Desert Air - 45. DA Ch 45 - Onwards

Once we had released the Frilled Neck and the Echidna, we headed into town where I posted a sign on the community notice board at the minimart, to say that the Vet Clinic will be closed for the next two weeks, before I drove Marcus to the Airbase, arriving just before 10 am. With it being a closed day of the base, we entered via the side eastern entrance, as I usually do, when driving to the complex, and I was pleased to see Mum and Dad home, while the Parkinson’s were in Port Hedland shopping.

“Nice to see you again Marcus, Jexon mentioned that you have lost your position at Newman, which I think is a real bad deal,” Dad said as he shook his hand before we all sat down at the dining table. “Mum, Dad, I have something to tell you, and it is linked to Marcus’s job.

His former boss, is selling up to the Pilbara Vets, and if you don’t know, they already own most of the practices in the Pilbara region, plus a few in the city too, so I will be really battling to have a decent practice here, and so I have began looking at alternatives.

There is a practice for sale in the Kimberly in Kununurra, and I have already started making enquiries. There is only one vet practice there, and the next closest is a visiting vet at Derby, with Broome being the next closest, and guess who has a practice there,” I announced.

“Sounds like they are really cornering the market in this industry, which I think stinks,” Mum said, “I agree with you there Mrs K,” Marcus said, “So I guess this means that you are no longer available to manage Limestone Station?” Dad asked.

“No, I am not, sorry, but I do have some ideas. I would like to pass on the management of the Airbase back to the Defence Department, especially now that they are using the base as a training site, and I would like to suggest to you both, as well as the Parkinson’s, if you would consider selling both stations, and coming north to the Kimberly with us, and maybe bring Jake with us too,” I suggested.

“Well that is something to consider. Do you really want to sell the Airbase to the Defence Department?” Dad asked me, “Yes Dad, as I don’t want it to go into some development company who will turn the place into a circus attraction,” I replied, and both Mum and Dad and Marcus chuckled at what I had just said.

“Well it would mean moving the whole family yet again, but I guess, it would be best to be done now, with the school holidays not far away, let us think about it and talk to Hedley and Joyce, and we will get back to you,” Dad said.

“In the meantime, Marcus and I are going to make a trip up to Kununurra, and I would like to fly up in the Twin Otter, if that is ok with you both,” I said to my parents. “Well… as long as you are extra careful, I guess it will be alright with us,” Mum replied.

Just over an hour later, we were in the air, and heading for Broome, as our one and only rest break, which is just over 2 ½ hours flight away, and I requested the filling up of the fuel tanks, while we had some lunch in town. When we arrived in Kununurra it was in the late afternoon, and both of us were fairly tired from the long journey, which I reminded Marcus would be double the time if we had flown in the Bi Plane, and a lot less comfortable, as we noticed the approaching tropical storm getting closer.

Having secured the plane, I looked at the large open space next to a tourist charter company, and thought to myself that it would be a great place for a home, vet practice and hanger for the two aircraft, as we headed for the car hire company across the road.

Once we had the hire car, we drove to the resort hotel where I had booked us into separate suites for two nights. After breakfast the next morning, we headed to the veterinary clinic located in the centre of town, where there was already a number of people waiting for the place to open, and it was nearly twenty minutes after 9 am, well after the advertised opening time.

“Morning, sorry for being late,” a man said as he approached the building, “Again, and drunk too probably as usual,” we heard one lady mumble softly, before we stepped forward to follow the man inside, “Hey wait outside, I will be with you in a minute,” the man said when he saw us following him.

“I am Dr Kendrik and this is Dr Sanderson, we enquired about this practice, if you like we will be happy to help out free of charge to get through your patients quickly,” I said to the man, who looked us both up and down and frowned.

“Very well, but by the book, I want to be consulted on anything major,” the man replied, and I could smell whiskey on his breath. “Maybe you should let us handle all of today’s patients while you sober up a bit,” Marcus suggested quietly. “I am not… how dare you…” the man said before tripping over his own feet and falling to the ground, with Marcus catching him part of the way down to slow his fall.

We carried the vet to the staff room, and made sure that he had a strong cup of coffee, before we left him there to start surgery for the day. The lady who we heard say he was drunk, was the first to be seen, and after closing the door to the consulting room, I asked her how long the good Dr Vet has been like this.

“Two months now, he is absolutely hopeless, we have made a number of complaints to the police and the shire council, but they will do nothing, and the staff he had working for him have all left, because he is verbally abusive to them,” the lady replied.

By lunch time we had completed the clinic, and after locking the front door, we both headed to the staff room, where the vet was slouched over the table and snoring quite loudly. I picked up the phone and called for an ambulance, as he was in no condition to be on his own.

