New Frontier - 2. NF Ch 2

I stayed with Rachel, while she did a full check up on Emma and her puggles, and she seemed happy with how they are been looked after, and with the puggles growing very well. “How about we keep them here for a while and see how they adjust to life in the zoo. I would like to keep them as part of the education programme fro a short period,” Rachel suggested to me.

“That is fine by me, as you know I was planning to do a trip around Australia in the yacht, but that had been put on hold for a while as I am developing a new project, hence the need to come down to attend a meeting,” I replied, “Good, well they will be well looked after, and I will keep you updated on how they are going, every week,” Rachel said to me.

With the echidnas now in the safe hands of the Zoo, I headed into the city to book into the hotel at Elizabeth Quay, which has an awesome view of the Swan River and the Bell Tower. I had booked a room on the second floor, as I preferred to be as close to the ground as possible when staying in hotels, and as I relaxed on the balcony of my suite, my mobile began to ring with a blocked number.

“Anton Hamilton speaking,” I said answering the call, “Hello Anton, I was just calling to see if you are ok to meet with me for lunch tomorrow at Fraser’s Restaurant in Kings Park?” came a familiar voice, “Yes Minister that will be fine, will it be at 12 noon?” I replied, “We better make it 12.30 as I have a full morning of meetings. I will see you then,” the Minister said before ending the call.

Retrieving my laptop, I started it up and connected to the hotel Wi-Fi, and opened up the two saved pages that I saved from two days ago. Picking up the hotel phone, I dialled reception. “Yes, hello, I am in room 209, I have a couple of pages I want to have printed out, can I email them down to you and print them out for me please?” I asked.

“Certainly Mr Hamilton, just email them to the email address listed on the hotel writing paper, and I will have someone send it up to you shortly,” came the response, and I thanked her for her assistance before ending the phone call. About ten minutes later the eight pages were printed out and delivered to me, all contained in a manila folder, which was what I was hoping.

The following morning after breakfast, I went for a long and relaxing walk around Kings Park, and before I knew it, the time was getting close to my lunch appointment, so I caught a taxi back to the hotel to have a shower and change into one of my best suits that I had brought with me, before catching a taxi back up to Fraser’s Restaurant in Kings Park, arriving with five minutes to spare.

“Good afternoon sir, it was good of you to spare some time to meet with me today,” I said formally as I shook the minister’s hand, as he approached the table, just a few minutes after I had sat down. “That is fine, I knew that it must be fairly important, if one of my better known environment advisors requests a meeting,” the minister said to me, which caught me by surprise.

After we had ordered drinks and our meals, I suddenly felt that I was at the front of the class and everyone was looking at me, when really it was just the minister and me. “So Anton, what brings a talented environmental scientist and zoologist all the way down from Jurien Bay?” the Minister asked me.

“Well sir, as you know I was away for two years, due to a bad bump on the head, and the loss of my memory for just over two years, well for the past year I have been keeping fairly busy with managing my cruising business, and spending some time with my fast growing younger brothers.

On the first days that the boys returned to school, I was just doing some cruising online catching up on general news, when a number of articles caught my attention.

For some very strange reason, these two unusual and unrelated articles; became an idea that may be very beneficial,” I said as I retrieved the Manila Folder and handed it over to the Minister, and I watched as he opened the folder and looked at the first six pages.

The last two pages I was holding in my hands, as they would answer the question of what does this have to do with the state’s environment minister. “I don’t get it, all I see here is a heap of river cruise boats, and a large cruise ship that are all for sale?” the Minister asked, and I smiled.

“You will sir, when you have read this article that was in the paper and online a few days back,” I replied, as I handed over the last two pages, and watched as he read the article and I saw changing expressions on his face, firstly of confusion, the uncertainty and then one of surprise.

“Are you telling me, that you want to try this out there, to replace all of the shacks and jetties, to try and reduce the impact on all of the islands out there?” the minister asked me. “Yes sir, that is about it. If I buy three or four of this, then I would be able to accommodate all the people that live out there.

