Desert Air - 49. DA Ch 49 - Back Home

After I had finished my cup of tea, Marcus arrived, and I asked him to follow me to the house and I chatted to him about a few things while I packed my luggage, and Marcus drove me out to the airport. Once I had done all of my checks, I radioed in a flight plan, before waving to Marcus, and started up the engines, and a few minutes later I was in the air and heading for Port Hedland.

When I finally arrived in Port Hedland, directly after the flight from Perth, I asked Air Traffic control if they could arrange someone to meet my siblings, and that I would meet them in the terminal as soon as I can. When I did eventually enter the terminal, entering from an airside door, my siblings were looking very worried and even surprised when they saw me approaching.

“I thought Mum and Dad were meeting us to take us home?” Mary said to me, “No, there has been a change of plans I am afraid, I replied, looking concerned at my siblings, “What is wrong, it looks like you have been crying?” Julia asked.

“I have, listen I have something important to tell you all, so lets go and sit down somewhere where it is quiet,” I responded cautiously, “Is it Mum and Dad? What has happened?” Wynn asked me, “Yes I am afraid it is. They was in a very bad car accident earlier today, on there way here actually, Dad was killed, and Mum is seriously injured, and that is all that I know so far,” I announced as quietly as possible.

After a moment of shock, the two younger siblings burst out howling, and Mary began to softly cry, as I wrapped them in a family hug to try and comfort them all. “Mr Kendrik, sorry to bother you sir, I am sorry to hear about your folks, your father was a good man, I hope that your mother recovers quickly, a man said to me.

“It’s Dr Kendrik, and thankyou for your kind words, is there anything else?” I responded, “Well yes sir, a lot of the terminal staff has gathered on the parking apron, as a sign of respect, when you and your brothers and sisters are ready to leave for home,” the man said to me.

“Thankyou, we will be leaving in about half an hour, once my siblings have settled a little bit,” I replied, “Dr Kendrik?” another voice said, and it was one that I recognised, and I looked up at the smiling face of a middle aged man that I had heard many times, as we spoke.

“Gary; from Air Traffic Control?” I asked, “That is right, on behalf of the air team; we wish to pass on our condolences to you and your family at this sad time, and Kurt here had offered to second chair for you, for your trip home, and we will arrange for transport for him to get back,” Gary said to me.

“Yes, that would be good thankyou, the plane will need topping up, if you can arrange for it to be done, and add it to our account,” I replied, “Yes sir, I will get right onto it, another voice said, and they all headed off in different directions leaving our family to be alone.

About forty minutes later, we boarded our family plane, where the second pilot was waiting, “Hello Dr Kendrik, I am Kurt Shultz, on loan from Kimberly Air Services,” the pilot said and I shook his hand.

As I slipped into my pilot seat, Kurt began to do all of the checks and as I looked out the side window, there was a long line of terminal staff standing there, and I opened the small window and gave them a small wave of thanks, before resealing the window again.

Once in the air, we headed for Corunna Airbase, 168 kilometres to the south-east, which would take us just under an hour, and I let Kurt do most of the piloting for the trip, and I spent a few moments in the back checking on my siblings.

“Wow, I have heard so much about this place, but this is the first time seeing it from the air,” Kurt said as he circled the airbase, and I said I would take it from here, as I took over the controls and lined up on runway one, and made a smooth landing.

“How are you getting back to Port Hedland?” I asked as I taxied to the end of the runway, where a vehicle was waiting for us. “A Sergeant Brooks is coming to collect me, and meet up with someone else halfway back to Port Hedland,” Kurt replied, “Oh ok, if he tells you anything about me, don’t believe what he says, we have a bit of history, going back to boarding school days,” I said to the other pilot.

Hedley stepped out of the vehicle when we had come to a stop at the end of the runway, and we shut off the engines, before opening the door and lowering the stairs, to allow my siblings to disembark. I unloaded all of the luggage, and carried it all to the vehicle.

“Hello Hedley, thanks for coming to collect us,” I said to our neighbour and friend, “It is my pleasure young Jexon, Sergeant Brooks is at the complex waiting, and I have an update on your mother’s condition. She is in the trauma unit in Royal Perth, and in an induced coma, to help her to heal,” Hedley replied.

When we arrived at the complex, Sergeant Brooks was sitting on the verandah chatting to Joyce, with his private vehicle parked near the front. “Jexon, kids, I am sorry to hear about your father, and your mother’s injuries, I do hope that she fully recovers from this tragedy,” the Sergeant said as we climbed the stairs to the complex, with my siblings carrying their own luggage, and I nodded to indicate that I had heard him.

