Springbank - 3. Spring Ch 3

“That is very good news to hear. I look forward to working with you and getting to know how well this estate is run under your guidance,” I replied. “Will you be residing on the property, once your family regains management control next month?” Davies asked me. “I am not entirely sure about that, as I will be getting some guidance from my Grandfather on some matters, but he is still managing the station down near Norseman. I have a feeling that now that the family is returning to the estate, he may want to retire from station life and be closer to family, and move on to the estate to just monitor things, he knows that I will be the one in charge and making all the main decisions, with your guidance of course,” I said to Davies.

On the trip back home, all I could think about was the amazing property that I had just visited, and I still couldn’t believe that our family owned it and had done since 1870. There was one question that was nagging me as I continued to drive back towards the city, and that was where is all this money that has kept the property running, with a smoothly run operation, well-maintained buildings and fences, and gravel access roads, providing easy access to all areas of the Estate.

“He has just walked in, hold a minute please,” I heard my Dad say as I walked through the front door and looked into the study, and he motioned for me to step into the study. “Some people in London who wish to speak to you,” Dad whispered to me, before handing me the phone. “Hello, this is Cooper Alistair Husdon speaking,” I said into the phone, “Hello Mr Hudson. My name is Lloyd Thymes, I am a Barrister from Thymes, Henry & Kent Law Firm, in London…” came the response.

For the next half an hour I was in discussions with the Barrister from London and in that time I learnt a lot about what I had just inherited, which included all the profits from the lease of the estate in it was first leased back in 1918, and I also learnt of the Maintenance and Futures Fund, that comes from a small percentage of the profits each year, that pays for all operating and maintenance costs for the estate, including any disaster repairs that need to be done, in the case of floods, storms and fires.

I was also informed that the Estate had purchased three other properties totalling 1,465 acres, bought approximately five years ago, those being 472 Cobbler Pool Road, which is a 33.5-acre narrow slice of land between the Avon River and the main railway line that runs East-West across the country, the property has 828-metres of river frontage on the southern side and is directly next door and upstream from the Cobbler Pool Campsite for the Avon Descent, plus it is directly across from the Watch Tower.

The second property is 80 Markey Road, which can be accessed from Harders Chitty Road. It is a 77.5-acre property that is located upstream and on the south-east boundary of the main property, with 800 metres of river frontage on the north side, while the third property is at 299 Harders Chitty Road, which is 1,354 acres in area, and surrounds the Markey Road property on the north, east and south sides and has 3-kilometres of north side Avon River frontage.

My calculations meant that the estate has a total of 10.8 kilometres of Avon River frontage on the north side, with the three new properties being leased out to other farmers in the district, with periodical leases, due to expire or be renewed at the end of the year. I was informed that work has just been completed in the past year to upgrade all of the boundary fences that do not link with the rest of the estate, and along the river boundary, with all of the river frontage boundary being a very solid 1.8-metre high post and rail fence with steel weldmesh between the 4 rails.

The Cobbler Pool Road property has also had a boundary fence upgrade to post and rail and steel mesh along the road, eastern and western boundaries, and 150 metres of river frontage boundary from each corner, which includes a one-metre deep trench that has been filled with rocks and concrete, under the fence and two large electronic gates were also installed at the front, so to prevent intruders from entering the property during the weekend of the Avon Descent Race. I was given the contact details for the current leasee of the Cobbler Pool property so that I could make contact with them to discuss the future lease of the property.

On the following Wednesday, I made the call to Mr Carl Pellini who currently leases the Cobbler Pool Property, and I was invited to come out and tour the property and discuss business, which I agreed to, and suggested Saturday morning, as I am a university student, and he agreed. Three days later in the early morning, I set off back to West Toodyay, this time taking the Toodyay Road, as it would be a quicker way to go, and I arrived at the property gates just at 9 am, but I was a little annoyed to see a heavy chain and padlock on the gates. I patiently waited a while before I called Mr Pellini, only to have the call not answered.

Half an hour later I attempted to call again, only to find it go directly to voicemail, which I was not too happy about, and I left a message to say that I had arrived and I was waiting at the front gate. After another half an hour, I tried to call again and received a voice recording to say that the number I called was out of range or disconnected. I called Davies Carter to see if he had any information about this person who has leased the property. “Good morning boss, are you in the area again?” Davies said on answering my call and this made me smile and chuckle.

