Indian Ocean Invasion - 28. IOI Chapter 28

“Ok, we are sorry for the little joke, so can we now drive down our driveway to the back door please?” Louis asked me nicely, and I restarted the vehicle and turned around on the vacant block since there was plenty of room to do that, and after checking there was no traffic, I swung around and drove down the paved driveway.

Joachim unlocked and opened the back door, as Wyatt and I followed with the first load of luggage. Stopping in the middle of the room, I saw that we were in the games room, which had a full-size billiards table in the centre of the room. Wyatt made his way into the house to find his quarters, and moments later I heard him say wow, so went looking for him.

I have my own private lounge, large bedroom, and bathroom, with a jacuzzi bath” Wyatt exclaimed, when I finally found him, and I chuckled at his excitement, before heading back out the back, to collect another load of luggage, which had to be carried upstairs. After four exhausting trips, all the luggage was finally inside, and I was able to have a good look around the house, after a short rest.

The house was fully furnished, with everything needed for the house, even all the bedrooms had the beds freshly made, and there was even food in the fridge. “What’s going on here, the place looks like it has had someone in here very recently?” I asked.

“Yes, that would be Mrs Gale Atkins, a local resident, and new our housekeeper, she will be cleaning the house three days a week, cooking some meals and doing the shopping for us” Louis explained.

“So, what is my job here then, it sounds like I am not needed?” Wyatt asked, “you are our house butler, so everything that you do at our home in England, like doing the laundry, a bit of gardening, cooking and cleaning when Mrs Atkins isn’t here, and driving us around when need be” Joachim replied with a small smile.

“Understood sir” Wyatt replied, and he began looking in all the cupboards and into every room, to see where everything is located. “A very dedicated young man” I commented to the twins when Wyatt was off in another part of the house. “Yes, he gets that from his aunt, goodness knows where we would be, if we didn’t have Coop with us, that is what we call Mrs Cooper” Louis said to me.

“We pay them very well, and in return, we get excellent service from Coop, and her two nephews” Joachim added, “Yoo-hoo, anybody home” a female’s voice called, then we heard talking, which I presumed was Wyatt speaking to the visitor.

Wyatt appeared a few moments later, “Mrs Atkins to see you both sir” Wyatt said, “Yes, show here up here please” Joachim replied, and soon a lady in her 50’s appeared, and she was wearing a knee length cotton skirt, she has brown hair, with touches of grey in it, and a nice smile.

“Hello, Mrs Atkins, how are you today?” Louis asked, “Well thankyou Mr Louis and Mr Joachim” the lady replied happily, “May I introduce you to one of our project managers…”, “Yes I saw Commander Shaw at the public meeting recently, oh sorry, please continue” Mrs Atkins interrupted, “Well yes, and Wyatt Cooper is our house butler, he has been working for our family for a few years now, mostly in the UK, but this is his home state and country” Joachim resumed.

“Mrs Atkins, I will be leaving here in just over two weeks’ time, so you will only have the Wagner twins and staff here to look after that, as I am uncertain how long my new position will last out at Christmas Island, some 2000 km’s north west of here” I said to our new housekeeper.

“Quite some distance, Sir” Mrs Atkins commented, “Yes, it is, and the annoying thing is that I have to travel nearly 500 km’s south, before I can fly to the island” I answered.

“We may be able to resolve that issue eventually, we have already applied with the Shire council to build our own aircraft hangar at the south east end of the parking apron, of the airport, so we can have our own aircraft based there” Louis announced, “plus we will have a pilot and steward on call when required, for trips to Perth or where ever we want to go, and we are finalising buying accommodation, for the flight crew” Joachim added.

“That sounds good, but it will still mean I will have to travel to Perth first for this trip” I grumbled, and twins chuckled at my comment.“Sorry we can’t help with the short cut to the island, maybe next time” Louis said to me. “Right, I will be back in the morning, for cleaning, so I will see you gentlemen later” Mrs Atkins said, and she headed downstairs and out of the house.

