Lightning Strike

Willem Berg sat on the veranda of his spacious home overlooking the valley below. The extended drought had browned the foliage under a hot sun and Willem had disposed of a considerable number of the cattle as he usually did during droughts but kept a limited breeding stock which rotated between the irrigated paddocks close by the river.

This property had been in his family for the best part of a hundred years now and he acknowledged his ancestors who’d departed the Netherlands soon after the turmoil of ever warring Europe and the war that had killed so many called the first world war.

His ancestors wanted to get as far away from Europe as they could having lost so many of their family members to wars so taking their wealth, they sought passage to Australia which in the mind of Europeans was at the ends of the earth.

Stories had been passed along through generations about this strange country with animals not known in Europe though these animals were illustrated in European underground caves inhabited by tribes of prehistory so revealed they may have existed there once.  They’d migrated to a vast island continent which up to recent times had been only marginally explored by Europeans far from the settlements on the coast.

His ancestor’s original trip out has been horrendous encountering constant storms in the Indian Ocean and the small family arrived so sick from their journey it had taken weeks to recover at temporary lodgings in Sydney before they could begin constructing a shop and housing to recommence trade. They began to import household goods from Europe but suffered a major loss when one of the ships carrying their supplies sank. They were a resilient family and over time slowly recovered and became quite wealthy in the colony. Language had not been a major problem for them having migrated to an English-speaking country as the Netherlands was a trading nation and most traders were well versed in the English of the times.

As the Berg family increased the eldest in turn inherited their trading business on the passing of elders and it was customary for the one inheriting the property to give a liberal cash settlement to brothers helping them to settle into business or professions of their choosing.

Over time Willem’s grandparents had been assisted in purchasing this property by the senior member of the clan so they could work to establish farmlands for support of their own children or help them in turn to establish in their own business or profession in the next generation. Grandfather had told Willem the story of this land grant development over the term of his working life clearing trees on the river plain with the help of his wife and children. The family had worked hard over years to construct this spacious home and over the generations had added running water and sewerage along with modern appliances after electricity had been bought to their property through transmission lines passing over the corner of their property. 

Willem could remember as a child watching as his uncles and aunts would take time from their own work in the city or surrounding villages to help grandfather with the harvest. They were still a close clan and while family conventions were now limited to once every year on this property with visiting families camping in tents and recreation vans or occupying barn lofts would enjoy communal meals and share stories of what was happening in their lives. The older folk would spend time reliving the good old days of growing up on this property and the younger ones would spend their time hiking the trails, riding horses or swimming in the river that ran past the property.

Willem tried to imagine the work it had taken grandfather to clear this expansive property for crops and cattle. With adequate water supply seeping out of the hills adjacent the property line there was enough to supply irrigation for crops and water for cattle even in drought years but in the times of drought they exercised careful control over water usage and even sold off much of the herd to live with a limited supply, so the river was not overburdened.

But it was not the droughts and their economic impact that concerned the Berg family over the generations of farming here. It was the possibility the forests on the mountains and the matting laid down over time as leaves and bark accumulated between trees would become so dry under a relentless sun that embers could start and follow the wind to cleared areas as the sun heated that dried fuel to ignition point and inland winds would sweep those embers into a raging fire sweeping through the surrounding forests and potentially destroying house, barns and fencing as blazing embers attached to roofs. So far, they’d avoided a catastrophe though there were times when the fires lapped their property lines before they and their neighbours managed to build fire breaks around the property and keep buildings soaked with water from their adequate ground storage tanks serviced by windmills pumping from the deep earth aquifers. But the level of the deep ground aquifers had dropped significantly in this extended drought and that was cause for concern. As the river level had also dropped Willem had reduced cattle to breeding stock and limited irrigation to two fenced areas.

Willem was startled out of his thoughts by two hands placed on his shoulders as he watched activities on the farmlands below and thought of what needed to be done next. It was his wife Maaike who he fondly referred to as May. She spoke.

“What have you decided and where are the children as I’ve prepared food, and we need to get that too them as they work.”

“Arnold is up on the highest point of the mountain behind us with binoculars checking for any evidence of fires starting on the mountains. He keeps in touch with the regional Fire Service.”

“Eduard is in the workshop servicing equipment and checking on the sprinkler systems and power generator in case we lose power from the government should they turn it off if a bushfire is spotted. Each of the kids have their satellite phones so we can be in touch in an emergency. You said you were sending Evi into town for household supplies in one of the jeeps and we’ll have to warn her as traditionally the road is closed to town when a bushfire starts though the government has been doing a lot of backburning to provide a barrier between the mountains and town so apart from smoke it will be possible to get through to town in an emergency though we’ve never had to do that before. The smoke itself would be a health hazard.”

“You should phone Eduard and ask him to collect food for Arnold and himself and head up the mountain trail on his dirt bike and see how things are up there. We can send Liam or Noah up to relieve Arnold in the afternoon or we could send a drone up there to keep an eye on surrounding countryside and the boys can take shifts during the night to keep it up in the air for a visual and bring it back periodically to change batteries.”

Maaike nodded and headed back to the kitchen to contact Eduard and pass on instructions. After doing that she wheeled a tray of food back to the veranda and sat beside her husband dishing out food for them both. They ate in silence looking out over the property until Eduard bounded up the stairs looking for food for this brother and himself. Maaike handed him a carry bag full of food and watched as he bounded downstairs and jumped on the dirt bike.

To be continued.

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