NB New Direction - 23. NB ND Chapter 23

I closed and locked the door from the dining room to the pantry and crew stairwell, as well the door to the forward crew area, and the triple glazed siding doors out to the balcony deck, both in the dining room and the now hospital, meaning the Jacuzzi was now out of bounds. Once the surgery theatre was sterilised, the stewards got to work to do the same for the hospital, and we retreived a total of 16 mattresses from vacant crew beds, to be placed on the floor in the hospital area.

Over three hours passed very quickly as we travelled west towards the island, stopping when we had reached the point of ten nautical miles. The surgery theatre and hospital were all ready, the guests, had been informed of the changes to restricted areas, with B deck now totally out of bounds, and the helicopter had taken off just as we started to slow down, and returned shortly after we had stopped.

Sebastian, Chris, Stephan and myself, were tasked with stretcher duties, as we carried the stretchers down the rear stairs, down one level from the flight deck to the B deck outer deck, then inside, where they were placed in the passageway to await surgery. It appeared that some triage had been done, as the more serious injuries had been sent first, and all but one of them was Australian.

We learnt that there was four defence medics on the island, one in each submarine, and two amongst the SAS company, and between them they had done the triage, with both Sub medics travelling with the first load of injured, and they remained on the ship to assist with surgery, once they had scrubbed in.

They had informed me, that the amphibious assault ship had arrived, and it had landed eight helicopters, and 200 soldiers on the islands runway, to assist the already established 200 SAS soldiers based at the hamlet. Of the 43 that went through surgery, all but one had survived, and sadly he was Australian. It had been a very tough two days, to get through all of the surgery, but as a team we managed to complete the work, and surprisingly I didn’t get to squimish with all the blood and body parts.

During those two days, conflict continued but there was a turn of events, the French had withdrawn their claim on the island, and are now staying clear of the island, but remaining close by to watch what happens. The Americans were also staying close by to see what happens, and for two nights, the Chinese sent forces onto the island under the cover of darkness.

What they didn’t expect, was to have lots of Australian SAS soldiers waiting for them, and this time, there was no injuries to the Australians and minor injuries to the Chinese, and eventually the Chinese decided that there was no chance of claiming the island, and by dawn the next day, there was no sign of them. A check with the Horizon radar, showed the ship approaching the Java Sea, and heading home.

Up on the bridge, Sebastian and I stood side by side as the call was made on the VHF radio, “This is Sebastian Wagner from Wagner International, and this is Huon Devonport, administrator of Deepdale Island, calling all Australian, American and French Naval vessels and Australian Army in the region” we said, and there was an answer from the Australian vessel and 2 Submarines, and the two French and one American ships.

“We wish to invite senior officers of all vessels to attend a ceremony on the main beach, just before sunset tonight, to signifiy the sucessful repelling of a foriegn naval force from taking control of the island. Sailors from the vessels are welcome to watch, although the view of sight is blocked in parts due to the rocky ridges and the trees that have been planted around the island” Sebastian said, and we received a confirmation from the Americans, French and the Australians that they would be attending.

Now with the recovering patients, tansferred to the support ship, and on there way back to Fremantle, the Captain brought the ship back to the island, and and moored at the main jetty, and all of the islanders disembarked, and headed to their cabins and work places, to check that nothing was damaged or missing.

When Kyle and I entered the administration building, we were disapointed to see that the place was trashed, with furniture overturned, and the computer screens smashed, but the hard drives were still there, thanks to them being bolted down to the tables.

Over the next few hours the staff arrived to report, that some of the buidlings had been ransaacked but there was nothing missing, and the patrol boat, that had not been found by the invaders. Shawn brought the patrol boat out and moored it at the jetty opposite the ship.

The Army presonnel had been patroling the island, to make sure no one had remained behind, and they found no one, but they did find a couple of land mines, which had been disarmed safely, and they were now sweeping the whole island to check that there are no more around. I was informed that the land mines that were found, were located on the road, just off each end of the runway.

