This Adventurous Age

June 18, 2020
by wendyviney Leave a comment

2006 Travels October 5

THURSDAY 5 OCTOBER NORTH POINT CAMP

Today turned out to be one that would never be erased from my memory – and not in a good way! It did not go well. It was a comedy of errors – compounded by John’s idiocy and pig-headedness.

It had been arranged that John would set out fairly early this morning, in the Acco tip truck, to take some gear that K wanted, down to RV2. John had already been down there on similar errands – it was not new ground for him.

John left just before 8am, after the gear had been loaded onto the truck by a couple of the men.

I was doing some paperwork, when the phone rang about 8.15, and it was K, asking for some more things – essential he said – to be sent on the truck. After some rather choice comments, R loaded up the items onto his company ute, and left driving, to catch up to John and transfer the items to the Acco.

I kept on with my paper work.

Then the phone rang again, some 20 minutes after R had left. K again. He absolutely had to have some generator leads. The man could not organize his way out of a paper bag! I explained that John and the truck were long gone, R and the ute ditto. All K could say was that he must have the leads. Like it was MY problem!

The only two normal vehicles left on the site were our Truck and P’s ute – and he was doing more important work out on site than running around with generator leads. It seemed that there was nothing for it but to load up the leads myself, into our Truck, and follow the procession south! It was like something out of a bad cartoon.

I kept expecting to see both R and the Acco ahead of me, but was some 60kms down the highway, almost at the Hillside road turn off, when I spotted R coming back the other way, and flashed lights to make him stop.

It had taken him longer to catch up with John than he’d thought it would. I explained what was going on and he soundly cursed K – a bit more colourful language than I’d used, though! He offered to swap vehicles with me, but not to turn around and chase John again – he had to get back on site. I said I preferred to keep driving my familiar vehicle, especially on the dirt road section coming up. So we went our separate ways.

I did not catch John.

The dirt section of road along side the BHP railway seemed really long, and I started to worry that I’d missed a sign and turn off. I didn’t know exactly how far I should be going, just that it was roughly 60-80kms along the railway road. But, eventually, I saw a sign, in a dip, and a small track winding away to the left. I got to the work site about ten minutes after John – who was very surprised to see me!

We unloaded and had a quick drink of cold water from the site office fridge.

I managed to get a quick look at this site, which I hadn’t been to before. It seemed so much more isolated than RV1.

Then, as I was about to leave again, noticed that a back tyre on Truck was half flat – a slow puncture. One of the men changed it for me. There was a screw stuck in it – probably just picked up on the site!

John was determined to take a short cut back to the highway, rather than follow the BHP railway road back to the Hillside road. Someone had told him about this White Springs track – and that it was a bit rough. So there was nothing for it but that he would go back that way!

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Highway at left, railway at right; White Springs track ran E-W through here, just south of the Yule River at top

In vain, I reminded him about his recent embarrassing attempt to drive the rail survey line. It did not matter what I said, though. I threatened to leave him to go his own sweet way and follow the usual route back myself. That is what I should have done, but soft-hearted me finds it difficult to leave him to deal with his own follies, in case he gets into real trouble.

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A good section of the White Springs track

So we crossed the BHP railway line, where the track branched off to the west, me following the Acco truck. Not too far along, the track started crossing fairly the sandy and loose stream channels that fed into the Yule River. Did John turn around? No. Did he then get the Acco bogged? Yes.

Bogged!

Fortunately, while he was trying to work out what to do, on this little used track, a couple of men in a FMG vehicle came along – possibly locals doing a heritage survey or similar. They used a snatch strap to pull the Acco through the rest of the river bed, then left to go on their way – no doubt laughing about the clown in the tip truck!

Fortunately for posterity, John had the company’s camera with him – normally used to record progress on the project. This time, it recorded one man’s lack of learning from prior experience. I doubt he ever sent copies of these photos to Head Office….

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John then instructed me to drive in front, in case he got into further bother and I had to go for help. He also said to drive fast, so he could keep up the revs on the Acco on any loose sections.

So I found myself careering along this narrow, overgrown in places, often bendy, bush track.

Next thing, another flat tyre on the Landrover. Staked on the narrow track, due to trying to do the ridiculous speed John wanted. We both stopped – at least the road surface was firm, here. Of course, the spare was already on Truck – put on at RV2. There was nothing for it but to put back the slow leaking one, after using our air compressor to pump it up.

