Earl - 13. Earl Chapter 13

Once that was done, Hamysh released a media release to the one commercial and the one national television news channels, to officially declare the Northport Harbour Control Complex operational.

“It is with great pleasure that the Northport Consortium, consisting of Lloyd Family Corporation and Wagner Investments Corporation, announce the opening of the new Northport Harbour control complex to be known as Northport Harbour City.

As of this Monday at 6am, Northport along with the Northern Territory Government, will once again take control of Darwin Harbour sea traffic, while the private Chinese company will continue managing the operations of Stokes Hill Wharf and East Arm Wharf.

Harbour City will also contain a 24-hour Weather station, and offices for Customs and Quarantine, and on duty tug boat services, that will be managed by an executive team of Federal & Territory government staff, to manage harbour operations from Oak Point at Mandorah, to East Point in Darwin, and all harbour waters inland, including tub boat services, to all existing wharfs, including Baudin Point, Wickham Point, East Arm and Stokes Hill,” the media statement read.

With it being a Saturday evening, when the news was released to the media, the local offices of the Chinese company could not do anything until the opening of business at 9 am on Monday morning, when the facility will be in fully operation for three hours already.

On the Sunday evening news in Darwin at 5 pm, “Good evening, our lead story tonight is a response by the Chinese company Landbridge, which has a long-term lease of the Stokes Hill and East Arm Port facilities. Last night, the Northport Consortium, owned by Lloyd Family Corp, which is a Environmental company based at Wake Island in the North Pacific and Wagner International Corp, also a family owned company based in Switzerland, but the key family members reside in Western Australia, have built a multi-use port facility at Wickham Point, in the south of the harbour.

Which also has access to rail, plus a floating building on the end of the point that has the new Darwin Harbour Control Tower and weather station facilities, that are managed by Federal and Territory government staff. Today Landbridge released a press statement, expressing its extreme anger and disappointment, that the Territory government has allowed for such a project to go ahead, causing stress on operations on its own operations at Stokes Hill and at East Arm. We have attempted to contact both Landbridge and Northport for further comment, but we were unable to make contact with either company…”

“I guess we will have to just wait and see what happens tomorrow, won’t we,” Hamysh stated to Sebastian, as they sat in the waiting lounge of the terminal, awaiting the arrival of the senior members of the new team that will be running the facility.

With the Wagner twins and their cousin Xander flying back to Western Australia, earlier in the day, it was just Sebastian, Lewis, Hamysh and Tyler remaining to greet the team as they arrived, and as instructed they used their new ID cards to gain access to the building until they arrived in the waiting lounge.

“Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen, and welcome to the Northport Land Terminal, this is where you will be leaving from to get to and arrive from the Northport Harbour City, where you will be staying tonight. Tomorrow, you can contact your friends or family to pack enough clothes and belongings for one weeks stay, before you will have shore leave to return to the mainland for a few days R & R.

Now if you would like to board follow us to the end swath boat, we will make our way out to Harbour City,” Hamysh announced to the new staff of the facility. “Tug Master, would you please join Sir Lewis, who will be piloting us for this short journey,” Sebastian added.

As they neared the complex, Sebastian stood up from his seat, “Ladies and Gentlemen, we will be arriving in a few minutes, just a few things before we do arrive. Executive chef, you will find some food supplies in the refrigerated cargo hold, more supplies will be delivered tomorrow afternoon, if there is anything specific you need, just let us know by the end of breakfast tomorrow.

Of the twenty additional permanent crew that will reside at the city, twelve of those have been selected, and have completed their security screenings, and they will be joining us at 11 am tomorrow morning,” Sebastian announced.

When Lewis had arrived at Northport City, the deputy harbour master and the tug master secured the mooring ropes, to the north jetty, which only had enough lighting to see the mooring bollards. Sebastian was the next to step onto the jetty and he walked towards a nearby gate and scanned his ID card and pressed a six-digit code, and immediately the Harbour City lit up like a Christmas Tree.

“Wow, what a sight,” the Harbour master said as he and the others looked up towards the top of the building. “Welcome to your new home and workplace. Lord Tyler, would you please do the honour of officially opening this facility,” Hamysh announced, and Tyler smiled, as he stepped forward.

“It is my great honour, to formally open the Northport Harbour City of Darwin,” Tyler said, as he opened the door and stepped inside, with Hamysh, Sebastian, Lewis and the Senior team following.

“This is the North Jetty entry, and we have stepped onto the West access jetty, there is another entry at the South Jetty, with both jetties leading to the West and East Access Jetties, that go directly to the West and East Entry Foyers, Hamysh announced, as they walked along the jetty.

Scanning his card at the West lobby door, Hamysh opened the door and ushered his colleagues inside, with the others following, once everyone was inside, he walked up to the Information counter, where a small pile of information cards was, and he distributed them out to all the team.

“These info cards tell you what is on each level, and on the back of your ID cards you will find a set of 5 Numbers and letters, which is the location of your suites, all of which are on level one. Apart from this level, which covers the who size area of the city, the other three levels have two or three sections.

The city faces due north, as that is the direction that Harbour Control faces, with a 180-degree view of the harbour, through the wide windows, there are also a series of outside cameras that operate during the day and night, that have 360-degree views.

The executive staff, your suites are on Level 1 West, while the operations staff, your suites are on level 1 East, both can be accessed only from the central elevators. The general staff have their quarters on level 2, also accessed from the central elevators.

