Oceania - 12. Oce Chapter 12

"Now with four submarines patrolling the world’s oceans, I was being kept quite busy, with coordinating port calls for each of the vessels, and liaising with the authorities in each county, and if there was ever an issue that arises, I just refer the matter to the United Nations representative on board, which thankfully didn’t happen too much, mostly because I mostly involved the UN rep with all plans for the submarines visiting foreign ports.

“Sir, a message from headquarters, you are to go to the conference room for a video conference” Jocelyn announced to me when she knocked and walked into my office, and I groan, knowing that my father is probably about to spring another surprise on us.

When I activated the video link, the screen was split into two, with Jonah on one and my father on the other. “Good, you are both on, time for another little surprise family, and this one is a real doozy and has been a very top-secret project that I have been working on for just over two years now” my father announced.

“I just knew it, I had a feeling you would when Jocelyn informed me of this video conference” I responded, and Uncle Jonah just laughed, “He is a smart man, this son of yours, Hamysh,” Jonah said when he settled down a little, and Dad just smiled.

“Ok, Dad, what is it this time, are we going to invade a country or something dramatic like that?” I stated, “Not quite that drastic son, but what I have done is bought something, and turned it into an underwater city of sorts” Dad announced, and both Jonah and I were silent, shocked at what he had just announced.

“Ok, what exactly is it that you bought Hamysh?” Jonah asked suspiciously, knowing that it was probably something totally outlandish, and never done before. “Another Island…” Dad announced, “A what!” I exclaimed loudly, as I jumped out of my seat, and moments later Jocelyn came rushing into the conference room, to check on me.

“It’s ok Jocelyn, my son is just a little shocked at what I had announced, closed the door and please take a seat, you might as well know about it too, since you are my son’s right-hand assistant in everything” Dad said to my assistant, and Jocelyn did as asked, and sat down next to me.

“Yes, I have bought another island, off the coast of New South Wales, Australia,” Dad announced to us. “Whereabouts exactly is this new island?” Jocelyn asked, and Dad smiled as he leaned back in his chair.

"It is known as Broughton Island, and until recently it was part of the Myall River National Park, but last summer, a lightning storm set it on fire and totally destroyed all vegetation.

Because of our history in nature preservation, we have been granted freehold ownership of the island, as long as we restore the island’s vegetation, and reintroduce some local fauna to the island.

There were composting toilets, a boardwalk and a dozen tent platforms, all which had been destroyed by the fire, so now that we have bought the island, the Parks and Wildlife have removed all reference of it from their information sheets and website, so there will be no more day visitors or campers.

I am wanting to ask for a team of volunteers, including one or two officers, to live on the island and start the restoration project. I will arrange for some transportable housing to be brought to the island, along with a few storage buildings for supplies and equipment,” Dad announced.

“If we can do some shuffling around of staff, then I would like to coordinate this project please, I feel like I need some time on land for a while,” I responded. “I was hoping that you would volunteer to run it, and I am sure you will do a fantastic job. Just one thing thou, I have recruited one person who will be very useful for this project, an old acquaintance of yours,” Dad said to me.

“Hmm, let me guess, is he an engineer, same age as me and very handsome?” I responded, taking a good guess that my father had arranged for my good friend and ex-boyfriend, to join us, and Dad just laughed.

“You are quite scary sometimes, how you can work out what I am planning. Yes, it is Mitchell that will be joining you, I thought it was about time you had your old friend back in your life.

He will be arriving in Shoal Bay in three days’ time, where he will pick up the vessel that I have bought for you to use for travel between the island and the mainland, he and you are booked into the Shoal Bay Resort Hotel.

Be in Newcastle to meet up with him so you can work together to decide on where to put the buildings. I will talk to you again in a few days’ time when you have selected your team,” Dad said before signing off, and we sat in the conference room in silence absorbing all this new information.

A few hours later, I received an email from the head office at Wake Island. “Trenton, just a few things to let you know about, firstly the purchase was for two islands, the main Broughton Island, which is 282-acres in area, and also Little Broughton Island, which is 89-acres in area.

I recommend that you establish your little housing village on the smaller island, as it was not affected by the fire, and it has a 4-acre rock between the two islands and a 300-metre long and 3-metre wide bridge that links them all together. An area on the west side of the Little B Island is sheltered by both islands and the rock.

I have already organised to build a jetty for the vessel, in that area, with stairs to Little B Island, where a crane will be placed to lift heavy items up. Until the jetty and stairs are completed, you will just have to travel around the island by boat to get an idea of what it looks like and charter a helicopter at Newcastle to take you onto the island.

A heavy crane chopper will be used to transport the buildings over to the island, once the preparation work has been completed. Good luck. Your Father.”

Letting the Captain know that I would be leaving the ship and travelling to Australia, he set sail for the nearest main port, which is Auckland, so that I could disembark. Meanwhile, I let Jocelyn know that she would now be taking on a good amount of the work of coordinating things with the four submarines, and with the UN representative, and she thanked me for the opportunity and the challenge.

Travis and Nigel were thrilled when I told them that if they wished, they could join me on this new project, and they both said yes, so I had my first two team members. I would hold off with choosing other people for the team, until the 250-metre long jetty, the stairs, crane and the buildings are in place.

