Oceanbank - 3. Chapter 3

She had lived on the island from 1979 until her passing in 2015 at the age of 77 years, and we were shown her burial site at the Emily Bay Cemetery on the island. As we sat down for some lunch at the local Fish & Chip Café, we discussed the books that Colleen had written, and Andrew stated that he had seen the TV mini-series of The Thorn Birds and the Movie Tim, both of which were filmed in Australia, with a mixture of Australian and overseas actors in both productions.

I stated that I had seen the movie Tim, starring Mel Gibson. Still, I had not seen the TV mini-series of The Thorn Birds, which stars Australians Bryan Brown, Rachel Ward and numerous famous international stars, although I had read the book many years ago. The rest of the day, we spent hiking in the National Park, all the way up to the lookout on top of Mt Pitt, a total distance of 1.7 kilometres, which is 320 metres above sea level with 360-degree views of the island, before I hiked over to Mt Bates, 500 metres away. After the 4.5 kilometres of hiking, we returned to our accommodation, exhausted but happy at what we had achieved.

The following day, we took our second tour, the Convict Settlement tour, which was very informative and educational, and we enjoyed lunch in the village, discussing all that we had seen and learnt about the tour we had just completed. We decided to spend the rest of the day resting, so we grabbed our books and relaxed on the veranda to enjoy the views, and near sunset, we set off for a walk down to the beach to watch the sunset from there, which was spectacular.

The next morning, we were up early for our walk down to the beach, followed by a shower together, before we headed into the village for some breakfast at one of the cafes that we hadn’t been to yet. When we exited the café, we passed the local Real Estate agency, and I stopped to have a look just out of curiosity. Right away, my attention went to a listing, and without hesitation, I went inside with a very confused Andrew following me.

“Good morning, I wish to enquire about Cutters Cottages and Homestead on Cutters Corn Road,” I said as I approached the reception desk. “Yes, of course, sir, the listing has only just gone up on the board this morning, and we are currently working with the online listing to go up later today, so you are the first to enquire,” the receptionist responded. Half an hour later, we were standing at the entry to the 8.3-acre property on Cutters Corn Road, Burnt Pine, where the five self-contained, one-bedroom holiday accommodation cottages, plus the maintenance and machinery shed and the owner/manager's homestead stand.

After a detailed tour of the grounds and a look at one of the vacant guest cottages, we were given a tour of Redview Homestead, where we met the current owners of the property, who, we are informed, are putting the business on the market due to urgent family business back on the mainland. After the tour, I asked to spend a few moments walking around the grounds with my partner to discuss the matter, and we went down to the large lawn area in front of the cottages.

“Are you seriously considering buying this place?” Andrew asked me, sounding shocked, having remained silent for the whole tour of the property. “Yes, I think it would be a great place to live and work, don’t you think?” I responded smiling, and the look on Andrew’s face made me chuckle. “Err, yes, I guess it would, but what about our life back in Toodyay?” Andrew asked me. “Well, we can always go back there and tackle the day-to-day hassles of life back there, or we can enjoy a new life and career on a beautiful island in the South Pacific and go home to Toodyay when business is quiet.

We have fully capable staff to run the estate and the other accommodation business across the river, so we can just check in with them online every week to see how things are going, and I am sure you wouldn’t mind a change of career that isn’t as stressful. So… what do you think? Are we staying or heading home?” I replied.

“Oh, I can imagine what the big boss back in Perth is going to say when he loses yet another young Police Officer, but… I fully agree with you. Go ahead and buy it,” Andrew replied. Fifteen minutes later, we had officially made the offer to purchase the business and property, with the offer had been accepted, due to us offering 5% above the asking price. We were offered a cottage to reside in while the settlement is being processed, which would take just one week to complete.

“I can’t believe we are doing this?” Andrew said to me, as we lay in bed that evening, “Yes, a bit of sudden change of lifestyle, that is for sure. Have you heard back from your boss since you submitted your resignation this afternoon?” I replied, “No, just an automated message to say that my email has been received. Have you called the estate yet?

