Simba - 16. Simba Ch 16

Aaron’s 21^st birthday party was a huge success, and it ended and the cleanup was all completed an hour before dark, and there were no problems with any gate crashes, or so we thought, until Chris came storming down the stairs, almost knocking over Mrs Fogliani, who was just finishing up and preparing to head home. “Colonel Nat, we have a major problem,” he called out, which brought everyone into the main living room.

Chris had his laptop, and he placed it on the coffee table so everyone could see.

The computer was set on Chris’s Facebook page, and we could see clearly, why he came flying down the stairs about. “Party Crash time – Kingfisher Circuit, Flagstaff Hill, come along all and let’s have some fun,” was the main message, and as soon as Uncle Nat saw it, he was on his mobile phone.

“Hello, this is Nathanial Blackwood, it has just been brought to my attention that a gatecrashers party has just been posted in Facebook, to crash our home party, at Kingfisher Circuit, Flagstaff Hill ,which we held this afternoon so as to avoid this very situation, and has now finished. Would you be able to send some police officers to attend?” we heard Uncle Nat say into his phone.

We watched as we Uncle Nat listened to the response, “… oh I see, well then you won’t mind if we arrange for our own security to handle to situation, since you can’t be bothered… It is not Mr Blackwood, it is Colonel Blackwood, and I am the base commander of Warradale Army Barracks, good day to you officer,” we heard Uncle Nat say before he ended the call abruptly, and the expression on his face told me that he was not at all happy, as he speed dialled another number.

“Colonel Blackwood here, can you send that section of soldiers to my residence just off Kingfisher Circuit, in Flagstaff Hall, as soon as possible please, and have them in fatigues but no weapons, thankyou, goodbye,” Uncle Nat said, and by the end of the call he was smiling.

“See what happens when they come across a section of soldiers, which should scare them away. Now lads, I need you to quickly go and doorknock all of our neighbours and let them know of the situation. Maybe suggest to them to lock everything up, and let them know that we have some Army backup arriving soon,” Uncle Nat said to us, and we headed out to do just that.

“How many soldiers are there in a section?” Aaron asked me, “Up to 16 in total, which should be plenty to deal with any minor situations that we may face,” I replied. Once we had notified all 108 houses on the loop of Kingfisher Circuit including the four side streets, it was well after dark, and we were fairly tired from the long day, as we arrived back home to find two army bushmaster vehicles parked in front of the double garage.

“Wow, nice vehicles, do you know anything about them?” Aaron asked, “Yes, these are called Bushmasters, they can carry a driver and passenger up front and 9 more in the back, with an extra fuel tank, and is lightly armoured to cope with small arms and land mines,” I replied.

“Sounds awesome, I would like to check it out if we are allowed to?” Will responded, “You will have to speak to the Colonel about that,” I replied. “Who is that… oh you mean Uncle Nat,” Aaron said when he realised that is who I was referring too and saw me smiling.

As we entered the house, there was a sergeant and two corporals sitting with Uncle Nat at the dining table, and they stopped talking when we arrived. “Jacob, go and get into your fatigues, you can be the liaison between the Sergeant here and our neighbours,” Uncle Nat said to me, and with just a nod of the head, I headed upstairs to do just that, and the others followed.

“Do you have to do as Uncle Nat said?” Aaron asked, “Yes, not because he is my Uncle but also I am in the Army and he is my superior officer,” I replied, as I entered my room and closed the door, and I heard the others chatting as I was being changed into my army fatigues.

Once dressed, I headed downstairs, while the lads remained upstairs, and only the Sergeant was in the house now, as I turned to face my Uncle and snapped to attention.

“Sir, reporting for duty,” I said, “Very good, we have decided to post one of the bushmasters at the intersection of Kingfisher Circuit where it dissects, so no one but local residents get through, the other will patrol around the Circuit, as will four foot patrols, in pairs. Was everyone home, when you visited all the houses?” Uncle Nat asked me.

“Yes sir, with the exception of one home, as the family are away,” I replied, “Yes, that is right, next door at number 75, I had forgotten about that, and they have actually moved to a new location, and the house will be going on the market soon,” Uncle Nat said.

