Farm Life - 18. FAR Chapter 18

Just two days after the school holidays were over, nearly two weeks later, a plumber and electrician were onsite with the shire works manager, starting work on the changes to the caravan park. Firstly, with disconnecting the power and water to the 48 camping and caravan sites, that are being removed from the caravan park.

Next, they ripped up all the piping, and electrical cabling from all but two of the rows, as two gazebos will be constructed, to provide picnic seating and tables for families, with a water table lighting and barbeques included.

Later in the week a stonemason arrived to carefully deconstruct the wall, while new wall footings were being laid for the relocation of the wall, just one site past the ablutions block, which will make way for a new access road, between every second existing road.

In just two short weeks the work was completed to downsizing the caravan park, to almost half of the number of caravan bays and camping sites. For the 27 customers who have booked caravan bays, that would be affected by the changes, they were notified of the changes, and offered a full refund or a booking at the nearby Southbank Kilburn Caravan Park, which I had agreed to making sites available due to these changes.

With the June long weekend just four weeks away, I made sure that Rachel kept 40 caravan and camping sites available for changes made at the other caravan park, for the June & September long weekends and the Winter school holidays.

Another week later after the completion of the relocation of the limestone wall, the former caravan bays nolonger had concrete slabs, which were replaced with new turf, as well as where the roads used to be, after the ground had been ripped up and topsoil had been added, and two new gazebos and barbeques had been constructed.

Meanwhile, down near the boat ramp, the council was busy digging out dirt, along the top edge of the carpark area, with a retaining wall to be added, to allow for three more vehicle and boat trailer bays, and an additional 16 carparking bays.

Plus, an additional 8 carparking bays will be added along Edward street, just up from the general store. An extra 24 car parking bays doesn’t seem much, but during the peak summer time, it gets very busy in Kilburn, with it being just over an hour north of Perth, idea for a day trip.

While all this activity was happening, the modular construction company was working hard with the additional orders of two extra-large shops for the front of Southbank, and an additional 2 two-bedroom and 6 three-bedroom cabins that I decided to include along the back corner of the development.

I made sure that there is a good 12 metre gap between them and the nearest staff cabin, all which would be in place before the winter school holidays.

When the current shop tenants learnt of the additional larger shops soon to arrive, the Riverside Restaurant immediately asked to take up one of the larger shops, while the café requested to move to the bigger space, soon to be vacated by the restaurant.

Meanwhile, the local community library, which is currently located down near the other caravan park, requested space to relocate, and they elected to take up the shop soon to be vacated by the Ocean River Café, with it being twice the size of their current location.

The local Community Arts & Crafts group also requested a shop space to sell their goods, and I agreed to give them one of the small shops at a lease fee of half the standard price, which they were very pleased about.

When the very busy June long weekend was finally over, and with our annual closure for maintenance approaching, I had arranged for the two new shops to be transported up to Kilburn on the first day of our ten- day break, to give the shop tenants plenty of time to relocate to their bigger shops, and the new tenant to move in.

With no one interested in taking up the lease on the second extra-large shop, I decided to keep it reserved as a community multi-purpose room, and I had a local building contractor install a second bathroom and a store room at the back, and a dividing wall to separate that area from the rest of the space, and I had hard wearing carpet laid on the floor, and two reverse cycle air-conditioners installed.

I also had the modular company replace two of the small shops with one medium sized shop, which gave it more of a chance to be leased out, and since the community library and the shire office are next to each other, I had a connecting decking and shaded patio between them, that will provide easy access between the two, and additional space for people to sit outdoors to read or just relax.

During the recent June long weekend, I had received several complaints regarding guests being relocated to the Southbank Caravan Park, which is further away from the beach and ocean, and I gave them a discount on their booking, which made most of them happy with the change.

Some still were not happy about the caravan park on the beach being half of its original size, and I informed them, that it was a shire council decision, and had nothing to do with myself or the family company. As the end of our maintenance break approached, with all the staff given 5 days of holidays, I spent each of those days at Southbank to make sure everything was ok.

The council were happy for me to close off the bridge to road traffic for the time we are closed, since it leads directly to Southbank, which is private property, but I was happy for the community and visitors to come and use the public facilities, and to check out the shops.

So far, we had only 11 bookings for when we reopen, and I was a little shocked when I arrived just before 10am, to find a small line of cars, with caravans or camper trailers, waiting for the bridge to be reopened, so I back tracked to the booking office to let the staff know.

I was informed by Andrea, that they had received quite a few enquiries yesterday, after the message machine had been switched off, and this morning, so she was half expecting there to be a bit of a line building. Rachel arrived, as I was about to leave, “Did you know we have a long line of guests waiting” Rachel said as she walked in, “Yes, we were just discussing it, good morning Rachel” I responded, as Andrea handed me a hand-held radio.

