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| Two Views of the Cairns' Colonial Club |
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| Tarago |
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| Port Douglas |
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| Four Mile Beach, Port Douglas |
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| Three Views of the Nautilus Restaurant, Port Douglas...once owned by the now late actress, Diane Cilento*** |
With the pre-Christmas functions, and Christmas Day “done and dusted”, both at work and at home, New Year’s Eve rapidly approached.
At the resort, a rock-country
music infusion party was planned for New Year’s Eve, with two bands hired for
the evening’s entertainment. The rock band would play their bracket, followed
by the country music group, alternately, throughout the night to allow for no
breaks in the momentum of the celebrations.
Outside around the pool area
gas barbecues were set up. On offer was a broad range of sizzling foods such as
fresh local seafood, steaks, sausages, ribs, lamb and pork chops, burgers and
barbecued corn cobs...all accompanied by a wide range of garden-fresh salads. A
tantalizing, varied array of desserts catered to the madding, party-loving
crowd. Portable cocktail bars were also strategically placed around the pool,
taking pressure off the interior bars.
During our management
meetings leading up to the event, I had suggested, and fought for laser lights
to be installed on the upstairs’ balconies of the building surrounding the pool
area. My idea was for the lights to coordinately flash over and across the
resort’s massive pool. However, I fought a losing battle with the then Sales
and Marketing Manager, who had a false god-like impression of himself. He, who shall remain nameless, wasn’t liked
by many. I wasn’t alone in my impression
of him. If his nose had been any higher
in the air he would have suffered from altitude sickness. His nose could also be used as a ski slope
because he looked down it upon others in his presence.
Enough about him....
Another of my suggestions was
the stage area where the country band would play would be decorated with hay
bales, wagon wheels, and a weather-beaten skull or two of bullocks. Mr.
High-and-Mighty cringed and readied himself for a further battle with me over
this plan, but, like Rocky, I won that bout.
One day leading up to New
Year’s Eve, Alan, the Front Office Manager, who had become a good friend, and
co-conspirator, and I went off on a “beg, steal or borrow” expedition
throughout surrounding Northern Beach areas in search of the stage decorations.
We borrowed the resort’s
ute/Toyota utility to conduct our door-knocking search. A few hours later, Alan and I arrived back
with the ute’s tray loaded with hay bales, a wagon wheel, and two old,
sun-bleached bullock skulls.
The look of disgust on the
Sales and Marketing Manager’s face made our trip, during which we had trudged
across a couple of overgrown paddocks, worthwhile. His attitude made us laugh and, even more
determined to achieve the desired “country” effect. To his chagrin, the decorations
received a great response and words of admiration from the party-goers on the
night.
Some people just don’t know
how to have fun! Their loss....
Andrea/Andrew joined the
resort revellers. He thoroughly enjoyed his first – and only - Aussie New Year’s
Eve.
From the wide smiles on the
happy faces of the jovial crowd, and staff alike, all who attended enjoyed the
evening. It had been hugely
successful. It was a hoe-down and rock
show combined. Everyone let their hair down and kicked up their heels as they
welcomed in the new year.
All good things come to an
end. Soon after New Year’s Eve, Andrea
had to return to Italy once more. So it was back to life on my own without my
lively, fun inamorato to distract me during my leisure hours.
Before he left. Andrea
arranged for me to meet with a group of Italian tourists who’d been travelling
Australia on a tour organized by his father’s travel business back in Milan.
The group was arriving in
Cairns a week or two after Andrea returned home, and, fortunately, would be in
the area on my day off.
Finalising the necessary
details, I hired a Tarago van from Avis. Come the day, I headed off to pick up
the group from their inner-city resort, “The Cairns Colonial Club”, at the
pre-arranged time.
Soon the eight non-English
speaking, boisterous Italians, and non-Italian speaking “tour guide” aka me
were merrily on our way out of Cairns en route north to Port Douglas, 70kms
north along one of the most beautiful strips of highway in Australia.
One of my guests for the day
was a dentist from Rome. Fortunately, he
spoke some, just-understandable, English. He volunteered to be the
“translator” during the adventure.
Our merry group soon
discovered, however, language didn’t impose a barrier, and somehow we had
little trouble understanding each other. I’ve sometimes been told I “talk with
my hands”, so I guess that helped a bit!
Not knowing quite what my
group of wayfarers expected from the day, or where and how exactly they wanted
to spend their day, for a while I was in a quandary.
Did they want to dine in a
fancy restaurant for lunch? Were the very commercial tourist-directed stores on
their agenda?
Always preferring to attack a
problem straight on – head on - rather than work up a lather I asked the happy
folk point-blank what they would like to do.
With much head-shaking, and
“No, no, no’s” to suggestions of a fine-dining experience, I took the bull by
the horns. I suggested we...meaning
“me...buy a variety of cheeses, salamis, olives etc., along with crunchy bread
sticks, baguettes, liquid refreshments.
Once armed with our “picnic”
supplies safely in our possession, we’d go in search of a few shady palm trees
and she-oaks along the foreshore at Four Mile Beach, a little south of Port
Douglas.
