Chapter 24

Saturday saw the five of us heading off down the highway to Bairnsdale. Ernie was sitting in the front seat with his gammy leg stretched out in front of him, Jess was relegated to the backseat. Dom and Cheryl followed in Dom's roadster.

Doug and his wife greeted us at the farm. Alice, Doug's other half suggested we take a tour of the old homestead and then we could decide if we were still interested.

Interested was an understatement. Doug had removed the hay bales off the veranda and taken the boards off the windows. Just these two things made the house look a lot larger.

"I grew up in this old place, there were three other kids and my self; there's a lot of good memories here Tony, that's why I was reluctant to sell it to you. Alice made a good point though when she said the house needed a great deal of TLC. Like most farmers these days, money's a bit tight, so it makes good sense to sell it to someone who will take care of it."

It was a big house, six bedrooms, a huge kitchen with an old wood burning range, the living room was also enormous, they sure built them for comfort them days. There was furniture in all of the rooms although the blankets and linen had long been removed. The cellar under the kitchen has racks and shelves for storage and even on such a hot day it was nice and cool.

Ernie was limping around inspecting the walls and windows with a critical eye, I could see that he was very interested in the quality of the construction.

"Nothing fancy kids, but well built, should last a lifetime." Was his verdict.

"We'll leave you to wander around Tony, when you reach a decision come up to the house and we'll talk."

"Thanks Doug, I'm sure we have a lot to look at. See you in a while then."

We looked and poked around both inside and out. There was a huge concrete water tank at the back and what appeared to be a bore tank although the pump was not connected, something we need to talk about; water was going to be a big item when we got things up and running.

Once we had our fill of exploring Dom broached the question. "Well folks what do we think, is it a doable proposition, are we prepared to put in the work to bring it up to a roadhouse and the big question, do we buy it?"

I didn't want to influence the others so I held back while they all aired their thoughts. They were all for it, Ernie was as enthusiastic as the rest of us. I finally put my two bob's worth into the ring.

"Dom's right, there is a hell of a lot of work to get it going, we don't have a great amount of capital so it's going to be slow going for quite a while. I think the first thing we should do is find out how much Doug expects for the place. If that falls within our budget we should take out an option on the place. We need to talk to the Shire Council to see if we can get a permit to operate a roadhouse and what regulations we have to abide by."

We agreed to the purchase of the property on the basis of Doug's price being within our budget and getting Council approval. That settled we went up to the house and talked to Doug and Alice.

The smell of onions and meat cooking assailed my nostrils making my mouth water. There's something deeply Australian about the barbeque that is built into our psyche. Other countries have their cook-outs, but the 'Barbie' is Aussie pure and simple, the women gather and 'hen' talk and the men, beer in hand talk 'men's business.

It would appear that the locals weren't wasting any time and as soon as we arrive someone shoved a beer into my hand and shook the other, introducing himself. Doug came over and greeted us again.

"Come into the house folks, we can talk uninterrupted there." Alice joined us.

"We've had a good look around Doug and we like what we see. There are a few questions we need to look at, water will be a main concern to us, I notice the rainwater tank if full at the moment. What is the position with the bore?"

"We took the bore pump off to use elsewhere, if you decide to buy the place we can come to some arrangement about replacing it."

"Next question, is the house on a separate title or is it part of the farm?"

"No, it's on it's own title, when my parents retired I took over the farm and built this house for Alice and myself. We separated the old homestead from the farm and put it on a separate title, it sits on ten acres."

"Now the big one, we have limited finances but I hope we can reach an agreement on price. If we can, before we can proceed we would need to seek approval from the Shire to operate the house as a roadhouse."

"OK, Alice and I have talked a fair bit about selling, we understand that you will be needing a lot of money to get this thing up and running. Our main concern is that the house is looked after, we can't afford to put money into maintaining the place so selling it to you seems to be the best option. How does Five thousand pounds sound to you?"

Ernie tapped my wrist, "Take it Tony, my compo will cover it."

I looked at the others, they all nodded in agreement.

"Doug, Alice, pending Shire approval it looks like we have a deal."

We all shook hands and tried to talk at once, one weight had lifted from my shoulders but a bigger one replaced it, we were committed.

"Right, let's go and I'll introduce you to the neighbours and grab a bite to eat. They're all eager to know your decision and want to meet you all."