Outback Corporation - 5. OBC Chapter 5

Within 3 weeks, all three schools had sent back a list of participants for all of the events, and a preliminary list of people who would be attending the weekend. So far there were approximately twenty students from each school that would be competing. Plus three teachers from each school and family of each of the students would be attending, bringing the numbers to approximately 190 people. It was about this time that I received three unexpected fax messages, from the Baptist College, and Catholic College, both in Kalgoorlie, and the Catholic College in Albany. All of them expressing an interest in participating in the event, and all of them stated they had copies of the required forms and information ready to distribute amongst the parents of students as soon as approval had been granted.

I was a bit shocked and surprised at this and decided to bring it before the rest of the organising team before giving an answer. Grabbing the two way microphone, “Kes to station, I need all team leaders for the event to report to the admin office immediately. Over”

Once everyone was present and seated, I announced, “We’ve received requests from 3 more schools interested in participating in the event. I’m asking for your thoughts, questions, or problems with granting these requests.” After about half an hour of discussions it was decided to accept the three new schools to the event. I sent acceptance messages to all three schools straight away, with fresh copies of all the required information.

With just a month to go before the event was due to take place, I received faxes from the three new schools giving a list of the twenty students participating, the names of each of the three teachers from each school and the number of family members of each student that would be attending. This brought the total students involved in events up to 120, with 240 family members and 18 teachers also attending, bringing the total to nearly 400! A lot more than I had anticipated. I informed the team leaders of the new numbers, so adjustments could be made to the ordering of food, supplies and equipment.

A week away from the event and 2 road trains arrived with the portable rodeo yards, for the main arena, holding yards, warm up yards and temporary stables, for all the visiting horses. I had decided that it would be best to have the event held near the airfield, where there is already a guest village with power, water and facilities available. The catering gazebos would be set up near the north end of the village, while the temporary guest accommodation would be at the other side of the village. The main arena, yards and stables would be set up 300 metres further away from the village, with lighting towers providing plenty of lighting between the areas at night.

Over the next 6 days the whole place was hectic, with the 8 truck crews, 3 men with each crew, working long hours to get all of the equipment into place as directed by myself and the team leaders. This included the gazebos and all the scaffolding required to build two seating stadiums for the spectators, Plus all the lighting towers, generators, and the portable ablutions. The station was starting to look like a road train depot with 11 road trains scattered around the place, and the 32 men who came with the trucks works long solid days to get everything organised in time. The station’s cooks made sure the workers were all well looked after with food and water during the day, and a few beers after work at the end of the day.

With just two days to go before the event starts, everything was almost ready to go for the biggest event ever to happen in the region, and all the staff and truck crews were sitting down around the camp fire at the rodeo site enjoying a few beers in the late afternoon, when the sound of vehicles could be heard approaching.

“Looks like we may have a few early arrivals” I said as I stood up to investigate who was coming in the area, luckily earlier in the day all the large “Independent Schools Rodeo” direction signs had been put up from the highway, up the station track to Pondana station, so no one would get lost.

A convoy of nine vehicles appeared out of the cloud of dust, six of them towing camper trailers and three towing outback caravans, and the driver in the lead vehicle jumped up and much to my surprise, it was the headmaster from my former school, and we warmly shook hands in greeting. “Now knowing you young man, I bet it was you had organised this whole shin dig, am I not right? Headmaster said with a big grin,

“Guilty as charged headmaster sir, do I get detention? I replied with a cheeky grin, and we both laughed at the humour we shared, before I led him over to the camp fire to introduce the key members of the station staff, including those who were team leaders of the event.

The headmaster informed, “All vehicles in the convoy are the headmasters and families of all 6 schools, plus teachers and families from three of the schools, coming as the forward scouting team for the event,”

“Headmaster, allow my staff to show you where to park the caravans and trailers, in the best locations of course. After you are settled, please join us for dinner followed by a briefing on what the plans are, with all the school representatives and the station team leaders.

I arranged for the 9 early arrivals to set up their camp over near the RFDS plane hangar, which will be away from the rest of the camping crowds, where it will be a bit quieter. Once they had settled in, the guests joined us at the camp fire, where the cooks and station staff who had been recruited as kitchen hands for the weekend, were now finalising dinner. After a wonderful but noisy dinner, with 14 very excited children in the group, the children were guided back to their camp site to prepare for bed by the parents, while the school staff and the organising teams gathered for a briefing on what is planned for the weekend.

