Cry of the Bunyips

The Cast

As it may have been some time since you read the earlier books, I'll take this opportunity to reintroduce some of the characters you might be meeting again in Cry of the Bunyips.

** CAUTION **

The following material contains spoilers for Barefoot Times, Call of the Delphinidae and The Mind of the Dolphins.
Do not proceed if you haven't yet read those books!

Alistair Blunt, a Cornipean politician, opposed Kevin Simmons in the ballot for Supreme Councillor and was hot favourite until whispers of his involvement in the outlawed sport of bunyip-baiting ruined his campaign. Following the resignation of Mark Collins ten years later, he again nominated and was elected unopposed.

Frank Halliday, a descendant of an ancient Barefooter named Herbert Douglass, came to Earth from Cornipus to investigate reports of the Barefooter genes appearing amongst the Aboriginal communities around Narrabri. There he met John Collins and later his son Tom. In collaboration with Elko, a descendant of Gallad's Barefooters who'd first colonised the galaxy, he aided in the fulfilment of the prophesied demise of Morgoth. Afterwards he returned to Meridian to continue his research, endeavouring to trace the many Barefooters who'd disappeared at the time of their war with Morgoth, before ultimately finding them on their distant planet of exile. After a brief spell in the prison colony on Huntress, from where he led a mass escape, he became General Manager of the Huntress Restoration Project. He is now based on Meridian where, amongst his other business interests, he continues to operate a successful vineyard on the northern outskirts of Azarath.

Pip Ingle, the son of Richard and Patricia Ingle, was born in Azarath nine months after the fall of Morgoth. Attending school there, he befriended Damon Enderling and at the age of fourteen joined him on Bluehaven where he became a Delphinidae acolyte. Recognising the connection between Drago, the ancient king of Huntress, and the collective mind of the Dolphins, he was excommunicated from the Delphinidae, spending several years as a brain-washed soldier in the military before finding his true place in the resurgent Black Delphinidae. After defeating Drago, he became the Black Dolphin's Emissary and now heads the Order.

Clem son of Edwin was born and raised in the fringe-dwellers' village on Huntress until moving to the refugee centre on Cornipus during the restoration of his home world. After finishing his schooling, he found employment with Frank Halliday in the final stages of the restoration. He was Bearer of the Black Amulet in the Black Delphinidae, a custodial position he inherited on his twelfth birthday from his grandfather, but subsequently passed the amulet to Pip Ingle as part of his investiture as Emissary. He remains Pip's principal aide.

Russell, an inmate in the Huntress prison colony, escaped with Frank Halliday and was subsequently pardoned after giving damning evidence in the conviction of prison's governor and the guard Smithers. He was born on Cornipus and, after his release, returned there to aid the relocated settlers from the fringe-dwellers' village. With the reestablishment of the Black Delphinidae following the defeat of Drago, he joined the Order as an assistant to Clem.

Owen Lachlan, son of Brian Lachlan, followed his father into legal practice although he mostly specialised in corporate law. For a short while he was consort to High Priestess Lorina after the court dissolved her marriage to Mark Collins, but stood aside upon Mark's return. He provided legal aid to the displaced people of Huntress during the restoration of that world and now serves as the Black Delphinidae's principal attorney.

Dr Billy Collins, the son of Tom and Sarah Collins, attended Brisbane University from where he obtained his doctorate in Physics. Always one to go barefoot, he discovered he was the carrier of his people's Emu spirit which later turned out to be that of Dromaius, a descendant of the Barefooters who fled with Gallad to the Milky Way galaxy at the height of the War of the Barefooters.
    After completing his doctorate, Billy was employed by AusScience at the Narrabri radio telescope where, in collaboration with Peter Thorpe, he discovered subspace and subsequently made first contact with the Eridanians. He married Julia Myers, the sister of his friend Todd, in 2001. In 2026 he was appointed head of AusScience but resigned in 2027 and moved to Coolum Beach, establishing his own research company where he remained until his retirement in 2043. He continues to enjoy surfing and bushwalking, and is an Aboriginal adviser to the National Parks and Wildlife Service.

