Outback - 14. OB Chapter 14

Asking for the Clerk that I spoke to earlier on in the day, there was a two-minute wait before he came to the phone. I explained that I had received an unexpected call from my son. I played the tape, once the recording was finished, the Clerk asked me to come back to the Court House and he will try to get some spare time for me to see the Magistrate.

When I arrived at the court house, the Clerk told me that the magistrate was too busy to see me again, but he added an attachment to his previous decision, “Mr Bryce Silverton will have unrestricted communication access to his son, via telephone, video link or any other means, when the child requests to speak to his father”.

The clerk said “Because of the serious of this, the documents would be faxed to the Edgerton family, and a copy sent by express mail, via RFDS (the Royal Flying Doctor Service). They’re making a trip out there in the morning”. Pleased with the outcome, I told him, “Thank you for your time”. I returned to the motel to grab my luggage and catch my flight to Kalgoorlie.

A few hours later, having arrived at Kalgoorlie, Sue was at the airport to meet me, she decided to stay behind, waiting for my return. The rest of the family returned to the station via the Indian Pacific train, which left earlier in the day. For the remainder of the day, Sue and I chatted in the motel lounge room, which separates our rooms, as we planned to stay a few more days and catch the next Indian Pacific train out to the station.

After a restless night’s sleep, Sue took me out into town to do some shopping to keep me occupied. We had a large lunch before returning to our rooms to rest, before going to a theatre show in the evening. The next morning while having breakfast, Sue read a story she found in the newspaper out loud, “The Edgerton pastoral empire, is on a knife’s edge, after an attempt to expand the number of pastoral holdings in the Pilbara has failed and by Kyle Edgerton suffering a mild stroke.

Family members are remaining at his bedside. No one has made a comment to the media, but there is speculation that another crisis, regarding a court hearing in the family court, may have been the cause of the patriarch’s sudden ill heath”. “I feel sorry for the bastard, but I’m glad he got what he deserved” Sue said.

I just nodded and stared out the window, thinking was it really worth all that hassle? If the newspaper is correct, then that means the purchase of the other two cattle stations must have failed, I decided to contact the real estate agents dealing with the pastoral property sales, to enquire if there had been any more buyer interest with Hillside and Bamboo Springs Stations.

I was informed that both stations were at risk of been forfeited to the state government if buyers cannot be found, and that goes for the other three stations nearby, to the south west of Newman, those being Turee Station, Prairie Downs Station & Bulloo Station. I informed the agent that I was the managing director of Murchison Pastoral Investment, and that I might be interested in the purchases, using another company, but only on condition that my name is kept out of the purchase, as I am only doing it as a representative of another company.

I said I would get back to him after having a meeting with a board member. After hanging up, I discussed the idea with Sue, after telling her that I had set up another company, Western Desert Pastoral Co and bought three stations in the interior, east north east of Wiluna.

Sue was a bit shocked by the news of a new company formed, more stations purchased, and now that I am thinking of buying more stations in the area of my former in laws. After some thought, and discussion, we decided that the two stations nearest to the Edgerton’s would be left alone, but they would go ahead and buy the three stations further south, just south west of Newman. I telephoned the real estate agent again and after some discussions, a price had been set for each of the three stations, and asked the agent to call his lawyers in the city to arrange the purchase of the three stations, totalling 4.3 million acres in area.

Western Desert Pastoral Co will now have six stations, totalling 8.1 million acres, while Murchison Pastoral Investments has 9 stations, totalling 12.5 million acres. Although I didn’t have shares in the new company, but with the position of Managing Director of both companies, I was in control of a staggering 20.6 million acres of Pastoral Station land. A few days later when Sue and I arrived home, we had a chat to Natalia, and after a few phone calls, the shares of both companies had been altered again.

This time to allow me to be a main share-holder of WDPC, my siblings now have 8% shares each, and Kes has 10% shares. With this adjustment, I now have 15% shares, the same as Natalia and Sue, with the family holding 100% of all WDPC shares, and 75% of MPI shares.

With Matthew and Christopher still staying at Pondana, I called a family meeting including the children. I explained that because of some legal issues, I had to make adjustments to shares to that temporarily I had no major control of both companies, but now that the crisis is over and with the other two major shareholders permission, the shares were adjusted again.

The children had it explained to them that they had part ownership of all the stations run by MPI and WDPC. Any profit is distributed to the shareholders depending on how many shares each person has, the money from this profit goes into bank accounts that cannot be touched for withdrawals, until each person reaches the age of twenty-one.

