No, it is NOT April Fool's Day

but apparently some people really do believe there is a tunnel between the mainland and the little island I once lived on. (If you want to know where the island is then get out a map of Downunder and have a look for the bit that looks rather like Italy. The island is at the bottom of that.) 

It seems that some way posted a picture of what looks like a tunnel and some pipes (in not very good condition) and suggested it was the start of a tunnel to the island. A tunnel? 

A tunnel would solve a great many problems for the island. It would also create others. When we lived there our family was very conscious of it. We were not "islanders". 

To get there meant flying in on "the big plane" (the twenty-three seat one) or an overnight journey on the boat which transported the cars and everything else. We went by boat the first time because of course we needed the car. We were going to live in the centre of the island, right away from the things we might have enjoyed about island living.   

While we were living on the island there were a number of medical emergencies which involved flying people off the island. Planes could not always land at the "airport" - nothing more than a landing strip and a tin shed at the time. When, on one occasion, the Royal Flying Doctor Service plane could not land a "crop duster" pilot (someone who flies small planes to spray crops from the air) took over. He landed on the dirt strip outside the school house in the middle of the night aided by the headlights of multiple vehicles.  He did it not once but twice in wild weather to save the lives of young fools who had been involved in a head on collision not far out of the small town we lived in. A tunnel would have been very useful then.

It would have been very useful on other occasions too. It might have brought down the cost of living over there. Mum, made aware of such things, had even packed some extra dry and tinned food into boxes to put into the removal van which brought our household belongings. 

The farmers over there would have welcomed a tunnel to transport their goods back to the city. Transport costs were a major issue, especially if "the boat" was out of action. 

Half a century later things have changed of course. There is a much better airport. A lot of goods come and go by air. There is, despite it being one of the roughest sea crossings in the world, a much faster ferry service between "the Cape" and the island. It is there the tunnel is supposed to be. 

Despite all this the island is still relatively isolated. Although the island is now a tourist destination the islanders generally want to keep it that way. It has an enormously important role to play in saving the world's agriculture. The bees on the island are still free of the disease which is causing so much concern to the rest of the world. If that can be maintained the bee population there may yet be able to be used to renew the populations elsewhere.

Thinking about that I think a tunnel would be a very bad idea.