WA Works spring edition 2019 by CCIWA

Supply Chain and Major Project News

Pr Maj BS Lif oje or CR t O cts IB ut ER ON LY

Spring 2019

LNG

INPEX: Itching for more Defence

Energy

Infrastructure

Austal Exclusive: Life after Guardian

Surge of renewables boosts regions

Railcar momentum in top gear

News, Profiles, Major Projects List, Opinion and more

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Contents

Cover Story

INPEX's LNG processing and export facility at Bladin Point

Itching for more LNG

Opinion

Spring 2019

CEO’s Desk

Big Picture - Factory of light

Economic outlook

A day in the life

On the ground

Dongara gas boom

Sustaining Rio Tinto's robots

Mine with a mind

Lining up for LNG work

Linda Reynolds - Front and centre in defence

Flank Flying

Gary Quinlan - Indonesian opportunities are knocking

Rare deal for Germany

Alannah MacTiernan - More than just hot air

Another brick in the wall

Darryl Hockey - Building a new economic pillar

Mining meets Masterchef

Michele Clement - R&D key to WA's defence capability

Finding a niche in LNG

Justin Ashley - Emissions policy heats up

Karratha a conversation - KBSS

Dipping into global waters

Fanning a construction boom

Here comes the sun

Hydrogen pipe dream

It’s your business to register.

If you employ workers in the construction industry you may be required by law to register in the Construction Industry Long Service Leave Scheme. Find out by visiting www.myleave.wa.gov.au or by calling 08 9476 5400.

Major Projects List

Austal's life after the Guardian

Blunt warning to defence SME's

Submarine debate

Très bon rail car deal

Ellenbrook rail plans

Roots down for rubbish plant

Tech Talk

Drilling down

Digging In

Commodity Corner

The Echidna

68 Spring 2019 WA WORKS 3

Welcome

Editor’s Letter

Spring into more resources work

elcome to WA Works, the magazine that enjoys major projects as much as a spring picnic in Kings Park. Possibly more. And, in this great state, “major” generally refers to resources — iron ore, LNG, gold and lithium, to name the usual suspects. Technology may be transforming our lives but accumulations of metals and petroleum remain the cornerstones of our enviable standard of living. CCI Senior Economist Daniel Norrie points out that WA is continuing its economic recovery, with higher investment by the mining industry supporting lower unemployment and slowly increasing wages growth. So its timely that we’ve devoted a good deal of space this issue to resources, led by our feature on Inpex, which is quickly approaching the first anniversary of LNG operations at its huge Ichthys project. Built on an exclusive interview with newly appointed INPEX President Director, Australia Hitoshi Okawa, the story reveals the incredible complexity of building big LNG ventures. It is also a reminder of how much resources projects can impact our regional towns. In the case of Ichthys (and Shell’s nearby Prelude FLNG project), that town is Broome, where more than 70 local businesses are engaged in the oil and gas supply chain. Karratha, meanwhile, is already buzzing with

the positive spin-offs from the new Pilbara iron ore construction boom and will buzz even louder next year should Woodside give the green light for its Scarborough to Pluto LNG project. “Finding a Niche in LNG” explains why Pluto Train 2 engineering contractor Bechtel will be able to source much of its workforce for the project within WA’s skilled talent pool. The Karratha and Districts CCI has proved invaluable in bringing those skilled people face-to-face with the big LNG contractors, as highlighted by KBSS Managing Director Cory Byers in our “Karratha Conversation”. But it’s not just resources bringing prosperity to the regions. The growing demand for renewable power has spawned numerous wind farm construction jobs in the Mid West, while “Here comes the sun” shows how locals will be critical to the success of Risen Energy’s big Merredin solar farm project in the wheatbelt. There’s plenty more to savour, with our fully loaded defence section anchored by an exclusive interview with Austal CEO David Singleton, who explains why the major shipbuilder has never been busier at its Henderson heartland. And our construction section features another exclusive, this time with FBR (formerly known as Fast Brick Robotics) explaining how its Hadrian X robotic brick laying technology will shake up residential building. It’s a reminder that, whatever the industry, brain power is one of our most valuable resources.

Stephen Bell

We hope you enjoy reading WA Works as much as we do producing it. Share your thoughts at editor@cciwa.com

4 WA WORKS Spring 2019

Visit cciwa.com/waworks

Published quarterly by Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Western Australia (Inc) 180 Hay Street East Perth WA 6004 (08) 9365 7555 info@cciwa.com www.cciwa.com President Ray Sputore Chief Executive Officer Chris Rodwell Editor Stephen Bell (08) 9365 7445 editor@cciwa.com Production Editor Robyn Molloy (08) 9365 7628 Robyn.Molloy@cciwa.com Graphic Designer Katie Addison (08) 9365 7518 katie.addison@cciwa.com Advertising 1300 422 492 advertising@cciwa.com

Disclaimer: This information is current at September 2019. CCI has taken all reasonable care in preparing this information, however, it is provided as a guide only. You should seek specific advice from a CCI adviser before acting. CCI does not accept liability for any claim which may arise from any person acting or refraining from acting on this information. The views and opinions expressed are not necessarily the views of CCI. Reproduction of any CCI material is not permitted without written authorisation from the Editor. © Copyright CCI. All rights reserved

CEO’s Desk

Abundance of opportunities in China WA businesses are well positioned to capitalise on the growing Chinese market

n increasingly uncertain global economic environment, slowing China and political unpredictability amongst world leaders has meant that now, more than ever, we must work harder to diversify an increasingly trade exposed Western Australian economy to boost business investment and support job creation. In 2007-08, mining made up 22 per cent of our state’s economy. Today, it makes up 31 per cent and both construction and manufacturing have lost ground, relative to the overall economy. This means that while it is imperative that WA continues to develop its resources sector, we must also look to scale up other export opportunities and pursue new prospects. This shouldn’t be a scary thought for WA businesses because by no means does it require us to start fresh. WA has long established trade and investment relationships globally that we can leverage, particularly with our largest trading partner, China. In August, I participated in the WA Government’s trade mission to China, led by Treasurer Ben Wyatt, which served to reinforce our long held diplomatic and business relationships with China, especially in the economic and political strongholds of Beijing, Hangzhou and Shanghai. It included delegates from across the food and

agribusiness, resources and education sectors to identify a range of trade and investment opportunities for WA businesses that could be fostered to ensure our commercial relationship with China remains strong for decades to come. It is clear that WA’s opportunities lay in abundance. Whether it is increasing the level of student exchange between our two countries, securing a direct flight from Perth to Shanghai, bolstering our promotion efforts, or developing e-commerce pathways for our food and agribusiness exports to China — these must be priorities for WA. To put the growth potential of these sectors into perspective, over the year to March 2019, 64,400 Chinese tourists visited WA, spending $273 million. Despite this being WA’s highest international market for visitor spend, this only accounts for 2.9 per cent of total spending by Chinese tourists across Australia. Similarly, the opportunities in our food and agribusiness sector are vast. In 2016-17, 22 per cent of WA’s agrifood, fisheries and forest exports were to Mainland China, worth almost $1.9 billion. If these exports were boosted by just 10 per cent, that equates to an additional $188.6m flowing into the WA economy, supporting

Chris Rodwell

job creation and business confidence. Achieving this is far from impossible. China is set to become the world’s largest economy by 2030 and has a discerning consumer market of over 1.3 billion people with a growing middle class. The signing of the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement (ChaFTA) in 2015 has provided a unique opportunity for both Australian and Chinese businesses to deepen our commercial relationship in the food and agribusiness sector in particular, where tariffs on products such as beef and dairy are set to be eliminated over the course of the next few years. In 2017, 38 per cent of Chinese sheep meat imports were from Australia, 26 per cent of its wine imports and 20 per cent of its orange imports. While this is significant, it clearly demonstrates the growth potential for WA businesses in the food and agribusiness sector. This couldn’t be more apparent than when we look at products such as honey where Australia only holds an 8 per cent share of Chinese honey imports. WA’s Jarrah, Red Gum and Manuka honey exports could be significantly increased by improving promotion of these products through more effective utilisation of e-commerce platforms. The world is quickly moving to the digital sphere, and for WA businesses to expand their global reach and capitalise on emerging opportunities, it’s critical that a greater focus is placed on digital transformation. There is a wealth of data in this world, from store transactions to consumer preferences, which if harnessed and effectively analysed could improve productivity, identify new innovative products or detect new market opportunities. Just as ChaFTA has supported WA’s future economic growth, it is critical that the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership is finalised as a priority to further strengthen our trade and investment relationships across the Indo-Pacific region. As the organisation responsible for delivering the Australian Government’s TradeStart program across the Perth Greater Metro region, our International Trade and Investment Centre is committed to supporting WA businesses to be aware of their import and export opportunities and to understand their market entry options. WA is uniquely positioned to capitalise on an evolving Chinese market and diversify away from an over-reliance on the resources sector. For this to occur, both industry and government must work together to strengthen global relationships, identify new areas of collaboration and promote our state’s exceptional products to the world.

Spring 2019 WA WORKS 5

6 WA WORKS Spring 2019

The Big Picture Factory of light: Tianqi is ramping up production from its $400 million Kwinana lithium hydroxide project after celebrating the launch of the stage one processing plant. Spring 2019 WA WORKS 7

Economic Outlook

Daniel Norrie

How can we grow investment across the WA economy? There’s a renewed interest by Federal and State governments on the barriers to business growth, writes Daniel Norrie

he Western Australian economy is continuing its recovery, with higher investment by the mining industry supporting lower unemployment and slowly increasing wages growth. WA was the best performing state in the June quarter, with economic output growing by 0.8 per cent thanks to an increase in mining investment in machinery and equipment. The output of the rest of Australia grew by just 0.2 per cent over the quarter. These figures were driven by an increase in government expenditure (and do not include net exports). Unfortunately, this increase in business investment in WA over the quarter was still not enough to prevent the State’s economy from contracting by 1.1 per cent in year-on-year terms. So, what does the future look like for WA? We recently released our biannual forecast for the WA economy, Outlook, which outlines how we believe the economy will perform over the next three years. We expect that miners will continue to invest in new projects and forecast that business investment will grow by 6 per cent in 2019-20, 9 per cent in 2020-21 and 5 per cent in 2021-22. Mining investment accounts for around 80 per cent of total investment in WA and is the single largest contributor to economic growth. Since 2008, these capital investments have driven labour productivity in WA, increasing by an average of 3.7 per cent per year — far above the average across the rest of Australia of 1.7 per cent. The magnitude of mining investment has, however, masked some issues affecting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). SME business profits are flat, as seen in ABS data on unincorporated profits in Australia. As outlined in Outlook, total real unincorporated gross operating profits in Australia have increased by just 1.6 per cent per year on average — at around the same rate as the total number of businesses. At the same time, costs have been increasing — making it more difficult for SMEs to stay afloat. For example, council rates have been growing at an average of 6.2 per cent per year. These cost increases mean that business owners have less money to invest in projects and employ staff.

8 WA WORKS Spring 2019

High growth in costs, weak demand and low growth in profits are affecting the ability of businesses to invest in WA. Bank lending for property in WA has been falling by 2 per cent per year on average over the past five years. There are two ways to grow business investment across the economy: 1. Reduce costs 2. Remove barriers that increase the cost, risk or uncertainty with investing in new projects.

Reducing costs, removing barriers, cutting red tape We have been collecting feedback from our Members on red tape issues that impose unnecessary costs and put a handbrake on their ability to invest and grow. We’ve identified four common problems across most areas of regulation that affect businesses when they start new projects: 1. Poor access to regulatory information and the rules are not clear or in plain English. 2. Unnecessary approvals for minor changes that trigger lengthy and uncertain approval processes. 3. Councils and agencies repeatedly request further information and excessive detail, causing costly delays. 4. Councils and agencies impose unnecessary and costly requirements that were not clear

at the outset of an investment decision. These issues directly reduce business productivity and the value of potential business investment opportunities. We have raised these issues with the State and Federal governments, which have both announced a renewed focus on removing barriers to business growth. We believe there are two key requirements for these reform programs to be successful and grow investment: 1. Information – governments must have a mechanism to gather feedback on issues that impose unnecessary costs and delays. 2. Incentives – CEOs of government agencies must be incentivised to listen and respond to feedback and reduce unnecessary costs imposed on business. Daniel Norrie is CCIWA’s Senior Economist

Have your say We want to hear from you about where regulation has blocked your business’s growth and ambition. Support our work by visiting redtape.cciwa.com or email economics@cciwa.com.

Minister’s Memo

Linda Reynolds

WA front and centre in Defence Our world is changing at a pace and scale not seen since World War II and WA has a crucial role to play to ensure Defence capability, writes Linda Reynolds

trategic competition between states is on the rise. We are in an age of rapid technological change and disruption — nowhere more so than in its application to military capabilities. To keep our nation safe and secure the Federal Government is investing to ensure that our service men and women have what they need to protect our nation from traditional and emerging threats. The Coalition’s long-term plan is to invest $200 billion in our Defence force. This plan maps out the major capability purchases we will make to provide the means to defend Australia. We are acquiring the best aircraft, ships, submarines, land vehicles, weapons and the supporting systems to deliver an agile and potent force to serve our own unique national security circumstances. The acquisitions are more complex than anything the Commonwealth has undertaken. My responsibility as Minister for Defence is to ensure these capabilities are delivered to give our Defence Force the edge it needs. WA is front and centre in this endeavour, particularly as the Indian Ocean is replacing the Atlantic as the world’s busiest and most strategically significant trade corridor. The Indian Ocean carries two-thirds of global oil shipments and a third of the world’s bulk cargo, thanks, in part, to WA’s remarkable resources, gas and mineral exports following major investments over the last decade. I have seen and supported many WA industrial developments unfold and I am pleased the State Government is committed to naval-related infrastructure in WA. Crucial to this are two shipbuilding companies in Henderson, Austal and Civmec. Both have recognised the need to support the upcoming builds where the Federal Government is investing approximately $1.5b. These investments mean we can look forward to the transition of the Offshore Patrol Vessel program to WA from 2020, benefiting future shipbuilding programs such as the Hydrographic build and Mine Warfare Vessel construction, due to start in the early to mid-2020s.

More broadly, our region and our oceans are becoming increasingly contested. That is why we are investing in future naval capabilities. We already have a world-class submarine capability in the Collins class — a design that has evolved since its inception in the 1980s to incorporate the most advanced technology on any conventional submarine. I am pleased to see existing submarine infrastructure in Australia support the Collins class fleet sustainment across the two shipyards, including at the Australian Shipbuilding Company (ASC) at Henderson and ASC North at Osborne, South Australia. Just as Australian industry plays an essential role in sustaining our current Collins fleet, the involvement of Australian industry in the Future Submarine Program will be a key element of the sovereign capability we will be building to deliver the Attack class. This capability has to be developed over time and will include developing the workforce to build, sustain and

operate our submarines in the decades ahead. As I have said many times, any decision will be made in our national interest. The first submarine will be delivered in 2032. This reflects a sensible timeframe during which we will mature the design of the Attack class and then build the submarines in Australia. Construction will take place in a modern yard in Adelaide. The overall program will be truly national in scale and will rely on industrial capability across the country, including here in WA. No matter the strategic challenges, we will need the ability to project force across land, sea and air — and that will require capable maritime platforms. We will need to be flexible and adaptable in bringing in new technologies to work with the whole of the Defence Force. At the same time, we will need to retain major capabilities that will deter threats to interests or security. A potent submarine force is a key part of that equation. The delivery of the Future Submarine Program is a key priority of Government as it attends to its most solemn duty — the defence of the nation and its people. Senator Linda Reynolds is the Minister for Defence.

“We are acquiring the best aircraft, ships, submarines, land vehicles, weapons and the supporting systems”

Spring 2019 WA WORKS 9

On the ground

‘I wanted to be part of history’ A day in the life … Sam Jager, segment erector operator, Salini Impreglio, Forrestfield-Airport Link

am a segment erector operator. It’s not a job title people have usually heard of, nor is it your average job, but I don’t get up every day to go to an average job. When I took on this role with Salini Impregilo it was because I wanted to be part of history. I’ve been working on the Forrestfield-Airport Link project for a couple of years now as part of the tunnelling team. The project will see a new rail line connect the railway east of Bayswater Junction to Forrestfield, including 8.5km of new tracks, with 8km of it being twin-bored tunnels. Tunnel boring machines (TBMs) began underground mining mid-2017 and are currently on the final leg of their journey. While the $20 million TBMs are complex and remarkable machinery, they are not automated and do require a crew of 11 to ensure efficient operation. The crew includes a main TBM operator, often referred to as the pilot, engineers, electricians and labourers or fitters, like me.

History making contribution To build one tunnel 4500 rings (27,000 segments) will be installed Sam has installed 800 rings (4800 segments). This is almost 30 per cent or 1.3km of the rings installed in TBM2

10 WA WORKS Spring 2019

I previously worked FIFO as a heavy tyre-fitter for a mining company, so I’m accustomed to long shifts and generally working hard. Having started as a labourer with the tunnelling team in July 2017, I worked my way up to my current role. I am responsible for operating specialist equipment that installs the concrete segments that line the tunnels. I also support other maintenance tasks for the TBMs which require patience and at times some ‘elbow grease’.

parameters are not optimal due to a change in ground conditions we may need to stop the machine, access the cutterhead (which might have to be done under hyperbaric, or pressurised, conditions), change out the tools on the face of the TBM or perform other maintenance needed to ensure efficient operation. Moments like those are challenging and we are on the clock, but they always teach you something, whether it be teamwork or how to solve a problem in a better way. Meeting deadlines and solving glitches is part of my role and just like any other job but the challenges are unique.

“Tunnel boring machines began underground mining mid-2017 and are currently on the final leg of their journey” There are two tunnels being constructed, but I work on TBM 2 (known as TBM Sandy) most of the time. When needed, I may work on the other machine (TBM 1 or TBM Grace). I really enjoy working with my tunnelling colleagues, learning where they are from in the world and picking up any tips I can from them along the way. Some of the guys have worked in tunnelling for a long time and in all parts of the world, so forging friendships where I can learn from experienced professionals in my field means I can continuously build on my professional knowledge. Perhaps building these unique skills will allow me to travel and work in other parts of the world on other projects when I am finished here. We can’t perfectly predict what kind of ground we are mining through, especially in mixed geology zones. If we see that mining

Sometimes there will be an unforeseen stoppage. With my team, I may need to perform an unplanned maintenance program, or see to various parts of the TBM that need minor repairs. These jobs require teamwork, can require out of the box solutions and a little more of that elbow grease to get the machines going again.   I know that tunnelling for the project is due to finish mid-2020 and I plan to look at other tunnelling project opportunities, but right now I am focused on learning everything I can and really enjoying my role. It’s a job I can see myself doing for a very long time to come. Whatever each day has in store for me, it’s always an enjoyable experience. It really is a rewarding role and I feel very proud to be part of creating history on the ForrestfieldAirport Link.

On the ground

Bright future for solar farm work

FQM seeks workers for Ravensthorpe

irst Quantum Minerals says the planned restart early next year of its huge Ravensthorpe nickel mine near Hopetoun will create about 550 direct jobs. FQM has started recruitment in the Great Southern and Goldfields Esperance regions, with 350-plus roles needed for the operation and maintenance of the huge laterite processing plant. The yet-to-be-appointed mining contractor will require an additional 200. Recruitment evenings were held in Albany, Esperance, Hopetoun and Kalgoorlie. The company is initially recruiting to fill a wide range of positions, including operators and tradespeople, particularly electricians, boilermakers and fitters. FQM intends to operate regular employee bus services from both Albany and Esperance to the mine site. It will also provide opportunities for relocation

to company housing at the seaside town of Hopetoun. It will be third time lucky for Ravensthorpe, which was last closed in late 2017 by FQM, which purchased the mothballed operation from BHP in 2010. BHP had closed the foundation project in 2009 after major financial losses caused by shortfalls in the expected plant recoveries. FQM undertook major upgrades prior to the last restart, and WA Works understands no major modifications are planned for the current reopening phase, which follows a spurt in nickel prices. Nevertheless, there is likely to be significant capital spent on the mining side, with FQM seeking government approvals to open the second stage of the Ravensthorpe deposit soon. Establishment of that deposit, known as Shoemaker Levy, is likely to require a substantial investment.

Tianqi looks to Kwinana lithium ramp up

ianqi is ramping up production from its $400 million Kwinana lithium hydroxide project after celebrating the launch of the stage one plant in September. Kwinana stage one, the first fully automated lithium chemical facility outside of China, is expected to produce 48,000 tonnes per annum of high purity lithium hydroxide once fully operational. “Our operations team is now focused on moving towards the production of high-quality battery-grade lithium hydroxide to supply our global customer base,” said Tianqi Lithium General Manager Phil Thick. He said the company planned to roll out continuous production of the chemical according to the schedule agreed with its long-term customers. While confirming completion of stage one, Tianqi paused construction of the $300m second stage, which is about half finished. A Tianqi spokesperson told WA Works the

decision was is not a response to the current softer market conditions, rather a means of ensuring that Tianqi’s resources were totally focused on completing stage one and getting it up to production. The official celebration at Kwinana included WA Governor Kim Beazley, Deputy Premier Roger Cook and Dong Zhihua, China’s Consul General in Perth. Customers from across the globe, including China, Korea, Japan, Europe and the US were also in attendance. “It’s an important moment for the team who have worked together to reach such a significant milestone in the plant’s development, with the workforce largely sourced from Kwinana and the surrounding suburbs,” Thick said. The plant sources its lithium-bearing spodumene concentrate from the Talison Lithium mine which is majority owned by Tianqi and located 250km south of Perth adjacent to the town of Greenbushes.

