing. He didn’t react, or even blink at this utterance, having been forewarned by Wombat and Jones.

‘Weren’t the local Aboriginal people wiped out by settlers?’ Cavalier asked.

‘Some were. But the big genocide was by mainland Aboriginal people before that.’

Cavalier made a note to check this.

‘The significance of this …’ Haut began.

‘Encounter?’

‘You could call it that. He had buried the flint cutting-stone where the major oil deposit would be found. You see, we are talking about a singularity point.’

‘What’s that?’

‘It is where there is no time, as such. It is “still”.’ He paused. ‘Everything happens in the same moment. It is where God is.’

‘I’d like to explore that with you later,’ Cavalier said concealing any bafflement or disbelief. ‘You started drilling at this point where the cutting-stone was?’

‘Not immediately. I wanted to learn as much as I could about geology.’

‘An epiphany?’

Haut nodded. ‘I enrolled at Tasmania University, learnt all I needed to know about the subject in theory. My real comprehension came from being on drilling sites. I was very hands-on. Dr Harold Burnside, my lecturer, gave up his teaching job to work with me.’

‘He accepted your vision?’