TUESDAY 24 OCTOBER     NORTH POINT CAMP

A routine day.

I got caught up on all the serial numbers of buildings delivered whilst I was away. Hot work, out on site.

I had an email from boss lady in Alice Springs. She was trying to make sure the system for tracking leave was working properly. Last week, one of the men did not turn up at Darwin Airport, for his flight back. He’d thought it was the next day! Luckily, he acknowledged that it was all his fault, and that I had given him a print out of his travel arrangements, before he left, with the correct dates in it. It was a costly error for him because he had to pay for the new flights. Plural, because from Darwin he had to fly to Perth, then on to Hedland.

At the time when the phone call came through that he was a no show, I had a few anxious minutes, trying to think back about what information I’d given him – and hoping like hell that I had not gotten it wrong!

John had a trip to Hedland.

Rubbish was starting to really build up on the site here, increasing as things were unpacked for the buildings. Everything came with so much packing. It was a problem that was going to have to be solved – and soon. FMG was supposed to have gained permission to dig rubbish pits, but that had not happened – “heritage” concerns, apparently. In the meantime, rubbish was being piled in a rough, shallow pit up the back of the site.

Aerial photographs were taken very early today, using the forklift.

As well as the infrastructure that was now quickly going in, some extra buildings that were not part of our camp installation, were going in. These would house the administrations for some major companies that would be building the railway – engineering firms and the like. They had arranged for their own buildings, but apparently, we now had to help with the installation of some services to those buildings. More Variation Orders for me to worry about!

At RV2, the excavation had been done for the swimming pool. I was quite looking forward to seeing what standard and size of pool would be installed at each of the Villages.