This Adventurous Age

Adventures travelling and working around Australia.


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2006 Travels October 15

SUNDAY 15 OCTOBER   NORTH POINT CAMP TO EIGHTY MILE BEACH   355kms

Today was very hot, even by the standards we were becoming used to. Seemed to have ramped  up a few notches.

Did not rush to get up, and left camp after breakfast. Just hoped there would be no bushfires or strong wind storms that might affect the van, in our absence.

We stopped at the South Hedland shops and I bought some food supplies and the weekend papers.

The drive was alright – just – and quite far enough in the heat.

There were not many tourists left at the Eighty Mile Beach Caravan Park.

Our cabin was great. It cost us $140 a night. It was very roomy. There were two bedrooms, with a good double bed in one and four bunks in the other. The kitchen area was well equipped and there was a full sized fridge. There were air cons in the three main rooms – good! We had the use of a BBQ outside. There were not many windows – better to keep out the heat.

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Our cabin at Eighty Mile Beach Caravan Park

It was so wonderful to have our own bathroom again. All to ourselves……

John went fishing when the tide was right, christening the new rod he’d bought in Hedland, for this occasion.

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Later in the afternoon, as it was beginning to cool a fraction, I walked along the beach. The sea! The sea! Just so good to be by it, despite the heat and high humidity, after the aridity of where we had been.

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Three months ago there would have been hundreds of people on this beach…

We bought fish and chips for tea from the shop cafe – the delectable thread fin salmon that was a common catch from the beach, here. It was the last night they were doing these, as the “season” was over for the year. So we were lucky.


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2006 Travels October 14

SATURDAY 14 OCTOBER     NORTH POINT CAMP

Tomorrow, R would be driving to Broome, then flying to Darwin on Monday. He planned to be back late on Friday. He certainly needed a break from site – he was getting increasingly hassled, and his wife’s seeming inability to cope alone did not help. He was often back at his office, after tea at night, doing stuff related to her business.

With R away, P would be in charge of the sites.

The cementers moved to RV2. Good riddance! With them no longer working on this site, we did not need any more loads of water from Wodgina Mine, so I could complete the Variation Order related to that and get it off to HO.

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Moving the cement plant

I am sure that HO thought that  giving us a break – unpaid – was doing us a favour. I just hoped that S did not mess up the computer files and workings!

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Another glorious Pilbara sunset


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2006 Travels October 13

FRIDAY 13 OCTOBER     NORTH POINT CAMP

There were all sorts of bits and pieces to do today, plus continuing to try to acquaint S with the routines and the specialized language.

I was actually feeling now that S was a bit of a ditz. God knows, my admin and computer skills are those of an amateur, but she was not even up to my standard! And yet she had run her own business in Alice Springs. Any time she got a chance at the computer, she was spending most of the time emailing her friend, BB’s wife.

John had a trip into Hedland, taking N to show him the routines and introduce him to the various suppliers he had cultivated.

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Looking west from the access track

I phoned and had no trouble getting us a cabin at Eighty Mile Beach, at this time of year.

Virtually all the services were now in the ground at RV1, and more buildings going into place. The cementers were packing up – hooray!

I booked R into a motel room in Broome for tomorrow night.


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2006 Travels October 12

THURSDAY 12 OCTOBER     NORTH POINT CAMP

HO  decreed that, with N and S here, they could take over our work at RV1 for a few days, to give us a little break away – unpaid, of course.  They would then move on to RV2. It would enable S to finalize her “training” in a functioning site office, before heading off down there.

This would be a pleasant respite for us. Not something we had expected, or requested, but appreciated.

We discussed what we could do in our break, and decided to go up to Eighty Mile Beach. It seemed too hot in these parts now to go further inland, to somewhere like Karijini National Park. Not the weather for being active outdoors.

At Eighty Mile Beach, we could book into a cabin and hide away. We would have to feed ourselves again!

