Outback - 18. OB Chapter 18

Over the next six years everything was going very well for me and the family, Matthew and Chris had become permanent members of the team at Pondana, all of my siblings completed high school and all but one, that being Nadia were attending university. As for me I am now 28 and I was happy with how my life was going. NCoST was a very successful training college, which has won a number of training awards; the Outback Adventure Experience programme for Students was also very successful, with three independent schools involved in the programme. The Nullarbor Plains Region Pastoral Association – NPRPA was also very successful, with all the member stations having made many improvements since the association was established.

The Edgerton stations could not find any buyers, so I employed station managers to run the four stations up in the Pilbara. Kes was now 11 years old, and was only a few months away from beginning boarding school. He would be attending Great Southern Grammar School in Albany, well away from any city media who may be snooping around for a good story.

Kes has done very well as a remote education student; he was getting high marks for all of his chosen subjects, and when not doing school work, he was also spending a lot of time with me either in the office or out working on the station. Like me he learnt to become very good at horsemanship, driving vehicles and learning to safely handle and shoot guns. A few years ago, Matthew had spent some of his earnings from the shares of the station to buy a light aircraft, a 4-seater that can also carry some small freight, and he made monthly trips to Kalgoorlie to collect any additional supplies that were needed, and to have a fortnightly weekend break away from the station. His son Chris would often go with him.

When Natalia needed to go to hospital for a medical check for her arthritis, Matthew offered to fly her there. Chris wanted to go with them, but I asked Chris to remain to help with completing a water and windmill check that was over-due. The two-day trip would mean an overnight campout under the stars which wasn’t anything new for either of us, and Kes wanted to join us. The next morning as we were loading up the Ute for the water & windmill run, we watched as Matt took off in his plane with Natalia on board heading towards Kalgoorlie, neither of us aware what was going to happen.

In the late afternoon the following day, Barrett was at the homestead when the Ute carrying Kes, Chris and myself arrived, and right away, as I looked at his face I knew something was wrong. I quickly hopped out of the Ute and followed Barrett into the admin office, where he broke the news to me that the plane carrying Matt and Natalia had crashed into shrub land just 8 km’s short of the Kalgoorlie airport, and that both were killed instantly.

Thankfully Kes was too busy trying to park the ute in the shed and unloading the supplies, but Chris had seen Barrett’s expression on his face, and once he had helped Kes with the heavy stuff, he made his way over to the office to find out what was wrong. I had him sit down before I broke the news of the plane crash that killed his father and my birth mother. We cried together, as the realisation hit us both that we would no longer see them again alive. A short while later, Daniel appeared, having travelled over from NCoST to offer his support, and he stayed with Chris while I went to tell Kes, that his Granny had been killed in a plane crash that also killed great uncle Matthew.

At 28 years old I was now the senior member of the family, this was a bit of a shock to me, and I wasn’t sure how I would be able to deal with this. Barrett the senior staff member on the property was the only one left that I could lean on for support and encouragement, and I realised that I would probably need a lot of that in the next few weeks. After the funerals of Matthew and Natalia, my younger siblings took some time off from their university studies to spend some time at home with me, and Kes as we all dealt with the tragedy in our own ways.

After the funerals, once all the siblings had returned to the city to continue their studies, I tried to get things back to normal on the stations. Early one morning Kes came dashing into the office all excited, he had to stop, get his breath back before he could speak. “Uncle Chris has a boyfriend!” Kes finally blurted out. “What?” I stuttered as I dropped the slightly raised cup of tea, spilling some of its contents onto the top of the desk.

“Uncle Chris has a boyfriend and I bet you can’t guess who it is” Kes giggled, once he was able to talk properly without having to gasped for air. It didn’t take me long to think who it could be, smiling, “I hope you didn’t disturb them during their private time”.