What about your family?” Andrew responded, “No, I am about to do that now. Boy, are they in for a shock of their lives,” I responded, and we both laughed at this. Davies and Leah were shocked about our news when we telephoned them, but also said that they were happy that we were establishing a new life together, and that they would inform the rest of the staff the following day. My parents were also shocked and concerned that I was going to be living so far away from the rest of the family, but I informed them that we would be coming home at least once a year to see the family and friends.

The following day, we were hit with lots of text messages from the family and staff having learnt the news of our new life on Norfolk Island. I decided to send a group message to the family and staff, “Andrew and I are happily settling into our new home on Norfolk Island. We are confident that the staff will look after the Julimar & Cobbler Pool properties, and we will keep you posted on how life is going here. We hope that soon you will be able to come and visit us. We have purchased an accommodation property, and we have plenty of room, if we have plenty of notice.”

For the first month on the island, we were busy settling into our new home, and a fortnight later, I had received a large parcel from home that I had requested, which was my own personal paramedic kit, which contained the paramedic tools needed to care for sick or injured people, with all medications removed. I had also arranged for the purchase and transport of a new vehicle, which is a grey Land Rover 110 Defender. I was busy with stocktaking supplies to make an order to the mainland when Andrew appeared at the office door.

“Hey, there are two men at the door, asking to speak to you. One is in an Ambulance uniform, and the other is in a suit,” Andrew informed me, and I groaned in annoyance. “Mr Cooper Hudson? My name is Charles Godard, and I am the Director of Operations for Rural NSW Ambulance Service, of which this beautiful Island is in the jurisdiction. I understand that you assisted with a medical emergency on board and aircraft recently,” the man in the suit said when I appeared at the door, but I didn’t open the screen door to let them in.

“Yes, I did, as I am a trained and registered Paramedic, so I felt that it was my duty to assist when needed,” I responded, “You were a full-time paramedic in Perth, Western Australia, for a few years and according to my research you were disciplined for incorrect procedures and that you resigned soon after,” Mr Godard said to me, and I frowned on hearing this. “If you believe that is what truly happened, then this conversation is over,” I said as I stepped back and closed the main door before walking back to the office.

Andrew, seeing my facial expression, ignored the knocks on the door and went back to the kitchen, where he had been making meal preparations, and eventually the knocking stopped, which made me relax a little bit. The following day, while Andrew and I were at the general store buying essentials for the business, which was going very smoothly, with an average 70% occupancy rate, which was ideal, and as we walked down the aisles, Andrew gave me a soft nudge, which made me look up from the fresh produce that I was looking at, and I saw two men approaching, of which one of them was Mr Godard and I groaned, as we turned down another aisle to avoid them.

As we exited the supermarket with our groceries, they were there waiting for us. “Mr Hudson, I would like to speak to you if I may, to correct some information that was falsely given to me about why you left the Ambulance Service in Perth. After a more detailed investigation, I have learnt that your direct supervisor, whom I had spoken to, had incorrectly informed me of what had happened, and when I went higher up the chain, I learned the real reason why you had left… I am sorry that you had to deal with that kind of behaviour by a professional Ambulance official.

The main reason why I have come to Norfolk Island is to thank you personally for what you did on that flight, which saved the man’s life. He is alive and recovering from his medical episode, thanks to your quick reactions, and I was asked to pass on their thanks if I ever had the chance to meet you. As you can guess, there is always a shortage of professional Ambulance Paramedics, and we would like to offer you a paid part-time position here on the island, which would be secondary to your new business here,” Mr Godard said to me.

“That is nice of you, but we have just established ourselves on the island, and currently we do not have any spare time for any community service work, paid or voluntary. Good Day to you,” Andrew said to the two men before I could respond, and it took me a moment to realise what Andrew had said, before I smiled and followed him back to the Land Rover, where I whispered thank you to him, before loading our groceries into the vehicle, and we drove back home.

I was hoping this would be the end of the matter, but it wasn’t. Just two weeks later, on one of our rare days off, when we had no guests staying in the cottages, we decided to check out the business known as Cottage Ceramics Art Gallery, which is located at the west end of the island, which is about 6 ½ kilometres away from our home, with a short stop on the way to visit the beautiful St Barnabas Chapel and the nearby Hedge Maze and Gardens.