More than a hundred local workers will be needed to complete Bright Energy Investments’ Greenough River solar farm expansion in the Mid West, following the appointment of a new contractor. BEI announced in September that Brisbane-based Juwi Renewable Energy would finish building the project after previous contractor RCR Tomlinson collapsed late last year. Despite bringing in the interstate company, BEI General Manager Tom Frood insisted that most of the remaining construction — the project is 45 per cent complete — would be done by local workers. “We expect that the work on the ground will be carried out by a Western Australian workforce with a small number of specialists who might come from outside of the state,” he told WA Works. “An Expression of Interest process was conducted and a wide range of companies responded, both local and international. “BEI has the responsibilities to its owners and financiers to select the best commercial agreement from a reputable company. “This has included seeking an understanding from interested parties about local employment opportunities, ensuring the use of properly qualified local workers, training opportunities for local workers including apprenticeships, and sourcing from local businesses.” About 300,000 solar panels need to be installed, alongside half the piles, cabling, inverters and switch equipment. “It is expected that the workforce will peak at approximately 120 workers.” Frood said the new contract would enable the 30MW expansion project to recommence construction immediately, with a revised completion date of early 2020. RCR announced the original $60m contract in April 2018 but called in financial administrators in November. BEI terminated the Greenough River contract in late 2018. Frood said the final costs for the project were commercial in confidence.

Spring 2019 WA WORKS 11

INPEX sails into

smooth waters Building production at Ichthys remains priority but the company is also on the LNG exploration path, writes Robyn Molloy

12 WA WORKS Spring 2019

Resources

fter 20 years of exploration, planning and construction, INPEX’s Ichthys Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) development is rapidly approaching its first anniversary of LNG operations. The company started shipping condensate (ultra-light crude oil) on October 1 last year, followed quickly by LNG on October 22, then LPG on November 19, with the life of the Ichthys LNG development expected to span 40 years. But there will be no slowing down for INPEX with the Japanese multinational looking to prove its mettle as operator of one of the most complex oil and gas developments on the planet. The world has watched in wonder as major pieces of infrastructure came together, such as the project’s central processing facility — the Ichthys Explorer — which is moored near the Ichthys gas field by 25,000 tonnes of anchor chain in 28 mooring lines. Built in South Korea, the world’s largest semi-submersible platform weighs-in at 120,000 tonnes, is 130m x 120m and was towed 5600km over 34 days to its destination 450km north of Broome in the Browse Basin. Then there’s the 336m Ichthys Venturer, the floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) facility for offshore processing and offloading to exporters. The Ichthys Venturer is connected to an onshore LNG processing facility in Darwin via an 890km gas export pipeline, one of the longest subsea pipelines in the world. In all, 133,000 tonnes of equipment were installed in the subsea phase.  Newly appointed INPEX President Director, Australia Hitoshi Okawa has been working on Ichthys LNG from the beginning in various managerial roles before his promotion in February. Arriving in Australia in 1998, he was one of three Japanese businessmen to establish the Perth office when Ichthys LNG was nothing more than a pipe dream. “Fortunately, we found the Ichthys Field in 2000,” he told WA Works from the company’s Perth headquarters. The Ichthys Field turned out to be the biggest liquid hydrocarbon discovery in Australia in more than half a century. As the project hit major milestones late last year, Okawa says it was the culmination of his life’s work. “I was in Darwin on a support vessel last year with INPEX Chairman Toshiaki Kitamura when the first LNG carrier left for Japan,” he says. “That was an emotional and proud period. In the early days, I never dreamed we could send off an LNG carrier because we faced so many challenges. That is why it is kind of a dream come true. And I really enjoyed that moment.” >

Spring 2019 WA WORKS 13

Resources

> Ichthys LNG will produce up to 8.9 million tonnes of LNG per annum, approximately 1.65 million tonnes of liquefied petroleum gas per annum and 100,000 barrels of condensate per day at peak. Despite facing technical challenges, Okawa says production is exceeding expectations. “This result is more than our expectation — it’s an unbelievably smooth operation and I really appreciate the tireless work of our operations team, offshore and onshore, in safely and efficiently ramping-up our facilities,” he says. In a sign of the importance of Ichthys LNG and Australia to INPEX’s global operations, the company’s Tokyo-based Board of directors held its first ever meeting outside of Japan in late July when it met in Darwin. “One of the serious topics for Board discussion related to our Australian business strategy. We received endorsement from the board, so

that means from January next year we need to implement this strategy,” Okawa says. Among the company’s core commitments is to expand investment in Australia via exploration and production activities. “The ramping up of our facilities and maintaining stable production is our first priority. “At the same time, we have room for an additional four LNG trains at our onshore LNG processing facilities. “That means we are in a very strong position for further expansion, so we don’t want to miss this opportunity.” Priority exploration areas include the offshore Browse, Canning and Bonaparte basins and the onshore Beetaloo Basin. “For Beetaloo, INPEX is in the application stage of an onshore exploration permit which may offer significant gas potential,” he says.

Anchoring in Broome INPEX’s Australian workforce includes 1250 people in Perth, about 600 offshore workers and about 850 people currently in Darwin. In Broome, more than 70 local businesses are engaged in the supply chain including logistics, hospitality and trade services. “Broome is the principal support hub for Ichthys LNG’s offshore production operations and drilling campaigns and the main exit and entry point for our personnel travelling offshore,” Okawa says. “We are today the biggest user of Broome International Airport Heliport and the Port of Broome.  In fact, a significant percentage of business at Broome airport is attributed to the oil and gas sector.  “INPEX Australia and the Project have worked with the Kimberley community over many years providing support in areas such as arts and culture, youth, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander initiatives and education. Forecast economic contributions to Australia from 2012-50: • $195b in exports for Australia • $190b in additional GDP for Australia • $91b increase in Australian real income • $73b in taxation revenue for governments in Australia (average $1.9b per annum) • 1800 full-time jobs per annum on average. Economic benefits to WA: • $75b boost in economic output • More than $8.9b of taxation payments to the WA Government • $20m per annum in payroll tax payments to the WA Government • $34b increase in real incomes in WA • Create 1100 full time equivalent jobs on average per annum for the next 40 years in WA. (*Source: 2017 economic assessment by ACIL Allen Consulting for INPEX)

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“Our onshore and offshore expansion strategies are being considered from a variety of angles and all options remain open. “For example, if we locate and secure a commercially sustainable source of natural gas either near the existing pipeline or near Darwin and can efficiently transport it to the Ichthys gas liquefaction plant in Darwin, it would be possible to expand the production volume of LNG and other products by either upgrading the current facilities or constructing new ones. “Importantly, expansion is contingent on securing a sufficient volume of new reserves to justify additional investment. Thereafter, technical and commercial aspects would be considered and evaluated at the development stage.” Increasing INPEX’s brand awareness in Australia will also be a focus for Okawa. “We are gradually increasing our profile in Australia and the recognition level of our company by the community and government is increasing, but we can do more in this area. “We will continue to support community programs in Darwin, Broome and Perth as part of our commitment to maintaining our social licence to operate and standing as a good corporate citizen. “We have these massive facilities onshore near Darwin and off the north coast of WA, and we’ve built-up a base of very talented people in Australia. How we make use of these facilities and our people to expand our business and our brand in Australia is an important focus area for us.” Okawa says it will be a challenging but exciting year ahead in Australia.

Resources

Dongara gas boom looms

A major onshore gas development brewing north of Perth is shaping as a significant work opportunity for the WA supply chain By Stephen Bell

joint venture led by Mitsui hopes to approve its $500 million-plus Waitsia gas plant expansion by the end of the year, creating a big windfall for local contractors. The huge Japanese conglomerate forecasts that the Waitsia stage two project near Dongara will create at least 150 construction jobs, with development targeted to start early next year. A final investment decision is expected in December, followed by an Engineering Procurement and Construction (EPC) contract award in January, Mitsui E&P Australia says in referral documents lodged with the Environmental Protection Authority. Public comments on the EPA referral closed September 12, while Mitsui also held a community information session at the Shire of Irwin Recreation Centre, Dongara, later in the same month. The biggest Perth Basin development in decades, the project shared by Mitsui and equal partner Beach Energy would vastly expand production from Waitsia, which was discovered in 2014 and ranks as one of the top five largest onshore gas reservoirs found in Australia. Yet current production is limited to just 10 terajoules (TJ) per day from the small Xyris plant built by previous asset owner AWE three years ago.

The new processing plant will increase Waitsia’s production capacity more than 12-fold and export the conditioned gas into the nearby Dampier to Bunbury gas pipeline with operations expected to continue for 16 years. The development proposal includes: • Building a gas plant with a maximum export capacity of 250 terajoules (TJ) per day. • Drilling up to six new wells, supplementing the existing two suspended appraisal wells. • Installing a gathering system of flowlines and hubs to convey the extracted gas to the plant and the gas distribution network. • Installing a flowline from the Waitsia plant for water re-injection to the formation via disused petroleum production wells.

Waitsia’s existing gas gathering hub

About 20 per cent of the development expenditure and operating costs are forecast to be spent regionally. This equates to an average $40m a year direct expenditure in the region and an average $60m a year as the full flow-on impact to the Mid West, Mitsui says. During the operations phase, there will be up to 15 permanent jobs associated with the gas plant, expected to deliver $13m a year to the region. Mitsui’s Australian Industry Participation (AIP) plan lodged last year identified a range of likely opportunities, including equipment and materials supply, construction services and onsite drilling and completions. Prior to tendering, the EPC contractor will

“The Waitsia stage two project near Dongara will create at least 150 construction jobs” The finished Waitsia facility, to be located near the existing Xyris production plant, will be operated from site, with remote monitoring capability. At the time of writing, Mitsui said the design and construction of the project was subject to a “design competition” involving two WA contractors.

engage with the Industry Capability Network WA (ICNWA) or an independent service provider to determine whether local capability and capacity exists for scopes of work of more than $1 million. It is anticipated that proprietary items such as coated line-pipe and fittings, gas turbines or gas/diesel engines, compressors, heat exchangers and columns will be sourced internationally, the AIP says. Aside from the major gas infrastructure, there may be transport work opportunities, with condensate (ultra-light crude oil) to be stabilised, stored and loaded-out to road trains for transport to Kwinana, about 380km from Waitsia. As a separate proposal, Mitsui is also leading the project to expand the Xyris plant commissioned in 2016 by AWE. Mitsui acquired AWE last year via a $602 million takeover offer. The so-called Stage One expansion will double the capacity of Xyris to 20TJ/day and a 4km lateral pipeline will be installed to connect to the Dampier to Bunbury pipeline. Construction work for this project is scheduled to begin in the first quarter of next year and be completed in Q3 2020. Further information on both projects can be found at mitsuiepmidwest.com.au

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Sustaining robots A tour of Rio Tinto’s maintenance facility reveals what it takes to keep the wheels turning on Australia’s biggest privately owned rail network By Stephen Bell

he world sat up and took notice when Rio Tinto officially launched its AutoHaul railway system in the Pilbara — often described as the world’s biggest robot. However, even 2.4km-long robots need to be maintained and serviced regularly. Rio runs 221 locomotives and about 13,000 ore wagons on the network and the majority are maintained at the company’s 7 Mile maintenance workshop near Dampier on a 24/7 basis. WA Works toured the workshop — which

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underwent a $75 million upgrade five years ago, as part of the official AutoHaul celebrations. It was an eye-opener, reminding this writer of the logistics, technology and sheer hard work that goes into keeping the automated trains running day and night on the 1700km network. The scale of the fleet — on a typical day there are about 30 return journeys shifting about one million tonnes of iron ore in total — means there is a constant stream of activity in and about the shed. The workshop houses locomotives and wagons, with dedicated areas including

wheelsets and bearings; and heavier components such as couplers, knuckles and draw gears. On any given day, there will be 100,000 wheels and accompanying bearings rolling along the network and a failure by any one of them can stop a train. The 500kg wheels have an operating life of about a decade, meaning the iron ore division generally consumes about 12,000 each year, amounting to 6000 tonnes annually — a good illustration of the scale of maintenance required. Wheel and bearing maintenance is critical to the health of the network. On average, 26,000 small bearings and 11,000 large bearings are replaced yearly. After all, hauling a 28,000t train generates a great deal of force on the various components. These constant rigours require a great deal of condition monitoring. The company uses non-destructive testing (NDT) such as magnetic particle and ultrasonics to look for fatigue cracks every time a wagon comes into the workshop. Rio’s engineering and maintenance teams also rely on complex algorithms to monitor the bearings from an acoustic perspective, as well as tracking their temperature. This work is done in collaboration with software company MathWorks and track IQ — part of the Wabtec group.

(Top and below) Autonomous haulage trucks, West Angelas minesite. Christian Sprogoe Photography

Mine with a mind By Robyn Molloy

W Welcome to the wheel farm Journalists visited the site’s “wheel farm”, where automated cranes running on tracks transport wheels that need processing or machining. The robots run back and forth on set paths and can easily be stopped manually by nearby staff. At the Human-Machine Interface (HMI), operators key in data on the wheelsets and components, including serial numbers and their overall condition, to help inform other portal operators what work needs to be done. It is a stark contrast to earlier times when wheels were picked up at an outside laydown area and brought inside by forklift, then manually shifted onto a turntable for maintenance. At the end of life, the wheels go into recycling — some to a WA vendor, while the others end up at Commonwealth Steel in Newcastle, NSW, where they are put into furnaces, melted down, and recast into new wheelsets and other components. The knuckles — 42kg chunks of metal inside the couplers that connect wagon pairs — are especially important from a reliability perspective, especially in an AutoHaul environment. That’s because knuckle failures are one of the more common reasons for wagons separating on the network, bringing the giant robots to a standstill. >

ith construction of Rio Tinto’s Koodaideri underway, so too is the company’s much anticipated first “intelligent mine” which will leverage new and existing technology including autonomous trucks, trains and drills. A digital replica of Koodaideri’s processing plant will mean staff can access information in real time via tablets. Iron ore and energy and minerals managing director John McMeekan told the WA Works conference the technology meant it would connect all components of the mine value chain for the first time. “They (operators) can go up to any part of the plant they like. If they have maintenance work on, they can walk up, turn a screen on and as soon as they get close to that piece of equipment it will recognise that you are next to it. And the whole history of that piece of equipment will jump up on your screen,” he said. “You can get access to all the design, maintenance, safety information associated with it and any work practices required for maintenance. “There will by 360-degree videos to show you how to maintain that piece of equipment, that will all be loaded and be live. Obviously the longer an operation works the more information will get put into the digital twin and more access will be available for the people working on the plant.”

Robot refueller For the first time, truck refuelling will also be autonomous, with operators in Perth able to view scans from underneath the trucks while robots fill them up. “When they need refuelling, they usually have to be taken out of the operation to be refuelled. But what we will do is put an automated refuelling system adjacent to the circuit so when the truck knows it's empty or is getting close to empty it will pull itself off, there will be a robot there that will remove the cap and refuel it. “While that is happening there will be a scan going on underneath to make sure there are no issues with the truck itself and also the opportunity for the operator at the control centre in Perth to be able to have a physical look at what’s going on.” Trucks will also be programmed to know when maintenance is required. “The truck will take itself to the workshop. It will know what workshop it needs to go into, we will already have told the workshop it is coming in for this service. “The warehouse will actually self-pick, using an automated picker, all the maintenance equipment and tools required. They will put that onto a bogey, onto a robot and that robot will drive to the bay so the maintainer will never have to leave the bay. The truck and everything else comes to him or her. “We will be putting a lot of sensing data on the plants. We will be collecting a lot of information and doing a lot of data analytics. From a technical perspective, that’s why we are calling this our intelligent mine.”

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Resources > However, the recovery time and cost for replacing faulty knuckles, worth about $500 each, are much less than some other mechanical failures. Response teams are on standby at strategic locations to minimise delays in field replacements.

Robot safety Automation, meanwhile, has provided big improvements in safety in the last few years. Previously the company would replace train components using an overhead crane, which

is a critical risk for the business, due to the danger of dropped objects. Nowadays, via a partnership with Marand (a division of Atlas Rail) Rio uses dedicated installation devices fitted up like forklift tip trucks. Operators, therefore, no longer have to use overhead cranes. Part of the automation also includes

comforts such as microwaves and fridges. The cabins remain human friendly because Rio still needs to run its work trains, whether ballast, fuel or rail trains, with a driver on board. And occasionally the drivers are needed to respond to a stopped AutoHaul train, so they maintain their competency in piloting the robot locos.

“On a typical day there are about 30 return journeys shifting about one million tonnes of iron ore in total” the jacking mechanisms, which have largely eliminated the lifting of entire wagons by overhead cranes. Each time wagons come into the workshop, they are jacked up, wheel sets are dropped out and taken outside.

Inside a robot A visitor to one of the driver cabins fitted with AutoHaul would struggle to realise it was any different from a normal locomotive, given they still contain a driver’s seat along with creature

The “brain” of the robot is not what you’d expect from watching Hollywood blockbusters. The retrofitted innards are hidden inside a plain-looking cabinet. Open the door, and you will find the hardware — a bunch of multicoloured wires, circuit boards and other gadgets. Of course, these mundane-looking hard-wired brains would be nothing without the complex AutoHaul algorithms and integrated sensors that have revolutionised iron ore transportation and rail safety in the Pilbara.

WA Freight and Logistics Conference Thursday, October 24, 2019

The WA Freight and Logistics Conference brings together all key participants in one of the largest sectors of the WA economy to discuss the practical issues in the strategic barriers and the opportunities for the sector. Discussing hard-hitting issues for the freight and logistics industry throughout our suburbs and the regions of WA, this conference is uniquely Western Australian, enabling operators to listen to, discuss and network with leaders and key players in politics, government, business, and industry. For more information visit cciwa.com/events

MORNING TEA SPONSOR:

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AFTERNOON TEA SPONSOR:

EXHIBITORS:

Resources

Lining up for LNG work Woodside packed out a WA Works sundowner for suppliers hoping to hook up with major contractors on the huge Scarborough to Pluto project By Stephen Bell

oodside’s massive Scarborough to Pluto LNG project is the biggest game in town for subcontractors looking to snare quality resources work in the Pilbara. Like the boom time projects of old, the $16 billion (US$11bn) project includes an onshore and offshore component, which will necessitate a broad range of skillsets to get the field gas flowing and the LNG onto ships. So, not surprisingly, there was plenty of pent up demand for Woodside’s first supplier event for Scarborough to Pluto. A boisterous crowd of about 200 attended the sundowner at CCIWA’s offices in East Perth, itching to get the lowdown on contracts, work packages and their likely timing, with operator Woodside edging closer to a go-ahead next year. Woodside’s two key project managers, Morgan Harland (Scarborough) and Rob MacKinnon (Pluto Train 2) were supported by half-a-dozen contractors appointed to carry out engineering and design services for the offshore Scarborough gas project and the onshore Pluto LNG expansion. A meeting table run by Bechtel, the front-end engineering design (FEED) contractor on Pluto Train 2, was a popular destination for suppliers, while others seeking offshore work gravitated to tables housed by contractors McDermott Australia, Subsea Integration Alliance, Saipem Australia, Intecsea and Marubeni-Itochu Tubulars Oceania. Woodside’s Harland said the company was still targeting a final investment decision (FID) on Scarborough for next year, to enable the project to be ready for start-up in 2023. Simultaneously, FEED on Pluto Train 2 was also being progressed towards FID next year, to be ready for start-up in 2024.

“While specialist components, such as the floating production unit (FPU) and the LNG train modules are being fabricated overseas, we expect that there will be many other opportunities for local businesses, based on capability and competitiveness, as we seek to maximise these aspects,” Harland said. “We anticipate that local supply chain opportunities for the construction phase will increase as we reach a final investment decision for Scarborough and Pluto. And we look forward to talking to you more about the skills and expertise you offer.”

and capacity, and to maximise local participation. MacKinnon said Woodside had started supplier engagement in Karratha in May and had since hosted a second successful forum in the town. “And I can see from the audience here, there’ a lot of interest. As a result, we will be looking at another forum in Perth before the end of 2019.” Separately, Woodside Chief Executive Peter Coleman said the company was set for a “year of decisions” in 2020. “We are working hard to execute the gas tolling agreement for Scarborough and complete the FEED activities for both Scarborough and

“The $16b project includes an onshore and offshore component, which will necessitate a broad range of skillsets” The biggest visible part of Scarborough will be its giant semi-submersible FPU moored in 900 metres of water close to the Scarborough gas field. McDermott is undertaking FEED activities for the FPU, which will be remotely operated and minimally manned.

The view from Pluto Pluto project manager Rob MacKinnon, meanwhile, said Woodside was “strongly committed to maximising the use of local engineering expertise in WA”. He said Woodside and its contractors used the services offered by the CCIWA-managed ICN Gateway to understand local business capability

Pluto Train 2 by the end of this year,” he said at a briefing for the company’s half year results. “This sets us up for an FID in early-2020 and an RFSU (ready for start-up) a few years later.” And, turning his attention to Woodside’s other mega project, Coleman said the joint venture partners in the proposed US$20.5 billion Browse project were aligned on “commencing FEED by the end of 2019”. “So we all want to get on with this project,” he said. Businesses wishing to view work opportunities on Pluto LNG Train 2 or Scarborough should visit ICN Gateway at gateway.icn.org.au

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Flank flying Construction at the South Flank mine is on target as BHP looks to increase the onsite workforce By Stephen Bell

ixteen months after board approval, BHP’s South Flank iron ore development is hitting its straps. The global miner says it is poised to begin structural and mechanical construction for the $5.3 billion (US$3.6b) project by year end after making significant progress on foundation earthworks. WA Works recently viewed the advancement of the project firsthand during a site visit to celebrate the opening of BHP’s upgraded Mulla Mulla accommodation village (See page 28). Prior to BHP’s chartered Fokker 100 jet landing at Coondewanna airport near Mulla Mulla, BHP treated its guests to a flyover of South Flank and surrounds. From the window seats, the dignitaries had bird’s-eye views of progress on what will be the single largest production mine BHP has ever

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developed. Having received board approval in June 2018, South Flank’s construction is now 40 per cent completed, according to BHP South Flank Project Director Simon Thomas.