Kes, blushed a bit. “I knocked on Uncle Chris’s door. He opened the door in just his boxers and so was his boyfriend Daniel” Kes declared as he dashed out the door before I could say any more. I had quickly cleaned up the spilled tea. Then walked over to the homestead to get another cup of tea. Daniel and Chris were sitting at the table eating their cooked breakfast, and both of them blushed when they saw me enter.

“Kes informs me that you both are to be congratulated for becoming a couple, I hope you both are happy. Chris if you want to move to NCoST to be with Daniel, I am fine with that,” I said as I poured myself another cup of tea, and walked back towards the office. Leaving both Daniel and Chris with open mouths, stunned at how accepting I was to the new relationship.

When I returned to the office I found a fax had just arrived un-expectantly. It was from my lawyers, who said they had received a request to purchase the 4 Edgerton stations in the Pilbara, offering $35 million for the 4 stations, totalling 5.5 million acres, plus the 4 road houses in the Nullarbor, offering $3.6 million for all four of them. Picking up the UHF radio I keyed the microphone, “Kes, please report to the Admin office right away, Over”.

A few minutes later, “Ok Dad, I’m on my way, over”, About ten minutes later Kes came bursting into the office, “I didn’t do anything! Honestly dad, I didn’t”. Laughing, I motioned Kes to come in and sit down, “You are not in trouble son, I need to talk to you about some business”.

Kes sat down with frown on his face. Over the next ten minutes I told Kes about the offer, informing him, the offer for the Edgerton properties was $2 million higher than their current net worth. Kes stood up and looked at me seriously, “Sell it Dad, I don’t want to have anything to do with that part of my past”, and he walked out the room, not giving me a chance to say any more on the subject.

I contacted the law firm and told them of Kes’s decision, and they agreed to go ahead with the sale of the properties up North. I also informed them that I was happy to sell the 4 Roadhouses on the Nullarbor, but the minimum asking price for them is $5.8 million and that was final. The law firm said they will pass on the information to the people making the offers.

Just over a week later I received a fax from the family lawyer, informing me that the offer to purchase had been accepted, for the amount agreed on, and that the money was being put into Kes’s trust account, as for the four road houses, they declined to purchase them as they felt the price was too much. I was pleased about that part as I wasn’t really keen on selling them anyway.

The day arrived where I had to take Kes to boarding school, and I was feeling miserable. I knew Kes would be home for school holidays in April, July, September and December, but I would still miss him terribly, as I had rarely been away from him for more than a few days, since he was five years-old, and Kes had not spoken much for the whole three-day journey.

When we finally arrived in Albany, after the half day journey to Kalgoorlie, the 5-hour bus journey to Esperance, that evening, and an overnight stop in Esperance before making the 6-hour journey to Albany, arriving in the late afternoon. I had made a booking for us to spend a night in town, before delivering Kes to the Private Grammar School the following day, and after a nice dinner, we went to see a movie at the local cinema.

The following morning after a big breakfast, Kes packed his weekend bag, and along with the rest of his luggage, we caught a taxi to the Grammar school, located on the north-eastern outskirts of Albany. Once Kes had registered his arrival, we looked at his room that he will be sharing with one other boy of similar age, and a shared bathroom with the room next door.

I had spoken to Kes by phone every evening, and he sounded like he was missing home already, but I encouraged him to try and be strong, and that in a short time he will be enjoying his time at the school. During the exhausting four day ride to get back home to the station, I reflected on my life. My past and my future. I owned the largest station around, I had great son, some good friends but wondered is that all there was for me. Especially when I thought of all the couples I knew.

