Benworden (17 page)

It wasn't long before Brian was back in the tunnel, heading to meet up with Gerry again and then completing the circle once more, only this time Gerry would return to the boarding house with Brian.

Gerry told me later it was hilarious to see Brian walk through the doors of the boarding house like he was busting to go to the toilet as he was still adjusting to the elevated shoes. He stumbled his way upstairs as Gerry entered the foyer and went straight to the supervisor. She told the supervisor that Roo and Bungles were fairly tired and said they wouldn't want anything to eat because they had pushed her car a kilometre after she had run out of petrol and she had rewarded them by buying them a very big late lunch. The supervisor told Gerry she had watched them both come in and agreed that they looked very tired.

That evening was an absolute nightmare as everyone
worked overtime trying to cover for our two missing boys. Sophie would move from room to room and change tops so no one would work out that her sister was upstairs in Bungles' bed pretending to be asleep if anyone should check up on him. Brian was in Roo's room and I would keep people away from Brian's room by telling them he was studying. Once everyone believed Bungles and Roo to be asleep Brian and Kate could emerge as themselves again.

Down below, Roo had made great inroads through the rubble and on reaching Bungles, he saw him slumped over where he sat with his knees upright, arms folded across them and his head resting on his arms. Roo worked tirelessly to get the rest of the debris from around him and was concerned because Bungles hadn't moved the whole time.

Roo was frantic at this stage and yelled out, “Bungles, are you ok? Talk to me!”

“Dead set!” replied Bungles, “Can't a guy get a bit of sleep! After all I've been through! A lot, you know.”

Roo was relieved and said, “Don't do that to me. You had me worried!”

“It's not like it's been a picnic down here!” Bungles snapped back.

Roo could see just how cramped Bungles had been and was concerned about the boulder on the top of the cage. Roo related the plan to Bungles and told him he knew it was difficult but explained that he would have to try and work his way a little closer to the safety cabinet so that when Roo cut the bar he could manoeuvre the track into position.

Bungles shuffled over and Roo slowly cut through the bar with the oxy. Neither of the boys spoke while this was
happening. They were both feeling a little tense because of the creaking noise they could hear as Roo cut through the bar. Small pieces of debris were falling at intervals, leaving the boys fearful that the whole thing could come down at any given moment.

Roo finally removed the bar and both he and Bungles manoeuvred the steel track that had been cut to size into position. Roo had cleared a path to the doorway nearest the cage in case things didn't go to plan and the boulder came down in the wrong direction, but the club members had thought through every scenario and due to good planning and good luck the cage collapsed exactly as it should and the boulder ended up where they wanted it.

Gerry and I had two-way radios in our rooms and the girls had gathered in hers and the boys in mine to listen for any updates from Roo. Roo finally came back with the good news we had all waited for, telling us everything was ok and that they were about to head back out. He then placed the radio to Bungles' ear so he could hear the muffled cheers of the others who were elated yet still careful to avoid discovery. Even after all he had been through he managed a grin knowing how much his friends cared for him.

Roo gently grabbed Bungles by the arm and said, “Come on mate, we're out of here. We can only cover your disappearance for so long, you know.”

Bungles' head lifted slowly. He frowned as he replied in a very gruff voice, which took Roo by surprise, “I don't know what you're on, mate, but I've been cramped in this position for almost a day and now you're telling me to hurry up? Get over yourself brother. I feel like my butt is welded to my heels!”

Roo looked at him apologetically and said, “Sorry mate, I
wasn't thinking. Let me help.”

He threw Bungles over his shoulder and carried him to the bobcat then eased him on to it. Roo harnessed Bungles to the machine, jumped into the driver's seat and headed out as far as the foyer where he pulled up and lifted Bungles into the elevator. Bungles smiled and said with a very husky voice that kept breaking due to the amount of dust he had swallowed, “Thanks mate. I knew you would be the first person I'd see.”

Roo replied, “No worries mate. I know you'd do the same for me. Have you got enough strength to haul yourself up to Greg's room?”

Bungles' smile broadened and he replied, “You're a bloody insulting bugger, aren't you? Now you're calling me a bloody weakling! Don't know how much more of this crap I can put up with.”

Bungles winked and shut the elevator door and hauled himself up to my room. On his arrival he was still very weak in the legs so we helped him out and sat him on my bed, then we all gathered around him rubbing him on the head and giving him high fives.

He was covered in dust and dirt and I said to him, “You're going to need a bit of a scrub up, mate. We brought some clean clothes in for you but how are you going to manage in the state you're in?”

Bungles looked up with a frown and said, “Just chuck me in the shower fully clothed and once I get that warm water on my legs I should be ok.”

The other boys picked him up under his arms and started to take him towards my bathroom. Bungles looked back over his shoulder at me with a cheeky grin on his face and said, “Unless
you want to scrub my back, Dylan.”

Everyone burst into laughter and I replied, “No. She'll be right mate.”

Saturday turned out to be a great day. Roo had worked tirelessly all day Friday and had brought Bungles out at four o'clock Saturday morning, and I received a phone call at midday from Mr Neals informing me of what had transpired at Paul's place. He was quick to remind me of my promise about good marks.

I kept my promise and finished second in my class by a short margin to Geraldine, who ended up as dux.