With Truck up on jack, tyre damage was obvious

We continued on and soon reached the highway, for which I was very grateful. Headed north, with me trying to nurse Truck along a bit, and hoping the tyre would stay up enough. It didn’t. And was too badly damaged to try to re-inflate.

So, John left me with Truck, by the side of the highway, while he went to RV1 to tell R what was going on – no doubt an edited version – and then to Fly Camp to get the spare off the caravan to bring back for Truck.

I had no reading matter, no camera, nothing to eat, and soon finished what was left of the bottle of water I’d started out with this morning. The external temperature was climbing to the high 30’s. A few approaching vehicles slowed down, but I waved them on, hoping my work regalia made me appear confident and competent, rather than just a stranded, vulnerable female.

I had ample time to think very unflattering thoughts about stupid men (K and John in particular), pig-headed husbands, and how I would never – left to my own devices – have gotten into such a situation! I was berating myself for being so soft headed as to stick with John, rather than leaving him to try the track alone. The D-word definitely came to mind, as I got hotter and thirstier and angrier.

Stranded by the roadside in this country

Eventually, John returned in R’s ute, with the van spare wheel, we changed it over, and proceeded back to RV1. John had not thought to bring water. It was 3.30pm when we reached there. I was hot, thirsty, hungry and angry. That little jaunt had taken the best part of seven hours.

R took one look at my face, as I marched into the Office, and headed off to the far reaches of the site, not to be seen again for the rest of the day. Smart man.

Had my very late lunch – it had been a long time since breakfast at 5.15am. Went back to my paper work for what was left of the day.

Later, the company agreed to pay for two new tyres for our Truck – which I felt was rather generous of them.

John was not particularly embarrassed. He seemed to think it had all been an adventure!

The sunset was lovely – best part of a really crappy day.

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June 18, 2020
by wendyviney Leave a comment

2006 Travels October 4

WEDNESDAY 4 OCTOBER NORTH POINT CAMP

There was a lot of the usual paperwork and tidying up of loose ends. As more people were working on site, there was much more detail of the work being done. It really was amazing how fast things were progressing. There seemed to be new company employees and various subbies arriving on a daily basis. At times, it took some effort for me to sort out who was who and what they were here to do, not to mention whether they were supposed to appear on my paysheets.

Quantity of plant on site indicative of work really ramping up

Put in the weekly pay sheets. John had worked 77 hours, I’d worked 73. This meant that, in a week, we had earned nearly as much as one of us did in a whole season in our previous casual jobs!

R asked me to phone Darwin and chase up progress on some bar fridges he’d asked be sent down. These were destined for some of the men’s rooms, so they could keep their after-work drinks cold at Fly Camp as there was no refrigeration provided for such things.

The company semi/road train would be coming on a run from Darwin soon, with some buildings. An issue had arisen over this, because of differing rules between WA and NT. The truck would be a few cms outside WA regulations on length or height – in amongst R’s furious diatribe about it, I didn’t quite catch which one! That meant one trailer would have to be left at the NT/WA border, the front one brought all the way down here, the prime mover would then have to go back to the border for the second trailer. That meant an extra 3,500kms or so of fuel used and extra days of driver time. All for the sake of a few cms. However, they had managed to wrest one concession from the authorities – the second trailer could be brought into WA as far as Kununurra and left there, rather than beside the road at the border! Our federal system of governance often does not make sense.

Amongst the stuff John had to buy on his Hedland trip today were four bottles of Bundaberg rum! A BB order – think he is working very hard to keep the men happy.

A happy picture of us; would be a while before there was another of those……

June 18, 2020
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2006 Travels October 3

TUESDAY 3 OCTOBER NORTH POINT CAMP

Found out today that I was supposed to be keeping a Document Register – containing every document of relevance to the project, including emails and the like. Now they tell me!

With fortuitous coincidence, the remote technical guru had finally managed to get my computer and the printer talking to each other, so I would be able to make print copies of my emails to date, for said Register. Seems the problem lay in the fact that he thought one of the machines was a different model to what it actually was! Really? He supplied them. I wonder at the competence of supposed experts.

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Craning SPQ’s into position

I had to phone a fencing company to arrange for fencing to go in around the end of the kitchen complex to make a secure yard. I wasn’t really sure why.

Had to email HO to arrange for $1000 petty cash for RV2, to be collected by John from a bank. K phoned to ask me to do that. Seemed he did not have an office computer set up down there, or he maybe did not have the skills to do his own communicating.

