Very loud termites by Martin Kearney

I had to fly from Perth to Exmouth in the early 80’s to inspect the North Cape Lodge holiday resort for termite activity as the resort was being sold so the potential new buyer wisely decided to obtain a termite inspection report before signing the dotted line.

When I arrived it was extremely hot (Mid 40’s) the resort had corrugated iron roof sheeting so inspection of the roof cavity had to be carried out very early in the morning before it became too hot a 4am start. During the day I inspected the under floor areas. The structural timber under floors had an unusual stamp burned into the timbers, a trade mark called Kangaroo Karri which termites usually love but there was new or old activity damage. Originally being a world war 2 RAAF defence base the builders probably soaked the timber in dieldrin before construction. It took a few days in between a few beers to inspect all the buildings. I was inspecting the last building remember its 4am and very quiet, I entered the ceiling and started to crawl through the roof void I switched on my torch and saw what I thought was blow in insulation but on further investigation I found it was a massive termite nest covering the whole ceiling like a carpet about a meter deep. I couldn’t find any timber left in the ceiling cavity/roof area at all I guess the only thing holding up the roof/ceiling was the termite nest! While I was in the roof/ceiling treating the termite activity I thought I could hear some strange noises so I laid still for a while and realised the noise was from the termites eating what was left of the timbers. The report was then passed onto the potential buyer.