Country Retreat - 71. Application Approved

“Although they don’t need to stop for fuel at Christmas Island, they do need to go through customs, so that is why they are stopping there, with Jurien Bay only a 90-minute drive north of here, so we can avoid any kind of tracking at the airports in the city. I believe they took a commercial flight from Zurich to Mumbai, and chartered flight from then on to Singapore,” I explained. “That is quite a long way about getting here from Europe,” Rebecca stated, “It is, but less chance of being tracked by anyone who is looking to harm them in any way,” I replied.

I arrived at Jurien Bay with an hour to spare, before their expected arrival, but it was just ten minutes later while I was refuelling the vehicle, that I heard an approaching plane, so I quickly finished, paid for the fuel and headed to the aerodrome located on the edge of town, just two kilometres away, arriving just as the private charter plane wheeled to a stop on the parking apron, as I parked just outside the low fence that surrounds the airfield.

After introductions were made, and all the luggage was gathered, we loaded everything and everyone into the vehicle with Giles sitting in the front with me. “How was the trip? Did you finish what you were doing in Europe?” I asked quietly as I checked on the back seat passengers, and they were all sleeping. “No, after everything went downhill, and the executives started demanding answers from me, I contacted my superiors in Canberra and informed them that I was returning to Australia immediately, with intentions to resign from the AFP,” Giles informed me.

“Wow, I appreciate you doing this for the sake of keeping my home safe. Do you want to work for me?” I responded, “I was hoping you would say that buddy,” Giles said to me smiling, and we quietly chatted all the way back to the property, always checking that we were not being followed at all, stopping a few times for a few minutes to make sure that was the case, with our last stop being the parking bay just north of the property turnoff.

Once back on the road, we travelled slowly south and slowed without using the brakes, with no traffic in sight in both directions, I swerved onto the access track and sped up to get out of sight of the main highway as quickly as possible and a few moments later we approached the gate, as I pressed the open button, and drove through, stopping once I had parked behind the machinery shed.

“Do you think someone was following?” Giles asked me, with our passengers now fully awake and looking around us, “Where are we Mr Kingston?” the oldest boy asked me, “We are on my property, over 7 and 12 kilometres from the nearest towns, hopefully safe from anyone who is a threat to you all,” I replied, as Giles stepped out and looked around the corner of the shed towards the gate, which was now closed and locked.

“All clear boss,” Giles said as he climbed back into the vehicle, and we set off down the track towards the complex. “What did you do with all of their electronic equipment?” I quietly asked Giles, “Apart from my encrypted phone, everything was left behind in Singapore,” Giles replied. While we let our new arrivals settle into their new residence in the family pod, I went to the admin centre to do some more work on plans for changes to the whole complex, and shortly after sitting down, I received a text message.

“We have just arrived, where are you?” the message read from Gran and I smiled before texting back to say that I was in my office. A few minutes later, Gran, along with Gramps who was limping a little, entered the admin centre, where I was now in the main area, looking at the draft sketches of changes for the complex. After hugs, kisses and handshakes were exchanged, we looked at the layout plans, which include the third cavern, when Rebecca, Marcus, Giles and Hunter entered.

“We asked them to come in since they will be part of your senior team,” Gramps said as he sat down to rest a little, “OK, do you want me to give them a briefing on what is planned?” I asked my Grandparents, who nodded yes. “What we will be doing is putting a permanent hold on any other protected people coming to this property, as it is putting me and everyone here at too much risk.

Alison and her two sons are the very last to be permitted to come here after they have settled in, we will be starting work on this project, the expansion of the complex, that will include, two family staff pods, plenty of recreational space, as well as a bigger sports field, 4 Single Female Pods and 6 Single Male Pods for guests, and there will be two secure staff recreational and living areas that guests won’t have access to,” Gramps announced.

“The only thing that I see is wrong with this project, is with the shire, what if we moved all of the guest cabins outside, closer to the bottom of the property, and closer to the beach, that way the guests can have easier access to the beach for water sports and recreation,” Rebecca suggested. “You know, you may be onto something there my dear, lets us think about it some more and see what alternatives we come up with,” Gran replied.

