After the doctor declared all was well we didn’t have enough light left to fly back to the station, so we stayed in town and went to a movie together. It had been years since we’d done that.
On the flight home the plane started to vibrate strangely which had our adrenalin pumping for the rest of the journey. All gauges were registering normal, so we had no idea of the cause. The engine didn’t miss a beat nor did we notice any change in the power. We were flying over some extremely isolated country, and really didn’t have an option to go anywhere but on to Bullo where we landed safely.
Franz had many long phone conversations with an aircraft engineer and the vibration was put down to worn engine mountings. On inspection in Darwin this was confirmed and after they were replaced the plane behaved herself again.
The wet season was not following the usual pattern. Dust storms continued well into January, indicating not enough soaking rain had fallen to keep the soil together. We would watch dark clouds approaching, and wait hopefully for rain, but instead we had violent dry dust storms which dumped tonnes of dirt into the valley, leaving everything covered in dust.
The sorghum crop was visibly wilting—it needed some rain and soon. Hot days indicated rain was close by. And we prayed it would rain. Of course we had a fair chance of this prayer being answered as we were in the middle of the rainy season and storms were surrounding the valley.
It was only a matter of time before we had an amazing electric storm with only a bit of rain, but enough to water the crop. This was followed a week later by good soaking rain that came into the valley ahead of a cyclonic low hovering off the Western Australian coast.
Between rain storms we took delivery of a brand new tractor. The salesman must have been very keen to make this sale because he braved our road and brought the tractor in on a small truck in the middle of the wet season. It hadn’t been planned that way. The American factory was late with the delivery and being American, they had no concept of the wet season cutting off our road for five months at a time. But the Darwin representative knew we needed the tractor and was willing to take the chance and come in our road. He had a few hairy moments going around some of the major wash-outs on the jump-ups, but apart from that he said the road was fairly good.
We looked at the tractor sitting in all its glory. A brand new, beautiful, gleaming tractor with the latest in modern technology. Hydraulics everywhere including a hydraulic seat, a dashboard that resembled a jet aircraft’s, air-conditioning, radio, CD player, the list goes on …
We certainly have come a long way tractor-wise. I can still see Diesel Don, Uncle Dick’s faithful assistant mechanic, back in the early seventies, slashing the airstrip on our old red tractor. The seat was welded to a massive steel spring—I have strong suspicions this spring was an Uncle Dick modification, quickly devised when Charlie demanded Dick service the tractor because he was going to mow the airstrip. The tractor seat was Dick’s subtle revenge, but it backfired because Charlie handed over the mowing job to poor old Diesel Don. Every time Don hit a bump he was airborne, with only the steering wheel to keep him on the tractor. On rough ground he was in the air a good part of the time.
I didn’t see Marlee and Franz for the next week, except when they passed the house in the new green machine. Suddenly every job seemed to need the tractor!
The end of January saw one cyclone move away from the valley and out to sea and another one come right in on its tail. Now the road was definitely closed for the season. The sorghum was now too high for the cockatoos to take-off so the cocky patrol was discontinued until later in the season.
Franz was busy studying for his chopper licence and Marlee was still discovering all the amazing things the new tractor could do. We also had a new cook in Kununurra waiting for a break in the weather so Franz could fly the short trip to pick her up.
It was raining daily and the grass grew as you watched it. Our old slasher was having trouble keeping up with just the airstrip and the grass in the garden was two-feet high. The slasher was in danger of rattling itself apart. It is so old the bolts slip through the bolt holes. To give some indication of its age we paid around eight hundred dollars for it when we bought it new. The replacement equivalent today would be $5,500. Franz packed the holes hoping it would stay together for a few more years. Marlee presented a strange sight as she headed out to slash the airstrip—a beautiful new tractor towing our very old, worn-out slasher. Fingers were crossed it would last to slash the airstrip, in between the storms, to keep the grass down so the mail plane—which hadn’t been able to land the previous week—could land, if it ever turned up.
The weather deteriorated more each day and gale-force winds were reported along the coast from Darwin down to Bullo and into Western Australia. I was due to fly out of Bullo to a conference in Sydney and straight onto the Gold Coast to a conference at Jupiter’s. Franz was able to fly me to Darwin to catch the plane south but it was another of those hair-raising flights down close to the ground the whole way.
When I returned the still very new cook was having trouble coping with the heat, which was understandable, as January and February have to be the hottest months of the year, with temperatures consistently in the high thirties, and edging regularly into the forties. Franz was suffering very badly with hayfever so he went to Darwin to see the doctor and Marlee went for her next baby appointment. The doctor said she was doing well, which seemed to amaze him when she told him what she did.
The cook decided to leave! This didn’t surprise anyone except the cook. So I came out of my writing hole to help Marlee with the cooking and cleaning.
I started by tackling the storeroom which was sadly in need of attention. I restacked the large steel shelves and stood back to admire my work. The shelves groaned and twisted into an unusual shape, spilling the contents in a heap at my feet. After repairing the shelves, I restacked them. I decided my time was put to better use writing, so I left the house to Marlee and went back to work.
Franz took the cook to town and we started looking for the next one.