“Good morning boss, I have just been checking on all of the guest cabins, including the new ones, to make sure they are all ready” Rachel said as she walked around to behind the desk and sat down in her chair, “I will go and open the bridge, if you are ready to go” I said, and Rachel said that was fine, as I headed outside and walked over the bridge, to remove the barriers.

As I moved them, I decided that I needed to have swinging gates installed, that will leave a space in the centre for pedestrians to walk through, but stop vehicles from crossing, when its closed, as I watched the vehicle dive past. “About bloody time you opened the flaming gates” one of the drivers shouted at me, as they passed, and I pulled the radio off my belt.

“Lewis to Park Admin, over” I said into the radio, “Receiving you, boss, over” came a quick reply, “Two men in their mid-twenties, driving a yellow panel van with private rego plates, Romeo Alpha 92 Whiskey Alpha. I suggest that you warn them, that abusing staff will not be tolerated, and if they don’t apologise, or say they won’t do it again, then refuse them from booking in. Suggest they try the other caravan park, we can do without idiots like them, over” I said.

“Message received, and will do, over and out” came the reply, and I smiled, as I watched the cars stop and waitfor the front lot to be checked in, making sure that the bridge was clear, to allow any vehicles that needed to drive over the other way, as I expect they will.

What I didn’t expect, was that the two men who shouted at me to walk over the bridge and personally apologise to me. “Apology accepted, I will let the office know, and they will check you in” I responded afterwards, and they shook my hand and set off back to the office, while I called on the radio, to say that it was ok for the two men to be booked in.

By the time the last of the guests had checked in, we had a total of 31 check ins, of which two of them are for cabins. “Apparently it is mostly by word of mouth, that we have all of these extra bookings, a lot of them are family or friends of guests we had here for Easter or the recent long weekend” Rachel informed me.

With the winter school holidays just three weeks away, all the cabins and half of the 280 caravan bays and no camping sites had been booked, for that two-week period, which is about what is expected, and after a quick call to the other caravan park, we learnt that they were nearly completely booked, with just a dozen camping sites empty.

Dad was getting very worried now, as we had only received a few light showers of rain so far this year, when we should have has at least 64 mm of rain till the end of June, and so far we have had a little over 9mm, and he commented during dinner one night, that we will be forking out a lot of money for hay, over the next few months if we don’t get a lot more rain, and soon.

A lot of the farms in the district, have been forced to destock their farms, and received a lot less money for their sheep and cattle, because they were not in as good condition, and thankfully Dad had grown an extra lot of crops for hay feed last year, which is safely stored away in the sheds.

Two days before the start of the winter school holidays, we received our first decent rain for the year, with 15 mm falling in those two day, but it didn’t seem to deter the guests who arrived on the Friday afternoon to check in, keeping all the staff busy for the next few hours.

I was just about to leave my office and head home, when the office phone rang, and I was tempted to ignore it, but decided against it. “Oh, hi Mum, what is it you need” I asked my Mum when I heard her voice, “I just learnt that it is Preston’s 21st birthday in two days’ time, and I thought it would be nice to organise something, since he is now home for the semester holidays” Mum said.

“Oh yeah, I forgot all about it, I am about to leave the office, so how about telling me about it when I get home” I replied, “Ok dear, we have a roast for tea tonight, so don’t be too long, bye” Mum said before ending the call, and jumping into the ute, I set off home, via the back gate, as it is the quickest way home.

During dinner, with both Preston and Ronnie home, I managed to catch Mum’s eye, and gave her a wink, before clearing my throat to speak. “By the way Mum, I am going into Joondalup tomorrow, to get some stationary supplies for my office and the caravan park admin, is there anything I can get you while you are there?” I asked,

“Yes, please dear, I will write up a list for you after tea” Mum replied smiling, and no one seemed to catch on what was happening. “By the way, Preston and Ron, can you go over to Southbank, and help out there tomorrow while I am away, I am sure that Rachel or Geoff will find plenty for you both to do” I said to the lads, “Sure thing, anything to get out of farm work” Ronnie said cheekily.

“You may not like it, but farm work is good experience for me, since I have only 1 ½ years left till I graduate from university” Preston replied, giving his brother a nudge with his elbow, and I chuckled at the lads playful bickering.

“So, Preston, have you decided where you want to be once you graduate?” I asked my good friend, “I have actually, and I have spoken to my Mum about it, she is looking into me getting a visa, so I can stay here” Preston said. “What about you Ron, what will you do when you finish boarding school” I asked the younger brother, “Well I am not sure yet, Mum says she has a long-term lease on the farm, so there is no point in heading home, unless I can get into a University close to where Mum and Aunt Maisy live” Ronny replied.

“So, you may stay also?” I asked, “Maybe, haven’t decided what I want to do yet, but I have been getting very good grades this year” Ronny answered. “Once my visa has been sorted, I am going to look into finding a place to set up practice here in Kilburn, that way if you need me for anything on the farm, I am close by” Preston announced.