Desert Air - 19. DA Ch 19 - New Home

“Are you happy with how we have set it all up?” was the first thing Dad asked as we sat down in the small lounge area, “I think it is awesome Dad, I like it a lot, and great thinking for putting the boys in a separate living area,” I replied.

“Good, now what is happening with University, are you going back to Canberra or staying in WA?” Dad asked, “Staying here, I have to fly to Perth in a couple days, since first semester starts shortly, but I will be home for some weekends and all the holidays,” I replied.

“That is good to know, now what are we going to do about running this new museum of ours?” Dad asked me, “I have been thinking about that, could you maybe suggest to Hedley and Joyce that they employ station managers to run Corunna Downs, and that they come and work for us, on the base?” I suggested, and Dad smiled.

“Yes, that would work very well, but it would depend on them making the choice with no pressure. Mum and I have decided that we will sell Hillside, and with the mining company taking over Panorama, we are relying on the current station staff to keep things running, until the station is sold,” Dad said.

“I noticed that you have three double undercover shelters at the back of the house for vehicles,” I commented, “Yes well as you may have noticed we bought a new family vehicle while in Port Hedland, and there is space for your Land Rover, and also room for visitors to park,” Dad replied.

”Did you hear that the Army is leaving a Hawkei for me to use on the base for security use, but only Army personnel are permitted to use it, so I guess we will need one of those double spaces for the Hawkei,” I commented, and Dad chuckled, “Yes, I guess we do, and yes I did hear about it. Now one big question, when you went into the bunker those two times, how much of it did you search?” Dad asked.

“Just a few of the bunk rooms to the left, one on the right, also the situation room, plus the two offices at the back, why?” I replied. “I think you need to take a much closer look in there before you leave,” Dad said to me, which had me a little puzzled.

We heard splashing outside so we guessed that the kids are in the pool, so we went out to watch them, and Mum brought us some cool drinks to enjoy, under the shade of the covering over the decking. After lunch I drove down to the Operations shed in my Land Rover, and parked beside it, before I got out and started to search a little bit past where the bunker is, to see if I could find any clues to what Dad had said to me, and I didn’t want to do anything until all of the Airforce and Army personnel had left the base.

As I kicked a few rocks as I wandered around, I kicked something solid which made me stumble, and I bent down to see what it was, and hidden amongst the spiny grasses, was a narrow rectangular concrete block, that was about twenty centimetres wide and 60 centimetres long, with a hollow area in the centre.

Looking down into the hollow bit, all I could see is darkness, and that had me wondering what on earth this was, and I searched around to see if there were any more, and I eventually found three more, all in a row, about 6 metres apart.

The blocks were barely above the ground, with natural rocks, grasses and Spinifex hiding them very well, and now I was starting to wonder if there is a lot more to this bunker than I thought, as I walked back to my vehicle to retrieve a water bottle and I took a long drink.

“What are you up to Mr Kendrik?” A voice asked me, which caught me by surprise, and I turned to find a smiling Group Captain and some of his men near by. “Just looking around a little. My folks have picked up most of the remains of equipment and tools left behind from the war, so I was just scratching around to see if anything has been missed,” I replied, not wanting to reveal the real reason.

“Well you better be careful as there are plenty of scorpions and snakes around the place, we have seen quite a few of both since we arrived,” the Group Captain said. “Thanks for the reminder, I had been told that before but it had slipped my mind, and it makes me think what we need to do, before we start letting visitors into the property,” I replied.

“Maybe have areas like behind buildings, and off the main tracks cordoned off, so they all stay on the cleared tracks and taxiway,” the Group Captain suggested, “Yes, that is a good idea, so are the SAS boys staying camping out in the bush, or are they coming in before dark?” I asked, “Yes, they are coming in along with their vehicles, they should be here well before sunset, as we are having a bit of a cook up for our last night here,” the Group Captain said.

“I am going to move my biplane to under one of the aircraft pits, can one of you help guide me in please,” I asked, and less than ten minutes later, after taxiing halfway down runway two and all of runway one, I turned onto the access track to the aircraft pits, and I was guided into the first aircraft pit, which has one of the camouflaged netting over it, and managed to spin it around so it was facing outwards.

With everything shut off I closed the canopy and locked it, so no one can get in and damage it, before exiting the aircraft pit. “That is awesome, I can keep my plane under shade when it is here on the base, and not have to worry about it getting fried by the heat,” I commented.

“We have chocked up the wheels of the Liberator, so it won’t be moving anywhere, after bringing it onto the taxiway, much closer to the workshop sheds, that way you can still use runway two for your plane. The Globemaster will be using nearly all of runway one to land and takeoff again, it will be arriving at 0900 hours, if your family want to have a closer look at it when it arrives,” the Group Captain said.

