Indian Ocean Invasion - 24. IOI Chapter 24

The town planning team thought my suggestions were good, and worthwhile putting to the community as a beneficial project, not only for the community and the public, but also to the local district highschool.

The Director called a friend who runs an architecture firm in Geraldton and asked him to draw up some rough plans of my proposals, so they can be submitted to the community at next week’s community meeting, and I agreed to pay for their work that they do for this project.

After spending three days in Geraldton, I headed back north to Kalbarri, with there now being just nine days till the deadline for getting the tall ship moved, and still 4 days till the community meeting, which was making it very tight for time.

Arriving in town in the late afternoon, I had just enough time to call into the other real estate agents, who had the listing for the two properties on the corners of Grey, Cotworthy and Mortimer Streets.

I was very pleased when I walked out half an hour later, having secured the purchase of both properties, which I could use for the tall ship, or if that failed I could develop it into commercial space.

The following day, I went to the council offices in Kalbarri, to submit a request for a permit to demolish the six budget holiday cabins on Grey Street, once the last group of holiday guests had departed. Once that was done, I decided to spend some time having a good look at my latest land purchase.

When I arrived, I did some pacing to measure up the land, thinking about how to position the ship, if the go ahead is given to relocate the tall ship there, and how to protect the ship for the weather, when storms come, as I had discovered while doing some research on Kalbarri, that there can be some strong storms, during summer and winter.

The idea of having a 2.5-metre high retaining stone wall around the boundary, with a sloping ground towards the ship, stopping half a metre, with another stone wall, sloping upwards, and the sloping ground between the two walls, having medium to low native shrubs to provide a noise barrier from traffic and a wind barrier from storms, but not obstruct the view of the river from the main deck.

The ship will sit on a concrete trench, that will drop it down by 2 metres below the ground, putting the ships waterline roughly level with the ground, and sitting in a secure level position. A drainage pipe would also be installed to all any rainwater collected inside the walled area, to drain away into the towns drainage system.

At two points each, bow and stern, the ship will be anchored down to the concrete, to keep the ship in this position, no matter how much wind a bad a storm will give, the ship won’t budge. From the Cotworthy street side of the property, I will have, 8 off street parking bays for guests.

At the end furthest from Grey street, near two gum trees that will be kept, a 2-metre wide and high tunnel created from concrete, will provide access to the tall ship, and down the portside, a square staircase, will provide access to the main deck of the ship 5 metres up off the ground, with a small set of steps from the edge of the ship onto the main deck.

From the streets, it will look like that the ship is sailing through the ground, away from the river, with its top two decks and the two masts clearly visible.

From the Captain’s cabin, there is an unrestricted view of the river, while the aft officers’ cabins have a small view of the river, all other cabins only have a view of the native garden bank, which I planned to have filled with lots of colourful native plants.

After I had come up with the plans for positioning the ship in my head, I headed back to the apartment to jot the ideas onto my computer, before heading to a café to get some lunch.

Before entering the café, I spotted a notice on the window advertising a community meeting, to be held at the football club function room at 6pm next Tuesday, and that all town residents are encouraged to attend.

Knowing that the town population is about 1,400 people, I thought that maybe ¼ of the population would attend the meeting, which is just over 350. That was only a guess, so we would just have to wait until Wednesday to find out how many do turn up.

Over the next two days, I had regular discussions with the town planners and the architect down in Geraldton, who have been working overtime, to get everything prepared for the community meeting.

The day before the meeting, the Wagner twins returned to town, flying in on a charter jet, and they called me an hour before, to ask me to collect them, and we spent the rest of the day in the apartment, discussing what I had proposed to say at the meeting, and how to answer any public questions. In the late afternoon, my mobile beeped with a text message from the team in Geraldton.

“We will be arriving at about 10am tomorrow morning, can you find a place where we can sit and meet, to show you what we have put together for this community meeting” and I smiled after reading this, and send a quick reply to say I will arrange it.

Once Louis and Joachim were happy with what was planned for the meeting the next day, I took them for a drive to look at the properties that I had purchased, firstly the property where the budget cottages are located, and I showed them, what I thought it would look like once the cottages have been demolished and cleared away, leaving a nice shady park area for the community.

Next, we went to the property where I was hoping the ship will be placed, informing the twins that I have a building company on standby, ready to dig out the trench, for the base of the ship, plus the drainage trench for storm water removal, before putting the wall shells in place, ready to pour the concrete.

All of this would only take about 2 weeks to complete, and in the meantime the ship will be moored at the jetty, until it is ready to be lifted out of the water and into its new position on land, once the concrete has cured.

Finally, I took them to the main sports oval, where I showed them the location that I was going to suggest for the proposed grand stand for sporting events, and community events.

Just as we were heading back to my vehicle, my mobile rang, and I nearly didn’t answer it, as it was a silent number, but then decided that it may be important, “Hello, Lewis Shaw speaking” I said, and I waited for a reply, and received one, that was totally unexpected.

“Commander Shaw, please hold for His Excellency, the Governor of Western Australia”, “yes I will” I responded, and I softly groaned, knowing that I was about to be dragged into something important, and I walked away from my vehicle, so that I was alone and couldn’t be overheard.

“Commander Shaw, I would like to request your services for a very important task. As you are probably aware, the Indonesian invaders, who spent some time on Christmas Island, left the island in quite a sorry state, and we need someone, who can get things back into order again.

