SATURDAY 27 JANUARY     RV2

Very hot again.

There were just us and the two electricians here.

John did another Acco trip to RV1, then the tip and back here.

There were, apparently, some upset stomachs amongst the residents here. Water? Food? A bug? I hoped we would be immune. I only drank bottled water that John replenished for me in Hedland on his trips in there, or the camp water, boiled, for tea and coffee. No locally made ice for me.

THURSDAY 25 JANUARY     RV2

The new SPQ’s were installed at RV1. K couldn’t source concrete needed for work there.

Two of the men went out on break, after which they would be deployed to other projects.

John went to Hedland – airport run with the two workers going out on leave, then to RV1 with purchased supplies, then back here. He had picked up fire extinguishers in Hedland, and then installed them here.

Some of the plant was loaded onto the semi, to go south.

I’d completed serial number collection as Pod 3 was unpacked and set up, and spent time now getting those records in order, and completing Variation Orders. I still had to finish matching donga serial numbers with locations on site – hot work out in the open – and getting all that information into proper spread sheet format. It had not been done at all, back before Xmas, so I had to start from scratch. So there was still paper work to keep me busy – in between phone calls sorting out problems!

WEDNESDAY 24 JANUARY     RV2

Most of the activity was at RV1. Four more SPQ dongas were delivered there. The sports court markings and setting up was finished there. Their power had been out again for a while yesterday. The cook reported that the oven was burning a hole in the kitchen floor! I phoned the fire services man to go out and fireproof the oven area. These days, I was regularly wondering what totally unthought of hiccup was going to happen next!  They were also unhappy with their water quality – not our problem, for once.

Two new ice machines were coming, from Perth, to be installed at each of the Villages. Maybe these would work better than the old ones – or were they just to supplement the old ones?

K came from RV1 to here, to collect things needed, then went back. He could have asked John to drop the stuff off, on his way past. But I was coming to the conclusion that he just didn’t want to be working on site, in the heat.

The FMG head honcho and I signed off on Milestone 5 for both the Villages – in theory meaning all was done. I wondered how many millions of dollars my signature on that piece of paper was worth?

John did eight hours work around the site with the bobcat – filling in trenches, levelling the ground, tidying up. He was a happy man – kid with a new toy! He then took the Acco and bobcat to RV1 and overnighted there.

H finished here and left for Leonora with his caravan. It was feeling distinctly lonely here.

With the camp heavily occupied with workers associated with the railway building, plus Spotless staff, there were maybe a dozen or so other women here now. This had happened back at RV1 too, last year, and I found it more comfortable to not be the only woman in camp, as I had been at times at Fly Camp. There were some women workers called “peggies” – they drove mini bus loads of workers to their allocated points along the rail route and kept their crib rooms that were out there, clean and tidy, then brought them back at the end of the day.

The Wodgina Mine manager phoned me. That had been where we had been getting water for the cementers, last year. He wanted to know if we had a record here of the water loads fetched for RV2, last year? I had not sighted any such record, which was not surprising. All I could suggest was that he use the RV1 records as a guide. Those did exist – because I had made sure of it at the time.

TUESDAY 23 JANUARY     RV2

I phoned the Shire Inspector to arrange another round of pool inspections. They would not make a date until absolutely every little oddment had been rectified. Fair enough – it was a long trip for him. Arranged with the pool installer to send depth markers and other required signage, from Alice Springs, by air bag. There were lots of grumblings from camp residents about off limits pools.

The Spotless boss at RV1 was fed up waiting for the electricians to do the defect work – said he was going to arrange it himself. Good luck on that! But I could see his point – they had held up so much work.

There was a very large invoice from the fire gear company. Still more work to be done by them, too.  I reckoned the size of the bill would make someone blow a gasket, at HO. But there was no other company in the Pilbara that did that sort of work – and it had to be done.

John did a tip trip with the Acco. Whilst in Hedland he bought paint to smarten up the old Fly Camp donga that was in place here. He had a slight accident. I recorded: “Heritage Red boots, jeans, Acco, paperwork, ground.”

K went from working at RV1 to Hedland to buy some stuff they needed. He didn’t think to phone John, who was in Hedland, to do that! I was still amazed by his constant disorganization. Or maybe he just wanted an easy day?

SUNDAY 21 JANUARY    RV2

Things were tailing off enough now for us to have a day off.

It was a very hot and dusty day.

We slept late – a luxury. Stayed in our cool rooms, reading – me, watching TV – John. I did go and do our washing. Usually, I washed our work clothes every few evenings, after tea, along with most of the camp!  I saw the point of all those driers in the laundries.

As it happened, part way through the day, the concrete mixing attachment blew some hoses, so all the men knocked off for the rest of the day.