The Long Grass

Set in 1985, The Long Grass unfolds in a time when Australia was changing — but not always for the better. Beneath the surface of a shifting nation, misogyny and racism still linger openly, shaping attitudes, actions, and justice.
The story is told in three parts:
the brutal murders and investigation, the mind of the killer, and a final confrontation in the Noosa Everglades.
It begins in the remote mining town of Weipa. Three men, sleeping rough in the long grass near Stubby Beach, are murdered in the early hours of the morning. The killings are swift, deliberate, and disturbingly varied — each man dispatched in a different way.
Detectives Annette Mollison and Dave O’Rielly are sent north to investigate. As outsiders in a harsh and isolated community, they are drawn into a case where motives are murky and suspects are many. Almost everyone they encounter seems capable of violence — or hiding it.
What begins as a murder investigation becomes something far more unsettling.
At its core, this is not just a story about killing.
It is a story about damaged lives, buried trauma, and the thin line between justice and revenge.