At the briefing I informed the staff, “We have an estimate of 400 visitors expected from the six schools participating,” after a few surprised gasps from the school staff at the large number of people attending, I continued “It won’t be a problem as we have organised catering for up to 500 people, allowing for some extra people who may attend unexpected. We’ll meet again in the morning for a final check”

After the meeting was over, the guests returned to their camp site and the staff retired for the night, as it was going to be a very busy day tomorrow, with a large number of staff taking on marshalling duties, directing people to their camping places. In the morning the team leaders and I had one last meeting to discuss any issues that may have arisen and to double check that nothing had been forgotten with the planning of the event.

“Ok people, one last detail for now. I’ve arranged for three catering firms to come and assist with feeding the large number of people. Their catering vans, along with mobile freezers will be arriving late this morning. They spent last night at the roadhouse. They will be located closer to the arena, to provide fast takeaway meals available for participants and guests.”

After the meeting the team leaders made their way to check on their areas, to make sure everything is ready, and soon after 10am one of the station staff announced via radio that the first vehicles are arriving at the first checkpoint, which was at the turn off at the main access track to head towards the airfield, and at the second check point at the paddock gate two kilometres further along, four staff where busy checking in the guests.

As advertised when this event was first organised, there would be a small fee charge of $15 per vehicle to cover costs of all the equipment that was hired, and each Lunch and Dinner meal would cost $15 per person per day, and those eligible where given the fuel vouchers for the free tank of fuel for vehicles of participating students. Once they had paid the fees, the arrivals were guided to where they could set up their camping site, the majority of the arrivals came with camper trailers, and the odd one or two came with caravans, and a few hours later at noon, a total of 68 vehicles had passed through the gate, which was estimated as just over half of the vehicles expected for the event.

After having a quick lunch, I jumped onto a 4 wheeler to inspect the guest camp site, and knowing that half of the vehicles had arrived, I was surprised at how large an area the camping area had taken, luckily with the preplanning, we had marked out vehicle and pedestrian access lanes, to make moving around easier for everyone. Grabbing the radio “Kes to Chris, Over”

“Chris here. What’s up boss, over?”

“Meet me at the camp site entry, over”

“Roger that. Chris out”

Daniel and Chris arrived, both having been placed in charge of the management of the camp ground, travelled slowly through the camp area, in two vehicles, to see if there were any issues, arriving at the entry 10 minutes later.

“Hey you two, what do you think about opening up a different area so it’s not just one big huge camping area, but a number of smaller ones? So everyone isn’t all cramped in the same area.” I asked

“Sound like Idea good idea, boss,” Daniel replied while Chris just nodded.

Just as they were about to leave a man came up to us, not looking very happy at all and he pushed me aside as he approached Chris and Daniel. “I want to speak to the person in charge of this camp site” he bellowed at Chris. I decided to hang back and listen to what he had to say, “It’s too crowded. There are not enough shaded areas. The ablutions are too far away, and the arena is too far to walk to.” With each complaint, his voice was angrier, louder until he was shouting in Chris’ face and his face was very red.

I had enough of his rude behaviour.

“Good afternoon sir, my name is Kes, may I ask if you have a student who is participating in events this weekend?” I said very politely, and I saw Chris walk away a bit to call for staff backup to the camp entrance.

“What is it to you sonny, I am here to have a good time” was the very rude reply.

I was not very pleased, “Well sir for your information, my full name is Kyle Silverton, acting managing director of Murchison Pastoral Investments, the company that owns and runs this cattle station, I will now ask you again who are you and do you have a son or daughter participating in this weekend’s events” I said firmly as I saw nearby a team of staff arriving in two vehicles.

The man laughed and took a look at me and laughed again, “This is a waste of time let me talk to someone who is really in charge of this place” the man asserted.

By now, I was furious at how I was being treated and was considering what to do next when a very tall man approached who was holding a radio which he had been listening to, as Daniel had been holding the key down on his radio so the conversation could be heard. The tall man with the radio stood face to face with the abusive man, “What do you want you stupid bastard” the rude man said and the other man just smiled, I noticed that Chris had moved up so he was standing next to the smiling man. Chris just smiled and winked at me.

“Sir my name is Senior Sergeant Miles Patterson, and you are being warned behave or you will not be staying here, now that I have told you that, I suggest you answer Mr Silverton’s question that he asked before, remember that I heard everything via the two-way radio at what was said, and yes this young man is indeed the managing Director of this station” the police officer said.