So when all the staff were gathered, it was decided to retreat to the ship until the island has been declared safe. I had Sebastian contact the naval vessels, to inform them of the change of venue to the ship, and we just relaxed for the rest of the afternoon, while we waited till the Army and Naval guests arrive.

“By the way, what is happening at the school?” I asked Sebastian, “Well I decided that I needed to concentrate on my business, and my family, so they have found a new administrator for the school, and the school has agreed to lease the new building on Queenslea Drive as well, especially when there is a connecting rooftop walkway over the alley” Sebastian replied.

“We seem to be doing alot of different things lately, firstly the Falkland Islands, then the property investments and school in Claremont, and now the island, in the middle of the Indian Ocean” I agreed. “Yes we have been doing alot, and don’t forget the rebuid of your home in Toodyay, plus you and Kyle doing a singing tour of the churches and chapels of the state, and our special guests at the Toodyay farm” Sebastian added.

“I wonder were we will be in two years time? I commented thinking out loud, which made Sebastian chuckle, “who know’s cousin, maybe on mars” he replied which we both laughed at. “What are your thoughts on haveing military presonnel permanently stationed here on the island?” Seb asked me seriously. “Well I have been thinking about it, before we had all of this drama, I wass thinking of increasing the planting of larger trees, especially weeping willows, palms & eucalypts, plus alot more shrubs and ground covers, to protect the wildlife.

I think that we could turn this island into a new alternative holiday destination, if we redesign the layout of the island, of course we have to work around the airfield and main road, but still we could fit in a 9 hole golf course, make the dining room and kitchen into a restaurant, include a couple of shops, including a bakery, cafe and maybe souvenier shop, have all the staff on the south end of the island on the peninsular, and have a visitors village, a maximum of 32 cabins I think, at the wide part at the start of the peninsular, close to the beach.

For defence, I think we should make the area where the research station is now, into the defence base, with just road access to the base, so it is hard to get to, more tree coverage, will hide the loaction of the defence base, and they will have their own beach and jetty there on the east side of the island, and be close to the runway and helipad, and they will have all of that south east corner of the island for training etc” I announced.

“Wow, you have been thinking about this a great deal, should we stick to shipping containers for all buildings?” Sebastian replied, “Yes, for two reasons, cyclones and earthquakes, I have experienced both, and the shipping containers, when anchored down are the safest shelter for anyone, we will need to increase out premanent residents numbers a little bit, not much, say to about 16 residents and 6 executive cabins, that way everyone can have their own cabin, well apart from the married couples of course” I replied.

For the six executive cabins, I think we should add a half size upper level, to be used either as a bedroom or extra living area, and I have started to work on a new layout for the island including everything that I have mentioned, so if we can start making orders for alot more containers, we whould be fully set up in a month or two” I said. “Sounds good to me cousin, it is your project, so just let me know what you want and I will get it” Sebastian said to me.

“An extra patrol boat might be a good idea as well, so we have one hidden behind the falls, and one at the jetty, they can be rotated at night, when no one can see them, and it would be nice if we had some feature land-based birds and animals, maybe peacocks and hens, guinea fowl, quails, monitor lizards, plus otters and tortoises from the upper Indian Ocean region. Maybe some echidna, platypus, bandicoots, frilled lizards, spotted quolls and quokkas from Australia and green tree frogs, tasiers, water dragon lizard and river turtles from PNG, plus some small growing fresh water,fish for the lake, so we can start establishing an ecosystem, as part of a breeding programme, here on the island” I suggested.

“Wow, that is quite a big order, I will get onto contacting some zoo’s and wildlife parks to see what we can access, what do you suggest for a start, 6 breeding pairs?’ Sebastian asked, “Yes something like that, maybe have a chat to our marine biologist and environmental scientist, to see what they think of the idea, they may be interested in helping” I replied.

