End Of The Line

May 4, 2018·25 min·1 clip

Karen Rayner describes the 'dual horror' of Paddy's case: not just that a neighbour may have killed him, but that whoever did it has quietly returned to daily life in an 11-person town.

Larrimah starts here as an accident. The railway was supposed to stitch Darwin to Adelaide, with thousands of labourers at times laying about a kilometre of track a day, until the money ran out. Then the bean counters stopped it. By 1929, the line had reached Larrimah and then Burdham, just past Burdham Creek, and that sudden stop left the town stuck in the middle of nowhere. It still has that unfinished feel. The narration suggests many residents washed up there with the same sideways luck as the railway. Lenny is already half gone in his head. He talks about the cold down south, the pull of subtropical country up north, and how a lotto win would make the decision easier. For now, the plan is mostly maybe. Up the dirt road, Karen and Mark Rayner face a tougher version of the same problem. They wanted a home base, but the mechanic workshop turned into the kind of investment that makes leaving risky. Lock it up empty, and who knows what is left when they come back. House-sitting does not sound likely there. Karen says Larrimah does not offer much unless the work gives you a reason to stay. They did not arrive with some grand plan either. They were travelling Australia in a caravan, stopping for jobs, until Barry offered pub work and crocodile feeding. Karen liked the animals. After the pub, she built her own menagerie, starting with dogs. The episode keeps close to those ordinary choices. Under the talk of work, weather, rough passers-through, and money is a town where staying can feel accidental, and leaving can feel hard. The ending turns back to Paddy Moriarty. His disappearance is still under investigation, and anyone with information about his life or disappearance is asked to contact Crimestoppers.

As heard by us

An outback mystery that stays with the town as carefully as it stays with the missing man.

End Of The Line follows an accidental outback town as it becomes the backdrop for a missing-person story, starting with the railway that stopped short and the people who settled in its shadow.

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Why you'd press play

Press play if you want a missing-person story set in an accidental outback town shaped by an unfinished railway.

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