After a lot of discussions, we decided to go with Rebecca’s suggestion, and Gramps had a draftsman draw up some plans, so we could submit them to the shire for approval, meanwhile as we waited for that application to be processed, we started work on building activities around the property. Doing a bit of research on other adventure camps, we came up with a list of things to build, including two orienteering courses, a low ropes course, a high ropes course, an 18-hole mini golf course, also an amphitheatre, an outdoor campfire with a ¾ seating area and small staging area, and two woodfired pizza ovens for starters.

We also needed to separate this planned adventure camp from the rest of the property, so we had to build a fence from the laneway on the north boundary, linking in with the existing fence that is just below the trough and water tank, and where the fence angles away, a new section will be made to head directly to the southern boundary, and I estimated the area to be approximately 112 acres in area.

As we prepared to order all the supplies for the new fenceline, I decided that it would be a good idea to make it a high secure fence to keep any visitors from going onto the remainder of the property, especially with the complex located just 160 metres up from this fence. Once again we began with collecting a lot of limestone rocks from all over the farm, which was ideal with there being so many limestone rocks around, which makes it difficult to drive around sometimes.

I decided to employ the same fencing contractor as before, and he was happy to do the job for us, as he started by removing the old fenceline before digging a narrow trench, where the very 4-metre long railway iron posts, were cemented into the trench, and the limestone rocks were placed in the trench to just below ground level. Next, the extra strong high tensile wire netting was attached to the posts, so it sat on top of the rocks, and more rocks and cement were added to fill up the trench, so it would be difficult to even try and dig under the fence, with over one-metre deep limestone rock trench now in place.

A new gate was installed from the new fence at the laneway to the boundary fence, and just sixty metres west of the new gate a double gate was installed to provide access to the new west paddock, where the adventure camp will be situated on a 6-acre space that is semi cleared, and which has 150-metres in from the laneway and is surround on three sides by light bushland, which makes it impossible to see the complex from the Outdoor Centre.

The low and high ropes courses will be located 260 metres southwest of the Outdoor Education Centre, while the two orienteering courses will be located north and south of the ropes courses, not far from the western property boundary, I also wanted to install a separate pedestrian gate near the northwest corner, so that the vehicle gate can remain closed at all times. All these changes were keeping everyone busy, with Marcus, Simon and Lincoln, and when not at university, Hunter and I were working on the orienteering courses.

Meanwhile, Julia has taken up the role of senior teacher, with her two sons for preschool, plus Tristan and Willis for High school and Evan for Primary school, with Alison a qualified Librarian, she also assisted at the school, mostly looking after the two youngest students in a separate classroom. Everything was going smoothly at the complex, with Jarrad returning from Canberra two weeks after leaving the property a week after arriving back from overseas, and he too was helping with the new project.

We were waiting for the approval for the Outdoor Education Centre to be built on the property, and in the meantime, I was concentrating on finishing my last degree at university in Perth, with Marcus and Hunter keeping me updated on what is happening on the property for the few days that I am staying with my grandparents in the northern suburbs of Perth, with a 65-kilometre drive each way between Yanchep and the university, which is approximately 8 kilometres further than it is to drive up to the property.

The day of graduation for me, was celebrated by just my grandparents and myself, which is what I wanted, after the graduation ceremony, we headed back home to Yanchep, where where relaxed and had a quiet dinner, and afterwards we had some discussions about the plans for the property a little more before I headed to bed early. The next morning, after a bit of a sleep-in, I went and did a few laps of the pool before showering and heading upstairs for breakfast. “Good Morning, the mail has arrived, and there is one for you from the shire,” Gran said to me as I sat down and took a drink of the juice.

I looked at the envelope for a few moments and took another drink, before picking it up and looking at it a bit more, then put it back down on the table. “For heaven’s sake, open it up and tell us what it is please,” Gran said sounding frustrated. I slowly opened the envelope and without showing any expression, I read the letter in full. I had been approved to build. “I am sorry to say… that I am going to be very busy for the next few months, we have been approved,” I announced to my grandparents.