My family spent every summer holiday back in the area where my mother was born, with my mum taking us on the epic drive from Caulfield to Toowoomba in her old blue Valiant. For some reason, the image of the darkened sleep out, common to many older Queensland homes has stuck in my mind – it’s a place I remember from a very early age as a place where a nebulous ‘something’ happened. It could have been simply me frightening myself with remembered ghost stories, but still this image looms large, and stands out in a way nothing else has from those childhood trips.