The Go: Ann Legacy Book 3

By Reg Appleby

THE GO – ANN LEGACY AN AUSTRALIAN SAGA Volume 2 - Book 3 New Inventions They came to earth to search for the minerals that had been depleted on their own planet; their space ship had developed troubles and departed leaving them stranded. This is a story explaining how a little boy called Pukely, was born in Australia in the year nineteen hundred and sixty, to two of those people, they had travelled through time in a sophisticated machine from forty thousand years in the past when they were abandoned on earth. The little boy grew up in the current period and by using the magic of the time travel machine or ‘shell’ was able to go back forty thousand years and rescue his parents, and the people, called the Go – Ann, and transfer them to the current period of time. The ‘shell’ was found to possess not only the magic capabilities of time travel, but could pass onto the Go – Ann people remarkable intelligence stored in gem stones; left behind with the ‘shell’ by the departing space ship personnel. When the Go – Ann people received the training through the ‘shell’, of this information, they were in possession of knowledge one thousand years in advance of anything known by the humans on earth. Book three of the series explains how the Go – Ann set about creating a place for themselves in the Australian outback that would benefit future generation of their people. How they used their advance technology gained from the ‘shell’ training to invent wonderful new discoveries that allowed them to build things that were unique and sensational. The inventions soon became the envy of the humans, some of whom set about trying to steal these inventions by any means available. Now the Go – Ann could be in peril; they must invent ways and means of protecting themselves and their inventions from those prepared to steal them at any cost. Awareness, diligence and the brilliant leadership by the boy from the past showed them the way and they continued to build their homeland in the arid desert wastes of central Australia. Pukely, leader of the Go – Ann sets the scene.

• Language: English
• Publisher: ReadOnTime BV
• Release date: Mar 15, 2014
• ISBN: 9781742843483

Reg Appleby

Reg Appleby is an accountant and owner of a successful engineering business in Sydney, Australia. At seventy three years of age, he is having the first books of his Go-Ann series published. Book One and Book Two have taken five years to write and are now combined in the first edition of the series. The author has travelled the world on many occasions and extensively in and around Australia by ship, by plane, and by car and caravan. He has explored for gold in every state of the country. He has walked the interior in the heat of a stifling summer and felt the chill as he walked the slopes of the snow-covered southern alps around Mount Kosciusko. On his own small farm when his children were growing though their early years, he raised a large variety of animals and trained race horses for many years. His love of the land and of the Australian bush has never diminished, and part of his experiences through the savage drought years in and around Australia still lingers.

Book preview

Chapter 1

Paradise can be a place, or a state of mind.

Ask any newlyweds and most will tell you that their honeymoon was paradise to them, no matter where they spent it, although most had spent a great deal of time planning the spot for a perfect honeymoon. The surroundings, to most people on their honeymoon, was just a place made perfect because it was the result and extension of months of planning, of anxiety, and those precious moments with friends and family that ended with the delight of their marriage and the wonderful togetherness that followed their marriage vows.

Pukely and Iris discovered this for themselves. It took them several days to get over the wonder of their wedding, the immensity of the feeling that they had received by every person they encountered at the reception and the sincere good wishes that were bestowed upon them from those people.

After several days of exploring Brisbane and the surrounding area in a hired car however they both began to realise that their true paradise was in fact their own home at the King’s Cauldron Station.

Just being together was all they believed they would ever need, their feeling for each other had lasted since they were five years old, now they were approaching eighteen and it had never diminished one iota.

Some nights they lay on the back lawn behind Dave’s beautiful home and looked over the river and saw the lights that lit up the sky in the distance.

Even as they cuddled each other and saw these beautiful sights, their minds—telepathically linked—always strayed back to their home.

Five days passed, it was enough, Christmas was in a couple of days, that was the inspiration to get them on the road to Brisbane shopping centre and they shopped solid for two days, then they packed up, booked on a plane home and rang the family and said they would be home on Christmas Eve.

Some might think seven days for a honeymoon was hardly enough, but those people did not live almost on the shores of a lake like the beautiful Lake Iris.

Pukely loved Iris more than life itself, but without the mental feeling he drew from the whole range of wildlife that surrounded the Lake, he found a great hole in his existence, he felt somehow that he was letting his family, his Go–Ann people and all the people that worked around and on the homesteads down. Why he felt this way he did not know. He knew that with the advanced training provided by the shell, the Go–Ann had multitudes of work to keep them all involved for many years into the future.

The managers were more than competent to handle the affairs of the stations, and the family had a firm control on the building and other planning projects that were currently being undertaken.

Still it was with the utmost pleasure that Pukely and Iris exited the plane at Mandangle knowing that they were at last back home.

Billie–Oh was there with the bus packed full of people to meet them, only two vacant seats remained on the bus for them, everything was packed in the luggage compartment.

An innocent bystander would have thought that the newlyweds were returning from seven months absence instead of just seven days, such was the joy felt by all to have them both home.

As if he knew that there had been a change in their lives, Bandit left Haps side and walked over and waited for both Pukely and Iris to be welcomed by all the others from the bus, and when he saw Pukely and Iris get down on their knees, he went over to them and they hugged him and he returned the affection by trying to lick the skin off both their faces and their hands, thereafter they had their shadow back by their side.

The drive back to the station was in an atmosphere of anticipation, the Go–Ann were preparing a welcome home feast in the great hall in Fenton and all the family and staff from all the stations were going to attend.

And so it was that a great feast was prepared and consumed, the whole extended family, as Pukely and Iris now tended to think of the gathering got together and just ate, drank, danced and enjoyed a marvellous evening.

The Go–Ann people had no association with religion except their association with the Sunbird, and from their prospective Master Pukely was their leader, and any other thing that occurred was of no significance to them.

