High Country

Sequel to Blades 1 (Street Kid) - Julian, now doing Year Eleven at a private school, is celebrating his seventeenth birthday. Due to a compromise, he has obtained his fix-wing licence, and is now about to commence his rotary-wing (helicopter) endorsement. His instructor is Arthur Cameron, who quickly realises Julian is a 'natural'. He completes his endorsement training by the end of April despite a potentially fatal crash. In the July holidays, he accompanies his photographer friend to Uluru (Ayers Rock) area as his pilot on an aerial assignment. Whilst there, Julian meets a holidaying American family, the Cliffords, and becomes very attracted to their fifteen year-old daughter, Alison, and she to him. Her father, Matt, is a colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps. That night, Julian, Alison and her younger brothers Barry, Colin save a young child missing in the scrub. The following week, Julian reads news reports stating that two of the Clifford boys, Colin & younger brother, Dale, are missing near Mt. Baw Baw in northeast Victoria. He has a hunch as to where they might be, takes action, and flies into a remote river valley south of the official search area in search of them.