I didn’t want to say anything why Mrs Atkins was here, but we are also putting a proposal to the local council, to lease and manage the airport, with a 25-year lease, with the option for another 10 years, and in return, we will invest $6 million, with the construction of a second and longer runway, a bigger airport terminal, and a control tower, with weather and air traffic radar systems.

What we know so far is that there is a flying scenic tour company, that has a 5-passenger plane and a 3-passenger helicopter, that use the airport regularly, if we do get to manage the airport, we will use a small passenger jet plane, to transport visitors from Perth to Kalbarri and return, I’m thinking maybe doing a long term charter of a Gulfstream G550, which is what we flew up in this time. It can carry 12 passengers very comfortably, and has a bathroom and a galley, with the flight taking just over an hour.

For our own personal use, I am thinking a Gulfstream G280, which is what we usually charter on trips, and it comfortable seats 6 with bathroom and galley, and both planes, have two pilot seats” Louis announced. “Wow, you are really getting into investing in a big way in Kalbarri” I commented. “That is because it is a beautiful place to live and visit” Joachim said.

With my doubts about having the ship on the land, so I decided to discuss it with the twins, and we ended up spending nearly two hours discussing other possible options, and eventually I said that we need to discuss this with the local council, so I dialled the number for the main council offices in Northampton.

“Good afternoon, this is Commander Lewis Shaw speaking, on behalf of Wagner Corporation, I would like to speak to the Shire CEO if I may” I said, when the call connected, and I was asked to hold. “Hello Commander Shaw, this is Jerry Carter, the CEO speaking, how can I help you?’ a new voice said.

I have the younger Wagner brothers with me now, and we have spent the past two hours discussing the tall ship, and we can’t seem to come up with a solution. We feel that placing the ship on land, so far away from the river, even though it is only 120 metres away from the water, would make the tall ship look odd in that place, especially with houses being so close, and we were wanting to ask the council if they have any better solutions” I said.

“Well that is interesting, we were just discussing the matter of the tall ship, during our senior staff meeting yesterday afternoon, and there have been some other suggestions, of which the most favourable one is to keep the tall ship on or very near the water” the shire CEO said.

“I would prefer that too sir, but the question is where to put it, that will not annoy the Department of Transport, and be favourable to the shire” I said. “There is one possible location, but it would require some dredging, that the shire would have to insist that you pay for… the small, town jetty near Chinaman’s Rock, it is a small area, but if we could get the ship into the west side of that jetty, I am sure that the council would approve of it” the CEO suggested.

“Let us go and inspect the site, and we will give you a call in the morning” I suggested, “Very well Commander, I look forward to your call then, good day to you” the CEO said, and he ended the call. I looked at the twins, who were smiling, and I suggested that we go for a short walk down to the river.

When we arrived at the small jetty, the first one nearest to the mouth of the river, we walked up to the end of the jetty, which is only 40 metres long with the end area being 5 metres wide. From there we looked to the west side of the jetty, which was mostly beach sand, and less than 30 metres from the end is the start of the rocks, and the east side of the jetty has just 20 metres of water alongside it.

“That is going to be a big job to dredge it out to get the ship in” I commented, as we looked over the end of the jetty. “If we had it positioned along the end of the jetty, there will be less dredging needed, and we could set steel cables into the rocks, and the beach to secure the ship into place” Joachim suggested.

“Yes, I agree with you, the end of the jetty is the best option, especially if there is a storm, then the ship is pointed into or away from the wind and ocean, making it less likely for the ship to move or get damaged” Louis added. “Which way should it point do you think, towards the ocean or towards upriver?” I asked.

“The ocean” the brothers said together, “Yes, I agree to that too” I said, pleased that a decision had now been finally made about the future of the tall ship. “So, what do we do with those two blocks of land on Cotworthy Street, and the land behind where the park is going to be?” I asked after a few minutes of silence, as we glanced around the area.