Now that he had returned and his name appeared first in the marriage register, many had approached Ben and asked him to approach Pukely on their behalf to see if he would give them permission to marry just like Pukely and Iris, they wanted to be just like Pukely and Iris.

Pukely talked to Ben and told Ben to tell them that they did not need Pukely’s permission to marry they were free to do as they wished.

‘Pukely,’ Ben said, ‘the Go–Ann are a proud people, you have given them a new life and now a level of knowledge that surpasses anything that other people around here have, they are proud of you as their leader, and not so much ask your permission as your blessing.’

Your blessing Pukely would make them feel as if you personally blessed their bonding.’

‘Ben,’ Pukely said, ‘tell each couple that asks permission to marry, that I would be proud to stand and place the hands of the brides into the hands of their chosen husbands and be there in person to give them each my personal blessing.’

Chapter 2

So it was, the first Christmas spent on the station by MR and MRS PUKELY GOODMAN was spent for half a day at the homestead with the family and the managers of the stations and all their staff and families, the second half of the day was spent with Ben and Ninnae and all the Go–Ann who had again cooked a marvellous meal for the gathering in the great hall.

By the time the evening came to a close, Pukely and Iris were totally exhausted. They said goodnight to all and walked back to the homestead. They were offered transport back but decided to meander around the lake and enjoy the beauty of the twilight that shimmered off its surface as they walked.

They had walked perhaps half way back when they both decided that they should just sit and admire the beauty that was their paradise. They sat under a tree and gazed out over the lake in each other’s arms, Bandit lay beside Pukely and lay his head on Pukely’s leg.

This is how a worried Dave and Colin found them the next morning, curled up in each other’s arms with bandit watching over them.

Pukely and Iris both awoke as they heard the jeep drive up to where they were they both stood up and Colin just told them to get in and he drove them back to the station for breakfast.

The managers and their crews had all departed back to their respective stations. The family just sat around the table and shortly they were joined by Pukely and Iris who had both had a quick shower, and with apologies they started breakfast.

Not much work was to happen for the next two weeks, because Ernie had advised all the station managers to give the crews two weeks off in the hot weather to enjoy the benefits offered by the lake.

The crews took full advantage of the opportunity, some borrowed one of the aluminium boats and drove it out onto the middle of the lake, and there they set the boat up as a floating platform and dived and swam all around the boat. It was around 40 degrees in the sun.

Some joined the Go–Ann on the sail boats and sailed around the lake; others just swam from the shore and then climbed up under the trees to lay and sunbake.

For the summer Colin had hired several portable cooler cabinets, which he had placed at intervals around the lake, each had a generator to keep them cool, these he had filled with crates of drinks for the crews to drink at their leisure, for those on an aluminium boat, both crews and tourists, drums of Ice were provided in which were placed the drinks to keep them cool.

On any day around the lake, even though it had a circumference of a little over thirty miles, the areas under the trees were seen to be almost crowded, the people from Mandangle flocked to the lake to just enjoy the beauty offered and the wonders of sailing and swimming here were for most of their lives they had only seen desert type county.

The only stipulation set by the family for those wanting to spend the time by the lake on weekends was that the only thing they were to leave by the lake was their footprints, no paper, bottles or other rubbish was to be left, or the lake would be closed to visitors.

The mayor paid frequent visits to the lake and as a consequence offered and was accepted the use of sets of portable toilets during the summer season, council to empty and keep them clean.

The township of Fenton was out of bounds to all but the family and the Go–Ann. This rule was strictly applied and any person breaking it was warned only once, a second offense and they would be escorted from the station, none broke this rule.

So the lake and its environs were enjoyed and protected by all. The local people seemed to set up their own form of policing that saw the rules abided by and the family was in no way inconvenienced by the passage of people to and from the lake and the enjoyment to be found there.

Chapter 3

The family enjoyed the peace and serenity of the homestead, the pool was the centre for most activities, although most of the family sailed on either the sail boats or the catamarans, or both.

The weeks of summer passed, the crews were almost glad to go back to work, many had enjoyed an unbelievable break with their families in caravans that Colin had hired to be set near the lake for them, these were both station crews and the construction crews who were very reluctant to leave their paradise to go to their homes in Brisbane or elsewhere so they just brought their families to the lake.

Work however was ever present, waiting to be done, Pukely astounded all the engineers, builders and even the architects when he announced that there would be no requirements to get electricity to either, his new house, the general hospital or the veterinary hospital.

‘You will be required to build an outside shell for each of these buildings,’ said Pukely, ‘ the lining will be supplied and the installation supervised by several of my Go–Ann engineers using what we believe will be a very serviceable new product, as yet untried.’

Pukely asked Colin and Ernie to go with him to see the new materials, and they climbed into the jeep and Pukely drove them to meet Pica, Minnie and Valerie.

They arrived at the workshop where Pica and the others were making rack upon rack of Rotatubes, the quantity had been building up nicely. Pukely knew that they would need a large volume to line the three current buildings that he had earmarked for their use.

Colin and Ernie were amazed by the Rotatubes that lined the workshop and how they not only supplied light to the workshop but also kept the workshop at such a pleasant temperature.

‘These Rotatubes will be used to line the house you are building for Iris and I as well as the two hospitals,’ said Pukely.

‘Your house is coming along splendidly,’ said Colin. ‘We should be able to start on the roof soon and then the plumbing, but how will you install these tiles?’

‘The tiles are attached with a type of glue’, said Valerie. ‘We will measure the area and mix the compound on site to suit the tiles. Any tile of a shape different to those we have already made, we will make to suit, here in the workshop, and transport to the house and fit.’

‘We will be ready for the tiles in about three weeks,’ said Colin. ‘We will let you know when you can transport your tiles to the site.’

Pukely then drove Colin and Ernie back to the station and picked up Michael and Steven and drove them off to see Pica and the tiles so that they could then factor in the tiles on their drawings for the house.

