SATURDAY 6 JANUARY     RV2

John and his passengers got in from RV 1 at 7.30am, by which time I’d been at work for over an hour and a half.

This time round, the works that were being done about the place were familiar to me, as were the tasks I had to complete.

John set about cleaning and tidying the stuff in the gear container, which was located close by my office. It had come from RV1, where he’d kept it in order there – so he could find the stuff he needed for his safety work, mainly. In the couple of weeks it had been in use here, chaos had largely taken over. Clearly, a lot of gear had been dumped in there just before the pre-Xmas departure.  In the course of tidying, he unearthed a resident death adder. Both he and the reptile were shocked. Snake departed at speed through the open container door and off into the nearby scrub. John departed at speed in the opposite direction, and had to spend a little time in my office, recovering. From then on, John was much more cautious when doing anything in the container.

Word came from the head man in Hedland – the roof of the ambulance bay at RV1 was definitely too low – and would have to be raised. K was not happy!

John took the company workhorse vehicle here ( a Nissan) to RV1, loaded with a 200 litre tank, some 44 gallon drums and jerry cans – to be filled with diesel. There was, as yet, no supply at RV2, and the tank at South Point Fly camp was no longer being replenished, now that it was no longer occupied. So fuel was needed to run our machinery. This was yet another example of not thinking ahead and problems arising from divided supervision and overall planning.