BHP’s Vista Oriental pit, South Flank’s first mine development. Visible earth works included the start of the pit, the location pad for the primary crusher and the pre-crusher stockpile pad. “You can see there has been quite a lot of development in the last 12 months since we gained board sanction for our mine development,” Thomas said. “We are doing a lot of our predevelopment work before we move over to Grand Central (mine) pre-development.” Thomas said that both Vista Oriental and Grand Central would operate at 40Mtpa of primary crushed iron ore.

“First ore from South Flank is targeted in 2021, with the project expected to produce ore for more than 25 years” “To accomplish this was no mean feat,” he said. About 1400 people were now working on the project, with the construction workforce expected to swell to 2500 next year as mechanical construction of conveyors, crushers, stockyards and ore handling equipment began. Passengers viewed the start of activities for

Civil invasion All of BHP’s development work to set up for the primary crushers, overland conveyor, concreting for support structures, and containing walls for the run of mine pads, is being done by Perth-based NRW Holdings, which won the $176 million contract in July 2018. CPB Contractors, meanwhile, was undertaking

work in and around the existing Mining Area C hub rail loop as part of its $260m contract. CPB, a division of the CIMIC group, had peaked at about 340 people on site, Thomas said. “They are well into the earthworks at this point and moving toward predominantly a concrete and civil phase of their works,” he said. Monadelphous would be doing the inflow structural mechanical piping (SMP) and electrical instrumentation (EI) packages, and outflow stockyard, conveyors, transfer stations and interconnecting conveyor systems. And engineering group Clough would carry out the SMP to support the ore handling plant. “At the end of this year we’ll start to see those contractors mobilise to site and move into the structural/mechanical aspect of the project,” Thomas said. Downer, meanwhile, would deliver the electrical infrastructure on site, while Perth-based DTMT has been used for miscellaneous and general civil work. First ore from South Flank is targeted in 2021, with the project expected to produce ore for more than 25 years.

Presidential view In opening Mulla Mulla village, BHP Iron Ore president Edgar Basto said the mine development continued to generate significant

opportunities for local suppliers. “As at the end of June 2019, South Flank has awarded more than $3.3 billion of work,” he said. Of this, 78 per cent went to WA-based companies of which 37 per cent were in the Pilbara. “South Flank will create about 9000 direct and indirect jobs during construction,” Basto said. “And more than 600 ongoing operational roles over the life of the mine.” He said BHP was passionate about creating sustainable jobs in the Pilbara, “through training, employment, and developing a workforce that reflects our communities, with a focus on inclusion, diversity and

indigenous empowerment”. “We want to develop a pipeline of skilled labour through our increased commitment to apprenticeships and traineeships, and by hiring locally wherever possible to ensure local people gain new skills and experience.” Basto said there were still jobs up for grabs at South Flank. At the time of writing, the company had recruited about 50 per cent of its operations workforce, 40 per cent of which were female and 22 per cent indigenous. “We still have some jobs to go. I encourage people to go to our website and see the range of opportunities we have there,” he said.

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Resources

Rare deal for Germany Robyn Molloy finds out how a global trading and technology company has joined the race to boost production of rare earths in outback WA

he pendulum has swung back in favour of Australia’s newest rare earths exporter, with Northern Minerals teaming up with German conglomerate Thyssenkrupp after months of financial woes. Thyssenkrupp Materials Trading GmbH has signed on as the buyer for all heavy rare earth carbonate stockpiled and produced at the Browns Range pilot plant in the Kimberley. The deal follows the termination of an agreement between Chinese company Lianyugang Zeyu New Materials Sales, which received an initial shipment of 2578kg of

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Northern Minerals Managing Director George Bauk said the new offtake agreement was driven by the global uptake of electric vehicles and variants. “With this shift, both car and component makers are accelerating plans to invest further down the production chain in order to secure surety of supply,” he said. “Importantly for Northern Minerals, the new offtake agreement doesn’t include any price caps, giving the company full exposure to increasing dysprosium and terbium prices, which are up 60 per cent and 35 per cent respectively over the year to date.”

Browns Range on the map carbonate in December 2018. This first cargo announced Northern as Australia’s second rare earths shipper — albeit on a small scale — after major producer and exporter Lynas Corp. A planned second Browns Range shipment was bagged and ready to deliver to the Chinese company but the two parties were at loggerheads over price for a number of months before the agreement was scrapped. Six days later the Thyssenkrupp deal was announced. All the while, the stockpiled carbonate was gaining in value.

Northern Minerals’ world first test site for rare earths is about as isolated as it gets, but what’s coming out of the ground is crucial for use in all the mod cons including PET scanners, wind turbines as well as by global defence forces for weapons. From Perth it’s a flight to Broome, followed by charter flight to a red dirt landing strip at Browns Range — 160 kilometres south east of Halls Creek and 6km from the Northern Territory border. The global trade war between China and the US has thrust the junior mining company into the limelight as the only producer of heavy rare

Resources

The Browns Range rare earths minesite is a world first test site. CEO George Bauk explains some of the extraction processes. Photographs – Robyn Molloy

earth dysprosium outside of China. That it caught the attention of a large German company is no surprise, with Thyssenkrupp Materials Trading CEO Wolfgang Schnittker highlighting that it was one of the few suppliers outside of China. “So we are really looking forward to a successful collaboration between the companies,” he said after the deal was struck. The xenotime mineralisation at Browns Range is rich in dysprosium, sought for its  use in magnets inside motors such as those used in electric vehicles and wind turbines as well as other technologies.  Sixteen of the 17 light and heavy rare earth elements are present at Browns Range, but the extraction processes are complicated  and still in the R&D stage with more than 45 tests going on at the site.

Magnetic attraction When WA Works toured the pilot plant at the end of June, Bauk said one of the big drivers of demand was from magnets containing neodymium, alongside other rare earths. “The dysprosium gets added to allow the magnet to maintain its charge at high temperatures — that’s what the secret property of dysprosium is,” he said.

“You can imagine when you are talking about these magnets in high temperature applications like engines of cars … you can’t afford for the magnet to fail because then the drive motor will fail.” Yet it’s been no easy road to riches for the junior miner as it’s strives to refine its processes and get the rare earths that everyone’s talking about out to market.

powers to try to get the value for each element. So if we separated it all we could really be in more control of our destiny,” Bauk said. The company recently announced a scoping study to investigate separation technology, which if proven would allow the company to produce dysprosium oxide and terbium oxide ready for magnet makers, rather than selling as a mixed carbonate needing to be processed in China.

“One of the big drivers of demand is from magnets containing neodymium, alongside other rare earths” The company has ordered an ore sorting machine to improve the mill feed grade and increase production of heavy rare earth carbonate, which it expects to be commissioned by mid-2020. However, the long-term goal is to not ship carbonate but to separate the high value elements first, something it will work on with Thyssenkrupp to achieve. “One of your weaknesses about selling a carbonate is you don’t have all of the negotiation

Testing is being carried out by US-based K-Technologies, with samples sent to the US and trials starting in September. If successful, the company will install the technology as part of its plant where it would undergo further assessments. “The investigation of separation technology is a natural extension of the existing pilot plant studies. With everything we do, we are looking at ways of doing it better, more profitably and delivering value to our shareholders,” Bauk said.

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Construction

Another brick in the wall for FBR When two brick laying robots take a starring role on residential sites around Perth in the next few months, the dawn will break on robotic construction, writes Robyn Molloy

he world will be watching this spring as the shakeup of the residential building industry unfolds brick by brick, dwelling by dwelling as FBR’s two Hadrian X machines show what years of inventing, designing and testing will mean. The High Wycombe-based public company has two Hadrian X prototypes that use Dynamic Stabilisation Technology, which was invented by Chief Technology Officer Mark Pivac, to accurately lay bricks. It is now powering towards commercialisation after recent tweaks to partnerships and its business model, including the decision to offer a bricklaying service rather than sell Hadrian X as a product. FBR established a 50/50 joint venture with building product supplier Brickworks in May and last year signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Austria’s Wienerberger to develop clay blocks while exploring a future business model. FBR and Caterpillar discontinued an MoU in December last year for the construction machinery giant to build and distribute the robots. The new entity — Fastbrick Australia — will operate on a business model called Wall as a Service, which FBR CEO Australia Simon Amos told WA Works was a tactical move.

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“If we sell a robot then we just get a royalty and the dealerships and the people that maintain those are the beneficiaries of all that ongoing service and maintenance,” he said. “If we do Wall as a Service, every dollar that we create globally comes back to Australia, so it creates an annuity in the revenue model and allows us to really be the beneficiary of everything we build on the planet.” The next six months will be crucial for FBR, as it fires up on building sites in Perth and explores its global partnership with Wienerberger, in addition to several other MoUs with companies around the world. “We do have a commercialisation flight path as we pilot ourselves over the next six months here in WA, we are starting to explore our global relationship with big companies like Wienerberger in Austria, the largest clay block manufacturer on the planet, so we are dealing with some very big companies. “We are setting up that demand and that interface with future customers. We probably have a two-year window to really explore what that looks like, test the different technologies and demand profiles because they are not all the same as Australia.” FBR has grown from seven staff in 2012 to about 115 today, with the technology finally catching up with Pivac’s 1994 idea. >

Spring 2019 WA WORKS 25 Chief Technical Officer Mark Pivac with Hadrian X after the first build of an outdoor home structure in February

Construction months so people should get ready to start seeing our Hadrian Xs go out on paddocks, working with builders and building new house structures,” he said. “It’s essentially a builder phoning us and saying I want this structure built at this time with this quantity. We then put that into our software and we give them certainty on speed, reliability, quality etc, so very soon you will see us exploring that as our business model and our robotic technology in harmony together.”

March of the Hadrians

> The holy grail Amos said the shakeup of the industry was more than just being able to build a house faster — he hopes a two-week build will reduce to nine hours, though the software is still being refined — with everyone in the workflow and supply chain to reap the benefits. Banks will get interest earlier because the house is delivered earlier, people will move out of rentals faster: “When you package that up into the time costs of money, we think we’ve got a very interesting value proposition,” he says. “Using the same data you can engage the supply chain across the whole metric for the whole delivery and influence that, so waste, offcuts, just in time methodologies, lean construction, they are all words that are used but we are actually implementing them.”

supply chain, for manufacturing roof trusses, windows, everything is sourced from this single source of truth. “That’s the holy grail, in my view, of what our industry can do and what we are trying to introduce out into the residential marketplace.”

Accurate to a millimetre Unravelled, dynamic stabilisation means the robot can hold a brick in the air about 30 metres away and regardless of weather and other influences, lay it within a millimetre of where it’s destined to go. Hadrian X sends bricks to the back of the robot for cutting, based on the dataset and cartesian coordinates, then transports them through the boom and lays them with a special adhesive, all in one go with no human interaction.

“We are about to essentially go out of the gate with our technology and build some of our pilot programs and display homes” Waste is reduced because every brick is measured and every offcut understood, so there is no need to order extra. The method bridges the disconnect between the design process and execution on a building site where a great desktop design can fall down after multiple handling, becoming interpretive by those there on the day on a building site. “With our technology using the CAD and the dataset as the single source of data, once you put it into the programmable logic controller of the robot, that’s what gets laid on site, there are no other interventions,” Amos says. “It allows us to be very much smarter and with no delinquency in the way the data is put onsite. It also enables us to use that for the rest of the

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“It is a fairly profound change in the industry but what it provides is a lot more reliability, accuracy and speed in view of what’s currently available in the market,” he says. While the bricklaying is precise, Amos concedes there are tolerances because “nothing is perfect” but decisions about that can be made offsite in the factory rather than patching up onsite. Amos told WA Works the company would now charge ahead with plans to offer Wall as a Service, with both Hadrians to be deployed to Perth building sites in the next six months. “We are about to essentially go out of the gate with our technology and build some of our pilot programs and display homes over the next six

While there will only be two Hadrian Xs on the road between now and the end of the year, Amos says they will be “viral across the globe” over the next three to five years. While reluctant to define “viral” in numbers, Amos says his hope is for it be in the hundreds. The company is navigating requirements of each overseas jurisdiction which require various testing and approvals from authorities. FBR is also debating whether to manufacture the robots, the bones of which is a truck chassis with an internal power source, in WA or offshore. While it runs on diesel for now in Australia, the company is exploring electrical options for other countries where emissions controls are a priority, such as Europe. “Everything is driving me to make sure that every dollar that gets spent comes back to our holding entity here in Australia. We do need to explore what that looks like on a commercial and economic basis,” he says. For now, FBR will focus on the single-storey residential market, with a “mini queue” of construction companies lining up for Hadrian X, which has been designed to work on existing gazetted lots such as subdivisions in Baldivis and Piara Waters. “We saw that as the best place to apply our technology for now. We’ve got greater plans and bigger bandwidth to do things in the future … and largely where we can scale the technology,” he says. “Our team is really focused on a single goal which is to change the industry and make life better.”

Ambassador’s Memo

Gary Quinlan

Opportunities are knocking A new economic agreement set to be ratified is paving the way for Australia to share in Indonesia’s growth, writes Gary Quinlan

or two neighbours that sit side-by-side and work closely together on some of the most important issues we face as nations, the economic relationship between Australia and Indonesia can and should be a lot stronger. The potential is obvious: Indonesia has a population of 260 million people, and one of the world’s fastest growing middle classes. By some estimates, Indonesia will be the world’s fifth-largest economy by 2030. Yet today, Indonesia only ranks as Australia’s 14th largest trading partner. The potential for Indonesia and Australia to combine and become an economic powerhouse is huge. It is time both countries seized on that potential to build a stronger and more resilient economic relationship that benefits us both. On March 4, Australia and Indonesia signed the Indonesia-Australia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (IA-CEPA). An important step, IA-CEPA will ensure Australia will share in Indonesia’s growth and, once ratified, will provide some fundamentally important outcomes to Australian agriculture, resources, energy, education, and transport and construction services industries. Australia has secured improved access for a large and growing quota of live male cattle, with 575,000 head achieving duty free status in year one of the agreement. Each year, that quota will grow, until it reaches 700,000 in the sixth year. We have also secured a substantial quota for feed grains, with 500,000 tonnes enjoying duty free access in the first year, increasing by 5 per cent each year. In addition, the tariff on frozen beef and sheep meat will halve immediately to 2.5 per cent,

before being eliminated entirely after 5 years. These significant outcomes will provide more certainty for some of our major export industries, which will, in turn, also flow to the supporting infrastructure industries, such as transportation and shipping ports. Western Australia stands to benefit significantly from the opportunities for expansion that the IACEPA provides. New ownership rules will mean that Australian businesses can own up to 67 per cent of contract mining and mine site preparation services, and similarly for energy supply — up to 67 per cent of electrical power construction, installation and maintenance operations.

“Western Australia stands to benefit significantly from the opportunities for expansion” Even greater ownership is permitted in other energy-related fields: 75 per cent of oil and gas platform construction and 95 per cent of power plants greater than 10 megawatts of power. This all spells ‘opportunity’ for Western Australian businesses keen to expand and diversify into this market. Indonesia is seeking more foreign investment, especially in priority sectors such as energy and infrastructure, to meet its

ambitious economic development plans.  Australia is a natural partner for Indonesia, as a close neighbour with serious expertise in these sectors.  Under IA-CEPA, investments in Indonesia will be safeguarded with better protections than ever before. The agreement provides greater certainty for Australian investors by limiting the scope for any moves to make key regulations governing foreign investment in Indonesia more restrictive in the future, for example on minimum capital requirements. In addition, if Indonesia provides better outcomes to investors from a third country under a future trade agreement, Australian investors will automatically gain that better treatment under IA-CEPA. IA-CEPA also contains a unique facility for economic cooperation, designed to maximise the benefits of IA-CEPA, supporting pathways to trade and investment facilitation, and further improving market access and openness. It will support innovation in key areas like agri-business, technical and vocational education and training, health, standards, and hopefully over time in new technologies in finance, agriculture, medicine, and the digital economy. Each year, an economic cooperation work program will be developed, on the basis of mutual benefit. The economic scope and coverage of the IA-CEPA is comprehensive. It represents a new level of ambition between our two nations, extending on existing agreements, and sets the scene for a shared future. It contains architecture that will frame the way the Indonesian and Australian economies engage and grow together. It will bring us closer together economically and strategically, as we should be, and help shape a new, dynamic partnership. Gary Quinlan is the Australia Ambassador to Indonesia

Spring 2019 WA WORKS 27

Construction

Mining meets MasterChef BHP has left no stone unturned at its latest FIFO camp in keeping workers at the South Flank project contented

By Stephen Bell

Each worker has their own room, featuring 25 sq m of space, separate bathroom, air conditioning, wall TV and full internet connectivity. But it’s the wide choice of communal facilities — Mulla Mulla services as many people as a fair-sized town — that really catches the eye.

t started off as a humble drilling camp in the early years of this century. But a recent $153 million upgrade of BHP’s Mulla Mulla Village has brought a touch of glamour to Pilbara FIFO. Carried out by WA contractor Decmil, the expansion added 2000 more rooms to the original 500, along with 30 laundries and new recreational facilities such as virtual golf, squash and tennis courts, swimming pool, cross-fit gym and sports field. There is also a three-storey café with lift, access to a rooftop bar/restaurant, music stage, library with 3000 books, barbecue, gazebos and plenty of room for movie nights on the green using an inflatable screen. WA Works was part of a media contingent that toured the facilities as part of BHP’s official opening of Mulla Mulla, which serves workers on its nearby $5.3 billion (US$3.6b) South Flank iron ore construction project, about 120km north west of Newman. Journalists were soon disabused of the notion that Mulla Mulla is just another upgraded mining camp with a lash of paint and more rooms. The light bulb moment arrived when BHP South Flank Project Manager Simon Thomas herded the media pack into a large, brightly lit

28 WA WORKS Spring 2019

Home away from home

room — described as a “masterclass cooking demonstration kitchen”. For a few seconds, this writer felt he’d stepped onto the set of MasterChef: shiny stainless steel appliances, marble benches, knife blocks, sizzling grill plates and several wannabe chefs in neat aprons plating up — all overseen by a chef barking instructions. Offering cooking lessons in a state-of-the art kitchen shows how far BHP has deviated from the standard FIFO recipe book in seeking to ensure the wellbeing of South Flank’s workforce. The village now hosts 1400 people but this is expected to swell to 2500 next year as construction peaks.

At the official ceremony BHP Iron Ore President Edgar Basto said the company had aimed to create a “home away from home” for employees, many of them working thousands of kilometres from their kin. “We are committed to invest in our workforce, so that our people have the right skills and a healthy, vibrant culture in which we can thrive in line with our charter and culture of care,” Basto said. Speaking to the assembled dignitaries, including Mines and Energy Minister Bill Johnston and BHP’s South Flank joint venture partners Mitsui and Itochu, he said the company had designed Mulla Mulla “with wellbeing at front of mind”. “Our aim is to set a new standard in FIFO lifestyle for our people to ensure they are supported during their swings away from their home and family,” he said. The company was also offering more flexible

Construction

roster options to enable work to “fit in with the lives of our people”, he added. Thomas, meanwhile, described Mulla Mulla as a “step-change” for the industry in terms of delivering a huge project such as South Flank. “For that we require an engaging, high-performing workforce, which means we need to look after all our people,” he said. BHP had worked to recreate Mulla Mulla as more representative of facilities you’d expect in the broader community, what you’d see if you were living, for instance, in the South West or Perth, he said.

about 50 per cent of the 600 people needed for the South Flank operations team. Of this, 40 per cent were female and 22 per cent indigenous, the company said. “BHP really do focus on the diversity,” said Linda Pringle, BHP South Flank site administrator and a regular user of the huge gym. “Being a female on site, it’s not difficult at all, we’re really included in everything.” Thomas said personal choice and the variety

and diversity of features were highlights of the camp. “It’s not just about accommodation and having a gym, wet mess and dry mess; it’s about communal areas where you potentially could do some study,” he said. “You can look at library facilities, there is an area to get together with your friends to play music and get into a band environment.”

Construction drawcard “It has been designed specifically as a drawcard for our construction and ongoing operations workforce,” Thomas said. This is an important consideration as BHP competes for workers with commercial rivals Rio Tinto and Fortescue Metals Group. The three Pilbara majors are spending a combined $15b at the same time in building their replacement and sustainment mines. Moreover, the village ambience fits snugly into BHP’s aim of achieving gender balance — 50 per cent female employees — by 2025. At the time of writing, BHP had recruited

Spring 2019 WA WORKS 29

Finding a niche in LNG Specialist skills are in demand for WA's next big gas construction project, writes Stephen Bell

ight months into a major role on Woodside’s proposed expansion of Pluto LNG, global engineering company Bechtel says it continues to be impressed by the capability of the Pilbara’s and Western Australia’s supply chain to support the Australian LNG industry. Bechtel was awarded the front-end engineering design (FEED) contract for Pluto Train 2 in December 2018, a key component of Woodside’s bid to commercialise the Scarborough gas field off the Pilbara coast. The contract includes an option for Woodside to progress to a lump sum engineering,

30 WA WORKS Spring 2019

procurement and construction (EPC) contract for the execution phase. Woodside plans to spend about US$11billion ($16b) in total on Scarborough and Pluto Train 2 and aims to make a final investment decision next year for both projects. This will be a critical step in Woodside’s plan to provide decades of ongoing employment in Karratha through its proposed integrated, regional LNG production centre, the Burrup Hub. Ahead of that decision, Bechtel has been busy testing the waters of the local labour market and supply chain community for Pluto Train 2.

