FRIDAY 17 NOVEMBER     RV1

Low 40’s. It was humid, and there was some cloud. There were lots of fires in the area and much smoke about.

Part way through the day, BB went to RV2 and would stay there, in charge, while K was out on his week’s break.

The beer garden deck was being installed – so, apart from the usual type of enclosed large room, there was to be a roofed sort of outdoor section too!

Spotless reported that they fixed the bain marie and dishwasher themselves – there had been wiring problems. There was a gas leak in the old piping in the kitchen. That was fixed quickly!

Word came through that Spotless was now to be responsible for all the genset fuelling, ditto for the one at the bore. So, water, electrical and sewer operations were all up to them. Well, the two on site managers had to transition to that, sooner or later, since our crew would not be here that much longer. And they were not facilities that we had installed anyway.

Just to underline the point, all the main gensets went down in the morning. The phones were out too and possibly affected by a power spike. My office was not affected, since it was not hooked up to camp services. So I was invaded by Spotless managers needing to use the phone – again!

Two swimming pools arrived on a truck, one inside the other. For once, the crane service was on time, and it took off the pool for here, then continued on to RV2, with the truck, to offload its pool. I had to phone and order the requirements for the pool people to install the pool – crackerdust and a crane, again.

Swimming pools for both Villages

Brickie left for somewhere, with three trailers behind the semi.

The mechanic was back on site and fixed the Canter, amongst other work on the plant.

A new worker arrived yesterday – John had collected him from the airport and taken him to RV2. Turned out he was supposed to have his own tools and didn’t, so today John bought a set in Hedland and took them to RV2. He also took a load to the tip, had a part made for the forklift whilst in town, and brought it back. He really was proving invaluable to this project!

For weeks, R had been hunting for a disabled toilet room that was to be installed here. It was “found” by BB today – installed at RV2! Bloody K! He had repeatedly claimed it wasn’t there. His gut was bigger than his IQ. Now we had to wait for the one that was currently being built, in Perth, for RV2.

BB decreed that ALL company staff and our subbies were to be accommodated at RV1, as of today, regardless of whether the FMG people in Hedland liked it or not.

A big problem with the sewer became evident. Effluent was pouring out onto the ground. Not our responsibility, but in the absence of anyone else, P was trying to fix it, with phone instructions from the company that installed it. P was not a happy chappy! But he was definitely a smelly chappy! The Spotless managers were, it seemed,  white collar workers and getting their hands dirty was not their scene.

We could smell the effluent from our rooms and the van.