Earl - 10. Earl Chapter 10

The shorter flight to Darwin was smooth and uneventful for Tyler, as was passing through customs, and once that was all completed, he entered the main terminal and headed for outside, whereas expected it was very hot and humid for the middle of the afternoon, with it being close to 4 pm by the time the taxi arrived at the Mindil Beach resort.

As Tyler checked in, he asked the receptionist for some notepaper and a pen, and he wrote a short message. “Mr Lloyd, I am in Lagoon suite 8 of this resort hotel, Tyler.” After folding it, he wrote “H.T Lloyd,” on it, before looking up at the receptionist. “Can you please deliver this to Mr Lloyd of Wake Island, when he arrives please,” Tyler asked, as he handed over the note.

“Certainly sir, he is expected to arrive from Brisbane at 6 pm, as he is a regular guest of ours, and he always arrives at that time,” the receptionist replied smiling. Tyler returned the smile and nodded his understanding, before following the hotel staff with his luggage to his suite.

With a couple of hours to spare, Tyler lay on his king-size bed and dozed, as it had been a long few days of travelling from the UK, and he had some busy days ahead of him. At 7 pm, after not hearing from Mr Lloyd, Tyler headed downstairs to the Cove Restaurant for some dinner, and he ordered a big steak dinner.

Tyler had just started eating his meal when he heard a waiter speaking to another guest close by. “Is there anything else that I can get for you, Mr Lloyd?” Tyler heard the waiter ask, “No, that was an excellent meal as always, thank you very much, I will just go and relax at the Sand Bar for a short while, thank you,” Tyler heard in response, as he turned around to see if he could see Mr Lloyd.

What Tyler didn’t expect was a fit-looking much older man, dressed in smart casual wear, with a bronze tan, who was stood up and started to walk out the side door towards the lagoon. Tyler had noticed the bar as he headed to dinner earlier, with it being diagonally opposite his suite, and so he decided to check it out after he had eaten.

As he finished his main meal, of steak, chips and salad, a waiter approached to clear the table, “Excuse me, can you pass on a message to Mr Lloyd for me please, I believe he is at the Sand Bar. Can you let him know that I will meet with him at 8 am tomorrow morning for breakfast at the Vue Restaurant, please?” Tyler asked, and he watched as the waited dashed off to deliver the message, before standing and going to the counter he paid for his meal, before heading to the suite for an early night.

The following morning, Tyler was awake by 6 am, and he dressed in shorts and a light cotton shirt, with sandals, before setting off for a walk along the beach. He stopped when he spotted the older man, he believes to be Mr Lloyd talking with a few other men as they walk along with the lawns of the resort, and when he spotted Tyler, he waved him over.

“Good morning, Lord Tyler, I am Hamysh Lloyd, and this is Sir Lewis Shaw and his partner Mr Sebastian Wagner of Wagner International, please join us for a morning stroll as we chat,” Mr Lloyd said, and Tyler joined the group startled that he was walking with some very famous high-profile people.

He has heard of Mr Wagner, a very wealthy Swiss businessman and his equally famous husband, Sir Lewis a former Australian Naval Officer and former Administrator of the Indian Ocean Territories of Australia. We chatted about general matters, nothing that would be deemed as business, before we headed for the Vue Restaurant for breakfast, just as it clocked over 7 am, and Mr Lloyd had reserved a table to fit all of us.

Once we had ordered our cooked breakfasts, Mr Lloyd cleared his throat to speak. “Gentlemen, we are gathered here today… let me change that, we are meeting today after I received an interceding telephone call from a young man who is just as passionate about our environment as my family company and in particular my grandson.

Joshua who is currently located down the West coast with his business partner, Kipling Ashburton, where they are working with the state government on a joint project, to re-establish an accommodation facility for the local fishing community, and I will be getting them to assist with this new project.

I propose a consortium of our three companies to overcome this big mess that the Northern Territory and Federal government created. Lord Tyler Finch here is the Earl of Portland, as most of you will already know from the newspaper hounds who recently published a lot about him including a large picture of his face.

It was his suggestion that I have brought us together today, to start the process of getting this project started and doing it quickly. Lord Tyler, would you mind giving us a brief outline what you propose, and I will ad some suggestions of mine after that,” Mr Lloyd said.

“Thank you, err… Hamysh, if I may call you than. My proposal is that we build a new multi-use wharf on the South Western side of Darwin harbour, where we are out of the way of the Chinese company that manages the East Arm and Stokes Hill facilities. My proposal is that we use Wickham Point as the location of the new port, just past the current BOC Helium plant, where there is a good quality existing sealed road to the plant, and it is just two kilometres past that to the point.

With a sealed road already in place and with the rail line passing by the turnoff to Channel Island Road, so only 15 kilometres of new rail would be needed, plus the just over two kilometres of new road. Wickham Point is 2.5 kilometres North-East across the harbour from East Arm Wharf, so it is a good enough distance away, especially if we do not touch any of the existing vegetation on the eastern side of the point, which will provide a perfect natural screening from East Arm.

