Something's afoot at Mosquito Creek

Far to the south of the troubled waterways of the Murray-Darling river system, something's afoot in a gloomy corner of Westernport Bay. Despite the recent storms, there's been a a noticeable increase in ferry traffic out to French Island in the past few weeks. The Master at Tankerton Jetty has been unwilling to discuss the contents of the barges that were doing nightly runs just muttering something about a government project.

The master's son was driving tarp-covered loads out to somewhere near Mosquito Creek by night - sodden, poor land, no good for grazing. By daytime he was ferrying working parties of prisoners and their guards to an 'undisclosed location'.

The island's only General Store was alive with rumour - was a factory being set up at the island's prison farm?  Could the government be finally electrifying the island (long overdue), or was it something to do with upgrading the cable line to Tasmania? One thing was sure, if any of the Islanders new what was going on, they were keeping tight lipped. Les Johnston, who usually knows everything that's going on on French Island,  says that when he was out near Mosquito Creek shooting foxes last week, he saw a strange glow off over the mangroves. Someone needs to go out and have a look - but because the prison is involved, nobody is game...