“Yes, across the river in fact at the smaller property next to Cobbler Pool,” I replied, “Oh, so the estate purchased that property too? I heard that it was a forced sale by the bank and that the estate lawyers allowed the previous owners to take up the lease of the property, which in my view was a huge mistake,” Davies responded. “That doesn’t sound too good, is this Mr Pellini a bit dodgy is he?” I asked, “Dodgy! I would say he is a lot more than that… I hope your lawyers in London have an air-tight lease agreement because I can guarantee he will try to do anything to keep living on the property on a long-term basis,” Davies responded.

“Damn, that is all I need right now, especially with the Avon Descent approaching. I was informed that Mr Pellini had agreed to the installation of a more secure fence and front gates, at the estate expense, and I am guessing that he is using that to his advantage now,” I commented, “I bet he agreed to the upgrade so it was to his benefit him yes. I have driven along there a few times and noticed it has been locked tight every time. He has also planted a lot of trees and shrubs just inside the front and western boundaries, to ensure more privacy,” Davies responded.

“Well I guess I will have to call the law firm in the UK once they have woken up,” I commented which had Davies laughing, “You are most welcome to come over to the Estate if you would like to spend some time here,” he said to me, “Yes, that would be nice thank you, I will be over there soon, shame I have to drive all the way around,” I said in response. “You can just drive down to just downstream of Possetts Ford, the river is still low enough to cross over, I did it the other day, just make sure you stay in the centre of the crossing which is marked at each side of the river,” Davies announced.

A few minutes later, I turned off the road and down a small track towards the river, just 400 metres downstream from Possetts Ford, and just 100 metres before the locked access gate for the railway access road, as it becomes from that gate, and it is just over two kilometres from the Estate’s main staff housing, so I wasn’t surprised to see Davies already parked on the other side of the river. Over the two-way radio, he gave me instructions on how to cross the river, which was flowing and this made me very unsure about crossing, but after a bit of encouragement, I managed to successfully cross over the river and drive through the river access gate nearby.

“That was a little bit scary, I don’t think I want to do that again,” I commented to Davies, as he shook my hand and smiled at my comment, “You just need a bit more 4WD experience and you will have no issues crossing over at low water levels in the future. Let’s go to the watch tower, we have a few things to discuss,” Davies responded as I noticed his son- Giles seated in the front passenger seat of his vehicle, and he gave me a wave which I returned. Ten minutes later, we arrived at the Watch Tower, where we heard some commotion happening.

“I can’t get a damn reception, I am going to have to drive and get the boss,” we heard one of the farm lads call out, and Davies and I sprinted down to where we heard voices near the river, just below the watch tower. “We are here, what has happened,” Davies said as we approached the lads, and saw the farm mechanic motionless by the rocks with a nasty-looking head wound. When I saw this I turned and dashed back to my vehicle, where I had a large first aid kit, which I grabbed and raced back to the scene.

“Yes, that is right, Springbank Estate, located on Julimar Road, the front gate is 350 metres off that road, which is 17 kilometres west of the Toodyay Showgrounds… oh, we have someone here with a first aid kit, so I will hand over to Cooper Hudson,” I heard Davies say, just as I retrieved a BP Cuff and Stethoscope from my Paramedic pack, before motioning Davies hold up the mobile close to me.

“Hey Coop, this is Jesse speaking, working on your day off are you?” the Ambulance dispatcher said and I chuckled when I recognised the voice and started to make my initial assessment of the situation, thankfully I knew some basic information about my patient who was going in and out of consciousness. Once I had done a full exam and found no other injuries aside from the large knock to the side of his head, and placing a kneck collar on him, I looked up to Davies.

“Just a minute Jesse, I need to speak to the property manager… Davies, on hold please,” I said, and once the call was on hold, I gave instructions for the lads to head to the front gate so to direct the ambulance to the main machinery shed as suggested by Davies, and I headed up to the Watch Tower to grab a chair, to be able to carry Todd to my vehicle.