The contractor has worked with Woodside to run several supplier briefings in Karratha and Perth, with more planned for both locations in the future. Bechtel has also sought expressions of interest in dozens of work packages through the CCIWA-managed Industry Capability Network (ICN) Gateway site gateway.icn.org.au as it looks to finalise the costs and technical definition of Pluto Train 2. And Bechtel, which recently completed the construction of Chevron’s Wheatstone facility in Onslow, is looking forward to continuing its relationship with the WA and Pilbara supply chain through the Pluto Train 2 opportunity. “We’ve been working in WA for the past 50 years and we continue to be impressed by the capacity of local suppliers, many of which have worked with us to deliver significant projects across multiple sectors,” says Luke Walker, Bechtel’s procurement and contracts manager. He says the company will be able to source much of its workforce for Pluto Train 2 from within WA’s skilled talent pool. “The level of Australia’s workforce with LNG experience has also grown substantially. We trained 436 apprentices to gain their trades

Construction on a long history of LNG construction in Australia. After completing Darwin in 2006, the company designed and built six LNG trains for the huge Curtis Island LNG complex in Queensland from 2011-16, with construction peaking at 14,500 people. This was quickly followed by Chevron’s Wheatstone LNG project, which was completed in 2018 and generated more than 17,000 WA construction jobs. As a result of this unprecedented national LNG construction boom (Woodside’s Pluto, Chevron’s Wheatstone and Gorgon, the Curtis Island projects and INPEX’s Ichthys were also built over the space of about a decade), Australia’s supply chain had to boost its skills and manufacturing capacity to compete.

speed networking sessions with Bechtel and have met almost a hundred suppliers. We also held a WA Works event in Perth with CCIWA and all of our Burrup Hub lead contractors in August, which attracted a sell-out crowd of more than 200 people.” MacKinnon says Woodside’s focus is to help suppliers find their “niche” to ensure their business is sustainable beyond construction. “Woodside continually explores opportunities for elements of our projects that can be delivered locally and we support our contractors to develop Australian Industry Participation Plans (AIPPs) to improve local content outcomes,” he says. “We are committed to working with our project delivery partners, like Bechtel, to identify

“We’ve been working in WA for the past 50 years and we continue to be impressed by the capacity of local suppliers”

qualifications on the Curtis Island LNG projects. That helped address a national skills shortage and this experience is highly sought after today. “We have since deployed some of our Australian LNG experts to support our projects globally, but we are anticipating being able to bring some of these people back for this project.” Bechtel’s confidence in the supply chain is built

“While we continue to work with the companies that we’ve engaged with through the ICN, we are also focused on engaging new companies and particularly indigenous businesses,” Walker says. Woodside’s Pluto Train 2 project manager Rob MacKinnon says Woodside and Bechtel have partnered with CCIWA and the Karratha and Districts CCI to engage the supply chain through a series of supplier networking events. “We recognise one of the major challenges for smaller suppliers is being able to meet face-to-face with large companies like ourselves and Bechtel, and we wanted to change that,” he says. “In Karratha we’ve engaged through two

where the gaps are in the supply chain and potentially aligning what is needed during construction to build capacity for operations.” While Woodside’s target is to complete Pluto Train 2 FEED by the end of this year, the WA supply chain is already benefitting. Several companies including Karratha-based GHD are helping Bechtel with initial engineering and design work and Perth company Creative Communities is developing a social impact management plan leading up to construction. Suppliers can register with ICN at gateway.icn.org.au and keep checking for new opportunities at Pluto Train 2. Find out more at woodside.com.au and bechtel.com.

Spring 2019 WA WORKS 31

Construction

Karratha conversation Iron ore is buoyant, LNG is making a comeback and Karratha service companies can sniff more work in the wind. Managing Director of homegrown hero KBSS Engineering Cory Byers tells WA Works about the road to success in this Q&A Bechtel says KBSS is a good example of a Karratha business that built its expertise on Wheatstone construction with these skills now used on operations. How did it all begin? We made a conscious decision to start the company in 2012 to service resources sector clients in the Pilbara. There was demand for a quality service offering due to the unprecedented resources infrastructure boom occurring at the time. I guess it was all about the right time and being in the right place but we’re still here today due to the capability of our people and the services we provide.

How did you go about building your capacity to participate in bigger and more complex projects? Being able to bring the right skillsets into the business is crucial to success and we have been fortunate to attract and retain quality people. On the technology front, we understood the need to have the right equipment and invested to ensure quality outcomes. We recently invested close to $1 million on an Okuma CNC lathe and mill which allows precision machining work to be done here instead of being sent to Perth.

How do you measure that increased capability? I guess our approach to capability has been strategic in that it was about our ability to harness the skills, capabilities and resources we have in the business and use that to gain competitive advantage, grow and increase the company value over time. We now have a business that holds DNV ISO Accreditation and a 2000 sq m workshop

with a dedicated fabrication area and machine shop with start-of-the-art technology. We hold critical operational maintenance contracts on several Pilbara sites and are proudly involved in two indigenous business partnerships that provide opportunities for members of local communities here.

What current projects are you working on? We are fortunate to have some prestigious maintenance contracts as well as a quality workshop in Karratha that provide services to clients such as Woodside, Rio Tinto, YARA, Chevron, Santos, Dampier Salt and Citic Pacific, to name a few.

Are you hoping to get work on Woodside’s Pluto Train 2 construction? What platforms are you using to express interest in packages?

How did the company come to be formed? Like many Pilbara businesses, it came about from seeing an opportunity to do something someone else either didn’t want to do or hadn’t thought of doing. A business partner, $60,000 in savings, a supportive wife who was the guru of all things administrative, is what got us up and running. Along the way I have had a sister and brothers involved from time to time.

We’ve had the pleasure of working at Pluto and at the Karratha Gas Plant over the years. We also had close to 300 people engaged at Wheatstone for Bechtel during the construction/ commissioning phase through our indigenous business joint venture with Globe Hill. The experience and knowledge gained on such projects will hopefully stand us in good stead to secure opportunities on Pluto Train 2. ICN is the gateway for highlighting our interest in not just Pluto Train 2 but on any relevant project that utilises ICN.

What’s you view on the current “vibe” in Karratha?

How useful is the Karratha and Districts Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KDCCI) in linking up local businesses with big projects?

Creating something from nothing, being provided opportunities by companies like Woodside and Bechtel, seeing young indigenous apprentices thrive when given the opportunity and watching the business grow, is why I love the job.

We are proud members of KDCCI and indeed

32 WA WORKS Spring 2019

fortunate to have won, on occasion, its business of the year award. The support it provides, the level of engagement it creates for local businesses is exemplary and is to be commended for bridging any gaps between local businesses and big project owners and contractors. It is also great to see its new CEO, Tanya Dodd, pick up the mantle with such vigour and continue the great work.

We support clients in the resources sector who are here 24/7. Naturally, the impact of new construction projects will bring many positives to the town and create new long-term employment opportunities. Of course, the mass influx of temporary workforces during construction can stretch local infrastructure and resources but it really is short-term pain for long-term gain.

Is there a “typical” day for Cory Byers and what do you love about the job?

Construction

Dipping into global waters An Australian-owned fabrication company formed six years ago has sparked global interest after building two record-breaking deep diving vessels By Stephen Bell

ozztech Engineering is the latest example of how the depth of WA’s manufacturing capability is sometimes hiding right under our noses. Earlier this year, the Henderson-based business posted photographs and descriptions of its latest completed project, a pair of three-person submersible diving chambers made for James Fisher Singapore, on LinkedIn. It was confirmation of the successful manufacturing and testing of the vessels, which are believed to be the deepest three-person submersible decompression chambers ever made, and has since attracted worldwide attention.

A local representative of a big overseas company confided that he “couldn’t believe we were building diving bells in Henderson, let alone to the depth they were was tested at” says Pozztech Engineering General Manager Joe Vinciguerra. It also put the company on the radar of several global construction giants active in WA, including US engineering contractors working on Woodside’s Scarborough-Pluto LNG project. The chambers are designed to dive in 500m of seawater and weigh more than 10 tonnes. They have been fabricated by the company’s team of highly skilled metal workers. Pozztech’s engineering skills enabled the original design to be substituted to Australian standards, which were incorporated into the manufacture of the chambers and exo-structure.

Materials ranged from normalised carbon steel to stainless steels. The two Lloyds Register (LR) Class-1 pressure vessels underwent extensive testing, “with zero repairs and zero injuries during the seven-month manufacturing and testing process”, Vinciguerra says. “Pozztech is one of only two LR certified companies in Australia to carry out these works,” says Vinciguerra, who joined the company two years ago. He highlighted Tony Pozzato, managing director, projects, John O’Neill, welding and fabrication as well as Jason Clark, head of quality assurance, as being critical to the success of the diving bells. Pozztech took over direct project management — a first for the company — of what had been a straight construction job, contracting directly to James Fisher Singapore, which is part of UKbased marine engineering supplier James Fisher. Closely involved with the Henderson Alliance, Pozztech hopes to engage with more Defence work in the future, Vinciguerra says.

Spring 2019 WA WORKS 33

Energy

Regional Development Australia Wheatbelt’s Stephanie Mippy, landowner Peter Shields, Dandaragan Shire deputy president Peter Scharf, Member for Moore Shane Love, Alinta’s Ken Woolley, Vestas project director Steve Culbert

Renewables: fanning a construction boom The blades aren’t turning yet at WA’s two biggest wind farms but construction is ramping up By Stephen Bell

he regular strong breezes off WA’s coral coast have borne good tidings for renewable energy suppliers. About 350 construction jobs need to be filled over the next 12 months as a $1.2 billion wind farm boom gathers pace in the Mid West. Alinta Energy expects to award about 150 of those roles at its $400 million Yandin project, where the first sods were turned in August by company executives and local dignitaries. The project, in the Shire of Dandaragan about 175km north of Perth, is the first direct investment in a renewables project by Alinta, the big utility looking to grow its share of WA’s electricity market. Yandin is the latest leg of the Mid West wind boom, with Synergy’s nearby $500m Warradarge project also entering construction. These two

34 WA WORKS Spring 2019

giants follow APA Group’s $315m Badgingarra, which started selling power earlier this year. The surge of wind has proved a boon for local engineer Decmil, which secured more than $150m combined after winning contracts at both Yandin and Warradarge from prime contractor and turbine supplier Vestas. Warradarge is tipped to generate 200 construction jobs, most in WA, however both Synergy and Alinta will import their huge wind turbines via Fremantle Port. Badgingarra also imported its turbines via head contractors Siemens. “We’ll have delivery of the turbines towards the end of this year,” said Ken Woolley, Alinta’s executive director merchant energy. “Peak construction will be around that time and continue through to about April-May next year,” he told WA Works.

Yandin will boast generating capacity of 214MW, comprising 51 (4.2MW) turbines with hub heights of 105m. The biggest individual items include the 75-metre turbine blades. Between next January and June, more than 50,000 tonnes of turbines and machinery will be transported to site. Woolley said that first power generation was expected in May 2020 at the start of commissioning. Full output is due by June, followed by performance testing and then project handover by Denmark’s Vestas in September. Alinta appointed Vestas as EPC contractor in February, with Decmil winning the $79m balance of plant contract in April. The engineer’s scope includes the design and construction of the civil and electrical balance of plant, including wind turbine bases, access tracks, site cabling, switch room and substation. Subcontracts awarded at time of writing included Geotechnical investigation to CMW Geosciences, civil design to WGA and electrical works to RJE Engineering.

Energy Bulk earthworks and foundations contracts were under negotiation, while two other major subcontracts for the cranage and transport were still to be let by Vestas.

Green power influx Yandin will connect to the State Government’s electricity network via a new 10km transmission line and terminal station that will be built, owned and operated by Western Power. The grid will need to accommodate nearly 400MW wind power combined next year between Yandin and Warradarge, but Woolley says it is well set up to cope with the influx of green power. “There will be some operating protocols for wind farms, depending on the load and what other network outages might be happening at the time,” he said.

“About 350 construction jobs need to be filled over the next 12 months as a $1.2 billion wind farm boom gathers pace” “Some will necessarily need to be dialled down. We expect to see a bit of that, but not a lot. That’s what Western Power will do to make sure that the system stays secure.” Woolley said both Yandin and Warradarge will connect to what is, “pretty much the backbone” of the Mid West’s high voltage (330 kilovolt) transmission system. “It is a very strong, robust grid system we’re connecting into,” he said. “You’d usually see solar farms connecting at much lower voltages, potentially with more issues, but connecting in at very high voltage, you are at a more stable part of the system. So, I would expect to see far less constraints and issues by renewables coming into the market.” But with a lot of renewable power coming on, Woolley said it was important to ensure there was a certain amount of thermal generation running at the same time to balance the inherently volatile nature of wind and solar. Alinta takes output from the Badgingarra and Walkaway wind farms, alongside Yandin once it comes online. “We take all that power and use it to sell to commercial and industrial customers, where that size of the market is contestable,”

he said. “And we firm up that renewable and variable energy being generated by using our thermal plants — the Pinjarra co-generation plant and Wagerup peaking plant.” Pinjarra, located at Alcoa’s alumina refinery, is the more flexible of the two. “We can run it at the full output or turn it down very low, which we will do if our wind farms are pumping out large volumes of cheap renewable electricity.”

“Yandin is a great example of the Shire of Dandaragan’s desire to be recognised as the centre of renewable energy in WA, and it’s terrific to hear the project partners talk about the region’s potential,” he said. “We also welcome contact from other developers who would like to investigate how the shire can support them to make our vision a reality.”

Celebrating with sods

Looking into the sun

Woolley said the sod turning event was about celebrating the contributions of project partners and the people of Dandaragan. “We’re saying thanks to the landowners, local community and others that helped us get to this point. We’re on track to have the wind farm up and running by the second half of 2020. WA has some tremendous renewable energy resources and we believe Yandin will harness one of the best, if not the best wind resources in the country,” he said. Alinta was also opening applications for a community fund that would contribute at least $50,000 to projects and groups in the Shire of Dandaragan each year, split into two rounds of $25,000 each. Shire of Dandaragan Chief Executive Brent Bailey said the sod turning was an important step in the shire’s plan to make the area WA’s renewable hub.

Meanwhile, Alinta is looking to add other renewable sources to its portfolio, potentially including solar generation in the Pilbara, where the company operates the Newman gas-fired power station and a huge 30MW lithium ion storage battery. Woolley said the battery was utilised, “to a fair extent, but that doesn’t mean we couldn’t use that to connect in some intermittent renewables, in particular solar.” If clouds rolled in quickly, dampening solar output, the battery would kick in while the turbines of the power station ran up to pick up the difference, he said.  “We’re very active in looking to develop and expand our grid to supply customers, not just through Newman and the battery, but renewable generation through solar as well,” he said. “There is a pretty good solar resource up there.”

Windy work Cost $m

Jobs

Output (MW)

Completion

Badgingarra

315

150

130

Early 2019

Yandin

400

150

214

Mid-2020

Warradarge

500

200

180

2020

TOTAL:

1215

500

524

Spring 2019 WA WORKS 35

Energy

Here comes the sun Construction is peaking at WA’s biggest solar farm, boosting Merredin’s credentials as the green energy epicentre of the Wheatbelt

Merredin Project Manager Patrick O'Neill is surrounded by boxed solar panels ready for installation. Photographs – Sam Shields

By Stephen Bell

tubes, trackers and inverters. The farm will connect to Western Power at 220kv, generating 281GWh of electricity annually, enough to power about 42,000 homes. Peak construction activity will run until early December but the site will be busy until March when Risen aims to start commissioning its new substation.

ind power came to Merredin in 2012 courtesy of the Colgar wind farm. Now it is the sun’s turn to transform former scrubby grazing land into a generator of renewable energy. The transformation this time is driven by Risen Energy, a Chinese photovoltaic panel maker using Merredin as a stepping stone to its goal of establishing 2GW of Australian solar farms over the next few years. Risen expects to hit peak construction this month (October) at the $160 million project following its recent appointment of an EPC contractor. About 300 workers will be on site as Risen targets late March for the first electricity from the 132MW capacity project. The power, to be transmitted from Risen to the adjacent Western Power substation, will be generated from 360,000 solar panels shipped from Risen’s factory near Shanghai. The panels are being trucked in 550 containers to Merredin from Fremantle. On an exclusive site visit last month, WA Works saw thousands of boxed panels lined up in rows in preparation for their installation later this year. Packed away, the panels don’t make a huge dent in the 460 hectare farm leased by Risen. However, by the time the power comes

36 WA WORKS Spring 2019

Night moves

on line, Risen’s infrastructure will cover about 260ha as each of the 370W and 375W panels track the sun across the Merredin sky. Speaking to WA Works on site, Risen Project Manager Patrick O’Neill was in a buoyant mood, having overcome a few geotechnical hurdles with the help of Perth-based drilling and piling company Pilecom. And, after interviewing three high-quality candidates, the company selected Monford Group to construct the solar farm. "They are a reputable contracting company from Perth with experience in the renewable energy sector,” he said. Monford is tasked with building a new substation and installing the panels, torque

Somewhat ironically, for a project built to capture the power of our sun, much of the panel installation work will likely be undertaken after sunset, for safety and comfort reasons. “We’ve already looked into the process of installing panels during the evening,” O’Neill said. “It worked well on two of our other projects, especially in north eastern Queensland, where we worked a night shift. There is no noise — we were installing panels in well-lit areas with safety supervision on site, and people actually enjoyed working at night rather than the day.” At Merredin, major construction and the movement of heavy vehicles would be limited to daylight hours as a safety precaution, he said. “We’ll tidy up the site, prepare it for the night shift people, fill the lighting plants with diesel … no machinery will be running around at night. “Safety always comes first. The less people you have during the day, the less chance of someone getting injured.

Rise of Risen

“Bear in mind that once the solar farm’s built, traffic is going to be at a minimum,” O’Neill said. “Probably there will be one ute running around here for the next 25 years.” However, there will likely be increased site activity once Risen moves into battery storage. “We’re looking at that in two or three years’ time,” he said. The battery would be installed next to the farm’s border with the Western Power substation. “It would involve 100 shipping containers, but with battery technology evolving so fast it could be half that by the time we do it.”

O’Neill said the “short delay” to the schedule was caused by project design changes when early civils work encountered more granite than forecast by the original surveys. “We have had to use different methods to get the piles into the ground, but we’ve now solved that problem,” he said. There was a silver lining for Risen. The delay meant it could ship the very latest in panel technology to Merredin, boosting the farm’s energy conversion efficiency. The design changes meant more work for contractor Pilecom to drill post holes into the

“The power will be generated from 360,000 solar panels shipped from Risen’s factory near Shanghai” Silver lining Risen purchased the solar farm project in October 2018 from Stellata Energy, which had hired RCR Tomlinson just prior to the contractor’s collapse in November. Risen Energy has funded 100 per cent of the project. At a ceremonial sod turning in March, Risen predicted that power sales would begin in the fourth quarter of 2019.

areas of granite. Depending on the type of ground, the steel posts are sunk to depths of between 1.5m to 3.2m. “It’s about producing quality at the end of the day,” O’Neill said. “We will definitely not compromise on the foundation.” The appointment of Monford in mid-September triggered the start of construction work, such as trenching and sun tracking installation.

Risen is keen to expand its commercial footprint in WA, and not just in solar. O’Neill says members of the company’s Melbourne-based development team are regularly talking to WA local governments and State Government bodies about further opportunities in the state. “We are also looking beyond solar,” he says. “We currently have about 50 universities doing R&D work for us, which is fantastic, getting everyone in the field of renewable energy, whether it be gas, wind or hydrogen. “Risen Energy is certainly looking at all the avenues.” The company, headquartered near Shanghai, has been in Australia since 2008, with 45-plus personnel and increasing. Initially focused on retail, it is now increasingly seeking commercial projects, such as the likes of Merredin and its recently completed Yarranlea solar farm in Queensland.

By early-October, Risen is expecting hundreds of construction workers on site. “Originally we thought 200, but that’s going to be stepped up to about 300 due to the complexity of the ground model,” O’Neill said. About 100 of them will be Merredin locals. “Once we started coming to site we had plenty of CVs,” O’Neill said. “And I get three or four phone calls each day.” He said it was good to integrate with the local community and also good for costs. “I think it’s far better to have a local if I can, in the sense that I know he or she will be at work every day.”

Spring 2019 WA WORKS 37

Energy

Hydrogen pipe dream A Canadian company that started out selling dongas in Australia more than 60 years ago now hopes to set WA’s path as a world leader in green hydrogen technology By Robyn Molloy

he long-mooted hydrogen revolution may be years away but the first inkling of how it will look has arrived in Perth’s south. ATCO, which also owns the infrastructure associated with WA’s gas network, has established a $3.6 million Clean Energy Innovation Hub at its headquarters in Jandakot. Researchers at the facility have been experimenting with different combinations of energy blends including natural gas, solar, battery storage and hydrogen to see what role hydrogen can play in a hybrid microgrid, ultimately reducing emissions. A solar array at the hub powers an electrolysis unit which splits water molecules into hydrogen and vents oxygen. The hydrogen is then piped into a modular home.

ATCO CEO Nancy Southern launches the clean energy hub. Photograph – Robyn Molloy

The company hopes to find the ultimate mix with natural gas that can then be piped using existing infrastructure to homes and businesses. At the launch of the hub in Jandakot, ATCO’s Canadian-based Chief Executive Nancy Southern said while blending hydrogen and natural gas was still in the test phase, all the signs were pointing towards it being “an opportunity that comes along once in a lifetime”. She said early results had revealed the use of hydrogen in the energy mix could potentially change the face of remote sites, including mining operations. “Just imagine a mining camp fully enclosed with a renewable energy system using hydrogen, producing the water, using natural gas as a blend, but giving the miners a great opportunity to house their people in a renewable camp in a modernised environment as well as using it

Regulatory “threat” heats up gas debate ATCO Chief Executive Nancy Southern told a Perth business breakfast that the opening of the Jandakot hub demonstrated WA was on the cusp of transformation of its economy and energy use and was the envy of the world. However, she warned that the biggest threat to investment was the Economic Regulation Authority, which decides how much ATCO can charge gas companies to access the pipelines. When network charges were last reviewed by the ERA in 2015, it reduced ATCO’s proposed return on assets from 7.64 per cent to 6 per cent, which have ultimately led to lower gas costs for consumers during the access arrangement period of five and a halve years. The ERA is currently reviewing access arrangements for 2020 to 2024, with ATCO revising its tariffs from 6.03 per cent in its initial proposal submitted in 2018 to 4.87 per cent in June after the ERA called for amendments during the assessment process, with a final decision due soon. “In fact, the potential for regulatory decisions to impair the terrific work that the government and industry is doing to provide a prosperous state with opportunities, new energy sources and uses is threatening future investment for this state, particularly in the area of critical infrastructure, and if we want to move to a decarbonised future, our regulators are going to have to move along with us,” Southern told the business event. “The pipelines are the most complimentary aspect to battery storage for hydrogen storage. Blending hydrogen in the natural gas stream further will further reduce emissions. And who knows even one day we may have a 100 per cent stream of hydrogen powering our homes and businesses. “Undoubtedly, there is still much to learn and develop before hydrogen plays a significant role in our energy portfolio and I am a firm believer in a diversified mix of energy. “But one thing is certain, green hydrogen produced by excess solar energy will only be a pipe dream if regulations and the energy regulator denies access to investment capital.”

