MEMORIES ARE MADE OF THIS…...

  

 

After Cyclone Winifred had ripped a path through the area from Mission Beach, Dunk Island and surrounding areas south to Hinchinbrook Island during the last weekend on January, 1986 a huge amount of repair work needed to be carried out, not only on the island, but on the mainland. I understood the mainland towns, surrounding farms and areas north of the island required more urgent assistance than we, on the island did, as Hinchinbrook Island had received the ‘tail-end’ of the cyclone. Also, I knew because of this fact, we would be last on the list in getting building materials. I understood and accepted the situation. The island had lost its jetty during the ‘big blow’. The only other damages caused were fallen trees and broken tree limbs etc., and some minor damage to the guest cabins.

The lessee of the resort who had hired me to manage the resort, also owned and operated an engineering-construction company decided to dispatch a couple of his workmen to help me on the island with the re-building and renovations.

At this point in time, the resort was closed, not to be re-opened until 8th March. During the resort’s closure it would a perfect opportunity to carry out, not only the re-building of the jetty, but the construction of the elevated timber deck around the resort poo,l and the many other renovations and maintenance jobs that desperately needing doing.

A working plan was put into place of what needed to be done and the materials were ordered to enable the work to be carried out once the necessary timber, roofing etc., arrived. As I mentioned above, I realised I would be on the end of the list of the hardware stores and timber suppliers, but the sooner the materials were ordered, the sooner I would creep up the list.

There was enough work to be done around the resort while waiting for the new material to arrive, so the few staff members I had on hand in readiness for the reopening of the actual resort operations was kept busying doing one thing or the other.

I donned my cook/chef’s hat and volunteered myself as chief cook for us ‘workers’, preparing breakfast, lunch and dinner each day for about 10 in total. I was never sure how many mouths I had to feed as people seemed to be coming and going all over the place.

At one stage, I had the Pioneer Group from the Army, They had been sent to me to assist in the clearing of the walking tracks of fallen trees, branches etc., and whatever other jobs I could find for them during their few days stay. So, when the Army was in residence the island population grew. Without fail, I always set a spare setting at the dinner table and I always plated an extra meal, never intentionally. Subconsciously, it just happened that way, day after day, night after night. This habit of mine became a bit of a joke amongst my fellow island dwellers. We named our invisible guest, “Mr. Walker – The Ghost Who Walks…aka The Phantom”.

Much to our surprise and delight, we found a large boulder at the end of Orchid Beach, the main beach of the resort. We reckoned it was the “Skull Cave” as there was a huge, deep indent in the boulder, reminiscent of a cave. One’s imagination does tend to run wild when living on a tropical island!

Over pre-dinner drinks late one afternoon, the two workers who my mainland-based boss had sent me, and who I had grown to dislike immensely, announced that the very next day they were going to take the roofs off all of the cabins!

To explain my growing dislike of these two men…they never once thanked me for a meal. They would finish eating, push their plates aside and immediately leave the table without a word. I didn’t expect them, or anyone else, for that matter, to get down on their hands and knees in gratitude or servitude, but a simple “Thanks for dinner, breakfast, lunch or whatever” would have been nice. It’s simple good manners. Everyone else helped with the washing up at night, but the two men never once offered or pitched in.

Further to my disgust, I learned from the others that they sat up on the verandah of the staff quarters and threw their empty glass beer ‘stubbies’ down over the rocks below, which bordered the waters of Mission Bay. Upon learning this, I promptly put a stop to their thoughtless, ignorant practice. Do I need to explain any further what sort of clowns they were? No…I thought not.

When the two “clowns” announced their grand plan to de-roof the accommodation cabins during the tropical north Queensland “wet season”….the monsoonal trough was still skirting across the top of Queensland bringing regular nocturnal heavy downpours…I saw ‘red’. There was no sign of the new roofing material arriving. I had no idea when it would arrive. It could have been weeks away, for all I knew.

Those two men had already failed to follow my instructions over the first load of timber that had arrived to the island. After all, you must bear in mind, I am a woman…what would a woman know about such things?

They went against my instructions about the timber. Because they did what they believed was right and what I instructed them not to do, the timber ended up on the ocean floor! I was highly amused at that outcome…not!  And after that debacle, I had them informing me of their latest brain-wave.

“Let’s take the roofs off the cabins, even though we haven’t got the new roofing material,” they brazenly announced. “We’ve got nothing else to do, so we will take off the roofs.”

I exploded. I went ballistic! I could not fathom their reasoning. Calmly, at first, I pointed out to them the foolishness of such an idea. I suggested they do some painting around the resort accommodation and restaurant. There were cans and cans of paint in the island work-shed and there were many areas that needed fresh coats of paint. They suffered from selective hearing and continued with the discussion of their plans to de-roof. One thing I cannot stand is ignorance.

Their obvious dislike of having a woman instruct them was obvious. I spoke. They didn’t hear. I sat in front of them. They didn’t see me.  Obviously, they thought I was a bitch.  I knew they were ignorant idiots.

It was at such a moment, I exploded. The full force of my wrath burst forth. I’d kept a lid on it for quite some time, as is my way, but when the pressure builds up to a point of no return there is nothing I can do to stop the fury. I fired them on the spot, ordering them to pack up their gear and be off the island first light in the morning. They had their own boat, so this was achievable.

I rang Brisbane head office to organize their final pays. I could have ordered them off the island there and then, but dusk had fallen and I wasn’t going to put myself in the position of being responsible for their drowning at sea, even though I felt like physically drowning them myself,!

Early the following morning, I was woken by the sound of their boat motor starting up. That was the last I heard of them.