I was assigned to be in the vehicle patrol, as front passenger, and in charge of communications, for the vehicle, which is carrying four men in the back, who are ready to be deployed when needed.

“Section leader to all, be alert now, a group of vehicles can be heard approaching,” we heard the Sergeant say over the radio, “Command to vehicle two, over,” we heard Uncle Nat call to our vehicle, “Vehicle two receiving sir, over,” I responded. “Suggest that you go to the area of Kuishi Project, in case they decided to deviate to that area once they see the road block, over” Uncle Nat said.

“Copy that Colonel, on our way, over,” I replied, “What the hell is Kuishi Project?” the Corporal who was driving, asked me, “Apart from being in the Army, I am also a student scientist, and Kuishi is Swahili meaning ‘To Survive’.

The project base is the former Scouts buildings, next door to the Flagstaff Hill Primary School, where there is plenty of car park space and a footy ground that may end up being area that they gatecrashers may want to do burnouts, if they cannot gatecrash a non-existing party. Although there are also the community grounds that are a little closer,” I replied.

“Section leader to Command, sir some vehicles have turned onto Kingfisher, and on seeing the road block, two of them have gone down the footpath into the reserve, the others just did a U turn and went back the way they came on Black Road, over,” we heard the sergeant say.

“Command to Vehicle two, Jacob did you get that, they may be heading your way, I will contact the police to let them know, over,” Uncle Nat said. “Right, that sounds like trouble, just as well I locked the driveway gates to the project, as it is set back from the main road,” I stated just as my mobile rang.

“Will here, Aaron, Chris and I are heading down to the project to keep an eye on it, just in case, we are riding down on the bikes,” Will said to me as soon as I answered. “Ok mate, we are at the car park entrance to the primary school just 40 metres from the project gates,” I replied. “Righto mate, see you shortly,” Will replied before ending the call.

“My two friends and my cousin are heading down to keep an eye on the project buildings, so maybe we should deploy a patrol to walk around the boundary between the school oval and the project,” I suggested to the Corporal in the driver’s seat.

“Ok, sounds good, I will leave it to you since you know the area better than us,” the Corporal replied, and shortly after I had two paired patrols on the move, with each one having a hand held radio with them, while I took a third patrol to double time the community recreation ground, 600 metres away.

By the time we arrived there, I realised that we were too late, as we could hear a vehicle doing burnouts, in the Kindergarten car park at the other end of the oval. A second vehicle did the same before heading back the way it came, towards us, as we stood near the barrier that they had crashed through to gain access to that end of the oval.

We stood back from the vehicle entry point to the oval, ready to jump clear if they attempted to race towards us, as both vehicles headed out of the recreation grounds, racing down the street and turning onto Black Street at high speed.

Shortly after we heard police sirens as they followed in pursuit of the two vehicles, and I smiled. “That may be the end of our trouble, but let’s keep going just in case,” I said to the other men. Half an hour later, we met up with the vehicle again, and set off back to the house, and I texted to the lads that we were heading back to the house.

Once Uncle Nat had received a full verbal report on what had happened, he thanked them all and told them to head back to base and home. I headed upstairs and changed out of my uniform, and came back down to have some dinner, as I was quite hungry by now.

When the lads arrived, they sat down to join us, and I told the lads about what had happened at the recreation reserve. “Uncle Nat, I have been thinking about the farms over near Port Lincoln, and I have come to a decision. I would like to keep the smaller farm with Dad’s house on it, and sell the other two bigger farms, so they can help to finance my Canal project, and also continue sponsoring the Kuishi Project,” Aaron announced.

“Well that is very generous of you, I would like to suggest that you not spend all of your money, so that you have some to cover all of your University studies, if you are still thinking of doing,” Uncle Nat responded. “I do, but nothing too long, as I didn’t really like school that much,” Aaron replied.

“Says the man who was dux of the school in his final year,” I said smiling, “Yes well, I didn’t try that hard, I guess it just comes naturally,” Aaron responded. “Do you want me to let Mr Drysdale of your decision, and give him first option to by the two bigger properties?” Uncle Nat asked.