They too were amazed by the tiles and after a lengthy discussion with Pica they also returned to the homestead.

Chapter 4

Pukely’s idea that the Go–Ann should use their intellect took another turn; he discovered that three of the Go–Ann who had been helping on the station, suddenly advised their foreman that they were giving up their jobs with the crew, to look for some new plants.

The station crews now were used to the helpers from the Go–Ann just going off on their own or in small group and doing unusual things with the plants or soil on the station.

Nasha, Petris and Mala did just this, one day, they had been riding up on the northern area of the station and had been looking closely at the types of plant life that were existing on the arid landscape that existed in the area.

They discovered that some types of native plants seemed to thrive in the hot and dry conditions, while others bloomed after rain only to die out and then they were consumed by the cattle or sheep, but these plants never seemed to grow much till a heavy deluge of rain occurred again. This did not happen too often.

Having seen the effects of the drought and the amount of feed that was needed to feed the cattle and sheep, especially the amount that had to be purchased during this drought, the three Go - Ann determined to find out why the plants could not fully prosper and maintain growth all year around.

They were determined to use to the Plant Genealogy training they had received from the program in the shell, to this end. This program had been installed apparently by the Go–Ann who originally set up the shell to allow the members of the crew to exist and prosper in an environment such as they now lived in, if and when such a situation ever presented itself.

They had many discussions about the feed on the station and they were determined to do a little research on the ability of getting either a known plant to regenerate sufficiently in the hot dry areas of the station to give sufficient feed to the cattle, even during the period of a drought, or design a plant that would do what they decided they wanted.

They felt confident that they could accomplish this.

The first step was to have a small shed erected behind the houses in Fenton. They then asked Colin for some equipment to set up in the shed. Colin was amazed at the type of equipment they asked for was very unusual, exquisite and very, very expensive.

Colin mentioned to Pukely about the request for this advanced equipment and how extremely expensive it was to Pukely. He sought approval from Pukely to spend the money.

Pukely just told Colin that no matter what the cost it was okay to buy the equipment.

When he saw where they intended to set up the equipment, he asked if they would prefer better accommodation for their experiments but he was assured that all the experimenting was to be carried out in the field and the shed would be suitable.

Colin found that much of the equipment required was so special it had to be sourced in Brisbane and then even some had to be imported from overseas as it was not available in Australia.

The immediate area behind the houses of Fenton was in fact typical of the many acres to be found adjacent to, and forming part of the King’s Cauldron Station for many miles around. This was to be the ideal staging area for the beginning of the plant growing experiments.

A great deal of the native vegetation that prospered throughout the drought was course and not acceptable by the cattle on the station. The cattle were sustained because the unpalatable course plants actually assisted the cattle by protecting the more palatable grasses from the heat of the sun and the cattle looked under the course shrubs and grasses to find the palatable grasses to sustain them.

Shortly after the shed was set up; Pica and his crew picked up telepathically what was about to happen, so they ventured over to talk to Nasha who was working in the shed. Petris and Mala were collecting samples in the field.

Pica suggested to Nasha that the intense heat may affect the equipment they were going to set up in the shed. He explained that they had a lining in their shed that would keep Nasha’s shed cool and well lit and make it better for the work to be carried out in.

Nasha readily agreed. She had worked for only two hours in the shed in the morning and she was perspiring heavily.

Pica, Minnie, Valerie and Nasha called to Billie–Oh who arrived shortly after with his bus and his band of willing junior helpers.

They all drove back to Pica’s shed with the crew loaded the bus with the tiles and components to make the glue, and back they drove to Nasha’s shed.

Several hours passed as the group of willing workers started to assemble the shell of Rotatubes inside Nasha’s shed. When the job was finished the temperature inside the shed dropped by fifty percent, from forty eight degrees to a comfortable twenty four degrees, Nasha was so pleased she hugged and kissed all those that had helped. They climbed back in the bus and just drove off leaving Nasha in a cool and well-lit environment to continue her work.

Later in the afternoon Petris and Mala returned to the shed to find Nasha studying a slide through the microscope on a bench, the coolness of the interior of the shed pleased them to no end.

Both Petris and Mala sent a telepathic thanks to Pica, Minnie and Valerie for their help with the temperature control for the shed.

Pukely at that time was discussing the outline of the new proposed lake with Colin and Ernie. Suddenly he broke out in laughter for those things that he hoped would happen were suddenly starting to happen. The Go–Ann people were beginning to make a mark on the scene. Colin and Ernie could not understand what Pukely was laughing about. He saw the look on their faces so he just said, ‘Sorry. I just thought of something funny.’

Nasha had been studying the soil samples from around the immediate area of the township of Fenton. She was amazed at the amount of elements that were apparent in the soil. To her trained mind could and certainly should be maintaining a good amount of feed stock for the cattle.

There was one missing ingredient she felt that would give a lasting assistance to the growing process, besides water; this was Amenical Procian which was a protein that gave the soil a little uplift in the absence of water.

Nasha put this information in the library of notes that she was compiling after she had mentioned it to Petris and Mala.

Petris and Mala were allotted the task of investigating the indigenous plants that abounded and apparently prospered in the harsh, arid environment.

They had been working in the harsh, hot conditions of the shed as it was before the insulation, now they were happy to extend their efforts and could work longer, happier hours together.

Nasha was aware of several of the fruits and vegetables that the Go – Ann people had been introduced to since Pukely had bought them to Fenton. These included, Squash, Chocó, Pumpkin and a large range of differing types of melons, all these were surface growing and contained a large amount of fluid.

There were also a large range of below surface growing plants, such as carrots, swedes, turnips and especially potatoes.

Nasha had bought and experimented with a lot of these plants, trying to ascertain which were the most acceptable to the cattle and sheep.

The wildlife would eat most of these vegetables offered but the cattle had definite preferences, and would not eat others at all.

