ROCKS June 2014

WA&NT

ADVENTURE TRAVEL • EVENTS • PEOPLE • ENTERTAINMENT • SPORTS

ISSUE 12 JUNE 2014

GHANNING IT

Australia’s great train journey

ARGENTINA

Where the steaks are always high

STATE OF ORIGIN

The nine biggest myths debunked

S U L Pidemining

E FOR AZIN RY G A M THE R INDUST O Y U

ins

Meet Top Gear’s Mr May

CHAD’S CAVEMAN TACTICS: FREE SET OF ABS FOR EVERY READER

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Welcome to ROCKS, the in-flight magazine for Alliance Airlines Welcome aboard. We hope you have a great trip with us today. While en route to work, or if you are heading home for a well-earned rest, get into this issue of ROCKS and find some inspiration for your next holiday. Read all about the famous Ghan train journey (a rite of passage for many) from Adelaide to Darwin through Alice Springs and Katherine Gorge. There are so many adventures to be had along the way such as camel riding, kayaking or checking out the many inspiring indigenous art galleries in the red centre. Or if you want to head overseas, we’ve got great stories on two of the world’s top party cities – Amsterdam and Buenos Aires. And right on our doorstep, only an hour’s flight from Darwin, is a country that really doesn’t get the attention it deserves. Like Bali in the ’70s, before development took a hold, Timor-Leste is an enchanting, peaceful place where snorkelling, diving, trekking and fishing are just some of the many things to get into, alongside indulging in the great food on offer.

If travel is not on the cards this month, fear not, as there are always plenty of great stories in ROCKS to keep you entertained. Author Jesse Fink uncovers 10 things you might not know about AC/DC, we check out some cars that manage to pull luxury, grunt and speed together, and we meet the king of CrossFit training to get the lowdown on a sport that everyone seems to be digging. If that’s not enough to keep you busy, then our interview with James May from Top Gear will. And of course, this time of year in sport means one thing for NSW and Qld – The State of Origin. Check out our lowdown on one of the biggest games on the sporting calendar and get ScottupMcMillan revved for the battle soon to explode on the field. Have fun, and drop us a Managing line sometime Director – we love hearing from you. rocks@edgecustom.com.au

Michelle Hespe, editor-in-chief

‘The Breakaways’, Flinder’s Ranges

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Michelle Hespe DEPUTY EDITOR Ben Smithurst ASSISTANT EDITORS Danielle Chenery, Simone Henderson-Smart SENIOR DESIGNER Guy Pendlebury SUBEDITORS Kris Madden, Tatyana Leonov, Liani Solari CONTRIBUTORS Jesse Fink, Stephen Corby, Steve Kilgallon, Nathan Dyer, Wouter Spanjaart, Oryana Angel, Mitch Brook, Christine Retschlag, Lesley Parker, Jonathan Law, Kevin Lee

ADVERTISING ENQUIRIES 02 8962 2600 advertising@edgecustom.com.au WA AND NT SALES AGENT Helen Glasson Hogan Media: 08 9381 3991 E: helen@hoganmedia.com.au PUBLISHER Geoff Campbell CEO Eddie Thomas PRINTER SOS Print & Media

ROCKS is published by Edge 51 Whistler Street, Manly NSW 2095 Phone: 02 8962 2600 edgecustom.com.au ROCKS is published by Business Essentials (Australasia) Pty Limited (ABN 22 062 493 869), trading as Edge.

Reproduction in whole or in part without prior written permission is strictly prohibited. Opinions expressed are those of the individual contributors and not necessarily those of the Publisher. Information provided was believed to be correct at the time of publication. All reasonable efforts have been made to contact copyright holders.

ROCKS cannot accept unsolicited manuscripts or photographs. If such items are sent to the magazine, they will not be returned. A selection of images used in this publication has been sourced from Thinkstock, Getty Images and Corbis.

May/June 2014

1

DARWIN

GROOTE EYLANDT

LAWN HILL

CAIRNS TOWNSVILLE

THE GRANITES

TREPELL

SHAY GAP KARRATHA ONSLOW

PHOSPHATE HILL TELFER

BARIMUNYA

COONDEWANNA

CLONCURRY

MOUNT ISA

EMERALD

NEWMAN

PARABURDOO

AYERS ROCK (ULURU)

ALICE SPRINGS

GLADSTONE

BALLERA COOBER PEDY MOUNT KEITH LEINSTER

MILES

MOOMBA

PROMINENT HILL OLYMPIC DAM

LEONORA PORT AUGUSTA

PERTH

ADELAIDE

MELBOURNE

2

May/June 2014

BRISBANE

ABOUT US Alliance Airlines was established in 2002, recognising the growing demand from the domestic mining and energy sector for a provider of safe and reliable air transportation services to and from remote site locations. Alliance commenced operations with two Fokker 100 aircraft servicing two FIFO contracts, both of which are still serviced today.