Instead of having them spread out all over the place in three groups, we can have them in confined to just two areas, and once all the shacks and most of the jetties have been removed, then the islands can start to regenerate to what they used to be,” I said.

Well I must admit it is definitely a very unique solution, and I agree, it would definitely take the impact load off all off those 22 islands, and I commend to you on bringing this idea to me. The only problem I see is the Geraldton Fisherman’s Co-operative, they may not be as supportive of the idea,” the Minister said to me.

“Well sir, I think it would not matter, as far as I am aware, the Abrolhos Islands are an A class reserve, and more recently a National Park, and as such, it is not a matter for them, but for important people like yourself, to take ideas and build them into action,” I replied.

“I see, well you are quite right about that, but by god, it is going to kick up a big stink… So are you prepared to purchase these floating hotels and employ the people to run them?” the Minister asked me, and I smiled broadly, “Yes sir, I think that we could do just that, I already have a group of key people who would be itching to go out there to live and work, and I may need to buy a high speed ferry to transport them fishing crews from their boats back to the accommodation Floatels,” I replied.

“Good, well I will leave it in your capable hands, put together a proposal to me, so I can run it by the Premier and my colleagues, and maybe soon, we will have it all in place and operational,” the Minister said, just as our meals arrived.

“We discussed finer details of my idea, as we enjoyed our lunch, and once we had finished, the minister said he has to dash for more meetings, and thanked me for presenting the idea. A storm arrived during the night, and it was expected to be a bad one,

When I woke up in the morning, I turned on the television while I started to get organised for the day. I glanced outside the window to see that the winds were still fairly strong and that there are still light showers, as I headed for the shower.

Afterwards as I was changing into fresh casual clothes, I heard the news been broadcasted, and one report caught my attention, and I went to the television to watch. “Now the latest on the incident, with the cruise ship which has run a ground on the Abrolhos Islands.

The latest reports state that after a night of uncertainty, the 400 passengers and most of the 232 crew are currently been flown to Geraldton, via charter aircraft, from the 230 metre long, 20,000 tonne double hull cruise ship, which is reported to be grounded on a semi submerged island, while attempting to seek shelter from last nights storm.

Today, officials from the Department of Environment and Fisheries will travel north to Geraldton, and are expected to visit and inspect the vessel, once all of the passengers and the majority of the crew are safely on the mainland, which we are lead to believe is taking some time due to the continued rough weather.

More information will be coming once it comes to hand,” the news reporter said, and I turned off the televisions just as my mobile rang, and it was a blocked number. “Anton speaking,” I said answering the call, “Please hold for the Minister of Environment,” a ladies voice said to me, and I was soon listening to music, and I placed the phone on speaker, as I quickly began to pack everything, in preparation for a quick departure.

I had just stepped out of the elevator on the ground floor when the music stopped. “Anton, sorry to keep you waiting, I was wondering if by chance you have seen this mornings news?” the Minister asked me, “Yes sir, just as I was dressing and packing up ready to drive back to Jurien Bay,” I replied.

“Good, I am thinking that this incident may be good news for what we discussed yesterday that is if the owners of the cruise ship are in support of a proposal, that in exchange for the ownership of the ship changing to your company, that the government will not charge or fine the company for what happened overnight,” the Minister said to me, and I was not sure what to say about this.

“Did you hear me Anton?” he asked me, “Err, sorry sir, I get what you are saying, and yes I agree that it could be a great solution, but we would need to assess the damage caused to the reef system there, and what damage the ship has sustained before anything that big can be decided,” I replied.

“That is why I want my best independent environmental scientist on the job, which is you. Can you be at Perth Airport at the Cobham Terminal in 45 minutes to join me on a flight to the Abrolhos Islands?” the Minister asked me.

“Yes sir, I can do that, I just need to check out of the hotel, which I am about to do and have some breakfast and I can be there,” I replied. “Good, I will see you then, goodbye,” the Minster said before ending the call. After checking out, and getting a cup of tea and toast to go, I headed to the car park and began driving to the private terminal of the airport, arriving there with fifteen minutes to spare.