On the way back, we stopped at the Botanical Gardens and the nearby Mount Pitt Lookout, which has a stunning 360-degree view of the island. On our way back from the lookout, as we approached the junction of the main road, we came across a two-vehicle accident, which appeared to have just happened minutes before, that involved a bus and a hire car. Grabbing my paramedic kit, we both headed towards the accident, and we quickly began to triage the event, with Andrew calling for emergency assistance for a two-vehicle accident on the junction of Grassy Road, Mount Pitt Road and Mission Road, with two people in a hire car and seven people in the tour bus.

By the time the Police, Fire Department and Ambulance Service had arrived, along with a doctor from the hospital, Andrew had the traffic flow controlled, and I had completed a detailed triage of all the patients, as three men approached, two were ambulance officers, and the other looked like he was a Doctor as he wore a white coat over his business clothes. “Mr Hudson, I presume, what do we have here?” the Doctor asked me, and I began passing on all the information about each patient, and the Ambulance Officers got to work to start treating the most serious cases.

Within two hours, we had all the most serious patients transported to the hospital or the airport, where two emergency flights had arrived from Sydney, and neighbours had come to assist with transporting the less serious patients to the hospital. Once we had cleared the accident site, and we had given a brief statement to the police on what we discovered and did on arrival, before we headed for home, where we decided to relax for the rest of the day after a very challenging time.

The next morning, Andrew went into town to collect the mail, and he returned with a strange expression on his face. “It appears that we have become the local heroes after yesterday’s road accident, the whole island knows that it was us who saved the lives of all those people, and apparently, there is talk about some sort of award ceremony,” Andrew said to me, which really annoyed me, as I stopped work in the office, where I was doing the weekly business report on numbers of guests, accommodation income and expenditure costs, and also a maintenance list, which seemed to be growing each week.

Less than a week later, the Island’s weekly newspaper hit the stands, and it was on the front page. “Newly arrived local business owners come to the rescue to save tourists in a car vs tour bus accident near Mount Pitt last week” were the headlines, as we continued reading the article. “Former WA Senior Constable Andrew Patterson and former WA Ambulance Paramedic Cooper Hudson were returning from a day trip to Mount Pitt and surrounding areas, when they came across a two-vehicle accident, on the corner of Mount Pitt Rd and Mission Road.

Their training and skills were put to work, where they stabilised the injured while they waited for the additional emergency services to arrive, and continued to assist with the patient care, until they were transported to the hospital. The Island Administrator has made an official statement, where he is quoted as saying that these two men need to be recognised for their dedication to assist those who were injured during this accident, and a lot of the locals are in agreement.”

“I think we need to find a more private residence, where we can be on our own, and maybe have one of the staff promoted to caretaker to live in this cottage,” I said to Andrew, who nodded in agreement. “Maybe purchase it under the WA company name,” Andrew added. A month later, we found an ideal new home, located on Allendale Road, which was just 2.4 kilometres due south of the business property. It is located on a hill, overlooking Collins Head and the South Pacific Ocean, the property consists of 10.3 acres of cleared and palm forest land with a 3-bedroom and 2-bathroom house, plus a two-vehicle garage that has a spacious self-contained studio above it.

We quietly moved into our new home on a Friday evening, having packed all our belongings, which wasn’t really much, and quietly loaded it all into our vehicle, and once it was dark, we headed off for the short journey. Apart from unpacking the basics, we left the rest to sort out over the weekend, and we cooked a simple dinner and just relaxed for the rest of the evening.

Over the weekend, we slowly unpacked everything, which included several oil paintings that had been sent over from Toodyay, which we had commissioned, showing parts of the estate and the Avon River in the background, and of my former home, beside the river on the estate, which was a little reminder of where we had moved from. One rural property beside the Avon River to a tropical island in the South Pacific.

It was in early March that I received a surprising email from my parents. “Dearest sons, Andrew and Cooper, we are delighted to inform you that we have booked accommodation at your Cutters Cottage for the first term school holidays. Can you please arrange for the additional beds for your brothers for our stay, as we have booked two cottages for our ten-day holiday. With Much Love, Mum and Dad.” I laughed as I read it a second time and smiled.