“Why not make both blocks into a public park, as there are enough trees on the Hackney street block also” Louis suggested, and Joachim nodded his head in agreement, “Good that is another decision made, and now there is just the Cotworthy Streets properties?” I said.

“Well, the two-unit bungalow next door on Grey street, is fairly basic, and there is a good chunk of unused space behind it, so we could build either visitor accommodation or retail space, if we bought that property also?” Joachim suggested.

“Let’s think about it some more, there is no rush on what to do with that is there? I’m sure you guys would prefer to concentrate on the sports ground project and your next big project at the airport” I suggested, and the twin agreed with my suggestion. “I am glad that we have you onboard as a project manager, you have come up with some great ideas.

I think we need to extend the sports grounds project a bit more, by including a sealed driveway, parking, and curbing on the east side, and relocating the skate park and making it bigger, so we can fit a 50-metre swimming pool next to the sports centre building, and install 2-metre high garrison style fencing, for crowd control for concerts, pending council approval of course” Louis suggested.

“That sounds like a good idea, I will be spending the next two weeks, working on locating a building company to build the grandstand, and another to build the sports centre extensions” I replied, as we started heading back to the house.

“Don’t you have to move all your luggage to the house?” Joachim asked me, and I stopped still. “Oh yeah, I totally forgot all about that” I commented, and the twins started laughing as the continued walking, and I jogged to catch up to them.

Once I had moved all my belongings to the new house, I settled the account with the accommodation I was staying in and returned to the house to start unpacking. Wyatt put together a delicious dinner for us, and I insisted that he sit have meals with us, since he is the only permanent house staff, and the Wagner twins agreed. Because of the short time limits, I telephone 2 dozen building companies in Kalbarri, Northampton, Mullewa and Geraldton, giving them an opportunity to tender for the jobs.

From that number, I received 9 tender requests, which was sent to them via email, and from those requests, I received just 7 tenders, 4 for the grandstand job, and 3 for the recreation centre extensions, and with just over a week to go before I have to fly to Perth then catch the flight to Christmas Island, under my brother’s name, I decided to consult with the Wagner twins about selecting the best offers.

“In my experience, the ones with the lowest quotes usually take shortcuts and make a rough job, and the most expensive quotes are usually just greedy, so I would select the second highest quote” Louis suggested, “I agree with my brother on that, we have come across some very dicey builders in our time in the company, and you don’t want to be caught up with them.

I suggest, that we locate and purchase all of the building materials ourselves, as per the architects’ specifications, and pay the contractors, monthly, for the work that they have completed” Joachim added. Great, that way we keep them honest and it is fair for everyone” I said smiling, glad that we had come to an agreement on the selection process, and with that as the ruling, I selected the second highest quote for each project.

With that done, I opened my computer and opened a new email message, “Dear Sir, we are happy to announce, that your company hasbeen successful with the tender for the project at Kalbarri.

The conditions of accepting this tender, are 1. That the company, that is managing and financing the project, will source and purchase all building materials, as per the architects’ specifications. 2. The building company and any contractors, will build the project exactly to the design specifications, with no alterations or deviations to the designwhat so-ever.

3. The project company will pay the building company monthly, for work that has been completed, with the final payment to be made once a full inspection has been completed of the project, and any building faults are corrected, at the building company’s cost. Please let us know if you are happy with these conditions, and wish to accept the tender,and let us know your date of commencement for the job. Yours sincerely, L. Shaw, Wagner Corporation, Project Director.

I sent another email to the other successful tender, before sending an email to the other companies that had put in a tender submission, stating they were unsuccessful, and thanked them for their time to submit the tender.

“Well with that done, I will have to leave it up to you guys to do all the hard work of getting the building materials ready for both projects, and make sure it runs smoothly, I am sorry that I can’t be here to watch it being built” I said to the twins, “that’s fine, we will be able to keep it all running smoothly” Louis replied.