Once the ceremony was completed, all of the naval ships departed, leaving a company of Australian Army soldiers behind, 32 men and women in total. Seb and I spent some time talking to the Australian Navay and Army senior officers, and we came up with a plan, for a rotation for the defence company, with the island paying for half of the costs of food and water supplies for the soldiers, in return for their assistance with protecting the island from any future invaders.

We would also provide the base facilities, that consisted of accommodation cabins, varying from a double cabin for the Commanding officer, to twin cabins for the senior and junior officers and NCO’s, and three or four bed cabins for the soldiers, with each of the cabins have their own bathroom, air conditioning, and storage space.

Because the army was providing defence for the island, I decided that establishing a permanaent base for them was the highest priority, with a total of 22 accommodation cabins, a dining hall and kitchen, a parade hall, and administration & communications centre, and a recreation gymnasium.

It took a total of three months to get the whole island redesigned and for all of the new buildings to be shipped over, which had to be done with a chartered ship, as the Ocean Explorer was busy with doing its supply deliveries. We received news from the Ocean Explorer, that it had left Cape Town, and it was now on its way across the Indian Ocean, with a diversion to call in to Deepdale Island, after dropping supplies off at Amsterdam Island, which is 8 days away from Cape Town, and it is a 5 day journey to Deepdale.

The Army was keeping busy with continual training, and foot patrols, mostly in the early mornings and evenings, and I had received good responses to the facilities that we had built for them. Quite by chance they had located one more land mine, so they had spent the past two weeks, doing another search for any more landmines on the island, with all residents warned to stay on the roads and footpaths for safety.

Annette was very happy with her new ministry, where she was getting nearly all of the residents, and about half of the soldiers, attending her Sunday morning service, and about half of the residents attending the mid week service on Wednesdays. Kyle provided the organ music for each service, and for the rest of the time he was assisting me in administration.

With Sebastian and the twins now living on the Island, Annette was also teaching the twins their education classes, which run from 7 to 10am and 2 to 5 pm on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, and just afternoon classes on Wednesdays.

In three months, a team of twenty residents, have been planting trees for 4 ½ days a week, and so far have planted over 77 thousand trees and shrubs, each person averageing one tree being planted every five minutes, which is about a 240 trees an hour, and in a 6 hour day, we were planting an amazing 1,440 trees a day. It was back breaking work, starting in the early morning at 7am, stopping in the middle of the day for 4 hours, then starting again at 2pm, when alot of the heat of the day has passed.

We were having Wednesdays and Sundays and half of Saturday, as rest days, so we averaged 6,500 trees planted each week. With the help of the plentiful supply of rain that we have been getting each week, plus alot of sunshine, all the trees were thriving, and the island now has lots of thick groves of trees, providing plenty of food and shelter for the few animals and birds that have arrived on the island.

A number of varieties of clourful parrots, pelicans, ibis, stork, petrals, finches, two varieties of owls, albatros and some geese, have made the island their home. We had bought some live young spiny crayfish, plus some Mangrove Jack fingerlings, Jungle Perch fingerlings, and catfish, in hope that some of them would survive being moved to anew location and continue to populate the lake.

We also planted alot of water reeds and other aquatic plants that help to oxygenate the water, to keep the fish alive, and so far we have only see a few small amounts of fish deaths, after a heavy rain downpour, we also had to install a next to stop the fish from falling down the waterfall, into the ocean,where there is a good chance bigger fish and birds would catch them.

We now have a second Patrol boat on the island, plus a 22 seater jet powered Rib Dinghy, which will be used for tours around the island, and for scuba diving tours. With a total of 32 guest cabins, 16 of them have queen beds, 12 have two king single beds, 2 cabins have three single beds, and the final two cabins have four single beds, allowing for a total of seventy guests, but Kyle and I decided that there will be a maximum of 35 guests at any one time, so as to prevent over crowding on the island, and reducing damage to the islands fragile environment.