Dr Peter Thorpe, the son of Michael and Rachel Thorpe and another keen barefooter, unknowingly carried the Dodo spirit, later revealed to be that of Raphus, the twin brother of Dromaius.
    Peter attended Sydney University from where he obtained his doctorate in Physics before joining Billy Collins at the AusScience radio telescope in Narrabri. Acclaimed for his theoretical work on intergalactic subspace in 2017, he published many papers on the physics of subspace and Sheol. After leaving AusScience in 2027 with Billy Collins, he worked as co-director at the Coolum Beach company until retiring in 2043. Following the revelation that Hades and the River Styx were real places built in Sheol by the Tivinel, he and Billy are currently researching possible extraterrestrial links to other Earth mythologies.

Dr Jason Collins, the son of Billy and Julia Collins, first came into the public eye at the age of fourteen when he led the successful defusing of the Pleiades supernova. While on the planet Genesis, he fell into a rock pool where a vine injected him with some of Gallad's DNA that then fused with the Barefooter genes he'd inherited from his father.
    He attended Brisbane University and, after marrying fellow student Jennifer Simpson in 2023,  obtained his doctorate in Physics in 2027. He joined his father's company after graduating and became a director following Billy's retirement in 2043. Although he still has a passion for supernovas, his work is now mostly focussed on the design of efficient subspace transport drives.

Dr Jennifer Collins, the daughter of William and Melissa Simpson and a distant descendant of Gallad's wife Marinda, lived in suburban Brisbane while studying at Eatons Hill High School and then Brisbane University. Although seriously injured in a motor vehicle accident in 2019, with Jason's help she made a full recovery, marrying him in 2023 and obtaining her doctorate in Physics in 2027. She moved to Coolum Beach with her husband that year as part of her father-in-law's subspace research company, before becoming Managing Director in 2043 following Billy's retirement. Her business skills and negotiating prowess have seen the company flourish under her leadership.

Mark Collins, the son of Jason and Jennifer Collins and, from their respective Barefooter heritages the genetic son of Gallad and Marinda, at the age of seven journeyed to Meridian where he overthrew Morgoth, briefly becoming Mark the Bewildered before standing down as Supreme Ruler or whatever and freeing that galaxy from a million years of dictatorship.  He returned to that galaxy in 2044 where he defeated Brett Farley on Bluehaven, at the same time meeting Lorina whom he married in 2048. They established the Delphinidae College in Coolum Beach where he was Director until its closure following his arrest for the killing of a baby dolphin. After escaping from the prison colony on Huntress, he enlisted the help of the exiled Barefooters in foiling a military coup and subsequently became Supreme Councillor. He served for ten years until forced to resign following the tumultuous return of Drago. He is currently back on Earth with his wife Lorina and children David and Loraine, managing the operation of their intergalactic school.

Lorina Collins, the daughter of Kevin Simmons and High Priestess Lorett, was educated in the Delphinidae Temple on Bluehaven before journeying to Earth to study at Brisbane University with Mark Collins. She became High Priestess following her marriage to Mark, but after the loss of the Dolphins' sentience, returned to Earth to establish an intergalactic school.

David Collins, son of Mark and Lorina and twin brother to Loraine, was the end result of the Dolphins' programme of selective breeding and on his tenth birthday became the vessel for Drago's return. He was freed after Pip Ingle led Drago's spirit through a portal in the City of Redemption to the Barefooters' planet of exile, where it was consumed by the ghosts of his former subjects, the Tivinel. He is now twelve years of age and has just completed his first year at his parents' school.

Loraine Collins, David's twin sister, had been expected to become the next Delphinidae High Priestess, a hereditary position currently held by her mother, but possesses none of the Delphinidae's telepathic powers. Following the revelation that the collective mind of the Dolphins was really Drago's, the Delphinidae have ceased to operate as a religious order, continuing only in their roles of health care and education, and her ascendency to the position of High Priestess upon her marriage is now unlikely to occur. Along with her brother, she is also attending her parents' school in Coolum Beach.

