Farm Life - 4. FAR Chapter 4

The sand dunes start about fifty metres before the boundary fence, which is located at the bottom of a valley of dunes, which have scrubs growing on both sides of the dunes facing the boundary fence, to stop sand drifting onto the boundary.

Walking along the top of the dunes, I looked around and could not find any sign of any concrete bunkers, until I walked down to the fence line and looked back, where I could see parts of the bunker peeking out of the sand. Walking up to the bunker, I noticed that the front of the bunker had been covered up with corrugated iron sheeting, I decided not to disturb the dunes, to not reveal too much of it, and I went back to the vehicle and drove back to the homestead.

I was keen to explore the underground bunker some more to see if there are any connecting tunnels, but I wanted to do it when no one was around, so I just had to be patient and wait. That time came a lot earlier than I expected, when Mum, Gran and the two younger siblings went into town to do some food hopping, while Grandfather and dad went out to check on the stock, leaving me on my own in the homestead.

I had already located the torch and some spare batteries, just in case I also took a kerosene lantern and some matches, after a little while I found the hidden latch that locks the storage shelving in the kitchen, and once I had the door open, I closed the shelving unit behind me, turning on the torch at the same time.

I left the door open, and I went down the stairs and into the main room. After a quick look around, I located the second door and opened it, to find myself in a small passageway, with two doors on one side and one door on the other.

The first door on the right is a store room, which has blankets, pillows, mattresses and several large boxes, which I didn’t bother to investigate. The second door on the right is the toilet, which includes a small wash basin, the door the opposite side is the bathroom, with a bench and wash basin, plus a bathtub with a shower included.

Back in the passageway, I looked at the end of the small passageway, which is a good 3 metres past the last door, I took a couple of steps closer and looked harder at the end wall.

I pushed at the wall in the middle and nothing happened, I turned and leaned against the wall, a little to the right of centre, and the wall began to move, and I realised that it was on a centre hinge, I stepped to the right a little more and pushed on the wall again, and it moved enough for me to walk through the door way and into a long passageway. I walked for quite some time before I finally started to see some natural light ahead, and I presumed that this was the first of the airway shafts.

When I stood under the shaft, the passage had opened into a large room, similar in size to the one below the homestead. I decided to continue walking, and I eventually came across the second shaft, which is identical as the first one, as I continued to walk westwards, and eventually I could smell the ocean air, and I knew I was close to the last bunker, but there was no natural light this time, as the shaft had been covered up.

When I came to the big open room which I expected to find, I was surprised to see that there were two large steel doorways on opposite walls, which I guessed were on the northern and southern sides.

I opened the one facing the north side and stepped into another passageway, but this time it was filled with strong solid shelves that are three feet apart in height, and four in total. Each shelf space was about 3 feet deep and about 7 feet long, I returned to the main room and entered the southern passageway, to find more shelves, but this time they were only 3 shelves high, about 3 feet deep and about 12 feet long.

This time I walked to the end of the passageway, where there was another doorway, I opened it to reveal a large bathroom, with 4 toilet cubicles and 4 shower stalls.

Walking back to the other room and down to the end I opened the door and found an identical bathroom, but with only two toilets and two showers, plus some small storage shelves. I was amazed at what I had found, I was curious to know how these underground bunkers came about, and what they were used for, so I started to walk back to the homestead, at a fast pace.

When I arrived back at the stairs leading up to the kitchen of the homestead, I stopped and listened to see if I could hear anyone in the kitchen, and when I heard nothing, I quietly opened the door and unlocked the latch to the kitchen shelving and pushed it open, closing the door behind me, followed by the shelving unit.

As I stood in front of the shelves for a moment, the sound of Gran entering the kitchen caught me by surprise. “Now where did you suddenly appear from, actually never mind I know but won’t say anything” Gran said to me with a smile.

I returned the smile and headed out of the homestead and back to the cottage, where there is the original farm office, which has been closed off for the past few decades. I had looked inside several times, but never had the courage to step inside and look at the large desk and the shelves full of small books, which I presumed are the farm diaries.

But now I wanted to know more about our family history, so with a couple of rags and a broom, I entered the office. Firstly, I opened the heavy curtains, which brought in plenty of light, a lot more once I had rubbed off a fair amount of dirt of the windows, before I turned to the main bookshelf.

On it were rows of small notebooks, each one carefully dated, with four note books per year, and I scanned the dates till I found the date I was looking for. “July to September 1920”, which I carefully pulled out and took it to the couch near the window. Removing the sheet that covered the couch, I took a seat and opened the note book, scanning each page until I found what I was looking for.

“19^th September 1920 - Edward Grantham. Today the new homestead is finally complete, it is a magnificent building that I hope will last for generations to come. With a master bedroom and guest bedroom each having its own bathroom, and the other three bedrooms sharing one big bathroom, with a toilet in the bathroom and second one just off the laundry, it a great family home with plenty of space.

I even included a music room and a drawing room, as well as the main family lounge, plus the new library & study is very grand. An added area is a secret storage and shelter bunker, with stairs to it from the kitchen, in case we have a major natural disaster or another war. I just hope that we won’t have to use it for such purposes, I have decided that only the eldest of each generation is to know of the secret bunker, so that it remains a secret.

My eldest son – Lewis helped me to build the new homestead, and at 19 years he has already caught the eye of a very nice lass from the city, I’m sure it won’t be long before Lewis and Eliza are married. The other children are still at school, Beth being two years younger than Lewis, while the two younger boys, Marcus is 15 and Francis is 13 are at boarding school and doing quite well from the reports I have been receiving.”

I could see no mention of the tunnels, so I decided to look a bit later in the diaries, and after returning the diary I had been reading back to its place, I scanned the dates more and came to a date period that may have the information I require. “October to December 1939”. Once again, I sat down on the lounge and carefully opened the diary and began scanning the information, till I came to what I was looking for.

“28^th November 1939 – Lewis Grantham. With another war break out in Europe and the Pacific, I am sure that we will once again lose a lot of good men, the family lost great uncle Nicholas is the great war, and there are now concerns for uncle Lewis, who is a career soldier in the army, close to retirement, but he is eager to participate in this clash, I’m sure that Granma is not too happy at all about him being involved in this war”

I was finding these family diaries very interesting reading and decided to dedicate some time each week to reading a lot more. Returning that diary to its’ original place, I selected another one. “July to September 1940 – Lewis Grantham, “As was expected, Uncle Lewis has been given duties up in the north-east, assisting with training the Australian soldiers in jungle warfare. Uncle Lewis also has convinced Dad to have underground tunnels and bunkers built on the farm, in case of invasion by the Japanese.