38 WA WORKS Spring 2019

for their mining operations,” she said. “I really think the possibilities are endless, obviously economics are going to play a big role in how fast we get to where we want to go. “All signs are that this is truly an opportunity that comes along once in a lifetime. I have no doubt that we will get the economics in line.” Southern said the company had manufactured the first hydrogen stove and cooktop and was also testing how much hydrogen could be blended with natural gas for use with existing gas appliances such as heaters.

“We are actually in a position to pave the way for the rest of the world” “This next step is actually to use a closed system, using the pipes to provide hydrogen energy to appliances, heating, lighting in a home that’s here on site,” she said. “What we are doing is testing how much hydrogen we can put into the existing system without changing the nozzles on the appliances. That is really going to be the key. “It won’t take us too long to figure out where that optimum piece is in terms of the blend and then we’ll have to make some decisions.” Southern said support from the Federal and State governments, including $1.6 million from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) and the newly launched State Government Renewable Hydrogen Strategy were crucial for the success of the industry. “With the use of natural gas becoming more prolific, affordable, reliable energy source; blended with hydrogen we are actually in position to pave the way for the rest of the world. It is a very exciting opportunity for us.”

Minister’s Memo

More than just hot air WA is on the cusp of a hydrogen revolution and this time it will work, writes Alannah MacTiernan

ydrogen first presented as a credible alternative energy source in the early 1970s but never proved competitive at scale or against fossil fuels. Now, with new technologies driving down the cost of production and the world focused on a low-emissions future, it’s time to re-examine the role of hydrogen — and more specifically, renewable hydrogen — as an energy source. Renewable hydrogen is defined as hydrogen produced using energy from renewable energy sources. For Western Australia, with our abundant solar, wind and wave resources, renewable hydrogen provides an opportunity to build on our state’s renewable energy potential and global reputation as a leading energy exporter. As a Government we see the extraordinary opportunity the renewable hydrogen agenda presents to WA to accelerate emissions reduction, diversify our economy, support innovation and create new long term job opportunities, particularly in the regions. Multiple countries — such as Brunei and Norway — are positioning to become major exporters of clean hydrogen and all states and territories around Australia are vying for a piece of this industry. The race is on. To capture this opportunity, the State Government has released the WA Renewable Hydrogen Strategy. It sets out an ultimate vision: that WA will be a

major producer, exporter and user of renewable hydrogen. It outlines Government’s agenda for working with industry, highlights the strategic areas we want to drive for WA and summarises the steps we will take to get us there. It has been informed by advice from the WA Renewable Hydrogen Council, techno-economic analysis by CSIRO and extensive consultation with industry.

Alannah MacTiernan

skilled oil and gas workforce, proximity to Asia and existing export infrastructure. • Remote applications - renewable hydrogen can reduce reliance on diesel for remotely located industries and communities. • Hydrogen blending - blending low concentrations of renewable hydrogen into natural gas networks provides an opportunity to partially decarbonise WA’s gas sector. • Transport - fuel cell electric vehicles present an early opportunity for hydrogen utilisation for mobility and freight transport. A dedicated renewable hydrogen unit will be established within the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development where this work has been driven to date, and then transferred to the Department of Jobs, Science, Innovation and Tourism over time. The unit will continue to coordinate WA’s input to the National Hydrogen Strategy, being developed by Australia’s Chief Scientist Alan Finkel. The WA Government will continue to work closely with the Federal Government and relevant bodies to support regulatory reform that will enable growth of the renewable hydrogen industry. This will include work around certification of origin processes and possibilities for incentives programs. We have built a renewable hydrogen information portal, available on the Department’s website, which provides detailed information and mapping of renewable energy and water resources, critical infrastructure and land tenure, to help guide possible investment decisions. The WA Renewable Hydrogen Council will

“Renewable hydrogen provides an opportunity to build on our state’s renewable energy potential” A $10 million Renewable Hydrogen Fund will facilitate private sector investment and leverage financial support for the renewable hydrogen industry. The fund will have a primary, but not exclusive, focus on providing support for feasibility studies, pilot projects and support for commercialisation in four strategic focus areas. These include: • Export - the global market for renewable hydrogen is expected to grow significantly over the coming decades and WA is well placed to capture a significant share due to its excellent renewable energy resources,

remain in place, to continue providing strategic advice to the WA Government on development of this emerging industry. We believe WA is one of the best places for a renewable hydrogen industry to be based.  We have world class solar and wind resources as well as well-developed port infrastructure. I encourage you to view the strategy at drd.wa.gov.au. Alannah MacTiernan is the Minister for Regional Development Agriculture and Food; Ports; Minister Assisting the Minister for State Development, Jobs and Trade

Spring 2019 WA WORKS 39

Major Projects List Artist's impression of the Australian Vanadium plant

Iron ore takes a breather Onshore gas and new energy metal feature in new listings By Stephen Bell

ore than $1.5 billion of new projects have been identified for the latest edition of WA Works’ major project list, provided exclusively to subscribers. The new entrants are a mixed bag of commercial construction, city infrastructure, onshore gas and vanadium. But the list of newbies is probably more notable for what it doesn’t contain. There are no iron ore or lithium projects bobbing up this quarter as the two recent mainstays of resources construction activity take breathers. How long the two will be absent from future updates is an intriguing question. Rio Tinto, BHP and Fortescue Metals Group are in the midst of a $16b construction splurge to replace or augment production at their respective Pilbara operations. No further additions are on the near horizon, although Mineral Resources and Brockman are fine tuning their proposed Pilbara Infrastructure project. And BHP has flagged the completion this year of a prefeasibility study on its Western Range project, which could be a major contributor to sustaining the company’s Greater Paraburdoo Operations, with construction potentially starting in 2021. A major positive for iron ore is that export prices remain strong, whereas the lithium market has weakened this year due to a short-term surplus of spodumene concentrates while Chinese processing capacity catches up. Nevertheless, there was positive lithium news last month as Tianqi officially completed construction of its stage one plant at Kwinana, with ramp up to full production now underway. But let’s turn to what is on the new list.

40 WA WORKS Spring 2019

Australian Vanadium’s $516 million (US$354m) Gabanintha project, the biggest of the five new listings, was buoyed by achieving Major Project status with the Federal Government. Resources and Northern Australia Minister Matt Canavan said the project aligned with the Government’s strategy to position Australia as a critical minerals powerhouse. “Vanadium is on the critical minerals list for Australia and the US, which means there is a market there for this globally significant resource,” Canavan said. “This project will have a significant impact on the Western Australian economy, especially the Meekatharra region, with the creation of around 400 direct construction jobs and a further 200 ongoing jobs.”

Meanwhile, on the public infrastructure front, Main Roads is seeking market interest in building a major Tonkin Highway project that will include enabling works for the MorleyEllenbrook railway line. The $290m Tonkin Gap road project will widen the highway from two to three lanes over a stretch of 3km from Redcliffe. Also in the metro area is NextDC’s P2 data centre, to be delivered by Multiplex. The $192m stage one project includes the construction of six levels of data halls, two levels of electrical infrastructure and back-up power generation, as well as the perimeter security, basement services, car parking and office facilities. The project, to be built in East Perth, is

“Rio Tinto, BHP and Fortescue Metals Group are in the midst of a $16b construction splurge” Gabanintha also has been backed through a $74m loan via the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility. Roughly equal in cost to Gabanintha is the $500m-plus Waitsia stage two onshore gas expansion proposed by a joint venture between Mitsui and Beach Energy. Operator Mitsui forecasts that the project, near Dongara, will create at least 150 construction jobs, with development targeted to start early next year. A final investment decision is expected in December, followed by an Engineering Procurement and Construction contract award in January, the company says in referral documents lodged with the Environmental Protection Authority.

targeted for completion mid-2020. Smallest of the new entries is Vicinity Centres’ $63m Ellenbrook shopping centre stage three project, where Doric recently began construction work. The project is the fourth delivered by Doric for Vicinity and is due to be completed in the middle of next year. Doric says the design and construct project comprises a new Kmart, three mini-major tenants, 17 specialty retail tenancies, two kiosks and two casual mall leasing locations. Work also includes a 12,000m roof top car park, demolition/upgrades to the existing malls and landscaping.

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For advertising and subscription queries email waworks@cciwa.com or call 1300 422 492 Spring 2019 WA WORKS 41

Life after the

Guardian Austal’s WA operations have never been busier than now. But with domestic defence work drying up and the shipbuilder’s footprint expanding in Asia, the future is not clear cut, writes Peter Williams

42 WA WORKS Spring 2019

very 12 weeks or so around midnight, an unusual convoy snakes its way from a shed in Naval Base along public roads to docks. The load being trucked is so high Western Power deploys a crane to lift the power lines on Rockingham Road.  The cargo, en route for launch at the Australian Marine Complex Common User Facility in Henderson, is a Guardian class patrol boat built by Austal for the Federal Government and destined to patrol the exclusive economic zones of a Pacific island nation. It’s a ritual set to continue until 2023, when the last of the 21 vessels will be built. During a visit by WA Works, welding sparks were flying and a steel hull panel was being hoisted as work progressed on the sixth, seventh and eighth vessels. About 200 people are working on the 39.5m boats. Large flags of each of the Pacific nations to receive a boat are prominently positioned high up on one wall of the assembly bay.   Austal is leasing the 33,000 square metre

Austal workers during the construction of the Molslinjen Catamaran

Hope Valley Road facility from steel fabricator Pacific Industrial Co. for the $335 million Pacific patrol boat replacement program. The arrangement separates the operation from Austal’s Henderson shipyard, where a massive 117m trimaran passenger and car ferry is under construction for Canary Islands operator Fred Olsen Express. It also avoids steel dust contamination of the aluminium vessels built there. The Naval Base facility’s one drawback is its lack of waterfront. The abundance of work has seen the shipbuilder lease another property in engineering company AME’s Marine Support Base in Henderson to build a $68m high-speed ferry for Japanese operator JR Kyushu. Originally planned to be constructed in Asia, the build was brought to Henderson to balance the workloads of Austal’s facilities in the region. The shed was most recently used by Echo Yachts to build the White Rabbit super yacht.

Strip advantage “That’s one of the great advantages, isn’t it, of having an integrated Henderson in the way that exists now with different workshops and different capabilities along the strip there,” Austal managing director David Singleton says.

visa rule changes, the shipbuilder has turned to local fabricators and suppliers to help get the jobs done. “We’ve got a lot of fabrication work that’s out at local trade companies,” Singleton says. “The amount of subcontracting we

“About 200 people are working on the 39.5m boats, with the first shift starting at 6am and the last ending at 3am” “When there’s an excess of work in one place you’ve often got an opportunity to use some of those facilities.” Finding enough space is not the only issue. Despite having a near all-time high WA head count of more than 1000, Austal is hard-pressed to hire enough skilled people to do the work. With foreign labour largely excluded by

do as percentage of turnover is very high at the moment compared to its norm.” About 15 per cent of project costs attributed to labour is being completed by local companies. Austal is using about five local aluminium fabrication companies, as well as heating, ventilation and air conditioning, painting and engineering firms. >

Spring 2019 WA WORKS 43

Defence

> One such subcontractor is the aforementioned Echo Yachts for the 83m JR Kyushu ferry, which will sail between Japan and South Korea, and needs to be delivered in time for the Tokyo Olympics. The Fred Olsen ferry project has 12 major subcontracts. Work-in-hand at Henderson includes two Cape class patrol vessels for the Trinidad and Tobago government worth $126m, which got the official sign-off in August. While some work on these vessels will be done in the Philippines, Singleton says the bulk of the build will take place here. Both are due to be delivered next year. Things are booming now but the commercial shipbuilding market is volatile. “You never have an order book more than a couple of years in front of you,” Singleton says. “We’ll win some programs or we won’t and that’ll be good for Henderson or it won’t. We’ll see how the order book develops over the next few months.”

Pacific bedrock “Guardian (patrol boats) will create some bedrock for a period of time along with the Cape support work that we’ve got and we’ll see what happens in the commercial market.” Austal services the 10 Cape class vessels it built for the Australian Border Force and the Royal Australian Navy. “We haven’t seen any big orders for several months. But that’s been okay because we’re coming off a really big order book. We’re moving into an area now where we start to need to win some more vessels. I’m sure we will.” Austal’s US warship business in Alabama produces the bulk of its revenue and profit, but in the past five years the company has heavily increased its presence in Asia, opening or expanding shipyards in the Philippines, Vietnam and China. While business in Henderson is booming, the WA operation’s share of the company pie in Australia and Asia by 2020 will have slipped to less than half from about three-quarters

44 WA WORKS Spring 2019

three years earlier. But it’s a bigger pie. The Australasian business recorded $393.2 million revenue in fiscal 2019, from $237.8 million the year before. Crucially, its $11.7m earnings before interest and tax turned around an  $8.5m loss a year earlier.  Singleton acknowledges that good profit margins are harder to achieve in Australia than in the lower-cost economies where it operates. “It’s obviously more difficult but we get good efficiency out of the Henderson shipyard,” he says. Austal in July completed a $29.9m (US$20m) expansion of its Philippine shipyard on Cebu, which has more than 900 employees and is reportedly part of a consortium bidding for the Subic Bay shipyards near Manila. The company is a front-runner to build six patrol vessels for the Philippines Navy which would be built in that country.

Defence doubts Singleton says, like Australia, it’s typical for nations to prefer a defence build within their borders. “That’s a feature of most countries overseas but not always the case. The two Trinidad vessels

demonstrate that we can sell ships overseas and build them in Australia.” But after missing out on the RAN’s $4 billion Arafura class offshore patrol vessel program won in 2017 by Luerssen, Civmec and ASC, the Austal boss appears pessimistic about further defence work at Henderson. “After Guardian, there’s nothing more for us in Henderson from a defence perspective that I can see at the moment.”  Regardless of contracts, Henderson will remain the brains trust of Austal’s global network. Around mid-year there were 118 naval architects, designers and draftspersons at the corporate headquarters. Austal is tripling its research and development budget mainly to advance lower-emission technologies from the low-sulphur diesel its vessels already use to LNG and, in the case of smaller craft, battery-electric vessels.  Increasing global requirements for cleanenergy ships and ageing ferry fleets give Singleton belief that the current boom won’t give way to a bust. “I think that combination of renewal, expansion and technology change will mean that our part of the market will stay strong for some considerable period.”

Keep eyes open Austal Managing Director David Singleton has provided sage advice to SMEs looking to enter the defence market: keep your eyes wide open to the added paperwork and quality control it will involve. “There’s always a desire to win defence work because of the large numbers involved, but it’s a cautionary tale because defence work typically is an order of magnitude more complex and difficult than commercial activity,” Singleton told WA Works. “Throughout my career I’ve seen companies get really focused on defence work and then wonder why they were so focused on it when they win it. “You need quality control — the overhead burden is much higher, the amount of documentation and traceability and all that sort of stuff that you have to do is a completely different order of magnitude than most businesses. “So that’s something that a lot of these businesses are not used to and it comes as quite a shock. Go into it with your eyes wide open and make sure that you’re fully aware of the implications of the contract you’re taking on because they are typically much more sophisticated than many other industries.”

Henderson Memo

Building a new economic pillar WA can be the nation’s next defence industry super centre if it heeds some of the lessons of the past, writes Darryl Hockey

ith a range of high technology sectors such as oil and gas and mining, WA’s business capability profile provides an unsurpassed offering for Australia’s defence industries. WA already has a strong record of maintenance and sustainment of navy vessels and will soon expand if we can secure a commitment to full cycle submarine docking. We also have the building of the offshore patrol boats starting shortly and the huge opportunity to participate in South Australia’s $85 billion construction of the navy’s new frigates and submarines. Then we hope WA will be selected as the delivery base for the naval sustainment programs over the next 40 years. It’s important to note that, given SA’s capacity and capability constraints, it will not be able to provide anywhere near what is required for the frigate and submarine build. Yes, it will be the assembly site, but WA opportunities will abound for the provision of components, services and technologies. So we have the very real opportunity to make WA the next defence super centre in Australia and thereby create a new pillar in

the WA economy to endure for generations. To achieve this, we firstly need to glean the lessons learned from the resources boom, which was not always conducive to healthy relationships at the contractor level.

Darryl Hockey

retained to allow an increase in performance as each new ship is built. The relationship platform needs to support healthy partnership building over the long term, rather than the short-term master-servant connections we saw during the resources boom. However, the challenge is also squarely on the SME sector to meet the sophisticated and ever-increasing new age standards required by peak contractors in all industry sectors. SMEs now need to professionally deliver world’s best practice systems using unrivalled business processes, documentation and reporting — and to invest heavily in the highest international accreditations, Quality Assurance systems and digital performance measurements. Importantly, SMEs will need to embrace rock-solid cyber security technologies because defence contractors of military equipment need the absolute confidence they are not being exposed. Achieving global excellence standards will require a relentless commitment to continual improvement, but the benefits will flow as WA’s SME community is recognised for its advanced manufacturing excellence, with agile businesses operating between multiple industry sectors and transferring beneficial technologies and innovation. WA has enormous capacity and capabilities however, in my view, the best suited defence SMEs have not yet even been identified, let alone recruited. They are currently wholly engaged in providing specialist services for the resources industries yet have the ready potential to expand their offering to defence — as well as emerging sectors such as energy metals,

“We hope WA will be selected as the delivery base for the naval sustainment programs over the next 40 years” Each project was considered to be a one off, relationships didn’t matter and SMEs were often forced to carry excessive risk burdens and operate on unsustainable margins — sometimes to the detriment of the high tier contractor when it went wrong. If WA is to secure its defence industry opportunities, we need to create a new industry model which supports longer term relationships, as cost efficiencies, productivity improvements and innovation will flow back to the peak contractors if the sub-contracted SMEs are

lithium battery manufacturing and Metronet. An outreach program to identify and recruit high-quality SMEs is required to allow WA to seize this considerable opportunity and benefit not only our state’s business community, but also Australia’s sovereign defence capability. Darryl Hockey is the Deputy Chairman and spokesperson for the Henderson Alliance, an industry group formed to develop, promote and advocate the capabilities of WA SMEs in the defence industries.

Spring 2019 WA WORKS 45

Defence conference 2019

Blunt warning WA’s second WA Indo-Pacific Defence Conference held in Perth flagged important issues for defence industry players including cyber security, knowing the lay of the land and creating export markets Stories by Peter Williams

he head of Australia’s armed forces has urged suppliers to take the growing risk of cyber theft very seriously. Chief of Defence Force Angus Campbell delivered a blunt piece of advice for contractors supplying the military: secure your intellectual property. “If you do not take this seriously, you are dead to me,” Campbell said in a moment at the recent WA Indo-Pacific Defence Conference that made delegates sit up and take notice. “Are we clear? “When you hear people speak all over the world that the individual hackers, corporations, cyber criminals and states are stealing intellectual property, they are stealing yours. Ours. Don’t let it happen.” Campbell said his warning applied to everyone involved in the defence industry, from researchers at universities to start-ups to prime contractors entering Australia. His stark message was backed up by Mike Rogers, former commander of the US Cyber

Command, who told the conference that the biggest cyber risk stemmed from the simple fact that everyone has a keyboard. “It creates an environment where every operator becomes a potential point of vulnerability,” Rogers said. “The human piece is the hardest challenge. We’ve got to build defensibility, reliability, redundancy into everything we do and use from the ground up. You can’t do it after the fact.” One WA defence subcontractor called for governments to help small and medium enterprises cope with the demands of safeguarding IP. Blacktree Technology director Joel Nevin said the kind of security required for defence clients didn’t exist on the same level for other industries. “It’s not easy to all of a sudden decide that you’re going to have a level two security facility,” Nevin said. “There’s a fair amount of investment in that. “So the assistance of government and industry

groups there is critical.” She said there needed to be funding programs that were tailored to cashflow requirements of SMEs. The second defence conference staged by the State Government and the Perth USAsia Centre offered both industry and regional strategic insights for the 500-odd participants at Crown Towers.

Level playing field

hile the conference heard some heavy lobbying for the state’s defence sector — particularly in competition with South Australia — the Henderson Alliance’s Darryl Hockey called for a level playing field. “We don’t want any favouritism,” he said. “We don’t want any parochialism, we don’t want any political decisions being made. We just want the right decisions to be made for the right reasons. “If WA is going to be granted those services for the future, we would like to think that we’re going to win it on our merits.” Other speakers included the two WA politicians handling the defence and defence industry portfolios in the Morrison Government — Linda Reynolds and Melissa Price — along with shadow defence minister Richard Marles.

46 WA WORKS Spring 2019

While Reynolds dutifully sat on the fence regarding Premier Mark McGowan’s strong push to bring full-cycle docking of submarines to WA, Marles pitched the idea of extending shipbuilder Austal’s Pacific patrol boats program to supplying small Indian Ocean nations. Marles said the 21 Guardian class boats being built in Henderson could be extended to around 27 and the build to the mid-2020s if Australia decided to provide vessels to nations like Mauritius, the Comoros, Sri Lanka, the Seychelles, Madagascar and the Maldives. “Not all these countries may want it, but for some our patrol boat program could make a real difference,” he said. It was not official Labor policy but Marles said it was the kind of thinking needed to deepen Australian ties in the Indian Ocean region.