John had a Hedland trip.

Taking some shape…..

Back at Fly Camp I had to make up 6 rooms. Would make damn sure that the time taken to do this went onto the tally of hours worked! Not fun when one was hot and tired and hungry.

Now that work on RV 2 was ramping up – we had eight workers down there today – the South Point Fly Camp was also getting short of room. With BHP’s current ban on trucking dongas down there, could not add any rooms on the company’s behalf, like had happened here. The guy that ran that camp had already given up waiting for K to notify him of our workers who would be arriving and wanting rooms – he’d already had some unexpected arrivals – and had asked me to try to keep him updated, as I did here!

June 17, 2020
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2006 Travels October 2

MONDAY 2 OCTOBER NORTH POINT CAMP

I had lots of paperwork to do this morning, catching up on what had occurred on site yesterday.

Had to write up an incident that happened yesterday, and contact the transport company involved, about it. There was a delivery of two donga buildings on one of the usual two trailer road trains. The driver managed to reverse into one of the buildings, after it was unloaded, and put a decent dent in the side. A dinged donga!

Dinged donga!

John had a trip to Hedland. He had to return the sheets he bought there last week, because the beds in the new dongas were king single size and the ones he bought did not fit. I had discovered that the hard way, when I tried to make up some of the beds. He was rather lucky, I thought, to be able to get eight sets of king single sets in the town!

I could now make the new dongas up properly, when they were needed.

Negotiations were under way with the housekeeping lady who did the cleaning and room work for the dongas provided by FMG for the Fly Camp, to also do the cleaning and bed changing for the company’s dongas here. I really did not want to be coming back from twelve hours in the office and then having to do that stuff. Turnover through the rooms could be quite quick, as subbies came and went.

Now that H was working for us, his wife would be coming up here too. It was likely that there would be some work for her too, in helping to set up the rooms in RV1.

Today was another big step in the project’s progress. A crane arrived from Hedland and began to lift in the accommodation dongas for the first Pod – all 24 of them. Our equipment could not do this job without breaking up the newly laid cement paths. The cementing machinery could not do its work with the dongas in place. Catch 22! Hence the crane.

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Using the forklift to take a SPQ donga from the lay down area to the crane – driving blind?

R was really furious. He’d been down to check progress at RV2, where K was in charge, and discovered that the layout lines had been pegged wrongly. This would have created major problems had it not been picked up. I supposed K was the best they could do, but he really did not seem to have much in the way of organizational skills. R would have to do a lot of checking on him.

With SPQ dongas in place, I would eventually have to go round the site and record the exact location of each one, on a diagram, with its ID number. But that was a fair way off yet.

This afternoon, there was a steady build up of really dark storm clouds, that came in from the north west.

Storm coming from the west

Looking very ominous…..

Then there was quite a nasty dust storm across the camp.

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We all sheltered inside the office and waited for it to pass. The associated wind was strong enough to make the office donga really shake.

Back at Fly Camp, after work, there were more storm clouds building in the distance and some lightning evident.

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It hasn’t finished yet….

Someone who knew the region had told us that we were coming into the storm season now. The delay in being able to start the project meant a greater chance of being impacted by storms.

Resize of 10-02-2006 15 Fly camp storm coming 3

Really clearly defined storm front passing over Fly Camp

June 15, 2020
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2006 Travels October 1

SUNDAY 1 OCTOBER NORTH POINT CAMP

Our day off. It felt as if we had been here much longer than two weeks!

I did the weekly wash and hung it to dry under the van awning. There was a washing machine in the ablution donga that we two women were able to use – shared with men of course. At least, on days off, it was easy to get access, because just about everyone else on site was off at work. Once the men started arriving back at Fly Camp, from about 4pm onwards, the washing machine was in constant use.

Washing day…..

We worked on finishing, as best we could, heat proofing the van. By now it was draped in tarps that John had attached to lengths of poly pipe that we rested across the van roof, and then roped and pegged down. Tarps everywhere! Even a big one he found on the roadside, on one of the Hedland trips, that must have blown off a road train.

There’s a caravan in there!

John’s system was quite ingenious but took some effort by both of us to get up there.

We were really noticing the heat increasing, so trying to keep the van a bit cooler was essential. It certainly was not going to get any cooler for a long time.