I suggest that we first approach his excellency the Administrator of the NT, Sir Lewis, I believe you have met him before? Maybe that would be a start, and we call this a new development for mining exports, since we have the BOC plant and the Bladin Point Gas plant close by, so as to try and hide our real intentions, from our, soon to be Chinese competitor,” Tyler said to the small group.

“I don’t know the current Administrator, as they had a changing of the guard, so to speak, but I am sure that with my past work, I should be able to get an audience with the Administrator,” Sir Lewis said. “Good, now I have a few things to add to Lord Tyler’s proposal, firstly the nearby BOC plant has a 1.5 kilometre long jetty leading out to the wharf, in a Westerly direction, and to save time and money with dredging, which would be harmful to the harbours sea grasses, I suggest we do the same.

We can use approximately 50 acres of land on the North-West side of the point, facing away from East Arm, and if the BOC plant is already there, then environmental studies should have already been done in the area, and we should have no problems getting started right away.

I have a rail engineering company ready to start work on the construction of 16 kilometres of rail line, including two sidings, and a large crane system for off-loading freight off the trains. I have an added idea on how we can overcome some of the Chinese company’s stranglehold on the harbour, but I will keep that to myself for now, but you will know soon.

So, now I would like to see if we are all in agreement with building this new wharf, that will remain in Australian hands and within this consortium for well into the next century,” Hamysh said, and a few minutes later after some more discussions, an agreement was made, and with it being Tyler’s proposal, he was given the honour of naming the consortium, which is Northport Corporation.

After breakfast, Sir Lewis made a phone call to try an arrange a meeting with the new Administrator, and he re-joined the group to announce that he has secured an appointment at Government House for 11 am. We agreed to meet back at the Sand Bar at 10 am to finalise how we are going to approach the subject with the Administrator.

Sebastian Wagner had ordered a limo to transport us to Government House, as he felt that it was best to arrive formally, and as we drove up to the front door of Government House, a man in Army uniform approached the car. “Gentlemen, I am Captain Simon Hughes, private secretary to his excellency, he said that only Sir Lewis Shaw was coming,” the Captain said.

“Relax Captain, we are all safe and businessmen, asking for a short audience with his excellency, this is my husband Sebastian Wagner, the distinguished gentleman is Mr Hamysh Lloyd of Lloyd Family Corp, and this is His Lordship the Earl of Portland, Lord Tyler Finch” Sir Lewis said making the introductions.

“Well, it is an honour to meet you my Lord, I have been reading up on your visit to the UK recently,” the Captain said to Tyler. “Bloody vultures the media are over there, you can never get any privacy when you go out anywhere, luckily I have a secret hideaway to escape them, and they have no idea that I am there,” Tyler replied smiling.

A few moments later we entered a lounge room that looks like it is used for formal and informal gatherings. “His Excellency, Lt Colonel Adam Kingsbury, Administrator of the Northern Territory”, the Captain announced, as his excellency entered.

“Sir, I am Sir Lewis Shaw, this is my husband Sebastian Wagner, the other gentlemen are Mr Hamysh Lloyd of Lloyd Family Corporation, and the young man is newly appointed Lord Tyler Finch, Earl of Portland in the UK,” Sebastian said making the introductions, and his excellency shook each of their hands.

“Now, what brings such a mixed group of businessmen and dignitaries to my home?” he asked, as he indicated for us to sit. “Your excellency, it has come to all of our attentions of the big stuff up I guess you could say, about the lease of the East Arm and Stokes Hill Wharfs to a private Chinese company for a large period of time.

We are a recently established consortium known as Northport, that isn’t as yet official, wishing to overcome this major stuff up, by building a new multi-purpose wharf at Wickham Point, at the south end of the Harbour, just past the BOC Helium plant.

We would like to do this as rapidly and as quietly as possible so as not to ruffle any feathers by a certain Chinese company, and with the BOC plant already on that location with an existing road, and with just 15 kilometres of rail line needed to provide rail access, we are hoping to get the Territory’s and Federal Government’s approval to go ahead with building this facility, which we think we can get established in just over an year to 18 months,” Sir Lewis announced.

“I see, well personally I think that is very good news, but officially, I will need to stay fairly neutral with this, but privately I will suggest to the NT government and the Chief Minister that this proposal be given its fullest support,” the Administrator said in response.

“Thankyou sir, that is what we were hoping to hear, allow me to give you my card, so you can pass it on to whoever needs to contact me, we will be in town for a few more days, putting some plans together for this project,” Mr Lloyd said, as he handed over his business card.

Back in the car, Mr Lloyd announced that he has arranged for a meeting room at the resort, for us to use for the next few days, and that he has arranged for us to have lunch there. “I am happy to just take a back seat on this project, and if you need any help, just let me know, I will be happy to assist as best as I can,” Tyler said to the others.