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Stick insect on our fridge

There was a most unpleasant incident at dinner tonight. One of the cementers from SA was an absolute pig of a man – foul mouthed, coarse, dirty. He had a day off today and managed to borrow a vehicle and go into Hedland to visit the prostitutes who plied their wares there. Over dinner, he was drunk, sat opposite me and proceeded to treat the table to a very detailed description – in his filthy language – of his activities  of the afternoon. He was, of course, trying to get a reaction from me, but I decided not to give him the satisfaction, though I felt extremely embarrassed and insulted by his presence. One should not be subjected to that sort of thing. In another environment, I would claim harassment and look for him to be sacked – but this was not a normal workplace. However, there was more than one means of redress open to me. I decided that, the next time his wife phoned, wanting me to get him to the phone – which happened about once a week – I would inform her that he was not available because he had gone into town to visit the prostitutes! See what that would bring him, the pig!

I resolved to do all I could to avoid sitting anywhere near him at future meals – hopefully, that firm would be moving on to RV2 soon. I would go late enough to tea for him to be there first, so I could avoid him. I refused to give him the satisfaction of driving me away for meals, like S had been, after only one night. I was pleased for her sake that she had not been there for this night’s performance.

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2006 Travels October 11

WEDNESDAY 11 OCTOBER     NORTH POINT CAMP

On top of all the usual paper work and stuff constantly being forwarded to HO, I was this morning instructed by R on how to make up Client Handover Books. Something else I had never heard of. From R’s not very clear description, these seem to consist of every possible relevant piece of paper, plans, lists of all serial numbers of everything! It eventually dawned on me that putting this together  would be no easy task – think 280 accommodation rooms. Think bar fridge, TV, AC split system – inside and outside parts. Times 280. Each block of four had a hot water system. Then there were a lot of kitchen appliances, washing machines, driers, more hot water services and air-cons. Not to mention gym equipment and other miscellania. How would I create a list of such serial numbers? Why, by walking around, finding each one and recording same.

And here was I thinking that mapping the location of each building by its ID number was going to be a hot and sweaty task, away from my cooled office. Ha!

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My office and the surrounds where the death adders hung out

I would have to get the two companies that were building the SPQ dongas, to certify the plans – somehow.

This would all take some arranging and collating. According to R, there would have to be two such books for the client and two for us. I presumed that meant one set for RV1 and another for RV2.

There was going to be one hell of a lot of photocopying being done.

N and S seemed to have decided that the company of the workers at meal time was not their ideal and tonight took their meals back to their camper.

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2006 Travels October 10

TUESDAY 10 OCTOBER     NORTH POINT CAMP

Today the temperature reached 47.4 degrees and dropped to only 36.4 at night. Working conditions were becoming quite trying.

John was put up in the forklift to get some overview photos of work done to date.

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Pods 1 and 2 and kitchen/mess foundations; two central laundries in place on Pod 1

I was tasked with trying to arrange for the phone systems at RV2 to be fixed up properly. Had thought the recurrent issues were due to K’s not knowing how to work them, but seemed now that there might be a real problem. The expert thought it might be done by Thursday. Hmmm – if it was anything like my office printer…….

H, who had been on a break, arrived back from his home down south,  complete with wife M, and caravan, which they set up to live in, as we do. She seemed a really nice person.

N and S arrived today and set up their camper trailer not far from H and M – both at the other end of the donga line from us, and closer to the bathrooms. They seemed nice enough to me, but S already irritated John, as a lot of females do! She seemed like she might be a bit refined for this place. They turned up to dinner with wine glasses and a bottle of wine – probably not a great idea, as the men did not drink away from their rooms. In our rather rough outdoor dining area, it seemed rather incongruous.

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Fly Camp at dusk – home……..

 

Fly Camp at dusk


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2006 Travels October 9

MONDAY 9 OCTOBER     NORTH POINT CAMP

The paper work continued unabated.