To get from your quarters to the Harbour control tower, you need to go down to this level, which is level three, then walk over to the north side elevators, and go up to level one. The weather station is also on the north side but on level 2. Just look at your information cards and every thing has a level number, and a section letter, N for north, W for west and so on, so the Weather station is 2E for level 2 East. On the top two levels, all work areas are on the north side, while all accommodation is in the centre.

As you see from your info cards, we have a medical centre, including a surgery theatre, and a 6-room hospital located on level 1 South, while on level 4 South we have the security centre, plus an 8-cell detention centre. We will let you settle in, and meet up again at 7.30 pm, for a light meal that was prepared and packed by our hotel in Darwin, with the restaurant on this level, located on the north side,” Sebastian announced to everyone.

After everyone had set of towards the nearby elevators, the four corporate men headed for their suites on level 2 South, where they had to go past one of the basketball courts and the sports centre to get to the elevators. With Sebastian and Lewis claiming the largest suite, Hamish and Tyler went to the other two suites, which are quite large and very luxurious.

When Hamysh, Lewis, Sebastian and Tyler entered the restaurant, all of the staff stood up, which was unexpected. “Sir’s on behalf of everyone here, we wish to thankyou for an amazing complex, most of us have had the chance to explore sections of it, and we are very grateful for you giving us the opportunity to work and live here,” the Harbour master announced, before everyone began to applaud.

This caught all of the corporate members by surprise, and eventually, Hamysh signalled for everyone to take a seat. “Thankyou for those kind words Harbour master, we hope that you enjoy your time working and living here.

Of course you are all officially employed by the Territory or Federal Governments, but I want to let you know, that if any of you are transferred elsewhere and you would like to remain here, we will consider employing you, ourselves so that you can remain.

Operations staff, you will be starting work at 0700 hours. Now eat your meals and later explore some more, or use the facilities as you wish, and we will see you in the morning, with the executive team morning briefing at 0600 hours, in the level 2 North conference room,” Hamysh said.

After the meal, the corporate members retired to their private lounge on Level 2 south, where they chatted for a while before retiring for the night. The following morning at 0530 hours, Hamysh knocked on the doors of the other two suites, and shortly after Sebastian and Tyler appeared.

“Lewis is feeling a little ill, so he is staying in bed,” Sebastian explained, and Hamysh nodded his understanding, before taking a seat in the lounge, and the others followed. “I am sorry for the early wakeup call, but overnight, I received an email from Fleet Base North, which is better known as the Naval base, HMAS Coonawarra.

“Captain James Patterson, Fleet Base North, HMAS Coonawarra, Darwin to North Port Consortium, Wickham Point, Darwin. To whom it may concern, good evening to you, sorry for the lateness of this email. I am writing to you this evening, to request an inspection of your facilities at Wickham Point, for some time tomorrow.

There will be myself and five other senior Navy officers attending. Please notify us as soon as possible with a time. Regards, J.G Patterson, Fleet Commander,” Hamysh said reading out the email. “Wow, I didn’t expect that, I wonder what that could be about?” Tyler said straight after hearing the email message.

“They probably want to invade our property,” Lewis said from the doorway of the suite, “If that is true then it is not funny,” Sebastian said. “I guess we will have to wait and see,” Tyler responded. “I was going to suggest waiting until the first batch of general crew have arrived and settled in, so about 1500 hours, does that sound ok with everyone?” Hamysh asked.

“Fine with me, will we be telling the team that are already here?” Sebastian replied, “I was thinking of maybe just the Executive team only, since they are managing the facility,” Hamysh suggested, and everyone nodded in agreement. Fifteen minutes later, they were all in the restaurant having breakfast, with the chef providing a full cooked meal for us all.

At 0600 exactly the corporate team walked into the conference room, to find all the executive team already there, and they all stood as they entered. “Please sit gentlemen and lady, before we start, I want to let you know that we will be having a visit from the Navy at 1500 hours this afternoon, as they have requested an inspection of the facilities.

We will be giving them a full tour of the facilities with the exception of Level 2 South, the corporate accommodation, and level 4 South, the security centre and detention centre, which you may have noticed are not mentioned in any of the directories on each level or on any of the elevators and stairs, so we aske that you not mention those areas to the Naval visitors.

We will only be telling you of this, since you are the management team, and we prefer not telling the operations team or any of the general staff when they arrive at 1100 hours…” Sebastian stated to start off the meeting.

“…In conclusion, I would like Deputy Harbour Master Natasha, Security Chief Mike and Senior Weather Officer Barry to join us as part of the tour group, with Lewis and myself,” Hamysh announced to conclude the meeting. “Good luck with your first day at work, I hope it is enjoyable and challenging,” Tyler added, which made some staff laugh, as they headed to their areas or work.

At 1000 hours, Lewis and Tyler headed back to the terminal onboard the Swatch boat, to collect the first batch of general staff, who had been notified to report for duty at 1100 hours at the Terminal with enough luggage to get them by for a fortnight. They stood outside the building under the cover of a shady tree near the carpark area, as they watched 12 vehicles enter the gates and park.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, please follow me inside,” Lewis called out, as the group approached, and he led the way inside to the waiting lounge, and he waited for Tyler to arrive at the rear of the group. “Good morning, and welcome to Northport Terminal, this is the location where you will travel to the Northport Harbour complex and return, when you get time off work.

As was mentioned with your interviews with Mr Lloyd and myself, you are the operations staff for Northport Harbour, my colleague here will soon issue you with your ID Pass card, and an information card, which gives information of the layout of the complex, in case you might get lost. If you don’t remember, my name is Lewis Shaw, I am a retired Naval officer, and former Administrator of the Indian Ocean Territories of Australia.