Desert Air - 10. DA Ch 10 - Disaster Zone

With the north boundary fence and gate being 1.8 kilometres north of the car park and creek crossing, and the east gate being 3.4 kilometres from the airfield, it is still a manageable distance for those who are fit enough and prepared for hikes in this region.

After dropping Dad off at our homestead, I flew to Corunna Downs, letting them know by radio, that I was on my way over, and Mr Parkinson was standing by the runway when I arrived. “Hello again, I hear that you and Flint have had a very early start today, hunting for the escapee,” Mr Parkinson said to me as I stepped off the plane.

“Good morning, yes Dad woke me up shortly before 3 am, as the escapee had managed to slip past the police with his vehicle but he ended up getting it bogged just south of Woodstock Station homestead, at the creek crossing,” I replied.

“I see, now what can I do for you this fine morning?” Mr Parkinson responded, “Can I borrow your front end loader for about an hour please, I need to pick up the remains of a jeep at the airbase, and place it behind one of the smaller buildings, as it is not in any condition to climb all over, but I want to keep it on the base because it is part of the base,” I replied.

“That is not a problem, I will actually take it out there for you, I wouldn’t mind another look at the place from the ground, now that you have a few of the buildings up now,” Mr Parkinson replied. Half an hour later, with Mr Parkinson in the loader, and me in my vehicle, we arrived at the base, closing and locking the gate behind us.

The jeep was the only item that could not fit into the shipping container, and after some thought about what to do with it, I decided to use it to hide the underground bunker, by placing it over the top of the steel trap door, so as to hide it’s existence.

Once the jeep was secured to the loader’s bucket, Mr Parkinson carefully moved it into position, where I wanted it, and when I looked at it for a short distance, it looks like that is the place where it ended its working life as an Air base vehicle.

With that job completed, I walked around the base with Mr Parkinson, explaining what each building used to be, with just under half of them now built, with a rooves and walls, but no doors or windows, that way there is nothing there to be damaged.

I explained that we were sourcing items to fill the rooms to replicate what each building was like inside, with steel frame and wire mesh beds with kapok mattresses and pillows, and we managed to get copies made of magazines newspapers of the period.

“Sounds like its going to become a fantastic War Museum when it is all finished,” Mr Parkinson said, “Yes, I do hope so,” I replied, as we headed back to the vehicles, and a short drive later, we arrived back at the Corunna Downs Homestead.

After thanking Mr Parkinson for the use of the front-end loader, I took off and headed for home, where Dad was waiting for me, with a number of suitcases. “The place is a disaster zone, looks like he has attacked it with a sledgehammer or something, broken windows, all the appliances are destroyed, and he even destroyed the desktop computer.

I’ve had to bury all of the ruined fresh and frozen food, and the chickens, I have given them food for a few days, so they should be fine, he even took a hammer to the batteries of all the station vehicles that are in and around the shed, thank goodness we have two undamaged, and yours over at the Parkinson’s place.

He even started a fire in the machinery workshop, but the police were able to put it out fairly quickly, although some stuff is ruined too. I have contacted the station staff, I have extended their holidays by two weeks, so that we can decide what to do about the homestead,” Dad said to me.

“Maybe we should just sell?” I suggested, “Your and have been seriously considering that, even before all this drama began,” Dad replied which surprised me, as there was a silence, as we contemplated this idea, which was looking like it may be a reality the more we thought about it.

“How about we fly back to Corunna Downs, and collect my vehicle, I want to show you something that maybe of use for the future,” I suggested to my father, and less than twenty minutes later we landed at the Corunna Downs airfield.

“Back so soon,” Mr Parkinson said when he came to meet us, “Yes, we have come to collect my vehicle, as I want to do a walk around with Dad to discuss some ideas,” I replied. “Hello Hedley, any more news on what is happening?” Dad asked, “Not a peep from them, I guess we will find out eventually,” Mr Parkinson replied.

“You’re the first to be told this, we are seriously considering selling up, and now with all this drama happening, we are now looking at our options,” Dad announced to our neighbour. “I see, I would have to discuss it with my wife, but I think we would be interested in Hillside, but not Panorama,” Mr Parkinson responded.

“Well that would be good to know that it is going to experienced and existing pastoralists in the region, and we have already sold one third of Panorama to the mining company. We will wait until you have decided if you want to take Hillside or not, before we put it on the market,” Dad said.

“Any idea what you will do if you do sell?” Mr Parkinson asked, “We are not sure just yet, I guess it all depends on this restoration project, and what my oldest son here wants to do with it,” Dad replied.

