IT’S MAY, THE end of the wet season in Far North Queensland, and storm clouds brew ominously to the north. We’ve already driven for three hours from Mossman, including an hour along the four-wheel-drive-only Bloomfield Track, to Home Rule, south of Cooktown, where we are about to embark on a three-day walk to an isolated tropical beach: Cedar Bay.

My companion Greg is a National Parks ranger and is here to assess the track for the upcoming dry season. My motives for the walk are different: I’m seeking out a story. Cedar Bay has a reputation, and I want to see the place for myself. In August 1976, during the era of Joh Bjelke-Petersen, the Queensland Police Force launched a raid on the isolated hippie community living there. The bungled raid has become part of the local folklore.