Patrick Ford

Casey's Island Patrick Ford

Eamon Casey is a young man from a cattle station in Northern Australia. He is conscripted and sent to Vietnam. Wounded and mentally scarred, he returns home to find that his mother has been murdered and his inheritance, the property 'Conemarra' has been expropriated by a shady character who had married his mother in order to gain it for himself. Disillusioned, he seeks refuge on a small island in the Torres Strait. Here, he hopes to recover and begin his life anew, but there is something going on just above the horizon that will once more plunge him into conflict. The freedom fighters in West Papua accept Chinese arms to help them rid themselves of their Indonesian masters, but they don't know that China has an ulterior motive. They want to place nuclear armed rockets on the island in order to subjugate Australia and her neighbours in order to expropriate rich mineral and agricultural resources and cheap labour. Jessica Bradley is a photo-journalist who had gone to Papua to do a story on the rebellion. She, along with others, has to flee in a small boat and is rescued by Eamon. In the boat with her is Barry McLeod, the man who killed his mother and robbed him of his inheritance. Eamon falls back on his military training to thwart the Chinese and force them to abandon the island. But the story doesn't end there. McCloud escapes from the police and flees to Europe where he has secreted most of the money. Eamon and Jessica come upon him by accident, follow him to Switzerland, and extract both the money and a confession from him before handing him over to the police. Back in Australia, they pursue the people who had conspired with McLeod in his evil deeds, securing a substantial settlement and the return of the family property. Meanwhile, both work with Jessica's family in England to expand farming operations there, leading to a happy and successful family partnership.