Savage Skies by Graham Guy

Author:Graham Guy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: DoctorZed Publishing

Chapter 12

It took Hacka forty minutes to get to the Nepean River. As he passed through Parramatta his mind went back over the events that led him to the tunnel, the drop off point for the ransom money.

Kingsley Roundtree had told him that during the early part of the 1900s the State Government had put together a plan for an underground pipeline to transfer water from the Nepean River to outlying farming areas. Work begun and the tunnel, with an artery leading off of it, was only one hundred and fifty metres long when the depression hit. The tunnel’s entrances were sealed and nothing more was ever said or done about it. Roundtree’s grandfather later bought the land immediately over the top of the tunnels and for years ran sheep and cattle on it. In a conversation at a local council meeting with an elderly farmer from the Blue Mountains he learned about the tunnels running right under his land. Roundtree’s grandfather pursued the comment and fossicked around until he turned up an entrance. Inside, thick cement lined the walls and roof and about halfway along a second tunnel led off from it. He re-sealed the entrance and gave the matter little more thought.

It was only years later he mentioned the tunnel to his grandson. By that time, with more people wanting to spend more time at the Nepean River he’d got rid of the sheep and cattle and replaced them with timber-built river-frontage shacks he rented out to holidaymakers. Roundtree had told Hacka the shacks were currently empty and would remain so until the holiday season. But he had gone to great lengths to explain that if he bothered to climb into the tunnel, walk seventy-three metres, burrow through the roof and dig through the top metre of soil, he would come out in the kitchen of the third shack or the one in the middle. There was also a gate that closed off the artery.

During the time he spent in Sydney after being released from jail, Hacka had gone to the river and sought out the location. After finding the entrance he made his way along it. He discovered the artery and the gate leading to it, almost hidden behind the double cement casing of the main tunnel. He guessed this was to protect the door from the pressure of rushing water when the tunnel became fully operational. He measured out the required seventy-three metres and burrowed through the cement tunnel.

Doggedly he stuck to the task of digging through the metre of soil above it. Suddenly he struck timber. He pushed against it and came out in the kitchen of the third shack. He was beside himself with glee. He went to the tunnel’s entrance, measured the distance to the first shack and repeated the exercise, this time coming up in a bedroom. To be sure and cover his tracks totally, Hacka had included the first shack as an integral part of the plan. He then returned to Melbourne and sought out Jimmy The Flea.

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