Our company has since expanded its fleet and operational capabilities to better service the continuing air transportation needs of the mining and energy sector .

Alliance is a leading mining services company specialising in providing: • FIFO services • Ad hoc charter services • ACMI, or wet leasing, services.

In December 2011, Alliance successfully listed on the ASX as AQZ.

FLIGHT BOOKINGS For customers wishing to book flights between Perth and Karratha, this must be done online: www.allianceairlines.com.au/home For customers wishing to book flights between Adelaide and Olympic Dam, this can be done online: www.qantas.com

OUR FLEET FOKKER F100

Number

18

Passengers

100

Length

35.5 metres

Wingspan

28 metres

Engines

RR Tay 650-15 Turbofans

Cruise Altitude

11,000 metres

Cruise Speed

800km/h

Range

3,167km

Passenger Detail

All economy seat configuration, 33-inch seat pitch, galley, toilet, pressurised, air-conditioned

FOKKER F70LR

CHARTER BOOKINGS For corporate or private charters of Alliance aircraft, the following contacts are available: www.allianceairlines.com.au/charters sales@allianceairlines.com.au 07 3212 1501

SAFETY INFORMATION Even though you may travel frequently, please familiarise yourself with the Safety On Board card located in your seat pocket.

ALCOHOL Passengers are not permitted to bring alcohol on board for in-flight consumption. On flights where Alliance offers a bar service, our flight attendants adhere to RSA guidelines.

SEAT BELTS Please observe the ‘Fasten Seat Belt’ signs when illuminated. In the interest of safety, keep your seat belt fastened at all times in case of unexpected turbulence.

CABIN BAGGAGE

Passengers should ensure that carry-on baggage does not weigh more than 7kg and fits into the overhead lockers.

Number

7

Passengers

75

Length

31 metres

Wingspan

28 metres

Engines

RR Tay 620-15 Turbofans

Cruise Altitude

11,000 metres

Cruise Speed

800km/h

Range

3,800km

Passenger Detail

All economy seat configuration, 33-inch seat pitch, galley, toilet, pressurised, air-conditioned

FOKKER F50

Number

6

Passengers

52

Length

25 metres

Wingspan

29 metres

Engines

2 x PW125B Turboprop

Cruise Altitude

7,800 metres

Cruise Speed

500km/h

Range

2,600km

Passenger Detail

All economy seat configuration, 33-inch seat pitch, galley, toilet, pressurised, air-conditioned

May/June 2014

3

We wish the organisers, competitors and spectators of the 2014 Goldfields Cyclassic a successful and rewarding event

www.cyclassic.com.au

42 Origin myths exposed!

CONTENTS THE PICK

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07 INCOMING!

Morgan Evans, truffles, Trav Pastrana and cool apps

10 HILLARY JNR.

It’s Peter, son of Edmund, second-gen adventurer

12 FOR THOSE ABOUT TO ROCK

Most things regret being sliced in two by train tracks.

Not the sunburnt country!

Come aboard for the tenth anniversary of the nation’s greatest train journey…

42 BUENOS AIRES

Argentina has everything you could want from an overseas jaunt: colour, passion, AC/DC fanatics, sexy dancers and steaks the size of your car

48 DILl DALLYING

Balibo did for Timorese tourism what Wolf Creek did for Oz, but the country that is Australia’s hat is now paradise on Earth

54 48 HOURS IN… AMSTERDAM There’s more to Holland than dodgy coffee shops and ad hoc ovens.

Welcome to a city of deeply great Dutch joy

16 INTERVIEW: JAMES MAY

Top Gear‘s Captain Slow on Jeremy Clarkson, near-death

by African animal and the great Australian Outback

22 DEBUNKING THE STATE OF ORIGIN The world’s greatest league series has become a Maroons cakewalk. But … why?

31 CROSSFIT

Australia’s fittest man, Chad Mackay, whips you into shape

Ten things you didn’t know about the mighty AC/DC

14 MAN + MACHINE

IN ORE

UNLEASHED

36 THE GHAN

16

ISSUE 12

Luxury rides, hard as nails

54 insidemining • news & current affairs • resources sector profiles • finance & technology

May/June 2014

5

Mongrel ZipSiders Original thinking ... Copied by everyone Mongrel Boots launched the first ZipSider style work boot in 2007. A great success – it is now perhaps the most copied style on the market. But while our competitors have been copying we have been improving. Today ZipSiders come in 8 styles including our latest hi-leg 561050 in wheat. Features include rubber sole, new scuff cap, protected zip and Kevlar stitching. The technology in Mongrel ZipSiders is without equal – providing both superior safety and comfort along with the benefits of Australian Made quality control.

Visit our website – mongrelboots.com.au and checkout our full range of ZipSiders.

