Oceania - 3. Oce Chapter 3

The township of Adamstown, we think should remain as it is, with any residences in that part of the island, to be used to upgrade services to the community in the way of more shops, cafés, restaurants, a community recreation centre, more sporting facilities, and maybe a separate administration centre for the island, and we are happy to pay for all the upgrading of any buildings to make these ideas possible” Jonah said.

“This is more than generous, for Lloyd Corporation to be doing this for us, but what do you get out of all of this work,” the Administrator asked us. “The satisfaction that a dying community in a very remote part of the world will no longer at risk of extinction, and will prosper for all permanent residents for the future” I replied.

“We will have to look at everything that you have presented to us today, and get back to you in regards to what we think is best for our community,” the Mayor said after a few minutes of discussions amongst those at the meeting.

“Take your time, as we said we are here for 6 to 12 months, to get all of this implemented, but just remember, some of the projects are already in progress, with the arrival of power, water and sewerage service arriving in less than five days, you can contact us on the standard UHF radio, on channel 3,” Jonah responded, and we left the room, to let the council complete their meeting.

Once back at the boat ramp, we climbed into the dinghy and set off out to see, which was surprisingly quite calm, and shortly after leaving Jonah made the call, and the Aquaria surfaced, to allow us to get back onboard, before submerging again.

After a brief team meeting with the senior project team leaders, the mini-sub that is located between the forward and aft sections of Deck 8, and access is gained from the Deck 9 Airlock, I was transported back to Oceania, so I could brief my crew on what has taken place so far.

A few hours later, just before lunchtime, I received a message from Jonah, informing me that the Council has requested that we attend a community meeting, that is set for 3 pm today, with all senior project managers to also attend.

After some discussions, we decided to surface both vessels, to allow everyone to bet onto the dinghies easily, and both vessels will remain on the surface while we are on the island, since the seas are fairly calm at the moment.

By the time we had the 8 project leaders, 4 security officers, Jonah and myself loaded in the four dinghies, there was quite a large crowd down at the boat ramp, to check out the two vessels, and the security officers had to ask the island residents to step back, to allow us to land on the island.

Sergeant Langston finally arrived and suggested that everyone heads for the community centre, so we can all hear what is planned for the island. Although not armed, the security officers were very well built in stature and would have had no problems dealing with any incident that may occur.

The community centre was packed full with all of the adult and most of the children residents to the island, and Mayor Young called to order, so the meeting could commence. Over the next 2 ½ hours, Jonah and I explained everything again, and we answered all of the questions, and everyone was given the chance to look at the plans, that we had provided, during a short break halfway through the meeting.

One of the councillors had expressed concern, that there was a large risk of Oeno Island’s pristine environment being damaged, by too many tourists and from the regular aircraft flights in and out of the island.

Jonah ensured the councillor, and everyone present, that it would be the community and not Lloyd Family Corporation, who will be deciding on how often flights will be coming in and out of the Pitcairn Islands, and that the Corporation was only providing the financial support, manpower and supplies, to make it possible for the Island community to grow.

Eventually, the Mayor suggested that we close the meeting for now, and let everyone think about what has been proposed and the responses to all the answers, and that we come back for another community meeting tomorrow afternoon, to see if we can come up with an agreement with the majority of the community, which was accepted by all present.

After the meeting was called to an end, a lot of the residents wanted to ask Jonah and me more questions, but Mayor Young suggested that everyone go home and think about what was said today, write down any ideas or questions and to present those at the community meeting tomorrow.

Thankfully everyone accepted the Mayor’s suggestion and headed for their home, and after a brief discussion with the Mayor and Sergeant Langston, we made our way back to the boat ramp and we were ferried back to the two vessels.

Once everyone was onboard, and the doors were sealed, both the Aquaria and Oceania submerged, so as to sit on the ocean floor without being disturbed.

It took a total of 4 community meetings before everyone was happy with everything, and this included selecting locations for five villages, with a total of nine resident bungalows, plus five tourist guest cottages in each village.

The number of resident bungalows is nearly double the number of occupied homes on the island, but it allows for accommodating the visiting medical and other professional staff from New Zealand, and for some growth of population in the future.