A couple had been found to work at RV2, doing the jobs that John and I did here. They were supposed to arrive this week, driving over from Alice Springs, along the desert route. They would be towing their camper trailer, so I hoped they would not need rooms, given the tightness of the accommodation. They were friends of wife of BB, so I hoped that would not make things awkward for we “normal” employees.

The lifting of buildings into Pod 2 had been completed.

I was asked to take a heap of photos of the cement paving plant at work, for HO to see.

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Mixed cement fed into paving machine. Only one string line needed.

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Making paths the easy way

John had to take the Acco truck into Hedland to pick up some metal requirements. Also needed were some very long lengths of steel. As it happened, the company’s prime mover and one trailer was in camp – its driver, Brickie (as in, thick as), was having a day off before heading back to Darwin. So R drove the semi into town. On the way back, it was coming up to dusk. John could not work out how to turn on the Acco’s headlights, so he used the CB radio to call R to ask him. The talk was picked up by some truckies on the highway, so there was some to and fro conversation about where John got his licence, etc! John replied that it was in Melbourne and in daylight, so they didn’t teach him about lights…..Kept them all amused for a little while. A bit later, John was radioed by R – who couldn’t work out how to turn on the lights in the prime mover!


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2006 Travels October 8

SUNDAY 8 OCTOBER     NORTHPOINT CAMP

Our day off. Been here for three weeks now – it seemed so very much longer!

Did the washing. Lazed about.

A bushfire developed in the distance – probably started by lightning. Now that we were into the storm season in the Pilbara, bushfires would become more common. The grass was dry enough to be easily ignited and for site spread to be a worry.

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Bushfire to the west

The new Fly Camp manager was quite concerned as night came and the glow from the fire did not seem to be all that far away. I suspected  he would be making more fire breaks tomorrow!

As the night wore on, the fire did seem to be rather too close for comfort and some of the men were mobilized to get some machinery ready, if needed, and to set out hoses and fire fighting gear. In the event, the fire may have been further away than it appeared, or it encountered a patch of already burnt ground, because we got through the night with no extra dramas.


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2006 Travels October 7

SATURDAY 7 OCTOBER     NORTH POINT CAMP

Now that I’d been down there, finally managed to get a mud map of the directions to RV2 drawn and printed out to be sent to transport companies and subbies.

While verandah framing was happening on the fronts of the SPQ’s in place on Pods 1 and 2, work had started at their backs, installing the plumbing  pipe work, air cons and  hot water services. The verandah work was being done by company employees, the plumbing by subbies.

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There was an enormous amount of this work to be done by these two men……..

One of John’s many jobs had become to try to keep accurate records of what plant was on both sites, and when any piece of machinery needs servicing. It then fell to me to arrange for same with mechanics from Hedland. It was no use leaving the plant record to me – I couldn’t tell a fork lift from a bulldozer! Unless maybe they were colour coded? It was quite costly getting mechanics out to the sites to do the necessary upkeep – but such things were not exactly able to be taken into town to them!

K went on his week’s break, from RV2. P had been sent down there to run that site for the week, and R would run this one.


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2006 Travels October 6

FRIDAY 6 OCTOBER     NORTH POINT CAMP

John had a Hedland trip today. He took in the two wheels with damaged tyres and bought new tyres. This is not the sort of country to be driving about in without at least one functioning spare – as was obvious from our mishaps.

I sorted future leave dates for some of the men and did Travel Authorization forms. Faxed a Progress Report on Milestone 1 for RV2 to HO. Started to set up a Documents Register for RV2 but didn’t like my chances of K keeping the relevant documents needed in any sort of systematic way – or at all!

Yesterday, on the site here, the men started work on putting up the frames for the verandah roofs that would extend along the front of each SPQ donga. That solved the mystery, for me, of why we had great heaps of roofing iron from Stratco, stacked up; since the buildings were all pre-fab ones, I hadn’t been able to figure out why we needed that. Slowly, the jigsaw pieces were falling into place.

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That’s what all that steel was for……

I was certainly still on a steep learning trajectory.