Aussie Born and Bred Victor Footwear 15 George Young Street Auburn NSW 2144 p: 02 8667 2555 f: 02 8667 2500 e: sales@mongrelboots.com.au w: www.mongrelboots.com.au

THE PICK

ROCKS has sniffed out the best stuff so you don’t have to.

Just sit back, relax and enjoy!

E VENTS + ENTERTAINMENT + TECH + MOTORS + FOOD & DRINK

ON THE DOWNLOAD

Play, create, snap – 3 cool apps Spaceteam

(Free, iOS/Android) A party game – it only works with multiple players – where you save your spaceship by ordering partners to hit buttons (on their screen) via instructions (from yours).

Walk Up!

PASTRANA GOES BANANAS

> Freestyle motocrosser Travis Pastrana is the world’s preeminent action sports athlete, and his ramp-heavy live show – the stadium version of his smash Jackassmeets-the-X Games MTV show – is coming back to Oz. The result of five years of development, this is its world debut, with weekend dates in Perth, Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. “I’m stoked to be riding again,” says Pastrana. The show includes the world’s only triple backflipper, and another guy in a wheelchair. nitrocircuslive.com May 10–June 1.

JAZZ IN MELBOURNE

> The hook-turn capital will echo with hooks of a brassier kind during the Melbourne International Jazz Festival, featuring more than 300 artists from places as diverse as Israel, Finland and Italy.

From modern masters such as the GDjango Bates’ Belovèd (above) or the Charles Lloyd Sky Trio, to free jazz in Fed Square, to a host of club shows, there’s something for the aloof, beret-sporting black skivvy fan on every street corner, or in the once smokefilled jazz bars around town. melbournejazz.com May 30–June 8.

(Free, iOS) The curse of alarm clocks is that bleary-eyed minx, the snooze button. This app taps your phone’s accelerometer and won’t stop until you’ve gone at least 10 steps.

Threes!

($3, iOS/Android) A combo of Candy Crushmatching and maths (stop, come back!), Threes! is quickly addictive, like heroin on speed, but much, much better for you – if not your productivity.

TRUFFLE KERFUFFLE

> Western Australia produces more truffles than anywhere except Europe, and 70 per cent of our black truffles are snuffled from the South West forests’ soils. This year’s Manjimup Truffle Kerfuffle festival line-up includes celebrity chefs, truffle hunts, stalls, master classes and gala dinners. Where better to feast on something that looks like petrified bubo but tastes like heaven? trufflekerfuffle.com.au, June 27–29.

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SAY WHAT?

Got something to say about ROCKS ? Is there something you’re burning to see covered?

Don’t mumble it under your breath – tell us what you think!

Send an email to rocks@ edgecustom.com.au and have your say.* *Please be kind – our fragile egos might not be able to take it.

22 May/June 2014

7

Think long term – secure your career!

Have you thought about your future earning potential and employability? Although the mining industry will continue to thrive for years to come, gaining or updating your qualifications can provide job security and career advancement, no matter what changes the industry faces.

Completing a Nationally Recognised qualification in Quality Auditing, Work Health and Safety, or Training and Assessment could be of enormous benefit to you!

HBA Learning Centres is one of the leading providers of Vocational Education and Training Courses in Australia. We offer qualifications that are highly sought after in the mining industry, with FIFO friendly delivery methods and competitive pricing.

BSB41412 – Cert IV in Work Health & Safety

BSB51312 – Diploma of Work Health & Safety

BSB60612 – Advanced Diploma of Work Health & Safety

Self – Paced - $1100 Intensive Delivery - $1500

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BSB51607 – Diploma of Quality Auditing

TAE40110 – Cert IV in Training & Assessment

TAE50111 – Diploma of VET

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*Intensive Delivery consists of five consecutive days in class with a trainer; with pre-course work, homework, and the possibility of post course work.

We deliver in every state and territory of Australia – in all capital cities, and many regional centres. We also offer in-house delivery at your site, or a location that suits your needs.

Contact us for further information – 1300 721 503 or visit www.hbalearningcentres.com.au

Quote this code to receive $100 off your course! ROCKS100

OUTER EDGE

BOOKS THE BURGER BOOK VICTORIA

HARDWARE

JIMMY HURLSTON & ETHAN JENKINS $39.95

MUSIC

HOW COUNTRY IS MORGAN EVANS?

H

e’s toured with US stars (Taylor Swift OMG!!) and played to 50,000 in Nashville. His songs have a US twang and he excels at contemporary rock country.

But how clichéd hayseed can a bloke from Newcastle really be? “Well, I wouldn’t say that I am,” he says. Not so fast: it’s test time! Okay Morgan, have you ever… … had a cheating wife who left you and took your dog? “Well I’ve never been married, so that’s easy. And I’ve never had a woman steal my dog. I don’t even own a dog.” Score: 0 … driven a Chevy to a levy, but then when you got there, you discovered that

Australia’s newest international music sensation is following Keith Urban’s lead…

the levy was dry? “Haha!