Christopher Smith, the son of Aaron and Maleena Smith, became an intergalactic hero at the age of nine after pushing Brett Farley to his death and ending the uprising against the government of that galaxy. He completed his schooling at Coolum Beach High School before joining the Delphinidae College as a first year acolyte, but was possessed by the spirit of his ancestor, Gregory the Dolphin Slayer. After being freed by Damon, he assisted Mark in his quest to clear his name, afterwards returning to Earth to study parapsychology at Brisbane University. He married his girlfriend Sandra and now has an eight-year-old daughter.

Elko, a descendent of Gallad's Barefooters, was born on the planet Genesis shortly before the eruption of a nearby blue star rendered that world uninhabitable. He spent much of his life on Eridani and Earth, countering his one-time friend Barrad and the Barradhim militia. An Elder amongst the Emu people, he died in 2044, after which his spirit took up residence in Sheol's City of Towers.

Jimmac Tulee, known on Earth as Jim Hamilton, was born on Eridani and was a public servant until joining the governing council following the revelations about his world's southern hemisphere. He served as Police Minister and Deputy High Councillor before retiring due to ill health. In another version of reality, though, he'd journeyed to Earth at the age of fourteen, befriending Peter Thorpe at the school in Narrabri. He died at the age of seventy-five, but his spirit entered Sheol where he rescued Peter from his alter-ego Pedro.

Pedro Thorpe, Peter's alter-ego, was created in the time cusp that occurred when Peter and Billy saved Todd Myers from Andrew Schilling, ultimately becoming the fat cigarette-smoking man encountered at the end of Barefoot Times. Seeking revenge against his creator, he lured Peter into Sheol, but the spirit of Jim Hamilton intervened, taking him through the glowing passageway to the City of Towers where they joined Elko's team as the fourteen-year-old boys they'd been at the time they'd known each other on Earth.

Todd Myers befriended Billy Collins while they were studying astrophysics at Brisbane University and became Earth's unofficial representative during first contact with the Eridanians. After ten years working on Eridani with the Earth-Eridani Scientific Exchange Foundation, he played a key role in resolving the subspace tunnel crisis that threatened that world's atmosphere. Subsequently he became Earth's ambassador to Eridani, a post he held until his retirement twenty years ago. He now lives in Angust with his Eridanian wife Elissi.

Dr Elissi Harrish was a member of Elko's team investigating the common ancestry of Milky Way civilisations and was one of the few northern Eridanians to have contact with the southern enclaves. She became closely involved with Todd Myers in their work with the Scientific Exchange Foundation, eventually marrying him. After leading the Pleiades supernova defusing operation, she was elected to the Eridanian governing council and is now that world's High Councillor.

Norrie Harrish, son of Elissi's brother Rendel, became a close friend of Jason Collins at the time of his kidnapping following Elissi's wedding. After completing his degree in environmental science, he joined the Southern Ocean Authority in the restoration of Eridani's southern ocean. In 2043 he was awarded Eridani's highest honour for his work and now heads the Authority, overseeing the southern ocean's foreshore redevelopment and marine biodiversity restoration.

General Gallagher, a career soldier who rose through the ranks following the demise of Brett Farley, is currently head of the Special Operations Division on Nimber. He was Paul Hoskins' commander and led the invasion of Earth during the food supply crisis, only to be ordered back home by Supreme Councillor Mark Collins. Ten years later he led the military response to Drago's ascendency, initially claiming credit for resolving it before Pip Ingle's heroic intervention became public knowledge.

Colonel Piper led the Pulper 17th squadron at the time of Mark Collins' ascendency and helped him stop Gallagher's invasion of Earth. He remained on that world for several years, overseeing the repairs to damaged infrastructure. Upon his return to Pulper, he commanded a rapid response squadron aiding the civilian governments in times of natural disaster, before being promoted to the rank of brigadier and assigned to Special Operations on Nimber.