My suggestion was received
with unanimous agreement.
Outside the Post Office Hotel
in Port Douglas’ main street, some suggested we buy bottles of wine to help
wash down our lunch.
At that stage, my new Italian
friends had never heard of our ubiquitous, infamous wine casks. Shaking my head
at their “bottles of wine” idea, I purchased a cold cask of dry white wine, and
a cask of red wine. My travel buddies were suitably impressed.
Excusing myself, I ran back
into the nearby, small supermarket, and bought a couple of packs of paper cups,
and paper napkins.
What’s a true picnic without
paper cups?
Armed with our supplies, we
piled back into the Tarago, and headed off to the beachfront.
The plan to “break bread”,
washed down with wine at the foreshore overlooking the Coral Sea had been one
of my better ideas, I must admit.
The Italian visitors were in
absolute awe of their surroundings.
That day, we had the beach and the foreshore to ourselves.
We sat in the shade of the
trees on the grass verge leading to the wide stretch of golden sand with a
gentle sea breeze wafting softly, keeping us cool.
Some wandered along the soft
sand, wading in the shallows. Others lazed languidly beneath the trees in the
dappled sunlight.
They all said it was the best
day and time they had had during their holiday tour of Australia. That day was their last day on our sunny
shores because they were flying back home to Italy the following morning.
At the time, and I imagine it
remains pretty much the same these days, only the well-to-do Italians travelled
“Down Under” for their vacations, so this particular group. who had been
entrusted into my care for the day, had spent their time while holidaying in
Australia – in the cities, staying in classy hotels and resorts, dining in the
best restaurants.
However, to them, that
glorious, relaxed, fun-filled, “basic” day had been the best, and I’m sure, one
which has remained uppermost in their memories of their holiday in Australia.
Reluctantly, it was time to
turn the Tarago around, and head back to Cairns city.
With a van full of
enthusiastic, enraptured day-trippers, their enjoyment of the day so completely
obvious, I drove along the meandering coast road filled with contentment.
The smile on my face, and the
warmth in my heart reflected the feelings of everyone on in the Tarago.
Around 4.30pm, I deposited my
captivated, blissful assemblage at the front lobby of their resort. Thanking me
profusely, I was crushed by hugs and overcome with kisses on my cheeks. I
promised each and every one of them that I would be at the Cairns airport the
next morning to bid them farewell.
I fulfilled my promise.
They were delighted to see me, and a little surprised, I think, that I took the
time to say “Arrivederci”, “Ciao” and “Good-bye”.
Even though we had known each
other for part of one day only, it was an emotive leave-taking.
One lady in the group was
from San Marino. She gave me a 1986 500 Lire coin, as a token of her thanks,
and in remembrance of a joyful time spent together.
It remains in my memorabilia
to this day as a very fond reminder of the wonderful people I shared those few
hours with during an unexpected, wondrous trip to Port Douglas.
A couple of weeks later, I
received a telephone call from Giuseppe (Beppe), Andrea’s father, thanking me
extravagantly for taking such good care of his clients. He told me each and
every one of them had reported back to him, raving about their “best day” spent
in Australia.
My work at the resort, once
more, took over my life. Long, busy days and nights, with some days extending
up to sixteen hours, filled my time, leaving little left over for other
pleasures except sleep.
With only Pushkin, my beloved
pet, my ginger cat, to keep me company at home, I missed the liveliness of
Andrea’s presence. When his physical being was in my life, my life was never
dull. His natural exuberance and zest for living was constant, even when we
relaxed together listening to music.
Late one evening, ringing of
my telephone interrupted my reverie. Andrea’s voice greeted me from the other
end, from across the ocean and land, he was returning to Australia once again.
My heart somersaulted with
joy and eager anticipation.
To be continued...
***In 1980 ownership of the Nautilus Restaurant freehold and operation changed when the Bowdens sold the property to their close friends Diane Cilento and Anthony Shaffer***. Diane had enjoyed celebrity status in the 60's and 70's with a successful film and stage career, and a marriage to Sean Connery while he was starring as the first James Bond.
Diane had moved to Port Douglas with Tony a couple of years earlier to purchase the property that is now Karnak Play House. Diane & Tony’s background in theatre saw the Restaurant further develop its theatrical demeanour in the early 80’s. This was a decade of excesses, & Nautilus surely held its own in all things decadent, as everybody who was anybody visited. Nautilus won Best Restaurant Queensland & was runner up for Best Restaurant Australia.
***Anthony Shaffer wrote the acclaimed play (later made into a movie starring Michael Caine and Sir Laurence Olivier)...."Sleuth". He also wrote the screenplay of "The Wicker Man"...a movie in which Diane Cilento starred. It is were they both met.
"Anthony's brother, Peter, wrote Five Finger Exercise (1962), The Royal Hunt of the Sun (1969), The Public Eye (1962), from which he adapted the 1972 film Follow Me! (1972), Equus (1977), and Amadeus (1984), which won eight Academy Awards including Best Picture."
Through the years my path crossed a couple of times with Diane in one way or another...but those are other stories for another time...