I expect that it will take at least six months at least, you will regain your position as Deputy Administrator of the Indian Ocean Territories, and it will require you to be there on the island. We have managed to find you a suitable home, with house staff included.

The majority of the Indonesian citizens are still on the island, and the Prime Minister and cabinet have refused to allow them to travel to the Australian mainland, or allow them any Australian benefit or allowances of any kind, which is causing a few headaches for the PM, we are hoping that you may find a solution while you are there” the Governor said to me.

“Sir, I am currently working on a large project in Kalbarri, with a community meeting being held tomorrow evening, so I cannot possibly accept this position on Christmas Island” I responded, “Commander Shaw, this is not a formal request from me, it comes directly from the Governor General, with your experience on Indian Ocean matters, you are the only person suitable for the position” the Governor replied.

I signed… “Ok sir, I will accept the position, but I cannot start until the end of next month, 6 weeks from now” I replied, “Alright, that is acceptable, come and see me in Perth before you leave, goodbye” the Governor said and he ended the call, and I walked back to my vehicle.

“What was all of that about” the twins asked at the same time, “I have been roped into clean up that mess, the Indonesians left behind on Christmas Island” I replied, “How and in what capacity?’ Louis asked, “In a vice regal position, like I was before, but on Christmas island, instead of the Chagos Archipelago” I replied.

“Oh, I see, when do you have to go?’ Joachim asked. “I said I can’tleave till the end of next month, six weeks from now” I said, not feeling very happy about having to spending six months or more on Christmas Island.

The following morning, the twins and I headed to the Football Club, as we are meeting one of the shire council workers, who would open it up for us. The centre is not exactly very big, with one function room that can seat about 160 people, and it is the biggest indoor area in the whole of town, which I was worried was going to be too small.

I suggested to the twins that they try an organise audio visual equipment, to be able to broadcast the meeting to any people that are overflowing out of the building.

With it being a rush request, the twins offered a large bonus, if they can do the job before 5pm today, with two large projection screen and speakers, sitting on the veranda pointing towards the oval, which will be connected to the microphones and cameras located inside, and two microphones will be made available for those outside, who want to ask any questions.

By 11am, three trucks arrived with all the audio and visual equipment, and 6 men got to work to start setting everything up, ready for the community meeting. Just an hour before they arrived, the Architect and town planning team arrived, with Power Point presentation made up, plus a scale model of what the place would look like when all the work is completed, which I thought was very impressive, considering the short period of time they had to make it.

Consulting with Ms Phelps, the council staff member based in Kalbarri, we decided not to have a front row of tables, but just a small number of chairs at the front, and then what ever number of chairs are available to set up in the clubroom hall, which was only 100 chairs, so 60 additional chairs were borrowed from the Bowling Club.

Shortly after 5pm, the Shire Town Planning director – Michael Lotan, arrived along with Ms Phelps, and they looked around the hall, and I went to greet them. “Mr Lotan, this is Mr Lewis Shaw, representing Wagner Family Corporation, Mr Shaw, this is Mr Michael Lotan of the Northampton Shire Council” Ms Phelps said making the introductions, and we shook hands.

“It appears that you have everything in hand, including so audio & visual, are you expecting a large crowd?” Michael Lotan commented to me, as I spotted the twins approaching

"Well sir, I estimated that 25% of the towns’ population is likely to appear, which is over 300, and we only have seating for 160 in the hall, so we made some contingency plans to allow for a bigger crowd, if we only get 120, well then we won’t turn the outside facilities on” I responded, and I smiled to the twins as they stood on either side of me.

Looking at Mr Lotan and Ms Phelps, who looked from one twin to the other, I could not help but laugh. “Stop it you two, we have council officials present… Mr Lotan and Ms Phelps, may I present Mr Louis and Mr Joachim Wagner, 2/3rd’s of the Wagner Family Corporation” I said making the introductions, and the twins shook their hands.

“They do the twin swap thing with me all the time, and it gets confusing at best of times” I added, which had the twins chuckling and nodding their heads in agreement. “Talking about officials, we will be having a few with us this evening, apparently the word has spread around, so theShire Council CEO, the Council President and Vice President, and the two council members for this ward will be attending.

We will also have the Western Australian MLA - Member of the Legislative Assembly (Lower House) for the Moore District, and MLC – Member for the Legislative Council (Upper House) for the Agricultural District attending, since it is within their jurisdiction in Parliament” Mr Lotan announced.

“Well I didn’t expect that, but I guess, if they want their say in it, then I guess we must, but they will have to sit in the front row, as I have only allowed for 4 people to be seated at the front, if you would like to officiate the meeting Mr Logan, you are welcome to do so, also there will be myself, Mr Anders who is a town planner based in Geraldton, and Mr Hutchins, who is an architect from Geraldton, that have been assisting me with setting up plans on the ideas I have come up with” I announced.

“Yes, I will be happy to officiate, when I have done my bit I will hand the floor over to you, and you can take it from there” Mr Logan replied.With the 7 officials, plus Mr Lotan and Ms Phelps, and the twins, to be seated in the front row, the twins and I went to the front row of seats, and removed the excess number of chairs, leaving just two for spare and moved them to the back of the hall.

Quickly we made up signs for the front row of chairs, marking them reserved for Officials, and we listed the positions of each official below the word reserved, with the twins on either side of the centre aisle, and the politician’s next to them, and half of the local council officials on each side, so it was evenly spread.