Er, no. Although I did once end up in a paddock – classic falling asleep at the wheel at about 4.30am. It was the scariest experience of my life, which is why I’m now involved with the Be Street Smart charity.” Score: 0 … had an evil city banker foreclose on your farm?

“Well, I did grow up at my folks’ place with horses, chickens, ducks, dogs and cats, but there are no longer any horses or ducks or chickens there. So I guess you could say I lost my farm.” Score: 1/2 … punched a tractor? “No. Why … why would you punch a tractor?” Score: 0 … had a moonshine still explode? “That’s never

happened, but I do enjoy a drop of moonshine.

Mostly in Nashville, Tennessee – but produced by a guy I know in North Carolina. They have an apple pie flavour, which is spectacular, and then the harder, one-shot-andyou’re-hammered stuff.

I trust him, because he’s made it all his life and he hasn’t gone blind.” Score: 1 … had a tailgate party at NASCAR? “I’ve never been. I enjoy watching the car racing here, though. I’d love to go.” Score: 0 Final score: 1.5/6.

Verdict: not a country cliché Morgan Evans’ self-titled debut album is out now through Warner Music

Few meals are as satisfying as a truly transcendent burger – or as bitterly disappointing when they miss the mark. But ours are grand times for the burger, and this hardcover celebration of Victoria’s greatest is glorious in its simplicity. Glossy, highend and a perfect gift for foodies who (rightly) despise the word ‘foodie’.

THE HARLEM HELLFIGHTERS

MAX BROOKS $26.99 The author is comedy legend Mel’s son, but he’s mostly famous for writing World War Z, the kickass literary zombie novel that revived the genre and then became the basis for a Brad Pitt movie that ignored the entire book. This time he’s penned a graphic novel about a real-life black regiment of United States WWI badasses.

WELCOME TO PARADISE, NOW GO TO HELL CHAS SMITH $29.95

Surf scribe turned genuine war correspondent turned surf scribe Chas Smith is an agent provocateur, better at annoying people than he is at writing. And he’s really great at writing. This is a ballsy memoir of Hawaii’s macho North Shore stripped bare: bloody, racially charged, selfconscious, intimidatory and a bit silly.

SHARE YOUR MUSIC, INTRODUCING SOUNDLINK – SHOW YOUR STYLE NEW FROM BOSE. ®

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bag or backpack. You also can personalise it with optional coloured covers to fit your unique style.

RRP $399.00 bose.com.au May/June 2014

he NEW

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9

Image courtesy of Ralph Lee Hopkins/Lindblad Expeditions

INORE

INTO THE WILD WITH His father, Sir Edmund Hillary, conquered Everest – but Peter Hillary’s extraordinary expeditioning life is a boy’s own adventure beyond compare.

WORDS: Ben Smithurst

I

t would have been easy to grow up stunted in the shadow of one of the world’s iconic derring-doers. Sir Edmund Hillary’s list of achievements hardly need repeating. But where the sons of Bradman and Bowie both changed their surnames – and George Bush Junior remained an underachiever (even as president) – Peter Hillary wears his heritage lightly. An adventurer in his own right, at 59 he is a chip off the old block: he’s conquered the highest mountain on each continent, known as ‘The Seven Summits’ (including Everest twice), visited Antarctica 30 times, and among other things, circumnavigated Australia by motorbike. Having just returned from another charity trip to Nepal for the Australian Himalayan Foundation, Peter sits down with ROCKS to talk shop…

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May/June 2014

What could possibly be left on your to-do list?

The exciting part of accomplishing goals is that the more you do, the more you realise there is to do. That’s what you find when you get to the top of a mountain – you look out and there are other mountains and peaks.

What was it like growing up with an icon as a father?

You’ve just got to put things in perspective and realise that, actually, it’s pretty fantastic being the son of Ed Hillary. He was an extraordinary man. In the end, it’s given me opportunities and it’s helped me to focus on what I really like to do. So I certainly haven’t shied away from it, but I’m not saying it was easy, either.

Sir Edmund never seemed ego driven.

No, he did retain the common touch. And he was quite remarkable

in the way that he kept reinventing himself. He didn’t live off the laurels of that great climb of Everest with Tenzing Norgay. He went on to chart a new route to the South Pole, he built 42 hospitals, he had various businesses. He became an ambassador. Even when he wasn’t the great athlete anymore, he was still coming up with a new facet of who Ed Hillary was.

You’re no slouch on the mountaineering front yourself.

You must have come close to disaster once or twice.