Following a series of discussions between the three genealogists it was decided that what they needed was a plant that contained the hardiness of the indigenous plants, but would send out a huge array of roots. These roots must grow melon type, water-filled fruits that upon reaching maturity would send the contents of the fruits into the soil as a type of moisture for itself and any adjoining plants.

They knew that it was to be a huge challenge, the cattle must be eager to eat the above ground portion of the plant without the plant suffering unduly by having the foliage eaten, and the foliage must be able to quickly recover and continue to support the underground growth with the much required sunlight and carbon dioxide through the stem system.

To some the task may have seemed insurmountable, to Nasha, Petris and Mala it was just an enjoyable exercise of their skills, they entered the challenge happily and with a certain air of excitement.

Following the arrival of the many and varied types of equipment they had ordered they were given a mighty boost to their egos when one day Pukely and Iris both happened to called in to see how they were progressing.

The three young folk were speechless at first, but when Pukely began by asking questions about their progress in the language that only a fully-trained genealogist could know, they came out of their shells and proceeded to exclaim not only the progress they had made to date but what they were planning and how far in fact they had investigated into the genes of the many and varied native and domestic plants.

Pukely asked many questions on enzyme particulates and growth commodities and the overall comparability of the cell structures in the native plants and the melons and how they planned to cross genes to gain their end result.

At this stage of the conversation, Iris stepped n and told Pukely that he was holding up the vital research that these clever young people were undertaking so he would be wise to leave them alone and let them continue.

With a happy farewell and a promise to provide any further help or equipment they should require, Pukely and Iris left the happy trio and headed off back to the homestead and a swim.

The visit from Pukely put the icing on the cake for the happy trio. Success began to come in a never ending stream of ideas and it was not long afterwards that the first minor sowing of a plant that they thought would suit the results they were seeking, were completed.

Chapter 5

Colin and Ernie listened to Pukely about the new lake he referred to as Two Ridges.

‘Pukely,’ said Colin. ‘‘Lake Iris was one thing to build, but where you are planning to build this new lake is in one of the most arid sections of the whole of our properties, there is absolutely no water for about fifty miles in any direction.’

‘Yes, I know,’ said Pukely. ‘It sure will be a challenge, won’t it?’

They had been heading for the pool as they discussed the lake, so the conversation ended until another time.

The topic came up again at dinner that night and the comment was the same from the other members of the family, ‘It was just not possible.’

Pukely knew something that the others did not know, the blocks that made up the Rotatubes were the final product of many failures by Pica, Minnie and Valerie, and they had earlier in their research manufactured products that looked like and were perfect substitutes for sandstone boulders.

It took many, many failures, before the trio were finally able to produce the final Rotatube that they had today, and a lot more research before they were able to find the correct combination of chemicals in the mix that finally gave the Rotatube its electrical capabilities.

What they were not yet aware of was that the early failures were going to be the building blocks that formed Pukely’s dam wall for both ends of the Two Ridges Lake.

Pukely knew that the formula for the early blocks the trio had made incorporated materials that formed a good part of the filling that had to be removed to create the two Ridges Lake.

But even if we can make the building blocks to build the lake walls, Pukely’, Colin said, ‘Where are we going to get the water?’

‘One problem at a time, Dad’, said Pukely. ‘Let’s get the walls in place first and then worry about the water. Just remember, when the wet season comes each year, millions of gallons of water is soaked up by the dry land never to be seen again, and further millions of gallons of that same water runs off in every direction to be absorbed, evaporated, and lost in run–offs, never to be put to any useful purpose.’

‘Yes,’ said Colin, ‘But that water is at its closest fifty mile north of where you plan to complete Two Ridges Lake.’

‘Right,’ said Pukely. ‘So we will have to divert some small amount of our resources to the building of the lake walls so that I can arrange for the water.’

‘Okay,’ said Colin. ‘It sure is going to be a huge challenge, Son. I hope we can make it happen.’

‘Have faith, Father,’ said Pukely. ‘It will all come to those with patience.’

Pukely had also been diverting some of the engineers and architects time on the new construction site he called The Steps Hanger.

His grand plan was to have the ground level of the land around The Steps bulldozed flat so that he could again start construction on a huge hanger, attached to the cliff face and extending out a length of almost two hundred yards.

The whole construction was to be made from the building blocks designed by the trio of Pica, Minnie and Valerie, a huge oval self-supporting roof over the solid rock floor, as soon as the floor was bulldozed flat.

The design was simple to Pukely and he advised everybody that he felt that it could start immediately.

When Pica, Minnie and Valerie heard of Pukely’s plan they stared at Pukely in amazement. How were they ever going to manufacture so many blocks so quickly?

So many projects, so much building activity, the whole station seemed to be constantly teaming with workers, tourists, engineers, and of course the family; now with the Go–Ann included; Pukely estimated the head count to be almost eighty people in the family alone.

Logistics for food alone was so big that Colin had appointed a local store manager to work in conjunction with BEN and NINNAE to continually replenish the cool rooms and refrigerated container with sufficient food.

Another large shed had been built and lined with the Rotatubes. This shed was to store non- perishable foodstuffs and this also was the responsibility of the ‘Logistics’ as BEN and NINNAE were referred to.

Chapter 6

Helen, another of the Go–Ann, had been programmed to handle the dental health. She was nervous at first and confided to Iris that she did not think she could handle the task. She was terrified to start working on peoples teeth, she was so afraid of hurting anybody.

Pukely arranged to have the house next to Iris’s clinic set up for Helen and volunteered to be her first patient. Pukely could read telepathically the nervousness in Helen so he calmly sat in the chair while Helen looked, probed, and cleaned his teeth.

When Helen had finished with Pukely, Iris arrived at the door to have her teeth cleaned also. She was followed by a more nervous Pauline.

