The Excalibur File

By the year 2024 world debt has skyrocketed to over $300 Trillion, and with the US dollar in free fall a desperate G20 votes a return to the gold standard.

The gold price skyrockets overnight, fortunate for Australia which has plenty of gold in the ground – hugely boosted by the discovery of the legendary Lasseter’s Reef.

But there is a problem.

Now boasting the world’s largest navy and a modern air force, China has been expanding its military bases south and resolves to use them in a ‘military solution’ in its quest for gold and territory.

Fortunately, US intelligence has penetrated the PLA State Security Centre and supplies ASIO with China’s complete invasion plan of PNG and northern Australia.

Aware that under the ANZUS treaty an isolationist America will supply weapons and technology but no ‘boots on the ground,’ Australia has five years to shore up its defences and find a way to stop the juggernaut.

They may have found it in a most unlikely place.

A weapon that becomes known as Excalibur.

John Somerset was born in Melbourne, Australia and spent his childhood on the Surf Coast of Victoria. This was the time of the birth of modern-day surfing, with the introduction of the Okanui surf board. His early experiences on the Surf Coast of Victoria culminated in a poorly-funded trip to the North Shore of Hawaii, long before it became the surfing mecca of today.

He was educated at Geelong Grammar, which had just begun its Mt Timbertop campus in which boys of fifteen spent one school year in the Victorian Alps. This, plus an agricultural science course at Melbourne University imparted a lifetime love of the bush.

And a fascination with gold.

In between a working life in advertising and marketing, John has travelled Australia’s outback by 4WD; including Lasseter Country.

He lives and writes at Anglesea, Victoria with his wife and one-eyed kelpie.