By the time the first school holidays arrived in April, I was looking forward to seeing Kes again, and I organised a charter flight to transport Kes from Albany to Kalgoorlie via Esperance, to get him home quicker, and I was at the Kalgoorlie Airport in my vehicle waiting for his arrival, and he rushed to my arms, where I was standing just outside the small terminal, as soon as he was out of the plane,

Just under two weeks later, it was time for Kes to return to school, and I could see that he was not happy to leave the station. During the school holidays, Kes spent most of his time working outdoors, often with either me or Barrett or myself, and he loved every moment of it. Two days before the start of second term, I drove Kes back to Kalgoorlie, where were spent a night, and after breakfast we did some more clothes shopping, as Kes was starting to grow so quickly, and just after noon, he set off in the chartered plan, for the flight to Albany, arriving three hours later, while I spent another night in Kalgoorlie, before heading back home to the station.

As the weeks and months passed, the phone calls became just weekly, as Kes settled into school life away from the station, coming home every term holidays, and for long weekends, I would travel to Albany to spent a couple of days with Kes there, where we would go off camping in the bush somewhere, as quickly as Kes was growing into a mature teenage boy, time was also passing quickly.

For his first Christmas holiday on the station since starting grammar school, Kes was keen to get out on the station and do some hard work, and for three days soon after Christmas Kes as I camped at our favourite spot, swimming, fishing and just spending time as father and son, which I liked the most. Kes was no longer a boy, but a fast-growing young man, and I am so proud of how he is growing to be a responsible and intelligent young man.

Before I knew it, Kes was completing his high school education, and the family travelled to Albany to see him graduate. I was standing and applauding as Kes received his Certificate of Graduation from the school Headmaster, who announced that Kes was also the Dux of the school. I was proud as punch that my son had done so well in boarding school. In the past six years, Kes had completed each year at the top of the class in education and near the top in sports, with swimming, cricket and tennis in the summer and field hockey, athletics and soccer in the winter.

In education, Kes had concentrated in business management studies, agricultural science and computer studies, as his key additional subjects, and he was top of the class in all of those subjects plus near top of the class in the main subjects. Standing at 6 ft. 2 inches tall, I now have to look up at my son’s eye’s, as he stands tall and proud, with a good muscular build, with a neat short back and sides haircut.

Although he always had a girl for social functions each time one was organised, he never had a girlfriend as he says he wants to concentrate on his studies before looking into future relationships. On weekends and holidays when he was home, Kes was kept busy learning about running such a large pastoral business, both inside the administration centre and outside out in the paddocks, plus when it coincides, I would get Kes to attend the meetings for NCoST and Nullarbor Plains Region Pastoral Association, so he got to know how these organisations operated.

Once the big graduation day was over, I helped Kes to finish his packing of all his belongings. We loaded them into the vehicle that I had leased for a few days, having travelled to Kalgoorlie, then flown to Albany. Once the vehicle was loaded, I took Kes to the hotel where I had booked two rooms for a number of days. After settling in, I asked Kes to be my guide and to show me around the city of Albany in the morning. We went out to a nice restaurant for dinner, where the rest of the family joined us, before they return to Kalgoorlie the next day.

The following day, Kes directed me to a few of the more common tourist sites in and around the area. Keeping us busy for the whole day. For dinner, we tried a new restaurant, before having an early night. The following day we would began the long journey home. First east to Esperance and then north to Kalgoorlie.

After an overnight stay in Kalgoorlie, Kes went for his provisional driver’s licence, in the morning. No surprise, he passed very easily. With his new licence in his pocket, Kes proudly drove the ute out of Kalgoorlie and towards home, with Kes and I taking turns driving, as we made our long trip home.

When we arrived home, Chris and Daniel were there to welcome, and to help us to unload all of Kes’s gear. With the four of us, it took little time to transfer his belongings back into his bedroom in the cottage. Once that was completed, they enjoyed a relaxing dinner in the homestead. The dinner was very satisfying.

As deserts were being served I stood up to make a small announcement, “To my son Kes, whom I am extremely proud of, congratulations on graduation from school, and welcome to the organisation. I wish you much happiness and the best of luck in your future, no matter where it is, whether it be here on the station or where ever in the world you may be”, and I raised my glass in a toast to Kes. The others present did the same, while Kes just sat there blushing.