Helen was close to tears when she had finally completed Pauline’s teeth.

‘Thank you,’ she said. ‘I appreciate how nervous you each must have felt having me attend to your teeth, even if you each only required a clean. I feel more confident now, and I feel I can now continue as I have been shown and programmed.’

‘I am only next door, should you require any assistance,’ said Iris.

In the beginning there was very little requirement for Helen’s services, the people on the station were seemingly blessed with good teeth; daily teeth hygiene by brushing helped keep everybody’s teeth healthy.

The town of Mandangle however had no dentist, the people; especially the children were required to drive many miles away to a dentist who only serviced a nearby town one day a week.

So it was that as soon as the people of Mandangle heard of Helen being a dentist in Fenton it was not long before she had a continuing parade of patients.

Helen’s training program, as was the case with all the other programs in the shell, was far in advance of any training available to any of the dentists trained on earth. She was trained to handle every type of dental problem and infection that could and may occur, and she had prepared her surgery accordingly.

A patient had arrived at Mandangle hospital from one of the stations far south of the town. He was in a state of collapse. He had a seriously infected molar and had not come for dental assistance but tried for days on end to stem the pain with ever-growing amounts of pain killing drugs.

The infection had sent him into a state of delirium; he was hallucinating and only semi-conscious.

Doctor Alan Jones was the doctor in Mandangle who had had the incident with Iris and the station hand when he had been attacked with the crocodile, he had heard also of the new dentist at the station and picked up the phone and called Iris.

Doctor Jones explained the problem to Iris and asked if Doctor Helen, the dentist on the station, could assist with the patient.

‘Place him in an ambulance and bring him straight out to the station,’ said Iris. ‘Helen will be ready when he arrives.’

Iris then went next door and advised Helen about the emergency. Helen immediately began to arrange things to receive the patient.

When the ambulance arrived with the patient, Doctor Jones was in the ambulance to assist in any way he could.

Iris and Helen directed the ambulance men to take the patient immediately into the surgery where he was placed on an elevated table, not in any way resembling a dentist’s chair.

Helen took control from the start, first she took a strange type of bottle with a little puffer on top and puffed a small amount of mist spray at the patients face this had the effect of calming the patient. She then gave Doctor Jones a syringe and asked him, after he sterilised his hands, if he would please take a blood sample from the patient.

Helen and Iris were in their white coats and had sterile gloves on their hands.

While Iris began to remove the patients outer clothes, Helen placed a plastic cover over the patients head to cover all his hair and keep it out of the way.

Iris placed the cloths in a sterile bag besides the bed, and with the patient down to his underclothes, covered him with a sterile white sheet.

Doctor Jones had sterilised his hands in solution and had put a white coat and a pair of sterile gloves, then he proceeded to take a blood sample from the patient.

Helen was sitting at the bench in front of a microscope, and as soon as Doctor Jones gave her the blood sample she applied some of the blood to a glass plate and examined it through the microscope.

‘We will have to stabilise the infection quickly,’ said Helen. ‘The tooth needs to be extracted but the infection must be Cross strawled, before I can extract the tooth.’

‘What do you mean ‘Cross Strawled, Doctor Helen?’ Doctor Jones asked.

‘The tooth is having an impact on the surrounding nerves, which in turn are trying to set up an effective defence mechanism, and by doing so the flesh is being overstimulated and infected.’

‘I will mix a solution that will pacify the nerves enough so that they will be sealed and this should stop the infection from further activity. When that happens we will extract the tooth and with a further injection of anti-inflammatory drugs you can take him back to the hospital or leave him here over night as you please,’ said Helen.

‘As simple as that?’ Doctor Jones asked.

‘As simple as that,’ Helen said.

Helen mixed the injection and gave it to Doctor Jones, who, without any hesitation, injected the patient.

‘Let us all go into the waiting room and have a cool drink,’ said Helen. ‘When his temperature goes down to the green mark on the thermo we will extract the tooth.’

When they were all seated around the table drinking a cool drink, Pauline joined them from Iris’s clinic next door.

‘How do you know if the injection will work that well?’ Doctor Jones asked Helen.

‘Well I checked three samples under the microscope,’ said Helen. ‘The first sample showed the unusually high content of a pain killer. The second when mixed with Elogine showed that his brain was being affected only by the pain killer not the infection, and the third test was where I mixed the blood with Stathesser Confren this indicated the heart was clear and strong and no limit was shown in his blood such as vein restrictions with blockages.

Pauline, ever the assistant to Iris, left the room and inspected the thermo coupling attached the patient’s chest.

‘Maybe another half an hour,’ said Pauline.

It was only another half an hour that Pauline came back into the room and proclaimed the all clear.

Helen again produced the Bottle with the puffer on top, and, with all the attendants again in sterile coats and gloves including the ambulance men, and with cloth-faced masks to protect them from the spray, she again applied a larger dose of the spray towards the patients face from approximately ten inches away.

Three times over the next couple of minutes she sprayed.

Then she mixed another small amount of compound from two vials and sucked it up into a very tiny syringe, she then opened the patients mouth and injected the gum around the tooth with the mixture.

With the help of Iris and Alan, Helen elevated the bed until the patient was sitting up and held in position by Iris and Alan, then she dropped the section of the bed under the patients knees and taking great care implanted a jaw spreader in his mouth, together with a suction crup to take away any excess liquid and blood, then taking the extraction pliers in her hand in she inserted them in the mouth and around the offending molar and with deftness and skill removed the tooth.

There was a reasonable amount of blood and tissue but the suction crup cleared the mouth effectively, then Helen removed the jaw spreader and applied a large cotton roll to the hollow left by the extraction, she then closed the mouth around the suction crup and let the pressure on the cotton roll contain and finally stop the bleeding.

While Doctor Jones and Iris watched the patient, Helen mixed another small amount of liquid from two other vials and walked back over with the mixture in a syringe and injected the contents into the patient.

