behind the old Peoples Palace where she had once stayed as a teenager during a highland dancing competition then turned left onto Blackwood Street. Here was her new temporary abode. It had a dark gated underground car park, with an elevator to her fully furnished apartment. After checking in she wondered if she should even bother unpacking all her lifelong possessions. It didn’t take her long to decide. She was not interested in humping every article out of her car up an elevator, through a hallway and past a heavy door.
“Buggar that,” Kylie said out loud. “I’ll do it just once when I find a flat to live in.”
Kylie was a bit of an energy saver. She slept in ’til the crack of noon most weekends and savoured every last second before the third snooze alarm went off in the morning. It was nothing to her to leave her car chock a block for six weeks rather than expend what she considered wasted energy.
She popped the boot of her car and took the large suitcase that housed everything she would require for the next couple of weeks and decided she could trek back to the car if she needed any other shoes or tidbits. A 48cm TV set sat on the back passenger seat facing the doorway, her mirrors lay flat towards the roof of the boot of her car. Backpacks full of random clothing and shoes filled empty crevasses in the cavities left. Kylie had already sent all her belongings over with the removalist but was later showered with gifts from her family and friends and had six weeks to find permanent accommodation.
Kylie felt empty, even though she had been snacking all day. But she realised the empty feeling didn’t stem from hunger and decided she didn’t need to eat dinner. Instead, she chose her clothes for her first day at work, ironed them and laid them out for an early departure. Following a hot shower, she made a few phone calls back home, and was in bed before 9 pm.
Tears rained onto her pillow that night and although she eventually drifted off, she was awake long before the alarm started buzzing at 6 am. She kicked off the sheets, determined not to go into work puffy eyed and miserable. She dressed in the same clothes she had taken off the previous night, threw on her socks, tied up her shoe laces, grabbed a hat to cover her bed hair and picked up her apartment keys as she walked out the front door and headed down the stairs.
The bright light of day made her step back for a moment and rub her eyes gently. “Wow. That’s awesome!” she said looking up towards Castle Hill with the sun rising above the eastern crest behind her. The image was so majestic and rich in colour, vibrant red clay rock against brilliant golden sunshine, twinkling beyond the vast outline of the rock-like hill that captured the centre of Townsville like a prized jewel.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a powerful sunrise,” she said to herself as she ventured along Walker Street then turned right down Stanley Street. Turning back onto Sturt Street she headed past the Police Station towards the now stark and empty western end of Flinders Street Mall on her way to the Townsville Jupiters Casino. Kylie had no specific destination in mind, she just wanted to immerse herself in her new surroundings and try to blur the engraved images of everything back home. Maybe that way she would realise she wasn’t in Kansas anymore. She felt a walk through town was a fitting start to her new adventure and a good way to ensure she was completely awake and ready for her new beginning with BHP in less than two hours. As she left Flinders Street Mall for the nightclub strip of Flinders Street East, she looked at the empty buildings that promised after hours excitement but wondered when she would enter them. Who would she go with? Who would she talk to once inside? She couldn’t go alone...she wasn’t in Mount Isa anymore. The rooms would be filled with strangers. Strangers who were stranger than the friends she knew and adored back home.
Walking past the old Sun Ferries Terminal in Ross Creek where she had caught many a Hayles Ferry from as a child, she reflected on the innocence with which she had always visited Townsville. The times spent with school friends whilst on school camps, with her family on regular trips to see her grandfather in town or the times she drove to Townsville as an adult with girlfriends for shopping trips combined with some rent-a-moke island frivolity were the strongest memories she had of this part of town. Magnetic Island had been a constant within her life thanks to her mum’s frugal savings plan throughout the school year to enable them to afford school holidays in the Mount Isa Mines discounted Kooyong Flats in Arcadia Bay.
Her feet carried her along the footpath towards the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority offices, the Tropical Museum of Queensland and the Great Barrier Reef Aquarium. She hadn’t been inside the museum since the impressive floor display of the construction of the majestic ship Pandora had been outlined on the floor plan and a to scale part model had been built to showcase the historic journey it had made before it came to rest on the Coral Sea bed. It was on her list of things to do but again, it was something that she feared she would have to experience alone. For someone as extremely social as Kylie was, the prospect of facing things alone was new and not so appealing.
Kylie hot footed it out along Sir Leslie Thiess Drive and walked as far as she could go on the outskirts of the sea wall, a fisherman’s footpath, built from rocks and concrete and providing a gateway into the Townsville Port, and into Ross River. The Port enabled ships, ferries, yachts, boats and punts to come and go, as they ventured back and forth from the shipping lanes around the world or enjoyed the beauty and rewards of the ocean closer to home around Magnetic Island, Cape Bowling Green and outwards towards the Coral Sea.
Kylie walked out to the closest opposite point to the very berth she was about to start work at that very morning, Berth 11. It stood proudly on the outer marina, with a clear view of incoming harbour activity and it had its back to her, with its nose in the air. Kylie stared back at it with her head high, telling herself she had made the right choice in uprooting herself from everything she had ever known. She looked up at the peak of the Ship loader where she had been taken on her second interview under false pretence to prove she was unbothered by heights and mesh stairways. Without even knowing she was being tested, she had nailed it.
“There’s my new focus,” Kylie said softly to herself. “That’s where opportunity lies.”
She sat down and stared, entranced, at the water lapping against the concrete wharf. Shaking her head and stretching, she looked at her watch to find that twenty minutes had passed. It was time to walk back to her abode and get ready to front her first day at work so she got up and quickly retraced her steps.
Kylie was showered, dressed and in her car by 7.40 am. It only took her ten minutes to arrive at work. She got out of the car and locked the door, straightened herself up and patted down her hair in the reflection of the window glass. Following the footpath to the stairs, she climbed them, blotted her lips together, closed her eyes and took a final deep breath. She opened the door to find a room full of men sitting at a table in the middle of the office. Some of them were eating breakfast cereal and talking.
“G’day,” Kylie said closing the door behind her. “I’m Kylie.”
“Hey, here she is.” One of the men stood up and greeted her holding out his hand. He had interviewed Kylie and met her twice beforehand.
“Hi Chris,” she said.
“Good memory. These are the guys,” he said pointing to each one as they got up and came over to shake Kylie’s hand. Kylie noticed they all had their names stitched onto their shirts so didn’t take much notice of their actual names. She figured she could use a man’s trick and look at their chest when she spoke to them, instead of into their eyes.
They all seemed very friendly. Kylie’s boss entered the office about five minutes after she had met everyone else. “Hi Boss,” said Kylie as he walked in.
“Hi Kylie. Welcome to BHP. So you found the place alright then?” he asked holding his hand out to shake hers.
“Yes thanks. I have spent a lot of time in Townsville on holidays so I feel familiar already.”
“Oh that’s great. That’ll make your transition easier. When did you arrive?”
“I drove over yesterday, and got in about 6 pm,” Kylie replied.
“Wow! How are the heartstrings? First time you’ve moved isn’t it?” her boss asked sweetly.
“A