Clearly surprised, Christopher questioned, “Even me?” I responded, looking at him, “Although we had differences in our past, you being a brat, we’re grown up now. You apologised. I accepted. You and your father are still family”. Humbled, Christopher murmured “Thanks, cousin”

During this meeting I noticed that Sue was not looking very well, so once the meeting was over, I insisted that she go and lie down for a while, after a few moments arguing she was fine, she finally agreed to go. I went back to the office to do some work. A few hours later my mother Natalia came in looking very worried.

Natalia expressed, “I just went to check on Sue. Bryce, she doesn’t want anything to eat or drink. She is having hot and cold sweats and a high temperature. I’m worried”.

Without hesitation, I went over to the small desk and picked up the Microphone for the RFDS, and hit the emergency call button. Moments later a voice came over the airwaves, “RFDS calling Murchison Pastoral Investments, receiving your emergency call, how can we help? Over”.

Clearing my throat, I answered, “Pondana Station to RFDS, my mother Sue Silverton has fallen ill, she didn’t look too well at 11 am this morning and she has been resting since, but now she has a temperature, has hot and cold sweats and refusing to eat or drink anything, over”.

There was a few moments silence before there was a reply, “Pondana Station, please stand by Mr Silverton for further instructions, over”. I pressed the microphone button, replying, “Message received RFDS, standing by, over”.

About ten minutes later, “RFDS to Pondana Station, there is a RFDS plane in the region, estimated time of arrival about forty minutes, over”. I smiled when I heard the great news at such a fast response, “RFDS, message received, thank you, over and out”. Moving over to the UHF radio, “Attention, Matthew, Christopher and Marcus, report to the homestead to assist with transporting Sue to the airfield. Please prepare for the RFDS plane’s arrival.”

After arriving, Matt said, “Bryce, I’ll travel with my sister in law. I’ll let you know as soon as possible what is happening.”

The RFDS arrived on time, and made a quick smooth landing, once Sue was loaded on and made comfortable, with Matthew at her side, they took off again, heading for Kalgoorlie. That night at about 3am, the telephone rang in my bedroom, instantly sitting up, turning on the bedside light and grabbed the phone. It was Matthew calling from Kalgoorlie.

Sadly, he related, “Bryce, after some X-rays and a CAT scan, the doctor’s discovered that Sue has an advanced Pancreatic Tumour, which also has cancer cells in it. The cancer has already spread to other part of the body, and that the doctors do not expect her to live for more than a few months. I’m so sorry”

“Thanks, Matthew’, was all I could muster and ended the call.

I couldn’t get back to sleep, so I went over to the office to do some more office work, till it was finally daylight. I wandered over to the homestead kitchen to make myself some breakfast, and it was during the cooking of bacon and eggs, sausages and tomato, that Natalia appeared in the kitchen.

I broke the news of Sue’s condition, telling her, “I’m going to drive to Kalgoorlie, and probably take Christopher with me, so we can say goodbye. Wish I she could see Kes one more time”

Natalia said, “I’ll go wake Christopher. It’s a good idea having company for the trip so you don’t get too worried and lose concentration while driving.” she left to tell him to get packed and have some breakfast, because he was going to Kalgoorlie with his cousin.

The next four days where very emotionally draining, Sue went into a coma two-days after Christopher and I arrived, and in the evening of the fourth day she died peacefully in her sleep, just ten minutes after Matthew and Christopher went to the canteen to get some dinner. I was in the room, holding her hand. She took a few deep breaths and then passed away. I knew that she was gone and quietly wept for a few minutes before pressing the call butting for a nurse. When she saw me crying she turned around and went looking for the doctor.

When Matthew and Christopher returned from dinner, they were told the news. They spent a few minutes with her before we all left to go to the motel. We sat in the lounge in my room for about half an hour before retiring to bed. I didn’t sleep much that night, and was fairly drained of energy after the last few days of stress and sorrow. It was well after 11 am when Matthew knocked on my door to check in on me.

Later that day all three of us went to the funeral home where Sue’s body was taken, and finalised the funeral arrangements. There would be a very small family service with a cremation afterwards, so her ashes could be taken back to the station.

Before leaving Kalgoorlie to return to Pondana, all three of us visited the family lawyers to deal with Sue’s will, which stated that Bryce now had full control of the station, and her shares in MPI are distributed between Bryce, his son Kyle and Christopher, while her WDPC shares are distributed between, Bryce, Matthew and Christopher. Once this was all settled, Matthew drove us all back home to Pondana station, along with the casket of ashes. Her ashes were spread around the rose gardens at the homestead.