If you get out and push yourself in any field you’re going to have setbacks, and certainly if you’re an expeditionary or a mountaineer that can happen. On this Australian Himalayan Foundation trek we were just at, I hiked up to 5300 metres to the base of probably one of the Himalayas’ most beautiful peaks,

INORE

“THE EXCITING PART OF ACCOMPLISHING GOALS IS THAT THE MORE YOU DO, THE MORE YOU REALISE THERE IS TO DO.”

where I’d had a climb that I narrowly survived. With the great mountain overhead and these huge ice cliffs, it was very nostalgic.

CLOCKWISE FROM FAR LEFT: PETER HILLARY IN ANTARCTICA; THE KIMBERLEY; LINDBLAD’S NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC ORION; PETER WITH AN 18TH CENTURY SHIPWRECK NEAR PUNTA ARENAS, CHILE.

What happened to you before?

We were hit by an avalanche and I was very badly injured. I had a badly broken arm and ankle and various other breaks and injuries. And we took three days of abseiling down ropes that we put in, sitting on tiny ledges just wide enough for the three of us to get our backsides on, spending the night trying to stay hydrated and descending in terrible pain and discomfort, to reach safety.

Sweet mercy!

I think it’s important to put things into perspective. I survived that horrible situation and I learned a lot of lessons from it, and I think I’m a more cautious person because of it.

But that doesn’t mean you want to withdraw into a cocoon.

Do you still have heroes?

Oh, yes. People absolutely amaze me.

There is a new echelon of mountaineers coming up; I don’t mean the people being guided on Mount Everest, I’m talking about the real mountaineers. There’s a young Swiss guy called Ueli Steck, who is doing a new solo line in just over 24 hours in Annapurna, one of the Himalayas’ greatest peaks. It’s not just the technical expertise, it’s not just his fitness, it’s the psychoemotional state of the man! That you’re moving within a hair’s breadth of, if you make a mistake, you die instantly. These are extraordinary alpine athletes.

Did you do much adventuring with your father?

There were lots of family adventures – for example, we spent one May school holidays driving up the Birdsville Track into central Australia. We got flooded out! You know how they always say that it’s the worst rain in 25 years? They seem to say that every six months, I think. But anyway, this was apparently the worst rain in 25 years. We had the most incredible adventure getting out of the desert and back down to Adelaide.

It was a very adventurous upbringing!

lad ic Lindb Lars-Er 994) was a eur 1 (1927 – rican entrepren rism u e -Am red to Swedishrer who pionee ost remote lo m p ’s x and e of the world first tourist to some ns. He led the a in 1966 in a locatio to Antarctic ship, and vy ion x e pedit d Argentine nated his own e r a r e t e r op cha y years dblad for man sel, the MS Lin r. ves Explore

Now you’re heading back to the Kimberley with National Geographic and Lindblad Expeditions. You’ve been there before, haven’t you?

Yes – I rode a motorbike around Australia and I absolutely adored it.

It really is the Wild West, and in some respects that’s the allure of this trip.

It’s wild, not many people have gone there in a strictly tourism sense, and here’s an opportunity to visit some of its more remote harbours and experience its beauty. I’ve been working with National Geographic and Lindblad for many years now, and they’ve recently commenced this program centred around the Kimberley. You can imagine, like many people, I said, ‘Count me in!’

That is one of the last great magical places on this planet.

SIR EDMUND HILLARY

A LECTO QUE PRATE QUAME LAB IUS, AUT

May/June 2014 11 ALIBEA ETUS NONSEQUIAM QUE VOLUPIS

GOOD BOOKS

L

ast New Year’s Eve marked 40 years since AC/DC’s debut live show at Chequers nightclub in Sydney. Times have changed: Chequers is now a massage parlour.

But four decades on, having survived the death of front man Bon Scott in 1980, AC/DC is still rockin’. Their last world tour, promoting 2008’s Black Ice, grossed close to $500 million.

Recently, lead singer Brian Johnson hinted the band was eyeing off studio time in Canada; and hoped to perform 40 concerts in 40 cities to say thanks to their fans. It came as a surprise, as it’s an open secret one of the band members has been in poor health. But you never write off AC/DC. Here’s 10 things you didn’t know about the band but should.

WORDS: JESSE FINK

ANGUS AND MALCOLM ON STAGE AT ROYAL OAK THEATER, MICHIGAN, 1978

1

The Young brothers, Angus and Malcolm, came very close to sacking Bon Scott after his alleged heroin overdose in 1975, according to former AC/DC bass player Mark Evans.

2

The band’s iconic and very lucrative logo was designed by Gerard Huerta, who also designed the logos for Time magazine, Pepsi, HBO and the band Boston. He has not received a cent in royalties for its use in merchandising.

3

Phil Rudd may not have played drums on their breakthrough Australian hit, ‘High Voltage’.