Checking online to see what the nearest town to the island is, I learnt that Port Stephens is just 18 kilometres south-west of the island, with a number of towns on the north and south side of the harbour. Shoal Bay, was the nearest town on the south side of the harbour, and I soon located the hotel resort where my father had checked us in.

Over the next few days, we travelled from Auckland to Sydney, and by train up to Hexham, just north of Newcastle, where we hired a vehicle to take us the rest of the way to Shoal Bay, which is three hours by train and another 1 ½ hours by road coach.

It could have been much easier to just charter a flight from Sydney Airport to Williamtown, but it is still a 40-kilometre drive to Shoal Bay, so I decided to take the slow and less expensive route, which the Patterson boys did not mind at all, even though it was taking us longer to get to Shoal Bay from Sydney, than it is to fly from Auckland to Sydney.

When we finally arrived in the large town of Shoal Bay, I was pleased that the sun was shining, with a slight breeze, and the town had more of a country town feel to it, as it was so spread out. After a short drive around the large town, to get an idea where everything is, we headed to the hotel.

As I was approaching the front reception desk, I suddenly found myself the recipient of a huge bear hug, and I tried to laugh as I was losing air fast, knowing that it was Mitch, and once released I took a few deep breaths before facing my good friend.

“Hi mate, it is good to see you, but I could have done without the Bear hug, especially with my partner standing close by,” I said to Mitch who just laughed, as he took control of my two suitcases. Travis smiled and shrugged his shoulders and we followed him to the desk, where the receptionist had watched the greeting that I received.

“This would be your friend that you are expecting, Mr Brighton?” the lady asked with a small smile, “Yes, my best friend and my new boss,” Mitchell replied happily, and I just smiled. “Trenton Blackthorn, checking in for myself, my partner Travis Patterson and my butler Nigel Patterson, please,” I said to the receptionist.

“Yes sir, we have your suite ready for you all, your butler is two floors down, on the same floor as Mr Brighton, I’m afraid, but that is how the booking was made,” I was informed, and the sad look that Mitchell gave me, made me chuckle, “That will be fine thanks” I said as I signed the register, and received my key.

After Mitchell had left to let us to settle in, I checked my emails on my laptop computer and found an email waiting for me from Dad, which I opened. Attached to the email was layouts for some modular buildings that would be purchased to use on the island.

The first layout plan, called Strathmore, is 152.9 m2, and is a little unusual as it is in two sections, the main section contains a living area, kitchen and meals area at the front, a master bedroom, with walk-in robe and ensuite bathroom, a second bedroom, a pantry adjoining the kitchen, a second bathroom and a laundry at the back section.

The second section has a living area, a separate shower and toilet and two more bedrooms. I liked this layout plan, as I can use the smaller section as my administration office, and it will be just a small space separating the two buildings.

The second layout plan is called Shoreham, is 80.8 m2, and it is a two-bedroom house with a shared bathroom, a separate toilet, laundry, kitchen and meals area and a generously sized living area.

Another attachment, showed some more layout plans, from a different building company, with the first one named Banksia 1 bedroom granny flat, that is 53 m2, and it has a basic layout of living area, kitchen, bathroom, laundry and bathroom. The second layout is a 2 bedroom granny flat, that is 63 m2 and has a similar layout, but the bathroom separates the two bedrooms that are identical in size.

After viewing the building layouts, I looked at the email message from Dad. “Dear son, here are the layouts of the buildings that I have purchased for you and your staff to live in while working on the recovery programme of the main island.

I will the installing a desalination plant and water storage tanks, so you have a plentiful supply of freshwater, plus a waste treatment plant, that will treat the effluent water, so it can be transported and used for fertiliser, as will the solid waste, using a system that is used down in Antarctica.

The four-bedroom Strathmore house, I thought would be ideal as you and Travis as a home, and administration office. I bet you thought the same thing when you saw the plans. The two-bedroom Shoreham, will be for your staff Nigel and Mitchell to live in, and I suggest putting them fairly close together, and near the top of the hill, close to where the stairs will be located.

The other two designs, the Banksia Granny flats, are one and two bedrooms, I have ordered four of each, to accommodate twelve people, and I suggest that you place them just past the middle of Little B Island, with a one-bedroom and a two-bedroom next to each other, with about a five-metre spacing, the same again, with the next two, also five metres apart, and the other four opposite, with a five-metre spacing, between the front of the buildings for the centre path down the middle.

That will put a distance of about 450 metres between your place and the staff village, and between the two will be two sheds, one will have a maintenance workshop and machinery storage area, as I have ordered six quad bikes, with trailers. The second shed will be the power shed, that will contain the wind turbine and solar power generators, the desalination plant, waste treatment plant, water pumps and the power storage batteries.

The freshwater tanks and waste tanks will be located, directly behind the shed power shed, and will be partially sunk into the ground. Mitchell is a qualified skipper now, so he can pilot the boat that I have purchased for you, so you don’t need to be on board all the time for trips to the mainland.

The boat is a 27-metre Swath trimaran, which was built at Henderson, Western Australia, and it is already in Newcastle, waiting to cruise up the coast to Shoal Bay, where I have arranged a permanent berth at the nearby Nelson Bay Marina, good luck with it all. I will email you again in a few days time, to check up on how things are going.”