Our next visitors were representatives of a bus company who wanted to bring busloads of tourists into the station for the day on a weekly basis from May to the end of the year. Thirty-five people per bus and sometimes two buses per week represented a lot of work. Not even mentioning the nightmares of the road with buses getting bogged or breaking down. I could see us running a full-time towing service.
So as good as the regular income would have been, I had to say no, we were too busy and couldn’t manage it at present. Quality of life has to figure somewhere in this constant struggle to survive and I could see this venture could decrease my quality of life in one fell swoop.
I had visions of no cook, Marlee or the baby sick and me in the kitchen cooking for forty people and finding a bed for a busload of people if they couldn’t get out. No, I was getting too old for this type of superhuman effort.
A new cook arrived and left a few days later, justifying my ‘no buses’ decision.
Every now and then someone comes along and you just know a guardian angel has sent them. Our quest for a mechanic was up there with finding a cook and I’d decided both were as likely as finding the Golden Fleece. But we received a letter from a retired engineer who said he’d like to come to Bullo and help us with some of our many projects.
Marlee spoke to him on the phone and he sounded very nice. And he didn’t drink! So Marlee said he should come for a few weeks and we would see what happened after that.
When Alan arrived we worried about his age and the effect the heat would have on him. I told Franz not to even ask him to lift a spanner, so afraid was I of him collapsing. He just seemed too frail for the Outback.
But Alan quietly went about his work, and it wasn’t long before he looked like a different man—tanned and quite spritely. I had thought he wouldn’t last a week, but it turned out he was here for ten months. He was a help in every domain, even the kitchen where he would step in and cook a meal when M
arlee and I had our hands full. Alan always kept the kitchen tidy and there was never any fuss over producing the meal—unlike some of the hired cooks.
This angel in disguise was also a great help to Franz with the building of our new cattle yards. Without Alan’s quiet, consistent back-up, I don’t think Franz could have finished in time for the beginning of mustering season. Of course we had some young men for the heavy work of cementing in posts and carrying the steel, but Alan provided expertise and guidance to the workers that was invaluable. Franz could go off on another job when needed and Alan would oversee the men working on the yards.
No matter what you needed, Alan was there. He was helpful in every way—even down to opening the aeroplane gate and hangar door when the plane came home. The aeroplane gate was not a small thing, it was a section of the fence that could be pulled aside to allow the plane to taxi into the garden, sort of an oversized ‘cocky’s gate’. Yes, I have no doubt my guardian angels sent Alan.
Because of the unpredictable weather at the beginning of each year and not being too thrilled about flying at five-hundred feet all the way to Darwin, I had learned not to take bookings in the first three months of the year. Yet when I looked at my diary, for some reason I had accepted quite a few bookings in these months. The year just didn’t have enough months in it for me to do all I needed to! Because my books were so popular I found myself travelling a great deal and it was now getting to the point where I didn’t have time to write them! The wet season was the only time I had to write and now speaking and travelling were infringing into this territory.
So my writing suffered this wet season. But I have to say my concentration was lacking for other reasons and I finally gave up trying to write until this event was over. The excitement of the approaching birth of Marlee’s baby was occupying most of my thoughts.
Franz and Marlee came to Darwin to pick me up after a conference and Marlee had another check-up. The ultrasound confirmed the baby was a boy. This was very exciting news as we had had such a long run of girls, and it would be nice to have a boy in there somewhere. He was certainly going to have a lot of female cousins.
The doctor said Marlee had about six weeks to go and told her to take it fairly easy. This statement usually went over Marlee’s head, just as it did this time. A lot can be done in six weeks.
Franz was off to Caloundra to stay with Susan and Ralph and do the flying part for his commercial chopper licence. After a careful study of the year’s work ahead, he realised if he wanted to get the flying in, it would have to be then or in twelve months’ time.
I was going to Sydney at the same time so we left a very pregnant Marlee in charge of the station assisted by Alan. I prayed the doctor was right and she still had six weeks to go. But both Franz and Marlee told me I worry too much and Marlee did not seem the least bit nervous that Franz was away from the station. I flew back home after three days by charter plane as Marlee could definitely not reach the control pedals on the plane anymore and that is a definite disadvantage when flying!
Marlee was busy working and talked to Franz on the phone daily, who was building up his hours at a very fast rate and assured her he would be home in plenty of time for the arrival of the baby. I have to say I didn’t sleep much at night, ready for Marlee to burst into my room and say the words, ‘It has started!’ But as Marlee and Franz say, I worry too much.
Franz passed his commercial licence and when he arrived home on the 30th March, he told us we now had to call him Captain Ranacher! Mr Mustang, his dog, howled for half an hour without pause. There was no way we could shut him up. Every time he looked at Franz he would launch into a painful rendition of howls of happiness.
Maybe he was trying to tell Franz we tried to do away with him while he was away. Mr Mustang is a funny dog, so devoted to Franz he is jealous of Marlee. While Franz was away Marlee decided to try and cure Mustang’s skin itch. She read up on the subject in one of the animal medical books and in some natural healing books and came up with a mixture of herbs and oils to soak him in daily.
