Oceania - 14. Oce Chapter 14

As we walked along the bridge, I informed my father, that Travis would be my administration manager, to liaise with him at Wake Island and with Jocelyn on the Aquaria, and Mitchell will be overseeing the installation of all of the buildings, and the 350-metres of the raised boardwalk on Little B Island, and the 3.4-kilometres of the raised boardwalk on the main island, plus ordering and collecting all supplies that are needed for the programme.

When we were passing the helicopter, Dad was handed a bag by the pilot, and we kept walking with Dad saying anything about the bag until he stopped a bit past the middle of the island. “This should be the best place to start,” my Dad said as he opened up the bag and pulled out a small square heavy hammer and a handful of what looked like heavy-duty camping pegs, with little flags attached.

After a quick look around him, Dad bent down and hammered a peg into the ground, then stood up and faced me. “Be a good lad and finish doing this for me will you, I need you to pace out 5 metres that way, and put another peg down,” Dad announced to me.

About twenty minutes later, we had the area pegged out for the location of the eight cottages, with a two-metre space between each building sideways, and a five-metre space between the two rows of cottages. When all was done, Dad looked back at what we had done and smiled.

“Well that is a start, next off, the sheds, tanks and the main two houses, a building company is due to arrive Monday next week, to start installing the steel stumps for all of the buildings, and to lay down the concrete slab for the two sheds,” Dad announced.

“Sir, where will they stay while working here?” Travis asked my Dad, “At the Port Stephens Motor Lodge in Nelson Bay, so Mitchell here will have to transport them, all their equipment and supplies, to and from the island each day, leaving at 6 am and returning by 6 pm,” Dad announced, which made Mitchell groan, for having to spend a whole day of doing nothing between each trip.

“Don’t worry, I will be keeping us all busy during that time on the island, we can start marking out the location of the boardwalks on both islands,” I said smiling. “Well that is better than doing absolutely nothing for ten hours of the day,” Mitchell responded.

“When you get back to Shoal Bay, I will be waiting for you, as Travis, you and I need to have a meeting to discuss a few things,” Dad sais as we headed back towards the helicopter, where a table and five chairs had been laid out with morning tea served for us.

After morning tea, we marked out the locations of the two houses and the administration building, before Dad flew off back to the mainland in the chopper, while we began the return journey by boat. Once back at the yacht club, we drove back to the hotel resort, where my father was waiting for us.

“I have the conference room booked for two hours, and I have ordered lunch for the three of us, so let’s head there right away,” Dad said before heading off down a hallway.

Travis rushed up to our suite to grab my laptop computer, so he could type out some notes during the meeting, which ended up lasting for nearly three hours. Once the meeting was over, Dad announced that he must go, as he has to fly back to Sydney, then tomorrow morning he is flying back to Wake Island, via the Marshall Islands.

We were now fully up to date with everything that Dad had bought and arranged for the Boughton Islands project so that Travis and I can start managing the whole project on our own, and starting from Monday, in less than three day’s time, we would be full steam ahead with the project.

As a temporary measure, Dad had arranged for the hire and transportation of a 6-metre long transportable office, that that’s an open office, a smaller office and a bathroom, and a 12-metre long lunchroom with two bathrooms and kitchenette, along with two poly tanks, one to hold sewerage waste and the second to hold fresh-water, with a pressure pump added, for use during the day time while the construction work of the houses was in progress.

Once the houses are operational, then the two transportable buildings and tanks will be removed from the island, and they were due to be delivered tomorrow afternoon. Both buildings have skid beams underneath them, raising them 200 mm above the ground, and the two tanks will be placed on top of plastic pallets, also to raise them off the ground, but the sewerage tank will be located on lower ground, 40 metres away, so it is 4-metres lower than the floor of the buildings.

After Dad had left, I went to Mitchell’s room, to let him know that we would be returning to the island in the late morning, to supervise the installation of two temporary transportable buildings, before heading back to our suite, to relax and watch an old movie with my husband.

The early the next day, with a packed lunch provided by the hotel for each of us, we set off again back to the island, after refuelling the boat and checking the weather forecast, with the journey being uneventful and smooth, which we were all pleased about. Mitchell insisting that I do some of the skippering of the boat since I am experienced and qualified to do so, from my days in the Navy.

Once we had secured the boat to the jetty, we went directly to Little B Island, and after looking around and some discussion, we decided to place the temporary buildings, about 50 metres south of where the main buildings will be located, and just five metres from the edge, directly above the supply landing, and just ten metres past the main loading crane.

The helicopter arrived about half an hour later with the first of four loads, with it being the largest building, and from the top of the island, we directed the helicopter crane to lower it gently into the desired position. When it returned nearly 45 minutes later, it was holding onto a giant net, which had the two poly tanks and a pressure pump, and all the required poly piping.

While waiting for the next load, we were able to get the tanks out of the netting, and rolled into the right place and upended, before connecting the pipes up to the first building, and the pressure pump to the power junction box, with Solar power panels providing all the power required for the two buildings.

When the third load arrived, with a tank load of freshwater, it took just ten minutes to transfer over to the water tank, when finished, the heli-crane collected the netting and headed back to Newcastle to collect the last load, which is the smaller office building.

By lunchtime, we had a fully operational temporary base to work from, for during the preparation work for the more permanent new buildings, and during for the construction of the raised boardwalks on both islands, and the rehabilitation of the vegetation, which it was estimated would take approximately 3 months for the boardwalk, and a few years to replace any native plants, that do not regerminate after the fire.

