Desert Air - 47. DA Ch 47 - Kununurra Open

I was informed that everything was gathered at the back door of their store ready to be moved over, once the cleaning team have completed their work. I paid for everything, and thanked them all for their prompt service, and I headed over to the building to see how the cleaning was going.

“Hello, Dr Kendrik, you took care of my cat when you were last in town, filling in for our former vet, my brother called me, and when he said the new vet, I had a feeling it was you, welcome to our community,” one lady said to me as I entered the main part of the ground floor area.

“Ah yes I remember you, thankyou for coming so fast to do this for me, and I see you have brought a team of helpers too,” I responded, “Yes, I actually own a cleaning business, and these are some of my staff, two are upstairs, while we are doing downstairs. Harriet Gawler is my name, everyone calls me Harry thou,” the lady said to me.

“Pleased to meet you Harry, would you be able to do some cleaning for me on a regular basis?” I asked, “Yes I am sure I can fit you in, let me come back to you after you have settled in, them we can work out the details,” Harry replied. “The vet staff who worked for the other vet, are any of them still in town?” I asked in hope that some are.

“Yes, there is Julia, she was the receptionist and book keeper, and Amanda is a qualified vet nurse, who worked just part time, the other vet nurse Sarah moved back to the city,” Harry replied, “Well two is better than none, can you give me their contact details, as I would like to employ them,” I asked, “I can do better than that… Mandy, Julia, can you come here for a moment please,” Harry called out.

Moments later two ladies appeared from the back where the stairs are to get upstairs. Dr Kendrik, this is Julia and Amanda, who used to work for the old vet, until they had enough of his behaviour and started working for me,” Harry said.

“Hello Ladies, I wanted to find out if you would be interested in working for me at my new practice here,” I asked, and I was pleased when they both said yes, and after a brief chat, I let them get back to work, with plans set to meet them again in the morning.

I had booked into the resort for a few days, until I can get everything into place at my new vet clinic, both upstairs and down, and by the time the ladies had finished cleaning, it was getting close to the close of business, so I arranged for all of my purchases from across the road to be brought in and placed just inside the door.

With the exception of the fridge and the bar fridge, which were put into place and turned on, so I could get the medicines that require refrigeration into the bar fridge, which will be placed in one of the store rooms, that will remain locked at all times.

One of the back offices will become my office, while the other will be the second office, with the central back room to be the administration office, and the two front offices will become the two consulting rooms. Once I was happy that the medicines were safely locked away, I left the keys with my new Vet Nurse Amanda, while I headed to the nearby Toyota dealership to buy a vehicle for myself to use.

Less than an hour later I was the proud owner of a Toyota Prado, which is a Ebony Green colour, and I headed for the auto pro shop, to buy some accessories, which ended up being a car fridge, a vehicle awning, and a few other bits and pieces.

My next stop was to a hardware store, where I was pleased to see they had some large animal cages for sale, and I bought two very large ones, which just fit into the back of the vehicle side by side, and four smaller cages, that fit in the back when the seats are folded down.

Once I had everything loaded up, I decided to do a bit of a drive to see if there is any other possible place for my new veterinary practice, which has plenty of room for the animals, so I headed to the light industrial area on the edge of town, and after a bit of driving around, I decided that there was nothing available and it would be best to start with a new building, and I headed back to the resort to relax for the rest of the afternoon, and I even had a swim in the pool, until a thunderstorm forced me indoors, and I would now use the land at the airport to build a large hanger for my two planes.

After dinner, I decided to retire early, as I wanted to look into doing a lot of planting of mature trees on the vacant block of land to provide a shaded park area for the animals, and also I need to get it fully fenced, with a half metre deep of foundations, to stop any animal from digging in or out of the property, and I had to think about the old rundown house.

The next morning, I went to a local signage company and arranged to have some signs made up, before going out to the tree nursery to see what they have available, and I was surprised to see a large variety of Palm trees, as well as Ficus trees, large Hibiscus shrubs, Tree Ferns and Strelitzia trees.

I ordered a total of 100 trees and shrubs, to be put aside and kept there until I have full access to the property at the airport and next I went to a fencing contractor, and arranged for fencing to be built on the vacant property.

Once this was done, I headed back to the temporary base for my practice, where Amanda and Julia greeted me, and I was surprised to see that the front room had all the furniture arranged. “Hello ladies, my you have been busy today,” I said to them.

“Good morning boss, yes we thought it be good to get it set up as soon as possible so the practice can open,” Julia replied smiling, “Well it is very nice of you both to do all of this,” I responded as I looked around.

“All the other rooms on the ground floor are also set up and ready to go, and we were only able to carry the light stuff upstairs, Amanda said. “Wow, I am impressed, now my business partner, Dr Marcus Sanderson will be arriving some time today, he is driving up from my family home near Marble Bar, while I flew up in the plane, as I have a commercial pilot’s licence.

We will be setting up another practice in Derby, which Marcus will be managing, and between us we will cover Halls Creek, Fitzroy Crossing and all cattle stations in the Kimberly when required. I am born and bred on a cattle station in the Pilbara, so I know all about life in the outback.

When Marcus gets here, he can help me get the rest of the stuff upstairs, and he will be staying here until we get the furniture and supplies over to Derby, I have signage being made for the practice, including a couple of those small sandwich boards to point the direction to the practice. I just need to organise some more marketing, with posters and radio advertising, and I already have a website, which just needs to have some adjustments made to it,” I announced.

“The word is already out that you are setting up practice here in town, so you wont need to do to much marketing,” Amanda said to me, “Well that is good to know, we will open up for business tomorrow at 8 am, so until then you both may head home and relax, and I will see you in the morning,” I said to both ladies.

“By the way, we have stocked up the kitchen fridge in the staff room, and we also did a bit of additional shopping for crockery, cutlery, cooking supplies, so you can cook at home, and the receipt is on your desk,” Julia said before they left.

Looking at my watch, I quickly locked up and headed to the nearest stationary store, where I bought a petty cash tin, a petty cash book, receipt book, a business accounting book, and on seeing a cash register I bought that plus a medium sized safe.

When I returned to the vet clinic, my vehicle was parked out the front, and Marcus walked around the corner and smiled when he saw me step out of my new vehicle. “Your new vehicle I presume?” he asked me, “Yep, you get to use the Jackaroo. Help me bring in this lot, then we can get the heavy stuff upstairs to the apartment,” I said to Marcus.

Stopping for a short lunch break, we spent most of the afternoon unpacking and moving furniture around, until we collapsed from all the work in the late afternoon, and we decided to buy takeaway for dinner, as we were both too tired to cook.

The following morning, we had breakfast and discussed plans for getting the Derby clinic operational in a week or two, once this clinic is running smoothly. “I hear voices downstairs, so I guess the ladies have arrived,” I said, as we cleaned our tea cups and headed for the stairs.

“Good Morning Dr Kendrik and Dr Sanderson,” they chorused as we appeared at the front of the building, and they indicated to outside, where we saw a crowd of people and animals waiting. “Wow, word really has got around, you better unlock the doors and let them in,” I said, before I headed for my office and Marcus waited for the customers to enter and greeted them.

After checking for emails, I headed to my consulting room, where the first patient was waiting for me, and for the next three hours, we were kept very busy, before it started to slow down, and when midday arrived, I let Amanda and Julia know that we are closing for half an hour for lunch.

The afternoon was a little less hectic, but we still had a steady stream of customers, and when just one of us could handle the remaining cases, I headed to my office to make the changes to the website, to say that my practice is now in Kununurra, with a Derby Clinic opening soon, and weekly visits to Halls Creek and Fitzroy Crossing will be made.