John spread some gravel that he scraped from existing paths, to make a little side path to our van. It should not be quite as muddy then, if we did get any rain.

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Making a path. Note tarps tied to PVC pipe cross pieces on roof of van

I went for a walk around the Fly Camp, taking photos of it and the surrounding bush.

There was a Richards Pipit (bird) hanging around near our van, and I managed to get a photo of that.

Richards Pipit

We were becoming used to the beautiful sunsets that occurred here, every night.

I was starting to perceive the real beauty in this country, which would seem desolate to some.

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June 15, 2020
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2006 Travels September 30

SATURDAY 30 SEPTEMBER NORTH POINT CAMP

Usual work.

I had to put together a good set of supplies for the office at RV2. It was planned that there would eventually be a staff couple there, doing the same work as we were here. It was not hard to do the supplies needed, given the original mix up that had resulted in enough stock for four offices.

I did wish, though, that those in Darwin and Alice who had put these lots together, had bought decent coffee – I hated the catering packs of el-cheapo instant that had been supplied!

Putting down blocks to put the SPQ dongas onto

John did a run to Hedland today. Amongst his tasks was to buy a vacuum cleaner for BB’s donga room at the camp, so he could clean his room when here. I hoped that meant that he actually cleaned it, rather than becoming yet another task delegated to me!

Resize of 10-01-2006 21 Fly camp sunset 5

June 14, 2020
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2006 Travels September 29

FRIDAY 29 SEPTEMBER NORTH POINT CAMP

Today was a momentous one! In the morning, R drove his vehicle into Hedland to arrange some materials and services needed, and when he returned, he was towing a porta-loo! I now had a toilet on site! Well, it was not just for my use, but the lack of such a facility had not been such a hassle for the men. I was so grateful to R for organizing it. Of course, the cleaning of same would fall to me!

The luxury of a porta-loo!

Amongst my usual work, had to advise HO that we would need them to arrange for a crane on site, next Monday, to start moving some buildings into position. The cement paths for one of the three SPQ building Pods had been completed, so the SPQ’s (Staff Personal Quarters) could be installed for that.

The cementers had been working at night, when it was cooler. Not so much for them, apparently, but needed for the cement to set properly.

Some of our machinery at RV1

I was notified that, on Monday, we would be getting a couple of laundry buildings, an end section for the dining building, and two toilet buildings. That sent me scrambling back to the plans to work out where they would be going – just so I knew.

Accommodation at Fly Camp was getting very tight. Apart from our workers and subbies, there was now a steady flow of people associated with preparation tasks for the railway itself. BB arranged for two of our new accommodation dongas – eventually destined for RV2 – to be put down at Fly Camp – in a line from near our van. These would house eight of our people, though their en-suite bathrooms would not be plumbed or functional. These new dongas were supplied with beds and mattresses as part of the build. However, John was tasked with purchasing, in Hedland, mattress protectors, sheet sets, doonas and covers, pillows, for 8 beds. But nobody told him that the beds were king single size!

All the Milestone details had been sent from HO for R. I had eventually worked out that completion and signing off of each Milestone stage, by ourselves and FMG, meant a progress payment for our company. Very important things, Milestones!

Because I still couldn’t print from my computer, physical copies were going to have to be sent to the Hedland Post Office, from HO. The guru in Alice Springs who supplied the technology, had had a couple of attempts remotely to get the printer working, but no go.

Our communication links to the outside world

Down at RV 2, the Heritage Area had finally been confirmed and marked out as a no go area, to one side of the site. Things there had not gone smoothly in the initial stages – the Environment Survey had found a stick mouse nest and this had meant that the whole alignment of the buildings had to be changed to be away from the nest area, and then approvals gained for those changes. At RV1, the three SPQ Pods were three U shapes and at the open ends of the U’s were the kitchen and dining building then all the other buildings, so it was a long rectangle arrangement. RV2 had to be turned 90 degrees, so the kitchen and dining area there was to one side of the SPQ Pods. All due to stick mice.

The Site Office at RV2 had now been set up and John reported that some direction signs had been put up – otherwise finding one’s way to it had been a challenge.

We were seeing the occasional willy willy in the distance. I hoped they would avoid our camp and the van!

Distant willy willy beyond the cementers’ batching area

June 14, 2020
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2006 Travels September 28

THURSDAY 28 SEPTEMBER NORTH POINT CAMP

A day of the usual routines and paperwork through the morning.