Defence Conference 2019

Know your market

nother message Chief of Defence Force Angus Campbell had for industry delegates was to know their “ecosystem”. A source of annoyance for the Defence chief is industry entrants from overseas unfamiliar with the lay of the land. “When someone comes to me and says, ‘we want to invest in Australia, but you don’t make steel’, I roll my eyes and think, ‘you don’t know anything about this country’,” he said. “Know the people that you should be engaging with to make sure what you’re doing, what potential you offer is known into the system. The system that is going to drive requirements and ultimately the acquisition of defence materiel. “As you start to throw out the effort to learn about this country you see the extraordinary innovative, real, lived capability (and) potential industrial effort here. It’s a country with the research background, the engineering skills the scientific skills and the companies that are here.” Blacktree’s Joel Nevin backed Campbell’s sentiments and the need for SMEs to work together. “You need to be industry-engaged, you need to be engaged in the support networks that are

out there,” she said. “When you combine a group effort of many small businesses working together — small businesses that are highly skilled, agile and based in Perth — you have limited (the) transport time of equipment. “They play a key role in the WA defence industry to address the challenges of the domestic and global markets.” Nevin also emphasised having government support. Darryl Hockey, deputy chairman of the Henderson Alliance of defence SMEs, said WA’s ecosystem was different to those of other states because of the dominance of the resources industries. “Modern mining, modern oil and gas are some of the most sophisticated and intricate projects that are going around,” he said. “We can recruit some of the SMEs that are working in that sector and bring them over into defence.” That included doing maintenance and sustainment for the new navy fleets under construction. “We also would like to see WA take a very strong role in delivering services and technology and componentry to the frigate and submarine projects which are going to be based in South Australia.”

Chris Deeble, chief executive of prime contractor Northrupp Grumman Australia, said the state’s geographical location necessitated an independent service sector. “It is not an overreach to say that WA is the country’s front line in a region that will play a central role in global relations in the coming decade,” Deeble said. “The state’s remoteness from the east coast … means we need to continue developing WA’s defence industry so it can operate in its own right.” Deeble added that having two WA ministers in the key portfolios boded well for the future of defence industry partnerships in the state.

Luerssen stresses exports

uerssen Australia board member Chris Ritchie, a former chief of navy, stressed the importance in having export markets to sustain the industry because of the perceived higher cost of shipbuilding in Australia. “If we were to build just for our own navy there would be some truth in that,” Ritchie said. “If we built also to export and if, through our partnerships, we bring local suppliers and manufacturers into global supply chains we negate that overhead.” Luerssen is the prime contractor for the

Royal Australian Navy’s offshore patrol vessel program. It has also formed an export-focused joint venture with Henderson construction and engineering company Civmec. “I think that vessels up to the order of about 2000 tonnes designed and/or built here in Henderson present the fastest means that Australia has of getting into the export business in the maritime field,” Ritchie said. He said a range of options for exporting include designs for overseas construction,

a finished product, flat packs for assembly and supply chain contributions. Ritchie suggested changes to skilled labour migration from the Asia-Pacific to make up for shortages here. “Perhaps there’s some way in which the region can assist us, particularly those countries to which we’re seeking to export. “To do so we would need to have immigration entry security processes that are much more agile and more quickly able to respond to demand than the ones that we currently have.”

Spring 2019 WA WORKS 47

Defence

Submarine debate goes full cycle The Henderson strip is poised for a big increase in defence work next decade if major submarine maintenance heads west

By Stephen Bell

he State Government is argues it is in the “national interest” to shift lucrative sustainment of the ageing Collins class submarines to WA from South Australia. Premier Mark McGowan and Defence Issues Minister Paul Papalia also say that two independent reports found shifting full cycle docking (FCD) of the vessels to Henderson from South Australia will bring on thousands of jobs. They released the reports’ key findings at the second Indo-Pacific defence conference in Perth, watched on by Federal Defence Minister Linda Reynolds, whose office will have a key say in the long-term location of the Navy’s submarine sustainment. Despite the emphatic conclusions of studies by PwC and Acil Allen, it remains unclear if, or when, the move of FCD to Henderson will occur. Moving FCD to WA as a means of ensuring stability in Collins sustainment, while new submarines are built in Adelaide, has been canvassed by Defence officers since as early as 2011. But the mooted shift remains politically sensitive, with Federal Government-owned contractor ASC currently employing hundreds of workers in Adelaide to carry out the regular rebuilds of the warfare subs. Reynolds told the conference there would be no decision taken “yet” on the ultimate location of FCD. “As part of our $90 billion navy shipbuilding plan, we have two great locations in Western

48 WA WORKS Spring 2019

Australia and South Australia, who will both grow,” Reynolds said. “So whatever decision the Government does take on this, both states will grow in terms of industrial opportunities and in terms of jobs.” Reynolds, a Liberal Senator from WA, assumed the Defence portfolio before the recent Federal election. When asked by media if she would go into bat for WA, Reynolds said: “I have been a very passionate advocate for our state but now as Minister for Defence I’ve also got to make sure that any decision we take has to be in the nation’s interest.” ASC runs the maintenance programs for the ageing Collins submarines, which need to be sustained over the next few decades before their eventual replacement by the new Attack class fleet to be built in South Australia by France’s Naval Group. The first of the new submarines won’t be delivered until 2032, and the last not until the 2050s. An ASC spokesperson said the company employed about 700 workers for major maintenance and FCD in Adelaide, while about 400 staff in WA carried out other maintenance activities. Reynolds said she had recently briefed both Papalia and South Australian Premier Steven Marshall in Canberra on the FCD decision process.

Helping the Hunters The PwC report found relocating the major Collins work to WA was in the national interest because

it would de-risk the new Attack class submarine and Hunter class warfare frigate programs. It would reduce the workforce pressure on South Australia, freeing up workers to concentrate on the ambitious naval build programs, worth nearly $90b combined. The study also found the Osborne Naval Shipyard would face significant constraints, while Henderson in WA had the room for an expanded ASC facility. The Acil Allen economic study found that having FCD in WA would equate to a 4 per cent boost to the state’s manufacturing industry and generate 2278 jobs per year on average. It would also generate total gross state product of $8.4bn, or $557m per annum “WA is ready to deliver on the strategic defence needs of the nation,” Premier Mark McGowan said. “Not only is our state home to the largest naval base in Australia, HMAS Stirling, we also have a highly capable and skilled defence industry, and world-class industrial facilities. “Moving full cycle docking to WA will grow the defence industry’s capabilities and it is considered best practice to conduct sustainment activities alongside where the submarines are based.” McGowan said his Government continued to work on its AMC Strategic Infrastructure and Land Use Plan to ensure the needs of Defence were met. Defence Issues Minister Paul Papalia, meanwhile, said the Collins submarines would be vital to Australia’s Navy for many years and WA was ready to play a greater role. “The McGowan Government is committed to ensuring the capability of the Collins class submarines is not compromised in any way,” he said.

Director’s Memo

Michele Clement

R&D are key to WA’s defence capability Cutting edge collaborations between universities and industry will drive the future of defence in this state, writes Michele Clement

have had the honour of leading the development and establishment of the WA Defence Science Centre, which was launched in June after many months of negotiations between the WA Government and its partners. The DSC is a collaboration between the State Government, the Department of Defence through its Defence Science and Technology Group (DST) and Western Australia’s four public universities — Curtin, Edith Cowan, Murdoch and University of Western Australia. It is our goal to increase local skills and capabilities and create research and development connections between universities, industry and government to develop solutions that will strengthen Australia’s defence and national security capabilities. We will encourage and support engagement between our stakeholders and can provide introductions and links between our member universities and industry to ensure we create the best teams that bring in knowledge, infrastructure and capability to support defencerelevant research and development outcomes. In this way the DSC acts as a matchmaker, and our first ever grants round will be an important tool in setting the conditions for commercial opportunities. The grants are designed to encourage cutting edge defence-related research and development as part of the State Government’s strategy to build WA’s defence industry and create new jobs. In the initial round, WA businesses, academics and students can apply for a range of grants, some worth up to $150,000. We believe that the collaboration of industry, universities and government will ensure our defence stakeholders are working together for a superior result. This type of grant program has been successful in other states. The DSC is part of a network of other similar centres in Victoria, South Australia and New South Wales, which have been invaluable in providing support and lessons learned as I have worked towards the establishment of the DSC and the grants

programs. I would like to emulate the successes of my interstate counterparts, particularly in supporting exciting collaborative research projects that are developing new ideas and delivering innovative technologies to strengthen Australia’s defence and national security capabilities. The DSC has three types of grants available including: • Collaborative research: Funding of between $50,000 and $150,000 to enable industry and/or DST to undertake collaborative research with DSC member universities to develop innovative ideas or solve technological challenges that are relevant to Defence. • Higher degree student: Funding of $15,000 to students working on collaborative defencerelevant projects and/or undertaking defence industry placements as part of their study. This is open to academic staff of DSC member universities, and the student must be an Australian citizen or permanent resident. • Industry internship: Provides businesses access to a $10,000 voucher for tailored defence relevant research

projects through the APR.Intern program. The DSC is confident WA stakeholders are capable of working at the cutting edge of projects. We are interested in seeing research projects presented on, but not limited to: • advanced sensors • hypersonics • directed energy capabilities • integrated intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance • cyber • trusted autonomous systems • quantum technologies • multidisciplinary material sciences • maritime sustainment and maintenance. The grants are focused around research collaborations and the highest priority will be given to applications that include partners from across Defence, have more than one DSC member university and an industry or end-user partner. The grants will be awarded on a competitive basis and must meet the criteria outlined on the Defence Science Centre website jtsi.wa.gov.au/dsc. Applications close on October 11 with further rounds to announced in the first half of next year. Michele Clement is the inaugural Director of the Defence Science Centre WA

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A French multinational transport company with a long history in Australia will build WA’s new railcar fleet, writes Stephen Bell

lstom has swooped to win the headline act in the McGowan Government’s muchvaunted expansion and modernisation of Perth’s railway infrastructure. In August, the Paris-headquartered company was named as the McGowan Government’s preferred proponent for the $1.6 billion multidecade project to build and maintain a fleet of 246 new C-series electric rail cars. Alstom will also build six cars to replace the existing diesel railcars that operate the twice daily Australind service between Perth and Bunbury, and a new manufacturing and assembly shed in Perth. With at least 50 per cent of the rolling stock to be made in WA, the Government has hailed the deal as the rebirth of local railcar manufacturing after a 25-year drought. “When the then Liberal Government closed the Midland Railway Workshops in 1994, we lost all the jobs and economic activity that went with it,” Premier Mark McGowan said. “Currently the work carried out locally is limited to window tinting and passenger seating,

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just 2 per cent of the work — WA can do so much more than that. “So we’re bringing railcar manufacturing back to WA and back to its home in the Midland area, with a new railcar facility in Bellevue.”

The third bidder was the Momentum West joint venture of Spain’s CAF and CIMIC’s UGL. According to the State Government, it was a “rigorous” competitive tender, with shortlisted proponents required to demonstrate how they would meet a target of 50 per cent local content for the new trains. The local subsidiary, Alstom Transport Australia, was deemed the preferred tenderer based on its technical ability and approach to supporting locally based jobs, it says.

Early engagement

Fabrication field day

Alstom had a good record of engagement with the WA supply chain prior to the handing down of the Government’s decision. It held its first industry briefing in Perth nearly two years ago. Australian managing director Mark Coxon said the company was delighted to be selected as the preferred proponent. “We look forward to building on our existing local footprint and partnering with the state of WA in this exciting new phase of local railway manufacturing,” he told WA Works. Alstom swept aside two strong contenders in winning the job. The incumbent contractor Downer EDIBombardier, which carried out railcar maintenance in Perth along with manufacturing in Maryborough, was considered the front-runner by some.

The railcar rebirth is expected to generate 200 long-term manufacturing jobs, but initially Alstom needs to establish a firm WA base by putting up a 12,000 sq m shed at Bellevue, about one kilometre from the old Midland workshops in Perth’s east. Located in an industrial area with easy access to the passenger network, the Bellevue site is regarded as an ideal place to assemble and commission the new railcars. Situated at the end of the Midland line, Bellevue had also been previously identified for a future depot to support rail operations across the PTA network. Alstom is expected to start building the facility in the first half of next year. The initial stage is expected to cost about $30 million.

Très bon

car deal However, the “final cost and delivery of the Bellevue construction and assembly shed will be finalised once the contract with the proponent is signed,” a State Government spokesperson said. “The contract with preferred proponent Alstom is expected to be signed before the end of the year, with construction on the new facility to begin in the first half of 2020. “The PTA will work with Alstom to negotiate as much use of local content and employment of local workers as possible.” The shed is due to be completed in 2021, while construction of the following stages — including a new PTA railcar depot and diesel facility — will continue until 2023.

The juicier bit Getting work on the shed would be nice, of course, but the juicier part of the deal for local fabricators and suppliers is the railcars, with manufacturing to extend over a decade, and maintenance three decades. There will be 102 cars built for the Government’s current Metronet rail expansion and 144 to replace the ageing A-Series cars. It is regarded as the biggest order of railcars in the state’s history. Since the Midland railway workshops were closed, new railcars have been mostly built in Queensland with only minor commissioning

works — such as removing transport bogies and replacing them with narrow bogies suitable for Perth’s inner-city train lines — carried out in WA. From 2022 the new trains will run on the Mandurah and Joondalup lines initially, as they have the highest patronage demand and service frequency. While the final design is still to be finalised, the six-car trains will carry about 1200 passengers and have an operational life of 35 years. Additional and wider-than-normal passenger doors will make it easier to get on and off, while technology including USB charging points, LED lighting and regenerative braking will also be

installed to make the new trains more efficient. Though considered state of the art, constructing Perth’s new fleet won’t force Alstom to reinvent the wheel. The company has a long history of design and fabrication to build on, having been active in Victoria for a century. It supplied Australia’s first fully automated trains in Sydney, which began operating three months ago, and more than 600 railcars for Melbourne’s suburban network. Now it is about to establish a beachhead on the other side of the continent, one that will likely endure for decades. As the French would say, très bon!

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Ellenbrook line plans afoot The State Government’s next big suburban railway project is slowly gaining traction By Stephen Bell

A suppliers will get their first look at the mooted Morley-Ellenbrook rail project late this year after the McGowan Government put the wheels in motion for early market engagement. The Government also revealed the proposed route of the 21km line, designed to accommodate the growing population of Perth’s north eastern suburbs. After spurring off the Midland line at Bayswater, the new railway will run down the middle of Tonkin Highway, through land north of Marshall Road, along the New Lord Street alignment and finish in Ellenbrook town centre. Stations will be built at Ellenbrook, Whiteman Park, Malaga, Noranda and Morley, with a

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future station to be developed at Bennett Springs East, when planning in the area is finalised. The Public Transport Authority (PTA) says the business case for the line is being finalised for submission to the Federal Government’s Infrastructure Australia in coming months. As yet, the State Government hasn’t confirmed media speculation of a $1 billion cost for the big venture. “The team is now working on the project definition plan, which outlines the technical scope and detail for the project,” a PTA spokesperson told WA Works. “This includes the projected cost as well as the vertical alignment of the line.” With the route and station locations now confirmed, the environmental approvals process, Parliament’s consideration of the rail enabling legislation and early market

engagement can be put in motion. “Industry engagement is expected to start before the end of this year, with the main construction tender to be released in early 2020 and a contract to be awarded towards the end of 2020,” the person says. The PTA says small to medium-sized businesses interested in helping to build the new line should complete the Metronet construction capability register at metronet.wa.gov.au, which will be provided to shortlisted construction companies during the tender phase, and later to the successfully appointed contractor. While most of the line will be above ground, the railway will cross beneath the road lanes of Tonkin Highway to enter and exit the median at Bayswater and Malaga. However, these structures won’t need to be tunnelled. “Rather they will be constructed by ‘cut and cover’ excavation,” the spokesperson said. Details of the proposed stations for the Morley-Ellenbrook line are as follows: • Ellenbrook – town centre, south of The Parkway and west of Civic Terrace. • Whiteman Park – near the park entry, to serve Henley Brook, Dayton, West Swan and Brabham. • Bennett Springs East – proposed. • Malaga – transport links to Landsdale, Alexander Heights, Ballajura, Malaga and Bennett Springs.

Infrastructure The successful proponent will be required to demonstrate an ability to build the station and the new King William Street/Coode Street bridge, while minimising impacts to Midland Line operations. The alliance will also complete track, signalling, civil, drainage, and overhead line works along with building retaining walls, delivering electrical works, communications and control systems and public spaces.

Where road and rail intersect Meanwhile, Main Roads is seeking market interest in building a major Tonkin Highway project that will include enabling works for the Morley-Ellenbrook railway line. The State Government announced plans in April for the $260m Tonkin Gap road project that will widen the highway from two to three lanes over a stretch of 3km from Redcliffe. It now says Main Roads and the PTA are

“Industry engagement is expected to start before the end of this year, with the main construction tender to be released in early 2020”

• Noranda – middle of Tonkin Highway at Benara Road. • Morley – middle of Tonkin Highway, 2km south of Noranda Station. Connections to Morley Galleria via high-frequency bus services. • Bayswater – two platforms (four platform faces) to accommodate Midland Line, Forrestfield-Airport Link and MorleyEllenbrook services.

Bayswater tussle begins Two of WA’s most recognisable and successful civil contractors — Decmil and Georgiou — are going head-to-head in the bid to design and build the upgraded Baywater station. Transport Minister Rita Saffioti named the two Perth-based companies as members of separate alliances pitching for the $146 million contract. Saffioti said Better Bayswater Alliance (Georgiou and Lendlease) and Evolve Bayswater Alliance (Decmil and Acciona’s Coleman Rail) had been shortlisted to progress to the competitive bid phase before a contract award late this year. The shortlisting of the two proponents followed a two-month request for proposals process that closed on June 6. Earlier this year, Public Transport Authority Principal Project Director Kevin Guppy briefed industry on the project, including its intention to pay the top two bidders for their efforts — even if unsuccessful.

The Government says other vital project works are already underway, with additional parking spaces being added at Meltham and Ashfield stations to compensate for a reduction in parking at Bayswater, while other forward works will get underway before the end of the year. The Bayswater Station transformation is the first stage of works for the MorleyEllenbrook line. “We’re now moving into the next stage of procurement for the Bayswater Station upgrade, which will create a major vibrant transport hub, linking two new Metronet lines,” Saffioti said. Decmil has recently delivered projects such as BHP’s $153m Mulla Mulla village upgrade in the Pilbara, and earlier this year secured more than $150m of work on two huge Mid West wind farm projects — Alinta’s Yandin and Bright Energy Investments’ Warradarge. Georgiou, meanwhile, has been particularly active at Perth Airport of late. It is currently delivering a new pedestrian skybridge at the airport, having completed the new Direct Factory Outlet (DFO) 12 months ago.

working together to optimise rail and road work. “The Tonkin Gap and Morley Ellenbrook Line projects physically overlap just north of the Guildford Road interchange and both projects are proposed to be constructed over a similar time period,” a Main Roads spokesperson said. The so-called Tonkin Gap and Associated Works project includes works in the Tonkin Highway corridor from Railway Parade to Hepburn Avenue where the proposed railway line enters and exits the highway. “Main Roads called for expressions of interest from industry for the alliance contract for Tonkin Gap and Associated Works project on August 6.” At this early planning stage, Main Roads anticipates finalising the project scope early next year and awarding a contract mid-year. “Subject to all environmental and other approvals, construction is anticipated to begin late 2020,” the spokesperson said. The original Tonkin Highway Gap project, designed to widen the highway from Great Eastern Highway to Guildford Road, was funded by the Federal Government $232m and State Government $58m.

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Infrastructure

Roots down for rubbish factory It may burn a load of old rubbish to supply electricity, but Australia’s first waste to energy facility at Kwinana will require plenty of expertise in both construction and operations By Robyn Molloy

orks at the $698 million Kwinana Waste to Energy project are expected to ramp up in November, with about 90 containers a month arriving for six months as Australia’s first thermal waste to energy plant starts to take shape. Acciona Project director Chris Pratt revealed more details about how the plant — co-developed by Macquarie Capital and Phoenix Energy Australia — would run, including that half the direct costs of the main facility were for building and civil works. He told more than 120 suppliers at the WA Works conference that, unlike other chemical projects,0 the facility is encased in a building. Earthworks and installation of up to 1000 piles are now complete. One of the most difficult aspects of the project is suspending two boilers above grates that stand 14-storeys high and range from 13m to 40m. The vibrating grates are installed belowground and move the waste along as it burns. The boilers — currently being fabricated in China — are supplied by Keppel Seghers as part of a $113m (EUR 70m) contract for technology and services. They will arrive in 800 containers before being welded and assembled onsite and lifted into position. “It’s quite a tricky thing to build them

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because it is a very heavy structure and it sits almost by itself in the facility. They are lowered in then hung from the top.” “Then there is a boiler house and an 85-metre stack, which adds to the number of stacks on the Kwinana strip,” Pratt said. A four-metre deep bunker the size of an Olympic swimming pool will be used by waste trucks to dump rubbish. “Its design criteria is that you can fill it up with water,” he said. The facility will turn a third of Perth’s waste — 400,000 tonnes per year — into enough energy to power 50,000 homes, the equivalent of taking 85,000 cars off the road. Steel works include supply fabrication and erection of the whole structure including bunker, reception hall, turbine room and secondary steel framing for external wall and roof cladding, racks, steam turbine cladding and roof. Late next year it will be connected to the grid after extensive pre-electrical works. Pratt said while there were hundreds of similar but much larger plants around the world, this was a first for Australia and the therefore the specialist equipment and start-up staff had to come from overseas, although “predominantly sub contractors and suppliers must come from Australia”. “It should not be understated the type of people that are in these roles,” he said.