“Yes please,” Aaron replied, and after dinner was over, Uncle Nat went to make the phone call while we lads cleaned up and after we settled down to watch a movie.

The next morning, I found Aaron and Uncle Nat at the dining room table and they stopped talking as soon as they saw me enter the room. “Ok, what is this? A secret men’s meeting, or something?” I commented, and Aaron chuckled at this comment.

“No, I was just talking to Uncle Nat, asking him some advise that is all,” Aaron replied, but I still didn’t believe that, but I let it slide for now. “What are you boys doing today?” Uncle Nat asked.

“Well, I was thinking of heading to the office, to do some research into other possible sites that we can do some fauna surveys,” I replied. “That sounds like a good plan, I think I will join you,” Chris said as he arrived in the room.

“I think I will stay at home and rest, I think I ate way too much yesterday,” Aaron commented, “and I will be too as I have a major assignment to get started on,” Will said as he entered the room. “I have to pop into the base for a short while, but should be back before lunch time,” Uncle Nat said to us all.

As we headed our own ways, with Chris giving me a lift to our new office, and fort he first time we sat at our desks for a short while before we both headed to the more comfortable conference room. “I think we need a big screen television on the wall, so we can have video conferencing, as well as looking at presentations,” Chris suggested, and I agreed with the idea.

After some discussion, we decided that we should plan for another trip to Taylor Island, and maybe do a survey of Grindal Island, so we contacted Patrick Carter, to ask permission to do a fauna survey of Grindal Island, and he was very pleased to hear that we are interested in working on his islands again.

He informed me that the cottage that we used before has now been renovated and to let him know a date range, so he could reserve it for us at no cost, in the bookings calendar. I suggested the first week of our mid-year semester break, which is one week before the school holidays, and Patrick informed us that he now had that week set aside for us.

When we returned home for lunch, Uncle Nat had just arrived, and he was chatting to Aaron and Will as we walked into the house. “Good news team, we are spending a week on Grindal Island for a survey, and we are inviting you to join us too Aaron,” I announced.

“Excellent news, I enjoyed the last two times we were over there,” Will responded, “Just to let you know Aaron, there is a friend of your Uncle Nat’s, who owns some islands not far from Port Lincoln, on the other side of the Gulf, just down from where your farm is.

We spent a week before Christmas and two weeks after, doing a fauna survey of Taylor Island and surrounding waters. This other Island known as Grindal, is just to the south of Taylor Island, and owned by the same man, who is in favour of our research projects, and allows us to stay in a cottage on Taylor Island for free during our stays,” Chris explained.

“Wow, that is very generous of him,” Aaron replied, “Well we do some work for him in return actually, we spend the mornings and evenings doing research surveys and in the afternoons we help with building boardwalks and lookouts on his islands,” I added.

“I have an idea to put to you lads, that could be beneficial to both to the Project and to Aaron with his idea of a canal, there is currently work being done to try an improve the river flow and the surround environment of the Onkaparinga River. Which you maybe able to put in a submission to assist with the project and also suggest the canal system with numerous locks, that will help to improve the river,” Uncle Nat announced to us.

“Wow, that would be awesome, from what I remember of that river, there is a weir located in the town of Clarendon, which is a far way up in the ranges, and there are some incredible gorges just south west of there too,” I said to everyone.

After lunch, I went online to see if I could get as much information as possible on the Onkaparinga River, and I located and printed out a 78-page Department of Environment Management Plan of the River reserve, that includes the National Park and the Recreation Park.

I also located a Department of Natural Resources Management Board document, which is a 4-page plan on Environmental flows, and I found a website with hiking walks, with the main one following the river from Old Naorlunga up to where Bakers Gully track crosses the river near the eastern boundary of the National Park.

From all the information that I had printed out, I began to just briefly scan through all the information, and from this I learn that the distance of the river within the National Park is a distance of 21 kilometres. With it being all National Park, I knew that we would have a very difficult time trying to get permission to turn all or even part of the river into a canal, for canal boats.