Once the ambulance had left with their patient, we headed to the shire council offices. “Good afternoon, my name is Dr Jexon Kendrick and this is Dr Marcus Sanderson, we are visiting Veterinarians,” I said to the receptionist. “Yes sir, how may we help you?” the receptionist responded.

“We have just spent the morning working at the vet clinic, while the local vet was passed out drunk in the staff room, we called an ambulance and he is on his way to hospital as we speak. We came to investigate the possibility of purchasing the vet practice, but now after what we have seen today, we would prefer to set up our own practice,” I announced, just as a man approached from behind the counter.

“Good afternoon, I am the Shire CEO, please come with me to the conference room,” the gentleman said, and moments later we were seated with the shire CEO. “I heard what you said to our receptionist, it is unfortunate that Dr Lundy has been this way, and it gets worse each week.

He lost his wife to cancer two months ago, and he has taken it quite badly as you have probably witnessed. He does have a daughter, but she lives in Melbourne with her family, and she only stayed for two days to attend the funeral,” the CEO stated.

“We would very much like to set up practice here, but we are not prepared to take over the current practice, since it has a bad reputation. I have a commercial pilot’s licence, and I would be doing flights to other towns and cattle stations when needed, while my partner here would manage the practice here in town.

With that said, we would like to set up the practice near the airport, and when we landed, we noticed a large block of land between the tourist charter company and the main terminal,” I stated. “That is vacant land classed semi industrial, so having a vet practice there as well as an aircraft hanger would be fine, if you can fill in some paperwork, I will get the process started right away,” the CEO said to us.

When we left the Shire administration building, we had the contact details for the real estate agents, and a verbal agreement to allow us to build the practice on that block of land, but we would have to wait for an official response from the council, when it meets in a few days time.

At the real estate agency, we learnt that there are actually two blocks there, the bigger one being 1.94 acres, and the smaller one closest to the terminal being 1.12 acres. Deciding that we need as much room as possible for the practice, we made an offer on the large block of land, and after a quick phone call, the offer was accepted, and I filled in all of the paperwork and made a $5,000 deposit, from the family company credit card.

After been given the contact details of a local shed building company, we headed off to go and see them about building a two aircraft hanger, plus a home and veterinary practice for us, and during the consultation, I decided to have two houses built, one for myself and one for Vet staff, with both houses to be situated between the aircraft hanger and the veterinary clinic, with a garden area between the two houses, maybe a large gazebo as well.

My house would have just two bedrooms, while the staff house will have three bedrooms. After sketching out some ideas, I finally came up with a layout that I was happy with, which included indoor animal areas, one side for dogs and another for cats, plus outside exercise areas that are semi - enclosed, and large enclosures for birds and reptiles.

The plans also include an 8 bay customer parking area, with security fencing around it, plus two double garages for staff, with one on each side of the building, with everything to be well above cyclone code, since it is in the tropics.

With it already being cyclone season, I was not sure how soon the building project could commence, but the building company assured me that I was at the top priority for construction, which I was pleased to hear. Back at the resort, I contacted the complex, to speak to Mum and Dad, to let them know what is happening, and what my plans are for the property that I have purchased.

I was informed that after a brief discussion, they had agreed to sell up both cattle stations and move further north to be closer to me, and that they were looking at one possible large cattle station of 1 million acres, located on the Gibb River Road, 226 kilometres from Kununurra by road, including 5 kilometres of station driveway and by air it is 178 kilometres.

We spent most of the afternoon looking around the town and the surroundings, dodging a few thunderstorms in the process.

Lets take a trip to the neighbouring towns, I would like to set up part time practices in them before that other company gets their foot in the door,” I said to Marcus as we sat down for a cool drink in an airconditioned café. “Which town’s are you thinking of?” Marcus asked me.

I thought we would do the closest one first which his Wyndham, then Halls Creek, Fitzroy Crossing and maybe even Derby, I believe a Broome vet visits for two days, once a fortnight, but I think we can do better than that,” I replied smiling, and Marcus laughed.

First thing the next morning, after dropping off the hire car, we set off for the short flight to Wyndham, and a 4 kilometre taxi ride to get into town, and we were dropped off outside the real estate agents, who were not open yet. After a twenty minute wait the agent finally arrived and invited us inside, where it was just as humid as it is outside.

I introduced ourselves and informed the agent that we are establishing a Veterinary practice in the region with weekly clinics in neighbour towns, and we wanted to find a property that may be available for lease or purchase. After some thought, she smiled.

“There are a lot of empty buildings in town, which is very sad to see, but I think your best option would be either the old TAB building, or the old police station, which is next door to the new one. One building is at 31 O’Donnell Street, and the other is at 24 Macphee Street at the port end of town,” the agent informed us both, and we asked her to show us both of them.