“This is a highly technical operation so none of these people currently exist in Australia.” He said people would be brought in from overseas, not only for their expertise but also for training people for the longer term. A transition phase of six months will include training of operators. It will have an observation area for schools and the community to visit. “They see the bunkers that continually churn the materials. Controllers on the deck and in the control room have a lot of computers sitting around them. They are continually churning the material. Without doing that, the recovery value would be too wide and that would affect the efficiencies in the boilers. “So it’s actually a person choosing the quality of the material going into the boilers. There is nothing of technology that can do that prior to going to the boiler. You can only measure it after it’s been burned. So it is all visual and these are the people that need real training. It is very hands on.” Pratt said when operating at full throttle, the only thing you can see are the flames through a small window because it is burning at 1000 degrees. “That’s the only thing you see moving, is the flames through that window, the rest of it is quite silent,” he said. He said an industry participation plan was in place for the project, which is receiving $23m from the Federal Government’s Australian Renewable Energy Agency. Twelve packages are listed on the CCIWA-run ICN Gateway, including expressions of interest for architecture works, mechanical works, electrical works and other works. “We’re with ICN for the project and we’ve had a terrific response. Our undertaking, as usual, is not everyone gets a role. For those who are in the supply chain our offer is we share with all our primary subcontractors and primary suppliers the lists of peoples who’ve prequalified with us, so we keep our network as wide as possible for participation.” The WTE is expected to start operating at the end of 2021 with Veolia to operate and maintain the facility under a 25-year agreement.

Tech talk WA Works goes on the technology trail for the latest and greatest advances and announcements that will help drive the state’s future Triple capability

Solar on the run

By Robyn Molloy

transportable solar and battery unit is generating excitement about energy production in remote areas as it inches towards the final stages of development. The innovation by Welshpool-based Stellar Burst Energy, run by business partners Lou Quistini and Neil Marsh, can fit up to 50 solar panels and up to 200Kwh of rechargeable batteries into a 3m X 3m x 2.45m transportable container. The brains of the patent pending invention is in the way the solar panel array folds out of a custom-made module. Once delivered, the units are set up with the flick of a button or touch of an app — reducing installation and connection costs and making them easy to redeploy. The rechargeable batteries, inverters and electrical components fit into a separate module underneath the solar panel compartment and four units can fit on one truckload. Design tested to withstand winds of up to 100km/h, the system detects weather conditions and automatically packs away until inclement conditions disappear. Output depends on which panels and batteries the customer chooses. Marsh says following two years of development, Stellar Burst Energy has recently opened up the workshop floor to reveal the prototype, which is in its final stages, to potential customers. “We see avenues not only in Australia but also in parts of the world where the Stellar product is initially delivered to site and then can be transferred to different projects as

required,” he says. Quistini says the unit would reduce reliance on diesel generators and be an alternative to replacing poles and wires. It could be used by the mining and agricultural industries, remote communities and utilities. “A reduction in fuel consumption and related expenses, power security, on-site installation savings, reduction in carbon emissions are just some of the benefits in our transportable renewable energy system,” he says. One potential customer is Karara Mining, with registered manager Neville Yeatman keen to test the system at the magnetite mine 200km south-east of Geraldton after viewing the prototype. “I’d be happy to give a prototype a run to quantify everything for them, I would certainly give a hand with that,” he says. “We’d be an early adopter of that sort of technology for sure. “A site like ours has about 500 people here, we have remote bores and communications towers, you could easily soak up eight or 10 of those scattered around the place. “We are doing quite a serious review of what renewable energy sources we can deploy on a very large scale, so it fits very nice with that.” Mike Mulligan from Qube Bulk, who viewed the 30-panel unit, said he would monitor progress of the invention and could see potential for the unit at remote sites such as weigh bridges where it could power a hut with a television, air conditioner etc. To view the prototype or discuss requirements, email Stellar Burst Energy at info@stellarburst.com.au for an appointment.

In a world first, hard rock underground mining services provider Barminco has taken delivery of a mobile raise boring machine with uphole, downhole, and back reaming capability. Barminco, which is part of the Perenti Group, has been using Sandvik’s new Rhino 100 Mobile Raise Boring machine for 18 months in Ghana and three months in Australia and has now added a module enabling back reaming capability to the machine. The Rhino 100 is a fully mechanised and self-contained electro-hydraulic mobile raise borer designed for slot raising in underground mining. Up until now, a back reaming module had not been used anywhere in the world on this rig. “The new plug and play back reaming module gives us the capability to quickly change from an uphole slotting machine to a conventional back reaming raise bore machine,” Barminco General Manager of Mining Mick Radi said.

Cloud rises Multiplex has been appointed to deliver Stage 1 of NEXTDC’s new 20MW hyperscale data centre, P2 in Newcastle Street, East Perth. P2 will be WA’s first Uptime Institute Tier IV certified data centre and will include 10,000 sq m of technical space. Stage 1 of the project will include construction of six levels of data halls and two levels of electrical infrastructure. Other features include back-up power generation capable of delivering the power required to ensure 100 per cent uptime, perimeter security, basement services, car parking and customer experience office facilities.

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Policy Corner

Justin Ashley

Emissions policy heats up State and Federal governments are hot on the greenhouse gases trail, with impacts afoot for major projects, writes Justin Ashley

he emissions policy landscape is continuing to evolve as the WA Environmental Protection Authority revises how it considers emissions while at the same time the WA State Government has released its Greenhouse Gas Emissions Policy for major projects and an issues paper to inform the development of a broader State Climate Policy. Meanwhile on the national front, the Federal Government is staying the course with the emissions and climate change platform it took to the May election. This all has implications for major projects in WA and how they will be expected to contribute to Australia’s international emissions reduction target.

EPA rethinking its guidance on emissions On March 7, industry and government were caught off guard by the release of the EPA’s guidance on how it considers greenhouse gas emissions in the environmental impact assessment process. This guidance will shape the EPA’s recommendations to the Minister for Environment on how the State Government should consider emissions for the approval of major projects. The EPA’s guidelines represent advice to the Government — they are not Government policy, so it is the Government’s decision to accept the EPA’s advice or take a different approach to emissions for major projects. The main source of controversy in the guidance was the EPA indicating it would recommend that major projects exceeding a threshold of 100,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2-e) be required to mitigate or offset all direct emissions. If adopted by the Government, this requirement would have effectively resulted in a net zero emissions target for all major WA projects and gone well beyond Australia’s international commitments under the Paris Agreement, which are set at achieving a target of 26 to 28 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030. After concerns were raised about a lack of industry consultation, the EPA’s

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guidelines were rescinded and re-released for consultation in June. The EPA has its work cut out for it as it wades through the 6500 submissions, including CCIWA’s. The revised guidance is expected to be released in early 2020 following a further round of consultation on a draft document in November.

State Government’s approach to emissions for major projects In response to the initial release of the EPA’s guidelines, the State Government went about developing its Greenhouse Gas Emissions Policy to guide its decision-making and provide some clarity on how emissions would be treated for major project proposals that are assessed by the EPA. The policy reaffirmed WA’s support for Australia’s 2030 international emissions target and includes an aspirational target to work with all sectors of the economy to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The policy supports project proponents to develop project-specific Greenhouse Gas Management plans to outline their contribution towards the State’s aspiration of net zero emissions by 2050 and their strategy to avoid, reduce, mitigate and offset the projects scope 1 (direct) emissions. Under the policy, proponents can also propose their own timeframes and interim targets and publicly report against these targets.

Consultation open on State Climate Policy The State Government has also released an issues paper as part of the development of a broader State Climate Policy. This outlines some of the challenges and opportunities associated with the transition to a low-carbon economy, including the growing uptake of renewable electricity generation, trends in industrial and fugitive emissions, transportation and mobility, waste reduction and infrastructure. CCIWA is developing a response to the issues paper and will be seeking input from Members. The paper covers a lot of ground, so there will be plenty to consider in our

response. Consultation closes at the end of November, with the final State Climate Policy expected sometime in 2020.

Federal approach re-packaged, re-badged and re-funded The Federal Government has outlined its plan to meet Australia’s 2030 target in its Climate Solutions Package. This includes the continuation of the Emissions Reduction Fund (re-badged as the Climate Solutions Fund), which is receiving an additional $2 billion to support emissions reduction projects. Large emitters will continue to be regulated under the Safeguard Mechanism, which establishes a ‘business as usual’ emissions baseline for major projects. In other news, the Climate Change Authority is updating its advice to the Federal Government on meeting Australia’s Paris Agreement commitments, and to what extent the current range of policies will get the job done. The Federal Government is confident they’re on track, so it will be interesting to see if the Climate Change Authority’s advice concurs. Speaking of achieving targets, the Clean Energy Regulator recently confirmed that due to the construction of 6400MW of generation capacity between 2017 and 2019, Australia will hit its 2020 large-scale renewable energy target of 33,000GW hours. While the regulator flagged an additional 6400MW of new capacity in the pipeline, some investment constraints mean proponents may need to work a bit harder to get their project over the line in future.

CCIWA’s approach CCIWA backs a coordinated, national approach to reducing Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions that appropriately considers social and environmental factors while preserving economic growth. It is important to align WA’s policies with the national effort to reduce emissions to help ensure Australia’s broader emissions policies are coordinated and support meeting our international targets under the Paris Agreement. If you’d like to provide input to CCIWA’s policy work on climate and emissions issues, contact me in the policy team via justin.ashley@cciwa.com.

Drilling Down

Haveiron prospect for Telfer

ewcrest is targeting the Haveiron gold and copper prospect as a potential source of high-grade ore for its huge Telfer mine in the east Pilbara, according to UBS. The investment bank says ore from a future Haveiron development could be trucked to Telfer for processing, improving the mine’s financial performance. The deposit is 45km east of Telfer and, based on early drill results, might be able to provide a source of ore to lift production and cut the costs of an operation that has been “break-even” in the past few years, UBS says in a research note following a recent roundtable discussion with Newcrest CEO Sandeep Biswas.

In March, Newcrest signed a deal to earn up to 70 per cent of Haveiron from current owner Greatland Gold by spending $95 million (US$65m) over a six-year period. “Newcrest is planning to step out first to understand the extent of the deposit and then do infill drilling from an exploration decline,” UBS says. The bank says Telfer has a life out to 2023. If Haveiron proves a success, the focus of Newcrest is to avoid a decline in production from the mine. Telfer, being the only major infrastructure in the region is attracting a lot of interest. “Sandeep Biswas said that any explorer in the region has a quicker and lower cost option to market potentially through Telfer,” the bank says.

Separately, Newcrest released an update in September, which reported further high-grade gold and copper drill assays from the project. The drilling to date had defined a series of higher-grade zones within a broad envelope of mineralisation, with the latest holes from four drilling rigs extending the mineralisation by a further 100m to the north. At the time of writing, Newcrest planned to add a fifth drilling rig at Haveiron, which is covered by about 400m of barren soil and rock. Haveiron is in the Paterson mineral province, which has seen a big rise in exploration activity over the past year or two following Rio Tinto’s discovery of the Winu gold-copper deposit.

Rio wants Winu starter pit

io Tinto says it wants to prove up a “starter” mining pit for its Winu copper project as drilling and technical studies continue at the remote East Pilbara site. Stephen McIntosh, Rio Tinto’s Group executive for growth and innovation, updated the project at the Diggers & Dealers Forum in August, reminding delegates that not all the company’s current tier one assets started life that way. “It is important with Winu that we look for a case that is bankable, relatively low capital and low risk,” he said. “As such, we are primarily focused at defining a potential open pit starter case.” Given this priority, the company was directing its drilling into the supergene (near surface) mineralisation zone, he added. The global major revealed in February that it had made a “promising” copper-gold discovery at the project after more than 13km of drilling. McIntosh said Winu was “one of those rare and exhilarating stories where the very first drill hole was the discovery hole”.

The company was running an extensive drilling program this year, with 12 drill rigs on site and a 190-person camp. Recent exploration continued to indicate relatively wide intersections of vein-style copper mineralisation associated with gold and silver beneath relatively shallow cover, he said. “We are also undertaking significant enabling works as well as cultural heritage, environmental and related studies to progress the permitting and approvals process.” McIntosh said technology was already playing a big part at the find. “We are hyperspectrally scanning all core and chips in the field to help us understand both the lithology and alteration and to assist in really nailing the mineralogy and metallurgy as soon as we can,” he said. “We have high expectations that we will be using machine learning and sophisticated mathematical models to help us optimise the (mineral) recoveries from any final flowsheets.”

Spring 2019 WA WORKS 57

The Big Picture Workers at the Chevron-operated Gorgon carbon dioxide injection facility on Barrow Island, which achieved start-up in August. Chevron Australia managing director Al Williams says it is “one of the world’s largest greenhouse gas mitigation projects ever undertaken by industry”.

58 WA WORKS Spring 2019

Spring 2019 WA WORKS 59

News Bites

Digging in We unearth the best tender awards, project progress and significant announcements over the last quarter.

June

More hybrid power for Gold Fields Gold Fields’ Agnew gold operation will become the first Australian mine to be powered by a wind, solar, battery and gas microgrid after agreeing to a $112 million deal with supplier EDL. Distributed energy producer EDL says it will deliver the hybrid project in two stages under a 10-year deal, with construction underway.

Prelude ships first LNG The last of WA’s boom-time gas projects has been completed after Shell’s Prelude floating facility exported its first LNG cargo in June. Shell said the first shipment was delivered by the Valencia Knutsen to customers in Asia.

60 WA WORKS Spring 2019

Hundreds of construction jobs at Curtin Probuild is starting procurement for Curtin University’s $300 million Exchange project, which is expected to require a construction workforce of 450. The construction company was appointed in June by an InfraRed Capital Partners-led consortium, which entered into a 35-year partnership with Curtin to design, finance, construct and operate the Exchange.

Woodside village construction starts Construction began on Woodside’s $400 million Bay Village worker accommodation camp at Karratha in June — nearly two years after a Multiplex-led consortium was named as the contract winner. Multiplex says construction will take about 13 months, with the facility expected to be fully operational in mid-2020.

News Bites

July

Call for contractors Woodside announced it would be ramping up contractor engagement for the Burrup Hub at the WA Works conference. Senior Vice President North West Shelf and Burrup Niall Myles said contractors shouldn’t get too caught up in the “sexiness” of the construction phase and instead look towards the opportunities the LNG expansion would bring over the next three-plus decades.

First packages Covalent Lithium listed its first packages on ICN Gateway in preparation for its US$601 million Mt Holland lithium project near Southern Cross in the Goldfields.   A refinery proposed for Kwinana is expected to produce  44,000 tonnes per annum of battery grade lithium hydroxide.

Lucrative sustainment work at Rio Tinto  Rio Tinto told the WA Works conference it expected to award $4 billion worth of contracts to sustain its mines over the next four years, in addition to new construction contracts.   Managing director — iron ore, energy and minerals projects John McMeekan said there was a strong pipeline of both capital and operational works for the next few years.

Milestone for nation’s first WTE plant   First structural steel packages were “ready for market” as works at the Kwinana Waste to Energy project reached a new milestone.   Acciona Project director Chris Pratt told more than 120 people at the WA Works conference that earthworks were completed and installation of up to 1000 piles was concluding.

Sod turns at Eliwana With the first sod turning ceremony at Fortescue’s latest multi-billion dollar iron ore project completed on July 5, the company expected to award a further $500m in contracts by the end of the year, having already sent $330m the way of more than 250 Australian businesses.

New tug fleet berths at Port Hedland   Fortescue Metals Group marked the completion of its $280 million tug fleet and towage infrastructure at the company’s Herb Elliott Port in Port Hedland.

Yangibana approved Hastings Technology Metals was on track to  start building its $427 million rare earths mine and processing plant after the Environmental Protection Authority recommended conditional approval of its Yangibana project, 270km  north-east of Carnarvon.

Lynas homes in on plant site  Lynas Corporation Managing Director Amanda Lacaze told reporters on the sidelines of a WA Mining Club luncheon the company had committed to building a “cracking and leaching” circuit in WA.  The company wanted to finalise the location of its planned rare earths processing plant by next quarter.

Spring 2019 WA WORKS 61

News Bites

August NRW scores again at Koodaideri NRW Holdings won a $95 million mine pre-strip contract at Rio Tinto’s Koodaideri iron ore project in the Pilbara. It follows its $65m bulk earthworks award in January. The project scope includes the development of initial mining pre-strip and earthworks infrastructure.

Thunderbird going for zircon

Nickel construction amps up Western Areas was gearing up for construction proper at its $299 million Odysseus nickel project near Leinster after completing early works. A $32 million work program finished in July and the company said full-scale construction — including the installation of headgear and a mill expansion — would start ramping up from August.

Sheffield Resources hoped to secure funding and begin construction of its Thunderbird mineral sands project this year after shaving $101 million off the initial project cost. The company, now targeting greater production of zircon after deferring plans for an ilmenite processing circuit, said its revised feasibility study forecasted a total funding requirement of $478m for the remote Kimberley project — down from $579m previously.

Nickel West unveils growth plans BHP Nickel West President Eddy Haegel told the Diggers & Dealers Forum in Kalgoorlie the revitalised division had the potential to create a “BHP-scale business” in WA built on future demand for nickel as a battery metal. Haegel revealed the company now sold more than three-quarters of its nickel metal directly to battery customers in Japan, South Korea and China, in either the form of briquettes or powder.

Pilbara slows expansion

Civmec iron ore job to employ 300 Civmec says its contract to deliver the primary crushing and ore processing facility for Fortescue’s $1.9 billion Eliwana project will employ about 300 people in Henderson and the Pilbara.

62 WA WORKS Spring 2019

Pilbara Minerals slowed the expansion of its Pilgangoora lithium mine after short-term demand for the key battery ingredient softened. One of the pioneers of the WA lithium mining boom, Pilbara is now targeting a phased development to boost ore processing at Pilgangoora to 5 million tonnes per annum, up from 2Mtpa currently, by 2023.

Supply chain role for Muja power plan The State Government’s plan to scale back its Muja power station in Collie will likely generate supply chain opportunities during decommissioning, operator Synergy said. Premier Mark McGowan and Energy Minister Bill Johnston announced a staged retirement of two of four operating units at Muja from October 2022.

News Bites Woodside’s big turnaround Woodside announced a major turnaround program for several key North West Shelf assets that will involve more than a thousand workers. The company said an integrated turnaround campaign was scheduled for September involving LNG train 5 at the North West Shelf JV, fractionation, the North Rankin complex and North Rankin train 2.

Acciona wins EPC role Spanish infrastructure giant Acciona has won its second major contracting role in WA’s emerging waste-to-energy sector. A consortium looking to develop the $400 million East Rockingham resource recovery facility awarded Acciona the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contract to build its energy-from-waste plant.

Build a shed and the railcars will come The State Government says prime contractor Alstom is expected to start building a manufacturing shed for WA’s new railcar fleet in the first half of next year. The French multinational will build and assemble 246 railcars in the shed, a job worth $1.6 billion in total, after being named the preferred proponent by Premier Mark McGowan.

More lithium for Monadelphous Monadelphous has grown its involvement in lithium after winning a major construction contract at Albemarle’s Kemerton project near Bunbury. The Perth-based engineer will deliver the pyrometallurgical structural, mechanical and piping (SMP) package of work, as well as associated piping fabrication for the Kemerton lithium hydroxide plant, with work to be completed by early 2021.

Rio awards $250m of contracts at West Angelas Rio Tinto started building its West Angelas mine expansion in the Pilbara after awarding two key contracts with a combined value of more than $250 million. Perth-based BGC Contracting won an earthworks and civil construction job at the mine, while Monadelphous will supply and install the structural, mechanical, piping and electrical and instrumentation jobs associated with the new iron ore facilities.

BGC extends Atlas role BGC Contracting won a contract extension from Atlas Iron at its Mt Webber iron ore project in the Pilbara. Atlas, a subsidiary of Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting, will extend BGC’s current mining contract through to June 2022.

Woodside goes Dutch for Scarborough seabed Woodside said its latest contractor for the Scarborough gas project, Dutch dredging giant Boskalis, will use the CCIWA-managed ICN Gateway portal (gateway.icn.org.au) to help maximise local work opportunities. Boskalis was appointed to undertake seabed intervention and shore crossing works for the mooted Scarborough export gas pipeline, which will transport gas 430km to expanded facilities at Woodside’s onshore Pluto LNG plant.

Bayswater tussle begins Two of WA’s most recognisable and successful civil contractors — Decmil and Georgiou — are going head-to-head in the bid to design and build the new $146 million Baywater railway station. Transport Minister Rita Saffioti said Better Bayswater Alliance (Georgiou and Sydney-based Lendlease) and Evolve Bayswater Alliance (Decmil and Acciona’s Coleman Rail) had been shortlisted to progress to the competitive bid phase before a contract was awarded in “coming months”.

Spring 2019 WA WORKS 63

News Bites

Nearshore floating LNG for Equus

September Hooking up wind power

About 200 people will be involved in Western Power’s $46 million project to connect Alinta Energy’s new Yandin wind farm to the state electricity grid. The project, part of a surge in renewable energy ventures in the Mid West region, includes construction of both the substation terminal and a 10km high voltage transmission line. Construction of the substation started in May, while the peak employment phase is expected from October onwards as Western Power builds the transmission line.

Private company Western Gas is chasing a development partner for its $5 billion Equus gas project in the Pilbara after opting for a “midscale” floating LNG (FLNG) design that could see production starting in 2024. The company, which initially targeted the domestic market to commercialise its Equus offshore gas fields, hopes to make a final investment decision late next year. The plan comprises three production wells tied back to a floating production storage and offtake (FPSO) facility, a 160km dry gas export pipeline to a nearshore 2Mtpa FLNG facility and an onshore pipeline connection.

Get on board BESS Scoping a freeway extension Main Roads has begun site investigations for its $215 million extension of the Mitchell Freeway north to Alkimos. The start of project construction is still more than a year away, but Main Roads says it is defining the scope of the long-awaited extension of the key north coastal traffic artery. The preliminary concept includes a 5.6km extension of Mitchell Freeway from Hester Avenue to Romeo Road with two traffic lanes in each direction and provision for future widening.