Session drummer Tony Currenti, who played drums on nearly all of the songs on the band’s debut album and was twice asked to join AC/DC, remembers recording the track in the studio. Audience noise in the film clip for the song was borrowed from George Harrison’s Concert for Bangladesh live album.

6

Michael Klenfner was the band’s key supporter at Atlantic Records in the 1970s. He is the fat man with the big moustache who bails up Jake and Elwood Blues at the back of the Palace Hotel Ballroom at the end of The Blues Brothers movie and offers them the fat cash recording contract advance they run off with.

7

According to David Krebs, one half of legendary rock management firm Leber-Krebs, Metallica and Red Hot Chili Peppers manager Peter Mensch was allegedly sacked as manager by the band because they objected to his then girlfriend coming on tour with him to Australia.

Former Easybeats singer and solo artist Stevie Wright claims he was asked to join the band after Bon Scott died in 1980.

8 10

Legendary Lynyrd Skynyrd singer Ronnie Van Zant was so jealous of AC/DC’s early success in Florida that he made an impromptu late-night visit to a local radio station

Jesse Fink is the author of The Youngs: The Brothers Who Built AC/DC. Published by Random House: $34.99 randomhouse.com.au

4 5

Krebs’s former partner Steve Leber believes that Malcolm Young was jealous of Angus Young’s fame.

The man who signed AC/DC to Atlantic Records, Phil Carson, played bass with them on stage for one song in Belgium in 1981. The song was ‘Lucille’.

AC•DC

W ABOUT O N K T ’ N ID D U 10 THINGS YO

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in the middle of the night to check AC/DC’s sales and request data.

May/June 2014

GOOD BOOKS

ANGUS YOUNG PERFORMING IN NEW YORK CITY, 2008

AC/DC’S FAMOUS AND VERY LUCRATIVE LOGO WAS DESIGNED

BY GERARD HUERTA, WHO DESIGNED THE TIME MAGAZINE AND PEPSI LOGOS.

LORDHSE OF T BAR BIKIEEBOX JUK

May/June 2014

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LOADS OF FUN MAN + MACHINE

There’s no need to forsake luxury if durability, speed and room to move are all on your dream car list. You can have it all if you choose right.

WORDS: STEPHEN CORBY

F

ishing gear, surfboards, camping stuff, a proper Esky and a brace of mates – all life essentials that simply will not fit in the back of a sporty car like a Porsche Cayman, an Audi S3 or even a Toyota 86. Not without expensive surgery, anyway. But the fact that you occasionally like to leave the house with more than a man-bag and a mobile phone doesn’t mean you have to miss out on a car that’s actually exciting to drive. Even if you’re a serious bush-basher, there are options that combine rugged durability, loads of space and ludicrous amounts of fun.

Here’s our list of some the best rough, tough and yet still stupidly fun cars on the market.

MONSTER TRUCKIN’

It’s a well-worn truism that Toyota’s LandCruiser is the go-anywhere, crush-anything, unbreakable offroader. Sadly it’s also about as sexy, inside and out, as a retired rugby prop. Or an elephant. Fortunately, Lexus offers a prettied-up, and pimped out version of this rugged legend in the shape of the LX 570.

You get the same durable innards underneath you with an interior that’s all leather and loveliness,

14

May/June 2014

and a frocked-up exterior design to boot. A 5.7-litre V8 offering 270kW and 530Nm completes the package, which is all yours for $140,045.

Not much more will get you into the stonking Porsche Cayenne GTS, at $150,400, which goes, steers and rides like a proper Porsche does. A 309kW, 515Nm V8 helps, of course.

It’s capable enough off-road, and truly fantastic inside, but this Cayenne is really at its best on sweeping open roads, plus you’d feel awful scratching its pretty paint.

The real winner in this category, though, is the absurdly competent, stupidly fast and all-new Range Rover Sport. Built by a company that knows a thing or two about off-roading, the Sport can hit 100km/h in 5.3 seconds if you go for the top of the range Autobiography model, powered by a 5.0-litre V8 huffing 375kW and 625Nm. It can also climb Everest, probably, which goes some way to justifying its $182,400 price tag.

Expensive, yes, but worth it.

CAYENNE GTS: HIDES ITS BULK LIKE A TINDER HEADSHOT

THINGGSO THATRP BAA

THE AUDI RS6: CAN TOUCH 305KM/H

WAGONS, HO!

So you don’t want greenies to egg your SUV, and you quite like the sporty advantages of a low centre of gravity that come with what some like to call a proper car? But you still want to fit your rods in? The modern super station wagon is the answer for you, and there are some bargains out there, too.

Subaru’s Liberty Wagon range starts at $32,990 and offers all-wheel drive, sporty steering and a willing 2.5-litre engine. You’ll want to step up to the GT Premium model, with 195kW, 350Nm and a 0 to 100 dash of just 6.3 seconds – a staggering bargain at just $52,990.

