TUESDAY 26 SEPTEMBER     NORTH POINT CAMP

I organized the bus and motel bookings for John’s Broome expedition. Booked him into the Roebuck Bay Hotel/Motel – thought the standard should be ok there, and it was central. He would have to taxi there from the airport where he would be leaving the 4WD.

The days were becoming more routine for me, with all the usual bits and pieces to be done.

I had to contact head office to find out which subbie firm would be doing the landscaping of the villages – R wanted to know. Landscaping?? The reply back was that this had not yet been decided. I wasn’t sure whether this meant the company had not been finalized, or whether it would be done at all. After all these camps were to be temporary – essentially to be removed once the railway was built. However, there was some talk that maybe part of one of the villages would be kept for ongoing maintenance crews to use – much like the Redmont Camp, near RV2,  was for the BHP railway crews.

The cementing work had begun. John was fascinated by the machinery and method. Essentially, the machine was able to lay paths without there having to be any of the usual form work. The machine just followed a set out string line and spewed out a path! Or veranda. Or whatever. Amazing. That sub-contracting company was mixing up its own cement on site. They could spew out a considerable amount of paving in a shift.

I’d had to phone a hire company in Hedland and arrange for us to get a big portable light set up, because the cementers had decided they needed to work at night, due to the daytime temperatures being too high.

Had my first Occ Health and Safety incident to report on today – and deal with first! There was a stack of roofing iron sheets not far from my office. P walked around the end of it, on his way to somewhere. He surprised a death adder sunning itself, and the snake lashed out and bit his boot. Then it slithered off across to the lay down area and slithered in between some, and up into the understructure of one of the dongas. P got a major fright, and I had to treat him for a short time for shock. My first Incident Report!

I was now no longer going to go to the toilet in between those dongas in the lay down area! Definitely did not fancy squatting down and finding myself eyeball to eyeball with a death adder! Would have to drive back to the Fly Camp, when necessary, and the company could damn well wear the time involved to do so!

John took BB to the afternoon plane, so was a bit late back.

At the van, I found the friendly monitor reptile that lived in the drainage pipe near our camp, curled up in a neat circle on top of the Chescold fridge, in the annexe. Unlike this morning’s death adder, this  was an acceptable type of reptile.