Outback Corporation - 17. OBC Chapter 17

After getting myself a cup of tea, I sat down with Dad and Declan in the lounge room, “So what was all of the deep discussions when I arrived back?” I asked, “Well we have some thoughts to put to you, but you are now the majority shareholder, so it is your decision, I am only a part shareholder. Declan has had a commercial pilots licence for some time now, and we have been discussing about buying a plane, so it is easier to travel between stations.

I was going to suggest that you hold up selling any of the Murchison Pastoral Investments and concentrate on just those stations, but still go ahead with selling the northern stations and the two roadhouses, and we can use the plane we will be buying, to travel to the different homesteads with here being the base” Dad said to me.

“Before we go into that in some more detail, your Dad and I were very concerned, with what happened with your Great Uncle and Aunt, and you haven’t spoken to anyone about it, and with you keeping it bottled up, it is getting a lot of the family very worried” Declan said to me.

That was one subject that I was trying to avoid discussing, all I wanted to do was make sure that my sons are cared for, and that everything is going smoothly on the stations, I thought to myself, as I let out a long sigh, “Do you care to talk about it to us please son?” Dad asked me.

“Well yes, I guess I have been keeping to myself, and trying to forget that it ever happened, that is twice that I have been abducted by them, and they seem to be very adamant in trying to get money out of me, maybe if I give them 1/3^rd of the demand, then maybe they will just go away and leave us alone” I eventually replied.

“If that is what you want to do, then we will support you, but I suggest that you make it a very legal deal with no loop holes, that they are never to contact any of the family current and future every again, and that this will be the one and only offer” Dad said to me, “ok that sounds fine with me, actually, can you tell me how much I inherited with the sale of my grandfather’s places up north?” I replied with a small smile.

“Quite a lot more than I expected, $5.7 million” Dad replied, “Ok lets give them 1/3^rd of that, if my maths is right, that is just about $1.9 million, that way, we will have more of a guarantee that they will not try any more silly stunts” I replied, “That is your inheritance money to do as you please, so I can’t object to that” Dad said to me.

“Good, now that is out of the way, your dad and I, are making a trip to Perth tomorrow, we have chartered a plane from Esperance, and in the city, we will finalise the purchase of the plane and return to Esperance” Declan announced, which was a bit of a shock.

“Ok, so where are we going to store this plane?” I asked, “well the farm isn’t big enough for a runway, so we will have to keep it at Esperance Airport, and hope that the media don’t catch on” Dad responded. I might drive you to the airport, as I need to do some business in town” I added, “Oh and what may that be?” Dad asked me with a raised eyebrow, and I chuckled.

“So you saw it too, I thought I might go into town and make an offer on that property, as it will give us an extra 8,150 acres of land, which includes a private airfield, from what I have seen on Google Maps, plus it will give you both and the boys your own place” I replied, “Don’t bother making an offer on it, as the property has already been sold, as we found out this morning” Declan informed me.

“I presume that you are both the new owners?” I asked and Dad just laughed, “you know me far too well son, yes we bought the property, and we will try out the runway, when we get back with the new plane” Dad said in reply. “So, another 60 kilometres further east, and on the other side of the National Park, that means a fair bit more travelling between farms” I commented.

“Well we thought that maybe you could rent this place out, and come and join us at the new place, as there are two houses on the property, one on each side, bordered by Daniels road to the East and Orleans Bay road on the West, and its just a 5 kilometres drive to the beach” Dad said to me.

Two days later, I answered my mobile, seeing that the caller ID was Dad, “Hi, are you both heading off from Perth now?” I asked when I answered, “No Son, we are at Esperance Airport, just picking up some more fuel, and stretching our legs a bit. In the bunk house, you will find some of our luggage, 4 suitcases and two large boxes, would you mind, loading them into a vehicle and drive out to the new property. When you turn off Merivale road heading south on Daniels road, the driveway is exactly 4.5 kilometres from that cross junction, on the right-hand side, shortly after a left-hand bend.

There is a sign on the gate saying – Howick Estate, just shut the gate behind you, as you enter, and the house is 1.4 kilometres on your right, and if you have taken a sharp bend to the left, you have gone too far, we will see you when you arrive, bye for now” Dad said and he ended the call before I could say anything.

Quickly I found my cousins, and announced that we were taking a day trip, and to round up all the boys, while I went to the shed and attached the trailer to the vehicle, before driving it to the front of the house. Once we had food and drinks organised for everyone, and the luggage was loaded into the trailer and secured, we set off 7.5 kilometres north, till we reached Merivale road, then turning East, we made the one-hour long journey to the new property, which was quite easy to find.

We crossed over a cattle grid as we turned right into the homestead paddock, which has plenty of trees, and we came to the homestead, we saw a large 2 level stone house, with solar power panels on the corrugated iron roof. “Hey family, welcome to our new home, come inside and explore, we picked up the keys to the place today” Declan said smiling.

The house was very roomy, with many different living areas, plus a large office and library, with a master suite, with its own private lounge, and 4 bedrooms with two shared bathrooms, plus there is a house keepers suite behind the kitchen and laundry. Semi attached to the main house is the guest wing, which has 4 guest bedrooms, with 2 shared bedrooms, there is also a gymnasium spa and sauna in this part of the guest wing, with all the furniture included in the sale.