Renault’s Megane Sport GT220 wagon is another price winner, at $36,990, with plenty of sporting credibility, but if it’s a proper, ‘bahn-storming’ load carrier you’re after you should look no further than Audi’s stupidly awesome RS6 Avant.

Indisputable proof that having

a big boot and a comfortable rear seat doesn’t exclude you from the supercar club, this $250K mega-wagon boasts a slick 4.0-litre V8 with 412kW and 700Nm. It’s good for a staggering 0-100km/h time of 3.9 seconds and a top speed that’s limited to 305km/h – provided you tick a $20K ceramic brakes option – or more than three times faster than you’re allowed to drive anywhere in the state of Victoria.

For when you really need to get to the beach in a hurry, with no licence left.

mates to walk, loads of room for gear.

FPV’s GT-P is a superb, full-sized sports car that will soon go the way of the dinosaurs, but it’s going out with a roar from its 5.0-litre, 335kW, 570Nm V8. You and your mates will hit 100km/h in under 5.5 seconds, laughing all the way, for $82,040.

FPV’s $52,990 GS ute is another even more load-friendly option.

MUSCLED UP TO BOOT

The other option, at least for now, is the traditional Aussie muscle car, based on a full-sized family sedan – so you get a proper boot, and if you fold the back seats down and tell your FPV GT-P: GTFO

“IF IT’S A ‘BAHN-STORMING’ LOAD CARRIER YOU’RE AFTER, LOOK NO FURTHER THAN AUDI.” HSV GTS: 430kW

King of the Aussie hill though, now and possibly forever, is HSV’s GTS, a car that offers a huge boot and huge bootfulls of power from its old-school 6.2-litre V8.

Put your foot down in this 430kW, 740Nm monster and whatever gear you’re carrying will need to be tied down, as will your stomach. The mega HSV rearranges the molecules in your body and blurs the scenery with its savage, unrelenting pace, but it’s more than just a straight-line monster.

The choice of drive modes means it can cruise like a limo all day and then eat up a racetrack for dinner.

All this in a $94,490–$96,990 vehicle that’s big enough to seat four blokes in business-class comfort, with all their baggage in the boot.

Who needs a two-seat sports car when you can live large like this?

May/June 2014

15

INORE Top Gear is the world’s most watched TV show.

It’s also a magazine, a ‘live’ event, a colossal website and the marketing thrust behind Stig-shaped shampoo bottles. James May, then, needs no introduction…

WORDS: Ben Smithurst

A

long with Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond, James May is front and centre on a show that’s ostensibly about cars, but is just as often a parody of masculinity, a daft sketch comedy and a pop-culture juggernaut. Known for his careful driving style – hence his ‘Captain Slow’ nickname – May might be the only person in history who is routinely urged to hurry up, while also having held the world land speed record for a production car (albeit briefly; his 417km/h mark in a Bugatti Veyron Super Sport was shortly thereafter bumped up slightly by the marque’s own engineers).

Generous and articulate, May is a counterpoint to Clarkson’s pantomime Thatcherism and Hammond’s enthused naiveté . While the unique chemistry of the three has hamstrung every attempt at a foreign version of the show, its hosts are well travelled, not least for Top Gear Festival. The roadshow has brought May to Australia several times – allowing Rocks, as it happens, to ask

16

May/June 2014

the most clichéd question of all: does he like it? And does he like us?

You have been to Australia several times. Obviously what we’re really after here is either obsequious flattery or incredibly insulting vitriol, but what do you think of the place?

Well, when I think of Australia the first thing I think of is heat, and the second thing is vastness, because I’ve done a bit of driving around in the middle of it and so on. Australia is a very, very long way away – it’s as far away as you can be from us – but it’s weirdly still a very long way from anywhere else. I mean, isn’t Perth the most remote city in the world?

Or something daft like that?

It is something like that.

I can’t think of anything particularly insulting about Australians, and at any rate I’m not sure they’re that different from us. There are a lot of Australians here in London telling us how brilliant Australia is anyway, so we’re well up to date. Or

INORE

“AUSTRALIA IS A VERY, VERY LONG WAY AWAY FROM US, BUT IT’S WEIRDLY STILL A VERY LONG WAY FROM ANYWHERE ELSE.”

r can be Top Gea arly every e seen in nof the world, country ns, repeats and g ru with re-series all runninst a new ently on at lea concurr K TV stations three U y one time. at an

May/June 2014

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INORE

complaining about the bloody weather. What do you want us to do about it? We can’t move our island.

It’s because of the weather that we’re so bloody productive. When the weather is crap you stay inside and you invent a steam engine, whereas in Australia when the weather’s good you just stay outside and have barbecues all the time.

Driving very fast in supercars is quite dangerous, even if your nickname is Captain Slow. Have you ever seen your life flash before your eyes in that clichéd way?