18

T
ALBERT'S
D
ISCOVERY

A
fter the collapse, the club decided that a lot of things needed to be updated and as usual held a meeting to brainstorm what we felt would not only make our clubrooms safer but also more comfortable. Bonnie had been researching what is used in the mining industry to create a safer working environment and she had brought brochures of a product called Shotcrete, which is similar to a mixture of concrete and paint but helps to minimise the effects of any geological movement.

We all agreed on getting it done but we also knew this was an enormous job and would include pumping the substance from the mine entrance all the way to the clubrooms. There were some ‘ums' and ‘ahs' amongst the members but after what had just happened it was important to ensure not only the safety of all the current club members but future ones as well.

It took us two solid weeks to complete, but by working in shifts and quite a few late nights we finally achieved it. There was one more thing on our list and that was to convert the old pulley elevator into an electrically operated one. As usual, I would pursue the things that were required for the project, and because there was a reasonable amount of electrical work to be done Greg would be in charge of construction. We had a list of past members in the club safe and on occasion we would ask for their advice on issues or how to obtain certain objects that were needed for special projects such as this one.

Ex- member Phillip Paver was one of these trusted people.
He was one of the best mechanics in Ballarat so I rang him and explained what we needed to get our new idea for an electric elevator up and running.

He thought about my request for a moment, then said, “I think I have just the thing. I've had it sitting in the back of my garage at home for some time now and it'll need a bit of tweaking. In fact, now that I think about it, it served a similar purpose.”

Phillip was a clever man and he was renowned throughout the area for his ability to create something out of nothing so I asked him, “What have you got for us, Phil, and how hard is it going to be to get it to where we need it?”

“It won't be too much of a problem at all, Dylan,” he replied. “I expanded my garage at home last year from a one-car to a double and I had no further use for the motor that drove the old automatic door, but I hate throwing things away. My wife Val, on the other hand, keeps me in check when it comes to my obsessive compulsive hoarding and has recently been asking me to get rid of a pile of stuff that I have sitting around collecting dust, so you guys will be doing me a favour. Just send Geraldine down with her dad's tray with the hoist on the back and it'll be ready for you on Friday.”

We only needed one motor due to the girls' dorm being directly below the boys', and it was the boarding house captains who had the rooms that the elevator ran through.

It was a tradition at Benworden that the boarding house captains would nominate who would take their place and their room the following year. The nominees did not necessarily have to come from pupils who were moving from year 11 to year 12, but any pupil nominated couldn't be in a class lower than year 10 moving to year 11.

Two years prior, when I was in year 10, the club purchased a small four-wheel off-road vehicle known as a “mule”, as well as a trailer to fit on the back of it. The mule was small enough to drive up the main tunnel with room to spare yet powerful enough to haul heavy loads to the side entrance of the club rooms. There was only one problem that we needed to overcome back then, and that was the drop shaft halfway up the tunnel. It had never been filled because the original club members believed if anyone ever found the entrance to the mine, the hole would become a deterrent, so they had placed a large sign in front of it reading “DANGER”. To get the mule past the hole we therefore welded a metal rod to the front of it which would trigger a lever before it arrived at the hole, and the sign which was converted to a heavy duty cast iron plate would fall backward over the hole at the same time, pushing the well rope to one side.

Once the mule had passed over the hole the metal plate would spring back up into position. The club members never worried about putting a sign up on the other side because they already knew it was there. Even if they forgot, there was reflective tape on the back of the metal plate on the other side which was very visible when using their torches.

The motor was ready and Gerry took Roo and Bungles with her to pick up her father's flat tray with the swinging hoist on the back. I would have gone too but Gerry and I were the only two with licences and I was busy that afternoon organising other parts for the elevator.

Roo kept at Gerry to let him deliver the motor up the shaft to the club rooms on the mule, but Gerry explained that Greg needed to examine the motor to make sure it suited the purpose, otherwise he would leave it in the trailer for them to take back
the following day.

Once they had the motor on board they drove it to the shaft entrance and unloaded it onto the trailer. They then parked the trailer and the mule back in the shaft. This would have been impossible when the shaft was first discovered – you wouldn't have been able to get any sort of vehicle into it. In fact, it was difficult enough to squeeze a person through the entrance to the mine, but since then the club had done some major excavations and like the side door to the club rooms, had camouflaged it with artificial rock.

Greg was held up at school, and so after he'd rushed back to the boarding house Bonnie helped him sneak into the girls' dorm and into Gerry's room where he quickly fitted some new electrical components for the lift. He then headed up to my room where he did the same.

I gave him the key to the cast iron gate that led to the smithy's workshop as this was the only way to get to the shaft at this time of day due to the elevator being out of action.

We weren't the only ones having a busy day. Greg had passed Talbert Tucker in the foyer earlier. He was on his way out and it looked like he was going on one of his hikes. He was wearing a backpack and seemed to be in a hurry. Earlier in the day the sports teacher, Mr Popplestone, told him he had received a phone call from the coach of the Ballarat Bandits basketball team informing him that Talbert had been selected on the team and as soon as the school bell rang to signal the end of the day, Talbert ran to his locker to retrieve his mobile phone. He couldn't believe the news he had just received and was frantic to share it with his mother.

“Mum!” he exclaimed.

“Is that you, Talbert?” she replied.

“Mum, listen!” Talbert snapped back, but before he could begin a sentence his mother had picked up the excitement in his voice and thought there was something wrong.

“Has something happened? Are you ok? What's going on?” she rattled off in concern.