Rhodes exited his cabin and met me at the top of the stairs, and wrapped me in a hug, “I am glad that you are home bro,” he whispered to me, “That is not a problem Rhodes, we have to stick together as family,” I replied, before instructing the younger siblings to unpack their bags, and any dirty laundry is to go directly to the laundry.

After thanking the Pilot for assisting with the flight home, he said goodbye and he and the sergeant set off for Marble Bar. After placing my bag in my cabin, I headed to the living room, where Hedley and Joyce were chatting.

“We need to have a talk, since you are now the head of the family,” Hedley said as I sat down opposite them, and it was then that I realised how much responsibilities had been put on me, now that Dad has passed away.

“Before the accident, your parents and us had decided to sell Limestone and Corunna Downs Stations, and we would remain here at the Airbase to manage the business here, which would include relocating the staff village from near the Corunna Downs homestead, to just inside the gate that leads to the Army base, while the camping ground will be relocated just inside the main gate, and a second gate and new ticket building has been placed just before the creek crossing,” Hedley announced.

“Have the Army been visiting the base much?” I asked, “Yes they have actually, although we rarely see them, as they tend to stick to the hills behind the complex,” Joyce replied.

“I have a friend who is a vet to take care of running the business in Kununurra, and Marcus is running the Derby clinic, so I can stay here till after the New Year,” I informed Joyce and Hedley. “That is good to know, as your siblings will need a little stability and support at the moment,” Joyce said.

“We have decided to adjust the opening days for the Airbase to visitors, so we are closed from Tuesday to Thursday, that gives us some solid rest time, and if the Army is on the base to give them to roam around without having to worry about visitors,” Hedley informed me.

“We have already informed the Marble Bar Tourism Centre, and all of the signage has been adjusted, with the first gate to the base opening at noon on Thursdays, for visitors to camp overnight, and we close it again at 10 am on Tuesdays, once the last of the campers and caravans have left,” Joyce said to me.

“With Christmas just under two weeks away, what are we going to do?” I asked, “Well, we wanted to discuss that with you before making any arrangements,” Hedley said. “I guess it depends on how well Mum recovers to what we do, so let’s plan to spend Christmas here at the complex, and maybe we can make a trip to Perth to visit Mum before then,” I suggested.

For the next week, my siblings went through stages of grief, while I tried to keep as strong as possible for the whole family, and Mary and Rhodes were helpful with comforting the younger two. To keep myself busy, I kept up with the office work, and also organised for the relocation of the infrastructure at the Camping ground and the Staff Village on to the Airbase land.

I left Hedley to deal with the arrangements for the sale of the two stations as well as keeping tabs, on their operations, with the station manager running Corunna Downs and Jake running Limestone, with the help of stockman Mike Bindi.

With just four days till Christmas Day, I had received a late night call overnight, informing me that Mum was out of her coma and talking normally, and the doctors thinks she will make a full recovery, and I passed on this information to the Parkinson’s and my siblings at breakfast time.

“When can we go and visit Mum?” Wynn asked, “Well if it is ok with the Parkinson’s we can go first thing tomorrow, we can fly down in the Twin Otter, which will take about 3 ½ hours,” I replied, “Go, we will be fine looking after things here,” Hedley said straight afterwards.

I headed to the office to start making arrangements for us, when Hedley followed soon after. “We have a holiday home in Perth that you can use while you are there, as it will save you heaps on accommodation, and you will find a Mazda four door car parked in the garage,” Hedley said to me.

“That is very generous of you both, thankyou very much, I accept your offer, but I insist on paying for all utilities while we are there,” I responded, “Agreed, I will right down the address, and Joyce is getting the spare keys,” Hedley said.

“Seaward Avenue, Swanbourne… so it is close to the beach?” I asked, “Yes it is, and it backs onto Campbell Barracks land with a back access road and gate next to our property. Swanbourne Reserve is just a 350 metre walk away, and the beach is a 650 metre walk or 3 kilometre drive away,” Joyce replied.

“Sounds wonderful, thankyou for making it available for us,” I responded. “It is a three bedroom house with a study, and the minor bedrooms have two single beds, and the study as a fold out couch / bed, so there is room for everyone,” Hedley said to me, “Thankyou, it will be perfect for the short time we are there,” I responded.

The following day, Hedley dropped us off at the runway, and once everyone was onboard and the luggage secured, I did all of the external checks before entering the plane and securing the door, and heading up to the cockpit.

“Can I sit in the spare seat please,” Rhodes asked me, soon after I had sat down, “Sure, but firstly make sure everyone is strapped in properly, while I do all of the prestart checks,” I replied. Once in the air, I circled around the base and tilted the wings back and forwards to Hedley and Joyce who were at the end of the runway watching us, before I turned to head for Perth.