The Minister, his PA – Personal Assistant and two other men, both in Department of Fisheries uniforms, were already inside the terminal when I arrived. I was informed that we would be taking off right away and going directly to the islands, landing at Beacon Island, which is the closest of the three airfields and that it would take an hour an twenty minutes to get there.

I quickly sent a text message to Simon to let him know what is happening. “On way to Abrolhos with Minister of Environment, hope all is ok at home, Anton,” and once sent I turned off my phone and with just a small bag in hand, I followed the men through the building and onto the tarmac, and into a Gulfstream executive jet, with ten comfortable leather seats.

Once we were in the air, we were offered drinks and snacks, which I declined, as I pulled out my laptop, and started to put together a basic idea of using the ship as a base for the Abrolhos Fishing community. I stopped typing when a question came to mind. “Excuse me sir… do you know the exact location of the ship?” I asked.

The Minister stopped talking to the two Fisheries staff, “A place called Sandy Island, it is…” Mike, the senior of the Fisheries officers said, “Yes, I know where it is, just south of Rat Island,” I said interrupting the Fisheries Officer, before continuing. “What direction did the ship come from and land on the island?” I asked.

“I believe it was from the south west, as it was trying to pass through the passage and went off course,” Mike replied. “Thankyou for that information,” I said politely, before continuing to type, and doing some online searching for information.

About half an hour later, I stopped typing again, and looking up, I saw the Minister was reading a newspaper, “Sorry to interrupt your reading sir, I have been doing some research and if I am correct, there will be some good news. The news report on television stated that it was a double hull cruise ship, if that is the case, then I think we can rest easy in regards to damage.

What I mean is that if the ship was a single hull, with its huge weight it would gouge out a large ditch when it landed on the island, because the ship has two hulls, it’s weight is shared, so there is half the weight, and less likely minimal damage. Sandy Island is a limestone island with a sandy top on it, and there is some reef around the island, however, because of the storm last night, with high tides and swells, then the ship would have been carried over all of the reefs, not damaging any of it, but landing on the more solid land mass of Sandy Island.

From the information that I have gathered, the island is 2 metres above sea level at high tide, so the ship is well and truly stuck into place, attempting to move it off the Island, would cause much more damage to the surrounding reef, than just leaving it there.

If the ship is on Sandy Island, it is in an area that is not so sensitive in regards to reef life, but there are sea grasses around the island, which are sensitive to man made damage,” I commented. “Well we will soon see, we are almost there, and I have asked the pilots to do a few circles around the ship before we land, so we can get a bird’s eye view of the situation,” the Minister commented.

When we did begin to make the first pass of the ship, I was shocked that it was not the island that was mentioned, “Sir, that is definitely not Sandy Island,” I commented, “Looks to me to be the more solid Dry Island,” Frank, the other Fisheries Officers added.

“I agree with that conclusion, and by the looks of it, the ship is well and truly beached right in the middle of the island,” I commented again, and after two more passes, the plane turned to land on Rat Island, which is the closest airfield. As the air steward opened the door, the heat of the morning came rushing in, which caught most unaware, as I lead the way down the stairs and onto the island.

The plane had landed from the South, so we were standing at the north end of the airfield, with the plane parked just forty metres from the water. In the distance we could a 30 metre fisheries boat, moored at a small jetty nearby, and a vehicle approached from that direction, and stepped out smiling, dressed in a Fisheries Officer uniform.

I was in thin casual clothes, but the Minister and his PA were both is suits and I could see they were already sweating from the heat, and the two Fisheries Officers who travelled with us seemed to not worry about the heat, as they went to greet their colleague.

When I was introduced, the Fisheries Officer smiled, “Yes I know of Mr Hamilton, the number one enemy of the big Oil Company that caused them a major headache with your research and report on the damage to Barrow Island. It is an honour to meet you sir,” the Fisheries Officer said as he shook my hand.