Doctor Jones noted that when Helen mixed liquids that she used for the injections she expertly used fine syringes to lift out from the vials the volume required and then expressed the amount into a container with a rubber type stopper, using new syringes for each compound and another new syringe for the mixture to go to the patient.

‘It is very commendable the extreme care you take with your patients health, Helen,’ said Alan after the final injection was completed.

‘Let us see what the patient says about all this,’ said Helen.

She then took another bottle with a puffer attached and from a distance of about ten inches again administered a spray towards the patients face.

It took no more than one minute for the patient to wake up. He looked around mystified, ‘Where am I?’

Doctor Alan Jones introduced himself and asked the patient how he felt.

‘Fuzzy headed,’ the patient said.

‘That will clear shortly,’ said Helen, stepping forward. ‘Would you like to wash your mouth out?’

‘My tooth’, said the patient. ‘It’s gone.’

‘Yes,’ said Helen. ‘It was badly infected and had to be removed.’

‘I’ll be damned,’ said the patient. ‘It feels great.’

Helen walked over with a glass of warm water and a basin. ‘Take the cotton roll from your mouth and flush out your mouth. Then I will give you another roll to put in your mouth to help stem any further bleeding.’

The patient tried to stand up then and the ambulance men walked over to take his arms and steady him as he sat on a nearby chair.

‘Thank you, doctor,’ he said to Helen. ‘If I thought that having the tooth removed would be so simple I would have been here a lot earlier.’

‘That is quite alright,’ said Helen. ‘Just wash your mouth out a couple of time a day for the next few days, with clean warm water and a little salt, and you should be alright.’

Except for the ambulance men the others left the room while the patient got dressed.

Shortly after the patient and the ambulance men came out, the man now fully dressed and holding the plastic cap in his hand.

‘Thank you again,’ he said to Helen. ‘How much do I owe you?’

‘Master Pukely does not accept payment for helping his friends,’ said Helen.

‘Then you tell Master Pukely that Josh Maguire said he is very grateful for what he has done for him.’

The ambulance with Doctor Alan Jones and Josh Maguire was then driven off back to the hospital at Mandangle.

Chapter 7

The end of January was fast approaching. Dave had been at the station for nearly four months, so many things were happening day by day that Pukely had hardly had the time or opportunity to really sit down and discuss the real reason that Pukely wanted to talk to Dave, apart from the wedding.

Now the wedding was behind them, they were sitting having a cup of their favourite chocolate prior to going to bed when Pukely finally asked Dave the question. ‘Dave, how am I going to obtain Australian citizenship for the Go–Ann people?’

For a long time Dave had been expecting a question of this type from Pukely.

‘Buggered if I know, Pukely. What did you have in mind?’ asked Dave.

‘I believe I read somewhere that the best form of defence is attack, is that what you think?’ asked Pukely.

‘I am not sure that I understand you, Pukely,’ said Dave.

‘Well,’ said Pukely, ‘all the Go–Ann people were born within five Kilometres of where we are now sitting. My idea is to sit with Ben and Ninnae and endeavour to come up with an age for each of the Go–Ann people, then we can write it up in the BIRTHS REGISTER that Ben has had printed. We then will issue a birth certificate for each of the births and that will be the proof positive that they are in fact true Australian Citizens with a Go–Ann ancestry.’

‘Pukely,’ said Dave, ‘you always seem to come up with an answer that appears on the surface so simple. I suppose you want me to then just present your evidence to the register of births, deaths and marriage and have the whole thing incorporated in the official records.’

Whilst Pukely and Dave had been talking and the family had all been listening, two others joined in, they was Ben and Ninnae.

Iris immediately stood up and went into the kitchen and bought forth a nice cup of hot chocolate for each of the two visitors.

Pukely gave each visitor a hug and saw them to a seat then he again sat down and concluded his discussion with Dave by saying, ‘See Dave, Ben read my mind now we can get him involved in our little problem.’

Ben looked to Pukely and said, ‘Pukely, before we came to our new home in Fenton, Ninnae and I were the recognized Healers of the Go–Ann people. Now we are not the Healers anymore but the parents of the master of our people, so the inhibition that previously applied to us being able to marry no longer exists. We came to ask you for permission to marry.’

Pukely looked at Ben in utter astonishment. ‘Ask me if you can marry!’ Pukely said. ‘Father of mine, you do not have to ask my permission to marry.’

‘Pukely,’ said Ben, ‘you must understand. The Go–Ann people insist on getting your permission. As the master you must give it before they would dare marry, I am Go–Ann and I cannot do other than the rest of the people. I must ask for your blessing and approval.’

‘Father,’ said Pukely, ‘my blessing and approval is humbly given to you both with all my love and devotion attached.’

Pukely walked over to both Ben and Ninnae and gave them each a huge hug closely followed by Iris and then the rest of the family with congratulations passing from each.

‘Tomorrow, Father, we will discuss the birth days and ages of each member of the Go–Ann people, and Ben, you and Dave can see to the registering of the dates in the Go–Ann register of births, and also the issue of birth certificates for each.

‘I do believe your coming marriage will be hugely celebrated by the Go–Ann and they will want to show how they appreciate the lifetime dedication you both have given to them.’

The workload seemed again to mount up; now Dave was more than an interested bystander. He was totally involved. Ben and he had to sort out over sixty seven dates of birth as well as parentage and soon the forthcoming wedding of many of the parents in the Go–Ann village.

Unknown to all of them except one lady, there was soon to be another party to be recorded in the births register.

When Ben and Ninnae were ready to walk back to Fenton, Iris asked if she and Pukely could walk part of the way with them. Jan and Nina looked at each other and smiled as if they were party to some small conspiracy that the others were not aware of.