“We will be back in an hour or two Mr P,” I added, “Please call me Hedley, you are an adult now,” our neighbour responded, and I smiled and nodded my head, before heading for my vehicle.

“There is a key to the gate padlocks on your vehicle key ring, if you hadn’t already noticed,” Dad said to me, “No I didn’t to busy to notice tiny things like that,” I replied, and we climbed into my Land Rover and headed fort he airbase.

Once we had entered and closed the gate behind us, we stopped at the campsite, “I think when we are done with these buildings in a week or two, you can arrange for them to be taken back to wherever they came from,” I stated, “Sure thing, that is easy, as they will send out trucks to collect them for us,” Dad replied.

Back in the vehicle, we headed for the airstrip, but instead of driving on the airfield, I turned to the left, to follow a rough, disused winding track, which eventually gets us to the west end of runway one.

“Any reason for this rough detour?” Dad asked me. “Yes, this is the original track used during the war, I want to stop using the tracks created by visitors, and have it covered with stones and gravel to remove its existence,” I replied, “So keeping with the authenticity of the airbase,” Dad responded.

“Exactly,” I said as we turned onto the taxiway and then north onto the track that heads to the north entry to the base. I stopped just before the creek, and stepped out of the vehicle. “As you know we have a car park here for visitors, and it is just 1.8 kilometres to the north boundary gate.

I have an idea for a permanent residential building, 1.9 kilometres due west of here, along that track on the left,” I said, as I unlocked the barrier and swung it open, so we could drive through.

Once I had locked it behind us, and unlocked the second barrier, that crosses over the track to the left, we drove through that and locked it closed behind us, before following the rough track west, on the north side of the creek, until we came to a small concrete water tank and the track bends left to cross over the creek, but we stopped near the tank.

“I think this would make an ideal location for our new home, if you and the family are happy to move here and help with operating this history museum,” I commented, as I looked around the area. “Yes, I think that would be a marvellous idea, but we will have to plant some trees to hide the base homestead, so it can’t be seen from the base or from the car park,” Dad replied smiling.

“I was hoping you would say that, now what I have in mind is we get cyclone coded modular buildings, that are easy to put into place, maybe have them on high stumps, to allow for possible flooding, with plenty of eucalypt trees for shade,” I suggested.

“How many buildings are you thinking of, son?” Dad asked me, “Well there will be the main house for the family, a bedroom each for all my siblings, so five bedrooms, plus a two bedroom cottage for me, a multi-use building for social gatherings, meetings and recreation, and a two bedroom cottage to be used as an administration centre,” I suggested.

“Is that all?” Dad asked smiling, and I laughed, “Yes I know it sounds like a lot, but we will need that much so we have plenty of living space for everyone, oh and also a large semi outdoor decking area to lock it all together,” I replied.

“Sounds fabulous, do you have any sketches on how it will look?” Dad asked me, “not yet, but I will get on it as soon as I have a little free time,” I replied.

“Well if we are going to get rid of the campsite very soon, we will need to have at least your cottage in place before they go,” Dad suggested, “Ok, I think if we put the main house and my cottage beside it, at the back, and the social recreation building and office building at the front, but I am not sure how big to make the deck area in between them,” I replied.

After a bit of a wander around the area, to try and picture what it will be like, deciding to put it a little way back from the creek, which has a little bit of water in it, we continued following the track till it linked in with the aircraft pit access road, and I rove along the taxiway to the operations shed and stopped.

“Just one thing I need to show you,” I said as we walked around the back of the building, where the vintage Jeep was sitting. “When Dad stopped he looked around a little, then took a closer look at the jeep, before chuckling. “So you know about the bunker,” Dad commented, and I nodded my head yes, “The jeep’s position is to hide its existence?” Dad asked and again I nodded my head and smiled.

“Very clever, did you know that Pa served at this base during the war, he was the main vehicle mechanic here, keeping all the jeeps operational, including this one probably,” Dad said to me.

“So that is why you know about the bunker, which I found by accident, when I trod on it and it sounded hollow,” I replied, “I wondered how you discovered it,” dad replied smiling.

“Does anyone else know about this bunker?” I asked, only us two and any surviving members of the war, who served here, which is very minimal,” Dad replied as we climbed back into the vehicle and headed back to Corunna Downs.

“Where do we go now?” I asked, “Port Hedland, Mum has packed up everything, and we are to fly there and meet her and the young-ins, I have arranged to rent a house in South Hedland for the rest of the holidays, and when the station workers return, I will get them to begin the cleanup of the mess,” Dad replied.