Outside there is a large garden, a vehicle shed and workshop, and a multi-use studio. Once my boys had a snack and drink, we all climbed into three vehicles, and we followed Declan who led the way for the tour of the farm. Nearby there is a machinery shed, with a tractor, front end loader, two quad bikes, and a number of other bits of machinery for the farm.

From there we headed roughly southwards, then turned right when we reached a fence line, which we followed, crossing over a muddy creek, and arriving at a three-fence gate intersection, and while Declan opened and closing the gate, as we passed through, Dad took over leading the way, heading south through the middle of the paddock.

“That fence line is our boundary, to the north and west we are on the western half of the property now, which was two different farms until about 15 years ago” we heard my Dad say over the two-way radio, and a few minutes later I noticed that we were on a firm straight patch of ground, and I grabbed the radio mic in my vehicle, “Hey dad, is this the airfield we are on now?” I asked.

“This is our secondary airfield, and is only 575 metres long, the main airfield is 2.3 kilometres to the east of the southern end of this field, and it is 950 metres long, and has an aircraft hanger at the southern end, there is another large machinery shed located not far near that” Dad replied, as we slowed at the end of the runway, where there are rows of low shrubs,, used for wind breaks.

Passing through a gap in the rows, we were in a laneway, heading in a new direction of roughly north west, but as we cleared the last of the shrubs, we turned again, heading south west, crossing over another creek, and I could see a number of building not too far away.

When we arrived, I could see two newish sheds, one large much older shed, and a ground level fibro house, that looked like it was built in the 1980’s, which didn’t look to good. “I know the house is not suitable, but I am sure we can organise to have a new one built for you and your family” Dad said to me, “no, I think we will stay where we are for now thanks dad, you can do what ever you want to do with this house” I replied.

“Fair enough, if that is what you want, you will always be welcome to come over at any time” Declan said in response. After a quick look around the place, we climbed back into the vehicles again, heading back the way we came, but this time we continued east along the laneway, till we came out the other end, and we continued till we reached another fence, which we followed southwards, until we came to the gate.

“This is our southern boundary, if you stick your head out the window you will hear the ocean that is just over 800 metres away in the straight line, there is a strip of crown land between us and the beach, which has an access track between the two main roads” Dad said continuing the commentary over the radio, till we came to a stop at a big shed mostly hidden away by rows of eucalyptus trees.

“This is our second machinery shed, used for some of our larger vehicles, we have two tractors, a sprayer attachment, for controlling weeds, and for applying fertiliser, there is also a truck, and trailer to carting grain, and as you can see, we also have some mobile silo bins, plus just to the north of us is the main airfield and hanger” Declan said.

“Now this is a more better place for another house” I commented quietly with just Dad in hearing range of what I said, as we headed back to the vehicles, and we drove up to the aircraft hangar, where Declan opened the small pedestrian door, to let us see his plane. “This is my new beauty of a plane, a Gulfstream G280, with a cruising speed of 850 km’s per hour, a range of 6,600 kilometres, and a ceiling of over 13,600 metres, with two pilots – my man here is taking lessons, and seating for up to 14 passengers, and luggage, so plenty of room for everyone” Declan said happily.

“We have come up with one problem though, the runway is a tad too short, for landing, it was just the right length, but for take off, we need an extra 600 metres, so we need to do some urgent extensions, to fix that problem, luckily we have plenty of space” Dad added. “So, the plane is grounded until that is fixed?” I asked, “Yes I am afraid so, I have a team of runway specialists coming to inspect the site next week, and hopefully we can get it extended and maybe fully sealed, without too much troubles.

Because of your dad’s high profile, we bought the farm under my name, and I will be handling all the administration side of things, so your dad’s location won’t be revealed, he will be driving over to your farm and staying there for a few days, while the inspection and the work is done to the airfield” Declan announced.

“You know, if we do seal it, and install lighting for night landings, we could build some cabins near the shed, to provide accommodation for our RFDS friend’s, in case they need a place to stop over” my dad said happily, and I nodded my head in approval of this idea. “Right, well we will do that then, maybe extend it to 1700 metres, which is the same length as the Esperance Airport, which is only 67 kilometres away, so it has a good safety margin for emergency landings” Declan suggested.

Fifteen minutes later, we were back at the main house, which was stylishly furnished, and with the boys away at boarding school, Dad offered for us to stay the night, as they had done a big food shopping in Perth, and that there was plenty of space for everyone. Thinking of my son’s, who were starting to show signs of being tired, I decided to decline the offer, but we would visit again in a few days’ time.

Soon after we arrived home, and the boys were all having a nap, my mobile rang, and it was Dad calling, “Hello son, we have had some discussions about this idea to extend the airfield, and we had decided to go one step further than just ask the RFDS to drop by when they want a rest break, and that is where you come into the plan, together, I would like to propose that we finance the establishing of a RFDS base at Esperance Airport, plus the purchase of two aircraft, to be based there, and an accommodation village and also an administration centre, located near to the airport” Dad announced to me.

“Yes, sure Dad, I like that idea very much, and I am happy to assist with the funding of the project, and also cover all maintenance costs for two years” I added, “That is what I was hoping to hear, I will call the head office in Jandakot, and see if we can line up a low key meeting, hopefully at either Kalgoorlie or Esperance, I will let you know when it will be organised for, bye for now” Dad said