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Fly Camp – the two bathroom dongas, water tank and sewage tank

R filled me in on some background information that would help me make more sense of what was going on. One of the snippets I learned was that the company had its own road train for transporting portable buildings and this would be used for some that would be coming from Darwin and Alice Springs. But the newly manufactured donga buildings that were coming up from the makers in Perth, came via separate transport companies – it was their drivers I had been dealing with when collecting the necessary paperwork.

Apparently, the company had attempted to move one structure here from Alice Springs via the Tanami Track to Halls Creek. The Tanami was notoriously rough at the best of times and at this stage of the year even more so than usual. That structure was now a pile of matchwood beside the Tanami, much closer to Alice than to Halls Creek! Any further building movement from there went the long way round, via Katherine.

After lunch, I drove Truck into Hedland, to collect John from the bus.

We were now able to refuel from a big tank of diesel that had been installed at the Fly Camp – necessary to fuel up the machinery being used. John had filled our Truck before he went to Broome, so I did not have to worry about fuel.

I made sure I had enough time before the bus got in, to go to some shops. I had to buy three electric clocks and a supply of batteries – R wanted them for the men’s crib room and our offices. He also had tasked me to buy a TV and DVD player – intended for the South Point Fly Camp, so the men there would be able to watch football. Perhaps some consolation for the poor quality of their camp.

As I walked around the shops, wearing my work gear, felt very much part of the FIFO scene! No one gave me a second glance – just one of the many.

The work gear. The site run-around buggy. The ever-present red dust.

John was weary, but had enjoyed his jaunt. But he commented that the Roebuck had been a very rowdy place to stay!

I had arranged for some tea to be saved for us, but in the event, we were back just in time for that.

June 14, 2020
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2006 Travels September 27

WEDNESDAY 27 SEPTEMBER NORTH POINT CAMP

John left to drive to Broome. Bit over 700 kms. Good thing he enjoys driving!

From 8am till midday, I was off site. Was asked to drive (in our Truck), south to the corner of the highway and the Marble Bar/Hillside road, 62kms from here. I was to intercept expected trucks that were bringing buildings for RV2. The route into there involved some 70kms on the BHP maintenance road alongside their railway.

BHP was being very obstructive about letting our company use this. John had already had to get a rush order filled for magnetic orange flashing lights that would go on top of all our vehicles, and magnetic company logos to go on the vehicle sides. Our Truck was decorated with these now!

At this point they had again refused to allow movement of large trucks on the access road – and trucks delivering dongas were large! So I had to be at the corner to instruct the expected trucks to continue on to RV1 and lay down the buildings there. It was a pest because it would mean double movement and handling of these at some future time.

The truck schedule had been necessarily a bit vague. But they had left their break stop at Kumarina Roadhouse before a message could be gotten to them, hence my task. Eventually they lumbered up, I waved them down, and sent them on.

Apparently the drivers of the BHP ore trains had been instructed not to wave to our company vehicles!

One of the suppliers that John had been getting things from for the buildings, told him that businesses in Hedland hated BHP! Something to do with their attitude to local firms. They liked FMG’s boss for challenging BHP, so they told John they would give any work that he brought in to be done, absolute priority!

Wendy at work

I arranged travel authorizations to be sent to HO for a couple of the men who had a week off coming up soon.

We were notified that there would be a visit soon – early October – from five of the important men from Spotless Services. This company would be taking over the Villages from our company, when they were built, and running them for FMG. This opened my eyes to another facet of the FIFO mining industry of these remote parts – that there were companies who specialized in running the operations of such camps.

I guessed the men were coming to inspect the camp. I gathered the schedule was set some time ago, before the whole shebang got delayed by FMG’s late site access. So there might not be as much to inspect as they were expecting!

It was quite strange being alone at Fly Camp for the night. I just went and ate tea in the communal dining area, then holed up in the van till bedtime. I was finding most of the workers and subbies who came and went through the camp, reasonably pleasant and alright to sit with at meal times – one just had to sit wherever there was an empty chair. But there were a couple who were loud and prone to making lewd comments – not directed at or about me, but deliberately in my hearing. I just ignored them and hoped they would give up if they didn’t get a reaction.

Fly Camp dining area

June 12, 2020
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2006 Travels September 26

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.

Machine laying a cement path onto the ground

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.

Completed veranda paths for bedroom dongas. Light tower at right.

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.

Such a long tail…….