Once we checked and made sure everything was working, we locked up and headed back to the boat, and made the trip back to Shoal Bay, so we could relax for the rest of the weekend. Travis convinced me to join him to explore more of the area, so after a quick lunch, we set off to the tourist information centre to find places to see.

Fifteen minutes later, we exited the building with a heap of leaflets on different activities to see and do, and Travis wanted to do all of them, which I thought was a bit too much. Travis wanted to try out the sandboarding on the dunes first, followed by some kayaking in Port Stephens, plus a horse trek on a bush trail, followed by a sunset camel ride on the beach.

Tomorrow, Travis wanted to play a game of footgolf, go on a whale-watching cruise, and a quad bike safari tour on the dunes. I groaned at all of this enthusiasm that Travis had, and I smiled when I came up with a great idea, of getting him really tired with a lot of hanky panky tonight, so we don’t have to do so much, I also suggested that we just do three things today, since it was already early afternoon, and reluctantly Travis agreed.

Travis decided o drop the sandboarding on the dunes, so we made a few phone calls and booked the other three events for this afternoon, with some vacancies still available. My plans for the night worked really well, and we both slept in until after 9 am on Sunday morning, with Travis complaining that he was too tired to do very much today, as his backside was too sore from both the horse and camel rides, which made me laugh.

We ended up doing just two activities during the day, with a very long lunch in between, which was just as relaxing and enjoyable, as it was at a local winery, located about 20 kilometres out of town. By the time we had arrived back at our accommodation in the late afternoon on Sunday, I was almost ready for a long holiday, and we let the others know that Travis and I would be eating in our suite tonight and that we would see them bright and early tomorrow, for the trip back to the island.

Mitchell informed me that he had already met with the building crew and that most of the building supplies were already loaded onto the back of the boat, ready for tomorrow, and I suggested an 8 am departure time, as I was still feeling a little tired from the weekend’s adventures, that Travis put me through, and Mitchel said that was a no go, as the building crew will be at the boat, ready to go by 7 am.

We had decided to build the cottages first, so as to be able to accommodate all of the crew that will be building the boardwalks and replanting all the native shrubs and trees to replace the ones destroyed in the fire. If need be, Travis and I could turn the temporary office into accommodation, until the main house is completed, as it would be the last building to be installed.

The next morning, I discovered 14 builders waiting for us all to arrive, and I was a little surprised at how many Dad had organised to get all of the accommodation and the office in place and operational.

With Travis and Nigel electing to stay on the mainland for today, I stayed up on the bridge with Mitchell for the trip up to the island, and he informed me, that he had spoken to my father late yesterday, and that some of the building team would also be involved with the construction of the boardwalks.

Once we had arrived on the island, it was all hands on deck, to unload all of the building material and supplies, and haul it all up to the top of Little B Island, of which took a few hours to complete this task alone.

After a morning tea break, the builders got to work to map out the location of each of the eight buildings, before digging the required number of holes for the steel posts, that will raise each building half a metre above the ground.

Over the next ten days, with the weekend being days off for the builders, the ground-work for the first eight buildings had been completed, and it would be at least a week before the concrete would be cured enough before the first cottages could be lowered int place and secured to the steel posts.

In the meantime, after a few extra days off, the builders would begin on the ground-work for the last three buildings, with the smaller house and the administration building to be done, along with the concrete slabs for the two sheds and the two large poly tanks that will be used for storage of fresh-water and the sewerage waste, and it was estimated that it would take five days to complete all of this.

By the end of the second week of work on the island, everyone had settled into a good routine, and they were all enjoying their time working on the island. With the second stage of the building project completed, it was now time for the arrival of the first buildings, which was planned for Monday, the start of the third week of the project.

Once again, using a heli-crane, the first three – fully furnished cottages arrived on the island on Monday and were gently lowered into place, before being secured to the posts. At the end of the next day, with six of the eight cottages now in place, with three cottages on each side of the entry path, Mitchell, Travis and I looked at growing village, from a number of angles, discussing a few things, before coming to a decision to build a decking between the buildings, to provide a raised outdoor entertainment area.

The building supervisor said that the extra work was welcomed and that he would get onto ordering supplies right away, which I was pleased to hear. By the end of tomorrow, the village would be complete, and by the end of the Saturday, the two sheds, which have been prebuilt in sections, will have been installed, as well, with solar panels, already in place on the north-facing roofs of both sheds and cottages.

When it came to the end of week four, the power generator, storage batteries, the desalination plant, water pump and waste treatment pumps had been installed and were all fully operational. While they were being installed, the decking for the village and the boardwalk from the bridge to the village were being built, with the patio decking completed by the end of the week, and the support posts for the boardwalk now in place.

Already, Little B Island was looking a lot different, with all of the new buildings on it, with some of it partially hidden by the low to medium-sized shrubs on the island. Both Travis and I were getting a little impatient about moving onto the island, so we organised for some furniture to be transported to the island, and our temporary office became our temporary accommodation, moving in just a few days before the builders moved into the village.

When the village was operational, with two top of the range BBQ’s installed, for cooking purposes, so the builders could cook and eat together as one group, instead of using the individual small kitchens in each cottage, Mitchell and Daniel elected to live on board the boat until their accommodation is ready to move into, so now Mitchell did not need to transport the builders from town to the island and back each day, and only had to travel every third day to collect more supplies.