It was a beautiful summer’s night. Ben and Ninnae walked hand in hand. Iris walked with her head on Pukely’s shoulder. They just walked along enjoying the beautiful backdrop given off by Lake Iris..

Iris hardly broke step when she suddenly announced, ‘I’m pregnant.’

Pukely stopped walking. He spun and looked at Iris. ‘What did you say?’

‘I’m pregnant,’ Iris repeated.

Iris was swept off her feet; Pukely spun her around and around. ‘Oh you beautiful wife of mine,’ he yelled. ‘That is marvellous! That is fabulous! That is terrific!’

When he put her back on the ground, both Ben and Ninnae came over to her and gave her a great hug and congratulations.

I will have to hurry the house along and get it finished, Pukely thought to himself.

Pukely and Iris had walked about half way back to Fenton, then with a final hug all around they left Ben and Ninnae to finish their walk back to their house and walk back to the homestead.

When they entered the lounge at the homestead the family members were still sitting around the room talking about the different projects that were now in progress and about the new projects that Pukely had either just started or was about to start.

Pukely and Iris walked into the lounge room and they all looked up, Iris then said, ‘I am pregnant.’

Dave was first of his feet, he jumped up and grabbed Iris just as Pukely had and cuddled her saying, ‘Congratulations, baby. I hope everything is okay. I am so glad for you.’

‘I am perfectly well, Dad. I am only having a baby,’ said Iris. ‘No, darling,’ Dave said. ‘You are having my grandchild, there is a difference.’

The rest of the family then gathered around expressing congratulations…When is it due…What do you want it to be, girl or boy… have you thought of any names.

Iris was so overwhelmed that tears began to flow. All she could say as Pukely put his arms around her and cuddled her to his chest was ‘I am just so completely happy; thank you everybody.’

The night was getting along so after many other comments the family departed to their own bedrooms and a good night’s sleep.

Pauline was tearful at the good news herself although she had known about the pregnancy for some time and had been sworn to secrecy until Iris had informed the family.

When Pauline finally departed for bed she looked at R3 and he had a sheepish look on his face. He knew that he had been neglecting Pauline lately, and he knew that Pauline and he had been so involved in their own particular jobs that they just had not had enough time for anything else.

There was a bond between the two, both felt love for the other, they loved to be together as often as possible but time just seemed to fly, their time together was restricted to the hot chocolate period after dinner each night and in and around the pool on weekends with the family.

This is going to change, Pauline thought to herself. If Iris can find time to win Pukely to the altar, then, R3 you had better consider yourself won.

Things were really starting and or about to start to happen on the station now.

Chapter 8

Pukely’s insistence that they should commence the Two Ridges Lake wall and also the construction of The Steps Hanger Projects, as well as produce the Rotatubes for the house and hospitals, caused Colin to suggest that they provide additional assistance to Pica, Minnie and Valerie.

‘Of course,’ said Pukely. ‘I think that is a wonderful idea.’

Pica, Minnie and Valerie had been making do with a small mixing machine that had been on the station from early days.

Now that the pressure was applied for extra output of both the Building Blocks and the Rotatubes, they requested a large mixer similar to the unit used on the back of cement trucks.

Colin, without hesitation, ordered a new cement mixing unit complete with a portable diesel power plant to power the cement mixer.

Pica, Minnie and Valerie had been using eight moulds for the manufacture of the Rotatubes, and now they were going to need moulds for the manufacture of the building blocks.

The trio went into a discussion and decided that the best solution was to move the cement mixer to a site inside the Two Ridges, most of the materials they were going to use for the production of the Building Blocks could be found between the Two Ridges so it only sound like good sense to locate the mixer there.

A large cover was built so that the mixer and the power plant were protected from the sun. Valerie saw to the installation of a filter unit that would filter the ingredients she required from the soil inside the Two Ridges floor area. There were two filtering processes and where a small filter was able to handle the requirements for the production of the Rotatubes, a much larger unit would be required for the manufacture of the building blocks.

The strange looking Filter system was manufacture by a company in MANDANGLE; use was made of several of the conveyors that had been used to excavate Lake Iris.

When Valerie had been investigating the composition of the soil around the stations; she found that there were large concentrations of setotrabe compound in the soil. This was a compound that could be filtered out reasonably easily from the other elements in the soil.

First she separated all the vegetation in the first filter pass.

She then put a measured weight of the cleaner soil in the mixer and mixed in a concentration of compound that they had found and mixed from other soils on the station.

Then they had mixed a small amount of potassium into the mix and mixed the whole amount around in the mixer for about fifteen minutes.

When the mix was poured from the mixer it was obvious that a good portion of the mix had in fact formed into balls of compound about as large as tennis balls, where other soil had remained as grains.

This whole mixture was then picked up by a front end loader and again loaded back onto another conveyor belt which fed onto a second area of the filter; the grains fell through and were shipped outside onto slag heaps beyond the Two Ridges Lake area by dump trucks.

Except for the Potassium, the concentrate compound formula that the trio called Valerite after Valerie who had invented the formula was kept a secret., only the Trio knew the contents of the formula and the mixing was carried out away from prying eyes only by the trio.

So it was that that Minnie with the help of several senior Go–Ann sought and bagged the components that were needed to make the formula from several locations around the stations so that the components were not completely deleted from any one location.

Pica also had several of the senior Go–Ann, as appointed by Pukely, to assist him to make the huge one metre square moulds that were for the Building Blocks.

The moulds were not exactly square; there were two furrows along two of the sides, and two rails on two of the other sides. The front and back of the moulds were flat.

The rails were built into the bottom of the mould and the furrows were built into the lid that sat onto the top of the mould. If you stood in front of the mould you would see rails on the right hand side and on the top, then furrows on the left hand side and the bottom. The idea was that the rails of the building block would sit neatly in the furrows of the next block and help to form a solid joint like a dovetail joint.