The five tourist cabins in each village would allow for accommodating the expected increase of visitors, as well as the existing 4 guest cabins, once all the building works are completed, which would be an estimated 9 months away. The new bungalows and cottages would be modular designed, easily able to withstand a category cyclone, and can be easily airlifted into place with the helicopter crane from the cargo ships.

The question of more regular supplies coming to the island via air instead of ship, was one welcome bit of news to the community, and with that thought, the airport, would be the first thing to be built, so that the planned retirement of the supply ship can go ahead, without affecting the island.

One of the things discussed during the meetings was about where the air flights should come from, originally, we had suggested Papeete in Tahiti, but other alternatives had been suggested, depending on the size of aircraft and its range.

Jonah announced that the Corporation had selected a Gulfstream G600 Business Jet, which can comfortably carry 18 people, and has a range of 12,000 kilometres, and a Sikorsky S-92 Executive Helicopter, for transfers from the airport to the main island, which would be a 25-minute flight.

With this range, Jonah announced that flights can come directly from Auckland to Oeno, and via Rarotonga, the Cook Islands for the flight back, as it will need to refuel at Rarotonga to get back to Auckland. Jonah also mentioned that the two aircraft, would be marketed as Air Pitcairn and that the agreed location for the main helipad, would be located near the weather station.

With the whole community now fully onboard with everything, and just in time, as the Cargo ship arrived the following day, and right away got to work to transport all of the supplies and equipment onto the island, and preparation work commenced for the installation of the two wind turbine towers.

The location had been selected to be high up on the island, just 800 metres south of the highest point on the island, where there is already an access road to the site, and it will be one of the roads that are planned to be upgraded. It was also decided to have all existing and new power lines placed underground, so as not to have any problems in the future when there are severe storms in the region.

For the first three months of the project, the wind turbines, wind generator and new power lines were installed and when all connected, and operational, it was only a few days, before the diesel generators were no longer needed and they were shut down, which was a huge celebration for the island community, as it would dramatically reduce the expensive cost of buying and transporting diesel fuel to the island every three months.

Also, during these three months, the new desalination plant, water storage tanks and the waste treatment plants were installed and operational. With the return of the cargo ship, after just two weeks of being away, it had delivered another heavy load of supplies, this time the first eight new bungalow homes for the residents, and it was decided to install them in the first two villages.

The first one is to be known as St Paul’s. This village is to be located just 150 metres north of the area known as the Cliff of Pure Easiness, and 750-metres before St Paul’s Pool, on the south-east end of the island, and 1.3 kilometres from the post office.

A second small village would be located in the clearing close to the Highest Point of the island, and this will be known as Fletcher. Both of these villages, with just 4 resident bungalows in each, are being placed at these locations, so as to have people in strategical locations as lookouts for incoming sea vessels, so they can be reported to the Police.

With all of this planning, for huge improvements to the island, an agreement was reached with the Australian Government, to allow 4 women and two men from the Pitcairn Islands, to undergo the 12 months of Customs and Border Protection training, to prepare them for new careers, as the new Customs, Quarantine and Security Force of Pitcairn Island.

An additional two men and two women have commenced doing a one-year distance education training course, in Local Government Management with a university in Auckland, where they will be required to do two weeks of practical training in Auckland, every three months.

When these men and women have completed their training, and have commenced working on the island, other residents will be given the opportunity to do studies, that will benefit the community. Work was also well on the way with sealing a lot more roads on the island, with some of them being widened, and safety barriers installed, where they are close to the edge of a cliff of a steep hill.

Work had also commenced on Oeno Island, with installing the floating airport, a separate supply cargo ship and workers were anchored off the island, carefully unloading each section of the airport and runway, where had been prebuilt in New Zealand, before being ship to the location.

When the first six months of the project had been completed, St Paul’s and Fletcher were now occupied with local residents, as well as two more larger villages, one is on the access road and just 150 metres south of Western Harbour, and the village is called by that name, the second village is located just 650 metres south-east of the radio station, and it is known as Quintal, the surname of one of the other English mutineers on the Bounty.

Now with four villages, consisting of twenty bungalows and five guest cabins at Western Harbour and Quintal, the majority of the island community were now living away from Adamstown, with the group of three former resident homes on the western side of town, now renovated and ready as accommodation for medical staff.