“Thanks, I will let my parents know,” I replied, before I headed back to my vehicle and set off back to my new home, were I noticed the Parkinson’s vehicle parked at the front. “Here he is,” Hedley said when I walked in the family lounge.

“Sorry I was having a chat with the Group Captain, the Globemaster aircraft, will be arriving at 0900 hours tomorrow, if we are interest in watching it arrive, and once they have loaded up the vehicles and personnel they will be taking off and heading for Pearce Airbase just north of Perth” I replied.

“Is it one of those planes that can carry heavy cargo?” Wynn asked me, “That is right, but it isn’t the biggest, but it is large and will be very noisy,” I replied to my brother. “Is the runway long enough?” Joyce asked, “Yes, it is the same plane that delivered the Liberator here, with the wings removed of course, that is why we had the airmen engineers here to put it all together again,’ I replied.

“That sounds like a good chance to see such a big cargo plane,” Hedley said, “Yes; they are impressive, I have seen one from a distance on the east coast that is why I know it is noisy. By the way, I was reminded about the scorpions and snakes that are all around the base and the Airforce boys say they have seen quite a few since they have been here.

I was thinking, we need to make up some information guide, that will inform the visitors to stay on the tracks and taxiways, and not to wander off, because of the risk of snakes and scorpions,” I said. “On that point, I want to let you know that Joyce and I would love to come and work for you here at the base, and we had already considered installing a station manager, so we could slow down a little,” Hedley announced.

“That is wonderful news, welcome to the team, now one thing, will you stay at the homestead, or would you like to move to the complex, I am sure you would be welcome to move into my cabin, since I will be away at university in Perth for the rest of the year, except for holidays, and it wouldn’t take much for another cottage to be added to the complex, maybe in the back corner between the undercover car bays and the back of the recreation space,” I responded.

“How about we stay in the homestead until we have a station manager, then we move into your cottage while you are away and we can have the back cottage when it is in place, that way you will be closer to the admin centre when you are home,” Joyce suggested.

“Well I was thinking of my new place including a veterinary hospital, so I can look after animals that need intensive care, so it would be a fair bit bigger than my cottage I have now,” I replied. “I see, and have you made up plans for this vet hospital yet?” Dad asked me.

“No not yet, but it also depends on if I do vet work just part time, and the rest of the time at the airbase, helping you guys running it,” I replied. “How about we wait till you graduate, and we see how things pan out from there, and by then we will have had few visitors through, and fine tuned our operations,” Mum suggested.

“Ok, I can wait till then, but I must insist that all Airbase staff carry a handheld radio with them at all times, when at work and away from the complex,” I added, “Don’t worry son, I will be making sure of that myself, and the kids already know that they can not leave the complex without an adult being with them, no matter what the situation is.

“Wynn is going to Geraldton this year to isn’t he?” I asked, “Yes, and it will be very strange not having any of my dear children home with me,” Mum replied, sounding a little upset, “Never mind Amanda, I am sure we will all be very busy with running this Museum to even think about them,” Joyce said cheerfully, and Mum nodded her head yes, as she wiped away a few tears.

“Leaving Mum and Joyce to chat, Hedley, Dad and I headed to the office, and we spent a good two hours chatting and putting together a basic plan of how to run the base for tourists. “When do you think we should open for visitors, now hat it has been officially opened?” I asked, “Lets get some more planning sorted, then we can start thinking of promoting the new Airbase Museum or whatever you want to call it,” Dad replied.

That night as we all gathered in the family lounge watching the news, we were all caught by surprise by the next news item, “…and now for news in our Pilbara district, where the President of the East Pilbara Shire announced that he attended the official opening of the Corunna Airbase Museum earlier today, with his Excellency the Governor General of Australia, doing the honours, in the presence of a small group of invited guests, and Defence personnel.

This is the World War 2 secret airbase which is located just south of Marble Bar. The shire president stated in a press release this afternoon, that the owners of the airbase museum, have put in a great deal of hard work to get it back to looking like it was back in WW2.

He state that there are replica sheds built on the concrete slabs where the original sheds where built, plus a large amount of memorabilia as well as fully restored but non operational B24 Liberator aircraft, one of many that were based at Corunna Airbase during the war. It is not known when the airbase will be open to visitors, but the Shire President said that he will make sure that it is announced broadly when it is,” the reporter announced on the television.

“Well the word is out now, we will have to get ready for visitors quickly now,” Dad said as the house phone rang, and he got up to answer it, “Hello Hedley, yes we just saw it too, I was just saying we will have to get moving quickly now that the word is out, I will be sending a strongly worded letter to the Shire President about his little publicity stunt,” we heard Dad say, as he listened to what Hedley has to say, before saying goodbye.

“Hedley says he isn’t too impressed with him either,” Dad said to us as he returned to the lounge to watch the rest of the news and the weather forecast. “Are the signs saying road closed and Restoration project in progress still in place?” I asked.