When placed together you would only see a nice flat surface from the front and back with a little Valerite, Potassium and the final compound which was called Mallenem between the surfaces to seal the joint. Once the final compound was set between the blocks it became one with the blocks, similar to, but stronger than, cement.

To make the Rotatubes required only the inclusion of Celium Silicate Solution and the exclusion of Mallenem.

So the production began, as soon as the production process was established, the Go–Ann were relieved of the tasks and replaced by more labour from Mandangle. The Go–Ann only remained as supervisors to control quality.

Surveyors were bought to the Two Ridges site and established the levels for the bulldozers to excavate across the three mile gap at the entrance of the site.

Colin appointed several of the engineers to see to the setting of the appropriate levels following the bulldozers that had gone down to bedrock, fortunately not too deep.

Jackhammers drilled into the bedrock and set reinforcement steel rods of sufficient strength into the bedrock then steel reinforcement rods were laid horizontally along the length of the levelled area from cliff to cliff.

Once the levels had been established it was decided that a concrete wall of only two feet was required to get a level across the gap, the sides of the gap were also drilled at the ground level up the cliffs about the same two feet and the reinforcement steel inserted in the sides also.

The next step was to get a sufficient supply of ply to site to be set on the sides of the reinforcement up to a height of two feet but leaving a space of one metre between the boards to provide the formworks for the concrete pour that was to follow.

Pukely negotiated with the concrete company in Mandangle to again bring a portable mixing unit to site and do the mixing, the local sand again being available for the mix.

The crew on the station had become quite competent when it came to grading a suitable road for use of heavy vehicles. This job however was a huge challenge for them, the road needed to be over fifty miles long from the station.

Fortunately there were several long well-worn tracks that led in the general direction required and had been used and well bedded during the drought, these were now made full use of, and extensions were carefully selected so as not to end up in sand traps.

The engineers were run off their feet to get the road planned to take the heavy vehicles involved, but two weeks saw a track sufficient to take the loads completed, but they were only bush tracks and problems were expected so tracked vehicles such as the bulldozer were kept on standby.

The mixing machine was on site and installed along with a generator from the stock held at the station left over from the Lake Iris project.

This was carried out as the ply board was being put into position; the sand was being stockpiled by the other members of the stations crews.

The trucks of cement and gravel arrived on site, water tankers with the compliments of the Mandangle shire council arrived with water and the project commenced.

Two kilometres of concrete, one metre wide and two feet high began to be mixed, the mixing continued day and night, lights were brought to site and the mixing never stopped, as soon as one mix finished another began, the trucks picked up the concrete at the mixer and drove to and fro discharging their loads according to the engineer’s requests.

Crews changed every twelve hours. Pukely and Colin slept on site it took over three weeks for the foundation to be completed, for in fact this is what it was they were laying.

Finally they had the last load in place; the surveyors rechecked the levels and declared the job complete.

As the concrete had been finished along the line of the foundation the engineers had placed timbers the same size and distance apart as the furrows in the Building Blocks, this was to allow the bottom layer of the blocks to be inserted in the furrows and gain maximum strength against thrust of the water pressure from inside the lake, the same procedure had been applied against the side wall for the same purpose.

The completion of the concreting saw the concrete plant was removed and the outside trucks disappeared from site. Only the Go–Ann supervisors and the few imported workers remained on site to continue under the guidance of Pica.

A clever design feature of the blocks was that a steel plate was inserted in the top before the pouring took place, the plate had a hole in the bottom that was to be approximately twelve inches inside the block and a hole in the top about two inches in diameter and the steel extended three inches out of the block this allowed it to accept a hook, inside the block mould a steel rod went from side to side and through the lifting bar.

After the pouring took place, the mould, which was in five pieces and attached to the base with steel pins, was removed. The steel rod was exposed on the sides and the lifting hole on top, the front end loader that had a crane lift attached to the back, lifted the block away for storage and another lifting bar was put in place inside the block mould and secured by the steel rod and the process began all over again.

The very mass of the blocks dictated that the process was going to be of long duration and the amount of materials required enormous.

The men hired from Mandangle were happy however to have the work, as with all the projects that were carried out at the stations owned by Pukely. A large topless tank was moved near the site a cover was placed over the tank to protect it from the sun, and the tank was filled with clean water from the tankers before they went back to Mandangle, so it was that work proceeded till Pica saw the heat was too much and the crew stopped and cooled off with a swim and a fresh cool drink, all supplied free by the station.

Chapter 9

The house and hospitals were all in progress. The house was close to being finished. Soon it would be time to start to line the inside with the Rotatubes, and Minnie was working as fast as she could to ensure that enough Rotatubes were in stock to commence installation as soon as the rest of the house was completed.

Because of the amount of construction that was underway at the one time, Iris did not pay too much attention to the house being built, she had only eyes for the hospital that was also being built and which she imagined would be too small before it was finished.

News of Iris’s treatment for Prostate Cancer had spread like wildfire; she was getting calls from all over Australia asking if they could come to the station for treatment. Her temporary hospital in the house only had three beds and no facilities for any long stay by a patient.

Many patients arrived at the station in cars asking for directions to the hospital. Iris was embarrassed by the amount of people that she had no option but to turn away.

Jim Gregory, the manager of the Flying Doctor Service, arrived one day in his plane having advised Ernie ahead of time by radio that he had one of the owners of a nearby station on board and he was grievously ill. Ernie never gave any consideration to anything else except that someone was sick and Jim Gregory had asked for help.

The plane arrived at the airstrip on Kings Cauldron Station and the ill patient was transferred to Iris’s little hospital in Fenton.

Iris found after the patient, introduced as Mr John Smith was in fact dying of cancer that had not only affected his prostate, but had travelled to his liver, his spleen and his kidneys.

Obviously the man was in very bad way, Iris had Pauline help Mr Smith with a urine sample, and she