When I returned, Davies informed me that the ambulance was about fifteen minutes away and that they had ended the call, so we could concentrate on getting Todd to the main shed. After a lot of effort, we finally had Todd at my vehicle and after some quick adjustments inside, we loaded him into the back of the vehicle, laying him flat on a foam mattress that is stored at the Watch Tower, and with Davies driving, and me by my patient’s side, we slowly made our way towards the main shed, as the farm track is a little rough in places.

Once on a firebreak, we were able to travel a little faster, and once on one of the farm access tracks, we could go a bit faster, until we made it to the main shed, during this time I was constantly monitoring Todd to make sure his condition didn’t worsen. We only had to wait about five minutes before the ambulance arrived, and once I had done a handover of information, and assisted with loading Todd into the back of the ambulance, we watched as it headed for Northam Hospital 45 kilometres away.

Davies asked the lads, to explain what happened, and they explained that Todd had been smoking weed and started to verbally abuse them for being gay, and started chasing after them, taunting them both with threats of violence, and that is when he slipped on the rocks and hit his head. Joe said that he started the voice recorder on his mobile soon after it started for proof and that when Todd fell, he had forgotten all about it. Joe retrieved his phone and pressed a button, before looking up at his boss. “I have just turned it off, it has been on all the time,” he announced to us.

“Good, send that to Davies, and me as well please for future records, and once we have had a chat, we will let you know what has been decided,” I said to the lads. “Go and take it easy for the rest of the day, and we will chat later, can you also take Giles home for me please, as I need to speak to Mr Hudson alone,” Davies said to his two farm hands, and along with Davies son, they wandered off to the farm vehicle they had been using and left.

Once inside the Watch Tower, we sat down and I thought about what had happened before speaking to Davies. “Just as well you are a paramedic, or else Todd could have been in a lot worse condition before getting to the hospital,” Davies said to me, “Yes true, but for now we need to listen to the voice recording to get a better idea of what happened,” I responded. For the next few minutes, we listened to the recording twice, before Davies sent me a copy of the recording, and I listened to it a third time.

“Although he was injured on the property although he was off duty, with the comment from the lads about Todd smoking weed and me making notes during the assessment, which included him showing signs of having drugs in his system, Todd is in a heap of trouble and he will not be able to blame you or the estate for his accident, so you don’t need to worry about anything there, my recommendation is that you terminate his employment immediately, make sure that he gets his wages and all of his holiday and superannuation payments, and have your wife pack up his belongings, and store them somewhere until he comes back, if he ever does, depending on what the police do.

Let’s try and put this aside and look towards the future,” I said to Davies who agreed with my suggestions. Less than a week later I received a text from Davies asking me to come to the estate for a meeting, and I sent a text back to say that I would be there on Saturday at 9 am and two days later I arrived at the property a little early and I headed over to the watch tower to spend a little time enjoying the view and to check out the water levels now, as we had received a fair amount of rain in the past week.

When I arrived, I noticed a vehicle parked in the undercover area, and there was some classical music coming from the watch tower, which sounded very good. I stepped inside and walked into the main area, surprised to find a man playing on a keyboard and a woman of Asian descent playing the Oboe, just as I realised that they were playing the haunting music from the movie The Mission, where they stopped playing when they saw me standing there.

“Who the hell are you, and what are you doing here,” the woman said to me in a demanding voice, “I think I should be asking that question young lady,” I responded in an annoyed tone, as I heard footsteps coming down the stairs, “Oh Shite, steady on guys, this is Mr Hudson, he owns this estate,” Joesph said when he dashed in with Kurt on his heals, “Joe, Kurt, care to introduce me to your visitors?” I asked. “Yes sir, this is my cousin Alex and his long-term girlfriend Ms Mei Ling Shae, who are replacing our previous Mechanic, while Mei Ling assists with cleaning when she is available,” Kurt replied.

“Well it is nice to meet you both, and I do like the music you were playing just now,” I replied, “Thank you sir, and my apologies for my outburst just now,” Mei Ling responded, “Tell me, are you in an orchestra or something similar?” I asked, “A chamber ensemble sir, there are twelve of us in total, and the majority are students at university, like myself,” Mei Ling replied.