Marlee filled the bath in the old brown bathroom and took him in to soak him in a lovely perfumed bath. The look of doom on his face sent her into peals of laughter. I rushed in to see what was happening, praying it was not the beginning of labour pains. Marlee pointed to Mustang and the look on his face was so expressive I too burst into laughter. He could not have been more fatalistic if he were standing in front of a guillotine. I am sure he thought Marlee was about to do him in! His head hung almost to the ground and he looked up with most of the whites of his eyes showing.
We coaxed him into the bath, and not without a lot of pulling on my behalf. He wrapped his claws over the side of the bath and I had to peel them off to finally get him in the water.
After he accepted we were not going to drown him, he ended up enjoying himself. So much so that by the end of the week he was bounding into the bathroom and leaping into his daily therapeutic bath with glee.
He even started wagging his tail when he greeted Marlee which was a major breakthrough. However, after the howling welcome to Franz he returned to his grumpy self again. He became very possessive of Franz once more and was in constant competition with Marlee for Franz’s affection.
Marlee was now due in two weeks but could give birth any day. By this time I was extremely nervous and had visions of Franz and myself presiding over the birth! Marlee had a few jobs she wanted to complete before she left, but I put my foot down and said I wanted to go to town, now! But it was another week before my daily pleadings got the both of them down and we finally packed and flew to Darwin to await the baby’s birth.
During that week Franz started to demolish the old staff sleeping quarters, which meant we were committed to building the new ones as there would soon be nowhere for anyone to sleep. And Marlee had spent her time in the air-conditioned tractor harvesting the sorghum.
Franz flew back home the morning after flying us to Darwin with a new cook and housekeeper. Marlee and I both hoped the house would be clean when we arrived home with the new baby. Meanwhile we settled into the apartment where we were staying and Franz spoke to us daily. A low had moved in over the station so they had stopped mowing the sorghum and Franz was sure that by working through the night he could bale what had already been mown so we would not lose any hay. We listened with interest to the progress of the work at the station, but had to admit we were preoccupied with the birth of the baby, not the station.
Marlee and my first urgent task was to go and buy some clothes for the baby. I had bought some coloured nappies I couldn’t resist and a few sleeping outfits in Sydney, but other than this the little baby had nothing ready for his birth. But we were going to change all that in the next week. Or so we thought.
After a good breakfast on the first day we attacked the shops. Neither of us could remember the last time we had a week to go shopping together. By lunchtime Marlee was tired, so we went to our favourite restaurant to have a light meal and to sit in the cool of the air-conditioning.
After an hour Marlee still didn’t feel any better so we went back to the apartment. I called the doctor and after a long conversation, he wanted to see her. The result of his examination was to put her straight into hospital. I was stunned! Marlee’s blood pressure was on the rise and he was worried about pre-eclampsia toxaemia and wanted to keep her under observation.
I had never heard of this problem, but soon learned a lot more about it. You are more susceptible to this problem appearing at any stage in your pregnancy if you are in your thirties and it is your first pregnancy; if you are under five feet three inches tall; and if you suffer migraines. Marlee was all of these, she was so lucky it only appeared in the last week of her pregnancy.
The next morning her blood pressure had not settled and the doctor wanted to bring on the baby. He explained that if her blood pressure went too high it would be life threatening for the baby and if she went onto drugs to control its rise, this would be bad for both of them. If they co
uldn’t control the blood pressure and it went too high Marlee could lapse into a coma! I was sick to the stomach.
I called Franz and told him to fly to Darwin immediately. Weather had closed in over Bullo, but Franz managed to fly low up the Victoria River and follow the coastline all the way to Darwin. He came straight to the hospital and the three of us listened to the doctor explain the situation that had suddenly appeared and what the alternatives were for Marlee and Franz and their baby.
Marlee had been looking forward to a natural birth but this was something you didn’t fool with, so the doctor started procedures to induce the baby’s birth. If everything went according to plan Marlee would have the baby in the next twenty-four hours.
Way back when she first told me she was pregnant and the baby was due in April, I didn’t take any more bookings for the month. However there had already been one booking on the 13th April which I was leaving for on the 12th. I jokingly said all through the pregnancy that would be when the baby arrived. However the doctor assured me the baby would be born before that.
The baby did not arrive when he was supposed to or all the next day and Franz and I sat watching Marlee’s every move. Sure enough, the next afternoon when I was walking out the door to go to the airport, Marlee’s water broke. So I left her with Franz and headed for Perth.
My heart and soul were in that delivery room with Marlee on the long flight to Perth. I landed in Perth at fifteen minutes to midnight and baby Ben touched down in Darwin at the same time!
Marlee did not have an easy time. Ben’s head was very large and she was having great difficulty with the birth. The doctor was very patient and told her to take her time. Everything changed when a pregnant woman was rushed into the hospital haemorrhaging and needing an emergency caesarean. Marlee’s doctor was the only doctor on duty so he found himself with two women having difficulties. The doctor told Marlee she was also close to having a caesarean if she didn’t give birth soon. This prospect upset Marlee so much her next few pushes were so hard she cracked her tailbone and she too started haemorrhaging!
The Strength of Our Dreams Page 15