Western Power began seeking suppliers to register their interest in providing small Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) solutions for its community batteries initiative. The State-owned authority said the registration process would help form a panel of three contractors “at this time”, depending on the market’s capability and capacity.

Compiled from WA Works digital fortnightly newsletter. Your subscription entitles you to nominate 10 email address to receive the newsletter. Contact waworks@cciwa.com.au to add or update emails.

64 WA WORKS Spring 2019

Commodity Corner

Nickel in the spotlight

potential supply deficit caused by a new Indonesian export ban and the continued growth in global demand from electric vehicle battery makers were the major themes dominating the nickel market in the third quarter. BHP Nickel West President Eddy Haegel weighed into the debate about EV’s long-term impact on nickel demand at Kagloorlie’s Diggers & Dealers Mining Forum. “In addition to the rapid growth in electric vehicle sales, we expect nickel-in-vehicle demand to surge, driven by three factors,” he said: • Batteries are becoming larger. This improves vehicle range and performance. • Within the battery, nickel-based cathodes are taking market share from non-nickel cathodes. BYD is the last major battery producer to stay with a non-nickel cathode and it has begun using nickel-based batteries now. • Within the nickel-based cathodes, the nickel in the cathode is increasing to realise better vehicle performance and lower costs. “It is important to understand that a 60kwh NMC811 battery needs 9kg of cobalt, 11kg of

lithium and a massive 70kg of nickel,” Haegel said. “Clearly, these changes will drive a significant increase in global nickel demand, but not just yet. “We do not expect to see a meaningful impact on the nickel market from batteries until the mid — late 2020s.” A few weeks after Haegel’s speech, nickel prices rallied strongly after the Indonesian Government brought forward a nickel ore export ban by two years to ensure the continued supply of the metal to develop domestic refineries. UBS says ore with a nickel content of less than 1.7 per cent will be banned from December, potentially impacting about 200,000 tonnes, or 8 per cent of nickel mine supply, in 2020. Nickel prices reached five-year highs on August 30 of US$8.17 per pound ($11.95/lb) after Indonesia announced the export bans. UBS estimates the nickel market will have a supply deficit of about 130,000 tonnes in 2019, which follows a 140,000t deficit in 2018. “We see the market remaining in deficit for the foreseeable future without large nonforecasted investment in supply,” UBS head of research Glyn Lawcock says in a research note.

“The long-term deficit we forecast is based on expansion of demand for nickel in the electric vehicle battery sector.” UBS forecasts nickel prices lift to a peak of US$8.25/lb by mid-2021 on EV demand, and it factors in a long-term price of US$6/lb.

Nickel mine supply by region 2019

Indonesia 28% Philippines 12% New Caledonia 10% Russia 10% Canada 8% Australia 6% China 4% Other 23%

Golden hue for Diggers

trong gold, nickel and iron ore prices generated plenty of excitement for the thousands of delegates that crammed into Kalgoorlie’s Goldfields Arts Centre for the 2019 Diggers & Dealers Mining Forum. “Diggers” is considered one of the main events on the calendar for the Australian resources sector, so the health of the conference is a reasonable barometer for the broader industry, analysts at Citibank said. “The mood this year was, as one chief executive put it, that Australian gold producers had ‘won the lottery’ with Aussie dollar gold at $2200-plus per ounce,” analysts at the bank said in a research note. The bank said the ASX All Ords Gold Miners index had risen 69 per cent over the preceding 12 months while iron ore, too, had rallied by 40 per cent. At 2450 people, delegate numbers were

up five per cent on 2018, the second highest on record, driven by the record Australian dollar gold price. Citibank counted 165 exhibition booths, with gold the dominant commodity (28 per cent of booths); followed by base metals (21 per cent); others such as mineral sands, uranium and lithium (12 per cent); and iron ore (3 per cent). The other 36 per cent were non-miners such as contractors, brokers and media. The key conference theme was that strong commodity prices have producers committing to project development and exploration, to drive growth. Macquarie Bank, meanwhile, said that Australian gold companies were “maintaining the rage”, with exploration activity and expenditure having ramped up considerably in recent years. “The gold sector looks set to maintain the pace over the coming year with a total estimated

exploration budget of US$350m ($509m) across the 14 pure play golds we cover,” the bank said.

Denver gold On the international stage, meanwhile, the Denver Gold Forum — the major annual gold event with the biggest mining companies meeting with analysts and investors — was held in Colorado, USA, in September. UBS said Canada’s Barrick Gold hosted a sellside analyst breakfast at which CEO Mark Bristow said the industry was in “dire straits” in terms of reserves and therefore the production outlook. Based on current industry plans, production is set to decline by about 30 per cent over the next decade, UBS said. After meeting with nine companies, UBS said several remarked that new projects were smaller than the existing large mines and faced longer lead times to development.

Spring 2019 WA WORKS 65

North West Shelf Perseus North Rankin Goodwyn Rankin Dockrell

Chandon

Jansz/lo Scarborough

Pluto

Major Resource Projects

Hermes Lambert Angel Cossack Wanaea

Athena

August 2019 Project labels:

Pemberton

Iago

Projects operating or currently under development with an actual or anticipated value of production greater than A$10 Million are shown in blue Proposed or potential projects with a capital expenditure greater than A$20 Million are shown in red

Reindeer

Xena Brunello Chrysaor/Dionysus Julimar See West Tryal Rocks Barrow Island Achilles Clio enlargement Gorgon Satyr

Wandoo Stag

Mineral projects under care and maintenance and petroleum projects that are shut-in are shown in purple

Yara Pilbara Fertilisers NWSV LNG Pluto LNG Yara Pilbara Nitrates Anketell Dampier

Halyard

Dampier Salt

Cape Preston

Cape Preston East Cape Lambert Devil Creek Gas Eramurra Salt Maitland River Radio Hill Plant Sino Iron Whundo Zn Cu Balmoral South

Torosa Brecknock

Prelude Ichthys

Blacktip

Cape Bougainville

Calliance

Mardie Salt K Novara

Coniston

Vincent Stickle Moondyne Enfield Laverda Macedon Ravensworth Crosby

Ashburton North

Onslow Salt Wheatstone LNG Macedon Gas

Ashburton Salt

Exmouth

Cape Range Lst

100

14 Dorado

SOD

Oil

PROPOSED -19.0336 118.7338WA-437-P Quadrant

Dorado 1

Excellent

Quadrant

R Bruce 23/8/18

Middle Robe Mesas Mesa J Bambra Wonnich Wonnich Deep Linda Lee Bungaroo CreekRose Harriet BungarooMonty South Josephine Baker Ginger Agincourt Simpson West Pilbara Barrow I South Plato Little Sandy Pedirka Gorgon LNG Victoria Barrow Island West Cycad Eliwana

Announced 7/2018

Kilometres

Ord Stage 1 ! KUNUNURRA

Cockatoo Island Irvine Island Koolan Island

10 km

Onslow

Tubridgi Gas Storage

Sorby Hills Pb Zn Cu Ord Stage 2

Wyndham

Barrow Island Mesa A - Warramboo

Ord River Hydro Energy Speewah V Ti Fe Speewah Fl Smoke Creek Matsu Argyle

Derby

Browse LNG Precinct

Thunderbird

Broome

L Channel – India Bore

Ungani

Duchess–Paradise

Paulsens

Savannah North Savannah McIntosh Gr Copernicus Panton Pt Pd

Koongie Park Zn Cu Pb Lamboo

Kapok West Pb Zn Ag Dorado

Commodities Ag........... Silver Au........... Gold Co........... Cobalt Cu........... Copper Dmd........ Diamond Fe........... Iron Fl............ Fluorite Gp........... Gypsum Gr............ Graphite Grt........... Garnet K............. Potassium Kln.......... Kaolin Li............. Lithium Lst........... Limestone LNG........ Liquefied natural gas Mag......... Magnetite Mn.......... Manganese Nb........... Niobium Ni............ Nickel Pb........... Lead Pd........... Palladium PGE........ Platinum group elements Pt............ Platinum REE........ Rare earth elements Ta............ Tantalum Ti............ Titanium V............. Vanadium W............ Tungsten Zn........... Zinc Zr............ Zirconium

Browns Range REE

Admiral Bay Zn Pb

Port Hedland

HALLS CREEK Brockman REE Nb Zr

Cummins Range REE

Asian Renewable Energy Hub wind & solar Citadel Au Cu Woodie Woodie Mn

Minyari–WACA Au Cu Co Telfer Au Cu O'Callaghans W Cu Zn Pb

Nifty Cu

Maroochydore Cu Co Kintyre

Yeneena Cu

Lake Mackay K

Nicholas Downs Mn

See North West Shelf enlargement

Lake Disappointment K See Pilbara enlargement

Yangibana REE Cape Cuvier

Mineral symbols

Precious mineral

Lake MacLeod Gp Lake MacLeod Salt

CARNARVON !

Shark Bay Salt

Dmd

Coburn

Precious metal

Au (or as shown)

Steel alloy metal

Ni (or as shown)

Speciality metal

Ti–Zr (or as shown)

Base metal Iron Alumina

Port Gregory Grt

All sites are bauxite

Balline Grt

Geraldton

Butcherbird Mn

Ilgarari Cu

Abra Pb Cu Zn

Beyondie K Beyondie Plutonic Dome Horseshoe Lights Cu Au Ag Plutonic Fortnum Hermes Glenburgh Thaduna Cu Ag Telecom Hill Yalbra Gr DeGrussa Monty Cu Au Cu Au Jack Hills Wiluna Jundee–Nimary Paroo Station Pb Meekatharra Wiluna/Toro Matilda Parks Reef PGE Au Gabanintha/TM V Ti Wiluna Lake Way K Weld Range Honeymoon Well West Yeelirrie Mt Keith Gabanintha/AV Gidgee Cue JV – Hollandaire Cu Au Ag Kathleen Valley Li Ta V Ti Cliffs Big Bell Barrambie Bronzewing Yakabindie South Fingall V Ti Fe Comet Dalgaranga Mt Magnet Yogi Mag Windimurra V Fe Youanmi V Ti Kirkalocka

Coal and lignite Uranium Industrial mineral Processing plant

Succoth Cu PGE West Musgrave

Wingellina Tollu Cu

Lake Wells K / Salt Lake Potash Lake Wells K / Australian Potash

Gruyere

Cyclone Tropicana

Mulga Rock

Petroleum symbols

Gas Oil Oil and gas Processing plant Oil / gas pipeline, operating Oil / gas pipeline, proposed

Infrastructure

Power plant Irrigation / water / desalination Port

Edna May

PERTH Fremantle

Silver Knight Nova–Bollinger

Collgar wind !

Wickepin Kln

Bunbury

See Goldfields enlargement Cosmic Boy Concentrator Salmon Gums

Katanning Mt Cattlin Li Ta

Ravensthorpe

Great Southern Au Cu See South West / Mid West Coastal enlargement Southdown

Enquiries for latest information for Commonwealth controlled waters is available from the National Offshore Petroleum Titles Administrator (NOPTA) at <info@nopta.gov.au>

66 WA WORKS Spring 2019

EUCLA !

Tampia

Albany & Grasmere wind

Albany

Munglinup Gr

Esperance

Scaddan

100

200

Kilometres

300

400

Major Resource Projects August 2019

Reindeer Port Hedland Salt

Wandoo

Port Hedland

Stag Yara Pilbara Fertilisers NWSV LNG Pluto LNG Yara Pilbara Nitrates

Dampier

Dampier Salt

Cape Preston

Ridley Mag

Cape Lambert Anketell Cape Lambert Sherlock Bay

Cape Preston East Devil Creek Gas Eramurra Salt Radio Hill Plant Maitland River Whundo Zn Cu Sino Iron Balmoral South

Precious metal

Whim Creek Cu Pilgangoora Li Ta Li Ta

Spinifex Ridge Mo Cu

Miralga Creek

Speciality metal

PIOP/Flinders

Serenity

Mulga Downs

Kings

Beasley River Rocklea CID

Koodaideri

Infrastructure

100

Kilometres

Prairie Downs Zn Pb Ag

Narngulu synthetic rutile Alinta–Walkaway wind Mumbida wind

Deflector Au Cu Ag Golden Grove Cu Zn Pb

Shine Golden Dragon

Greenough River solar

Mineral Projects under care and maintenance and petroleum fields that are shut-in are shown in purple

Mungada East Extension

Irwin River

Mt Mulgine W

Karara Mag

Oxley K

Rothsay

See Dongara enlargement Cliff Head

Enquiries for latest information for Commonwealth controlled waters is available from the National Offshore Petroleum Titles Administrator (NOPTA) at <info@nopta.gov.au>

Karlawinda

Project labels:

South West / Mid West Coastal Mineral separation Geraldton brick

Power plant Irrigation / water / desalination Port

Ophthalmia Wonmunna Hope Downs 4 West Angelas 31 24–25 Wheelarra JV Giles Mini Mt Whaleback ! Davidson Creek NEWMAN 35 17–18 Jimblebar Robertson Range

PARABURDOO Turee Syncline ! Western Range Eastern Range Paraburdoo Channar

Oakajee

Oil / gas pipeline, operating Oil / gas pipeline, proposed

Roy Hill Marillana

Extension Nyidinghu Yandi/BHPB Iron Valley Yandicoogina/HI Hope Downs 1 Mining Area C Jinidi South Flank Rhodes Ridge

Marandoo

Hardey

Geraldton

Christmas Creek

Cloud Break

Western Turner Syncline ! TOM PRICE Tom Price

Gas field Oil field Oil and gas field Processing plant

Mesa – Ant Hill Mn

Silvergrass

Brockman 4

Petroleum symbols

Nullagine

Eliwana

Coal and lignite Industrial mineral Processing plant

Nullagine CID

Investigator

Weelumurra Firetail

Nammuldi

Pilbara

Base metal Iron Alumina

Big Hill W

Paulsens

Ti–Zr (or as shown)

All sites are bauxite

McPhee Creek

PANNAWONICA

Homestead

Ni (or as shown)

Corunna Downs

Mt Webber

West Pilbara

Steel alloy metal

Sulphur Springs Zn Cu Pb ! MARBLE BAR Iron Bridge Mag Warrawoona

Wodgina Li

Caliwingina

Magnetite Range

Three Springs Tlc

Goldfields 50

Extension Hill Mag

Odysseus Bellevue

Lawlers Agnew–Emu

Darlot

Vivien

Waitsia Centauri 1

Dongara

Warradarge wind

Xyris South JURIEN BAY ! Badgingarra wind

Dandaragan K Phos

Emu Downs wind and solar Atlas Cooljarloo/Tronox

Moora Silica Waddi wind

Dongara 5 km

Kilometres

Mt Bevan

Burtville Mt Weld Phos Mt Weld REE

Wallaby

Murrin Murrin

Mt Mason

Sunrise Dam Red October

Ulysses

Mt Ida

Lake Carey

Second Fortune

Calingiri Cu Mo Ag Au

Jump Up Dam

Chandala mineral separation and synthetic rutile NORTHAM Felicitas ! Dana Kln Fortuna

Malaga brick !

Lake Giles

Deception Windarling

Meckering Kln

Caversham tile Middle Swan brick Midland brick Airport brick

Mt Jackson

Highway Davyhurst

Marda

Armadale brick Cardup brick Koolyanobbing

Keysbrook Huntly

Athena

Pinjarra Alumina Boddington Au Cu Marradong Willowdale

Saddleback

Kemerton Sisd Titanium pigment Worsley Alumina Bunbury ! Bluewaters 1–2 Collie Premier Ewington Cristal mineral separation Muja Doral mineral separation Capel North synthetic rutile Yoganup Extended Wonnerup Wonnerup North Wonnerup South Tutunup Yoongarillup 100 Ta Greenbushes Li Ta Sn

Comet Vale Goongarrie Scotia Siberia

Sandy Ridge Kln

Fremantle

NiWest

Sons of Gwalia

Tarantula Cadoux Kln Dongara Redback Beharra Springs

Southern Seawater desalination Lithium hydroxide Silicon smelter Chlor alkali

Murrin North Mt Morgans

Darling Range

Neerabup/Newgen

Wagerup Alumina

Leonora/Kin LEONORA

Mt Alexander

Windarra

Deep South

Boonanarring

King of the Hills

Mt Forrest Cashmere Downs

Yandin wind

PERTH

Ben Hur – Epsilon

Bentley Zn Pb Cu

Mondarra Gas Storage

Jingemia

Yerecoin

Alumina refinery Ammonium nitrate Bulk terminal Cement and lime Chlor alkali Desalination Fused alumina Fused zirconia Lithium hydroxide LNG LPG Nickel refinery Nickel sulfate Oil refinery Power plant Sodium cyanide Titanium pigment Zirconia

Garden Well & Rosemont

Thunderbox

Eneabba/Iluka

Kwinana–Rockingham

Moolart Well

Rosie

Leinster

100

Kilometres

Eneabba/Sheffield

Cataby

Ag........... Silver Au........... Gold Cu........... Copper Fe........... Iron K............. Potassium Kln.......... Kaolin Li............. Lithium LNG........ Liquefied natural gas LPG........ Liquefied petroleum gas Mag........ Magnetite Mn.......... Manganese Mo.......... Molybdenum Ni............ Nickel Pb........... Lead Phos....... Phosphate REE........ Rare earth elements Sisd......... Silica sand Sn........... Tin Ta............ Tantalum Ti............ Titanium Tlc........... Talc V............. Vanadium W............ Tungsten Zn........... Zinc Zr............ Zirconium

Au (or as shown)

Mardie Salt K

Middle Robe Mesas Mesa J Mesa A – Warramboo Bungaroo Creek Bungaroo South

Commodities

Mineral symbols

Balla Balla Salt Creek Zn Cu Pb Balla Balla Fe V Ti

SOUTHERN CROSS Marvel Loch

Karari

Bardoc

Ora Banda

Lindsays

Pinnacles

Silver Swan

Paddington Kanowna Belle Castle Hill Millennium KALGOORLIE–BOULDER Bombora – Lake Roe Kundana Superpit ! Frogs Leg Nimbus–Boorara Ag Au Zn White Foil Geko Nickel smelter Lithium Refinery Blair COOLGARDIE ! Coolgardie South Kal Bullabulling Mt Monger Aldiss Burbanks Randalls Carnilya Hill Mt Marion Li Ta Nepean Long–Victor Nickel concentrator St Ives Widgiemooltha

Nevoria

Lanfranchi Miitel Mariners

Bald Hill Li Ta

Polar Bear

Earl Grey Li

Mt Thirsty Lake Johnston

Flat Rock wind New Morning

Flying Fox Spotted Quoll Cosmic Boy Concentrator

NORSEMAN Mt Henry

Spring 2019 WA WORKS 67

Echidna Tales

A fascinating bush yarn was delivered recently to WA Works’ offices by snail mail, handwritten, no less, by quill pen. Once the bona fides of The Echidna were established, it was agreed the pointed observations should be shared

Taking the spike out of mixed messages

e animals are as worried as you are about the

Thomson Bay. Even the

economy. There is a lack of direction at home and danger

miserable Wombat says he has

signs abroad. But we do think the ego-driven trade fight

done okay for an animal we all

between the American Buffalo and the Chinese Panda

thought was a Rat.

is overstated. Of more concern is a slowing world economy, the Brexit stalemate and the continuing demonstrations in Hong Kong. Here the home building industry is down, house prices have fallen

We animals think we know what is best about WA. Have you noticed that the Lizards sunbake

and retail is doing it tough with weak consumer spending and stiff

in the middle of the day and the

competition from online sales. The Reserve Bank has run out of cards

Possums come out at night? They say

to play with interest rates already at record low levels.

the best thing going is the big blue sky

On a brighter side exports are up, thanks mainly to iron ore and

by day and the glittering stars by night.

liquified natural gas out of WA. In spite of that the dollar has fallen,

You don’t get that in the world’s big

just as the shrewd Emu told you it would at the beginning of this

cities and all in a vast and safe landscape.

year. The wise Owl says we need a nation building project to ignite optimism and pride. For business, a lower dollar is usually a good thing. It makes our exports cheaper for overseas customers and imports more expensive here,

What really annoys us is the mixed messages you people send out. The Canberra ‘experts’ insist on calling the top-end of the state the North West when the Kimberley name is far better known. How silly is that? And the coastline to the north of

which helps local producers.

Perth is variously known

On the flip side, it also makes

as the Turquoise Coast, the Coral Coast, the Shipwreck

overseas loans

Coast and the Batavia Coast. How confusing is that?

more expensive

It is like asking an Octopus to point the way.

to repay and Australian assets worth less. Tourism is doing better, but again mixed results.

Country towns also need a clear identity if they are going to make it in tourism. Margaret River with wine and Kalgoorlie with gold are good examples. Even Hyden has made a mountain out of Wave Rock and Lancelin has pulled off a miracle from a few jagged rocks sticking out of a sand dune. More of the same is needed, though the media Rabbits reckon

The Flamingos are

Doodlakine is a bit of a challenge. The Bush Wallaby says the small

the tourism experts in

population shires to the north of Kalgoorlie could really make something

the animal world. They

of themselves if they came together as the Outback Shire.

dress in pink and will fly

Cycling is the new golf. Walking trails through wildflowers is something

anywhere for a good time.

special. Being the only person on a beach is rare. Catching a fish can be a

They point out that you fly to

new experience. And if you want a new attraction, then go for a world class

a city, not a country or state.

open range zoo. Big animals now being kept in small enclosures and those

The destination is London,

of us who are endangered are all for that. Don’t go for second best.

New York, Paris, Sydney and so on. For us, Perth and Australia’s West Coast is the brand that might work best. Not calling the world’s best stadium “Perth” was a blunder. The Quokka reckons he is a tourism star and wants a statue at

68 WA WORKS Spring 2019

THE ECHIDNA, SEPTEMBER 2019 PS Just been to Broome … love those termite mounds.

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70 WA WORKS Spring 2019