The only time it really did, weirdly, wasn’t in a car. It was when we were doing our Botswana special – this is quite a few years ago now. We stopped for the night and had to mend Hammond’s car, ‘Oliver’, the stupid little Opel thing he had, and I was helping him do it. We’d set up a campsite in a big clearing in the woods, and no more than 100 metres away was another clearing where we’d set up a sort of temporary garage where Hammond’s car was and all seven of us were working on it. And the guys who’d set up the clearing for us had said: “When you go from one clearing to another, don’t go through the woods because there could be wild animals in it. Go down to the road” – and I’m talking a gravel track – “and walk along the road and then walk up to the other clearing.” And I’d been doing that, but I kept having to go backward and forward to get a torch or more batteries, and after I’d done it about half a dozen times I thought, ‘Oh, bollocks to this, I’ll just walk through the woods.’ So I set off through the woods and I could see the lights of the other clearing and Hammond was working on the Opel and I was on the way through and something very big and very heavy came towards me in the darkness of this wood. And I mean, I can remember, I have never felt a hit of adrenaline like it – it was like somebody picking me up by the belt of my trousers and throwing me out of this forest. I didn’t know I could run like that! I went past Richard Hammond who was lying on his back

underneath Oliver so fast that I actually went straight past into the woods on the other side before I could stop and turn around and come back.

I never saw whatever this thing was, I just heard this doof-doof-doof-doof as it came towards me and I turned into a primitive man fleeing the monster. It was incredible.

ave been There h s. The first ig o three Sty McCarthy whwn r o was Perblack and is kn. ll wore a The Black Stig first as he red on t f the a e p p a He des o 22 episcoh in 2002. relaun

My word! I thought you were going to say it was Jeremy Clarkson.

No, it was even bigger and uglier than that in the darkness!

Would you prefer to be trapped, say, in a lift for a day with Jeremy, or in a garden shed for two with Hammond?

Oh! What a good question. So it’s a lift for one day with Jeremy or a very small shed with Richard. I think I’d go for the shed. Presumably there would be a few tools and things in the shed if it’s a proper shed, and Hammond is quite resourceful, so I think that we could find a way to entertain ourselves playing ludicrous games while we were

stuck. If you were stuck in a lift with Jeremy he’d start saying, “Oh, I can say all the words from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”; and he’d actually do it, and I’ve seen him do it.

There’s only so many times you can go through that particular film.

Well, yeah. Not for him.

Have you ever used your Captain Slow guise to argue your way out of a speeding fine?

Well, no. To be honest, I haven’t been caught for speeding since 1994. And it’s not actually because I necessarily drive slowly all the time. I think, and I know this happens in Australia as well – you were the first to have speed cameras – but a lot of motoring journalists bleat on about speed and how unfair it is and how everybody is out to get them, but if you use your brain a bit you can work out when to go fast and when not to. It’s not that difficult. In 90 per cent of cases if you’re caught speeding it’s your own look out. There are a few devious tricks with mobile cameras and speed cameras at the top of hills where May/June 2014

19

INORE you’ve got to go fast to go past the lorry, and I accept that that happens, but generally speaking it’s a sort of moral code: you don’t drive fast through the town but you can go like a bastard through the sticks.

Is Jeremy’s anger at excessive OH&S genuinely as deeply felt as he expresses it on the show?

Well, yes, he does go on about it a bit.

I have a slightly more pragmatic view of health and safety, which is that common sense health and safety is a good thing and has been going on for a long time. The problem is that it has been turned into a sort of career in its own right. For the same reason that double-glazing salesmen look for rotten window frames, OH&S people look for things to produce OH&S documentation about. But there is a culture in England where people moan about occupational health and safety while they bravely write a newspaper article about it. You never hear people who are actually doing something dangerous moaning about it. High-rise window washers aren’t complaining

“YOU DON’T DRIVE FAST THROUGH THE TOWN BUT YOU CAN GO LIKE A BASTARD THROUGH THE STICKS.” about it, and nor would I be. I’d want a parachute and 50 ropes and a hard hat and everything. Who wouldn’t?

You’re very approachable on the show. Does that come at a price of being constantly approached by anoraks who want to discuss aspect ratios in the pub?

People don’t really want to talk about aspect ratios. The worst thing that can happen as the presenter of a motoring show is that you go to the pub and you run into someone who wants to talk about cars. Because, as we know, those sort of people can be very dull [laughs]. But most normal members of the public can be very civil really. They

LEGO HOUSE In 2009, Top Gear presenter James May built the world’s first full-size Lego house that no one wanted.

The house had a working toilet, a hot shower and a very uncomfortable bed.

It was made using 3.3 million blocks and it took about 1000 volunteers to build the six-metre abode in a vineyard in Surrey, in the UK. The vineyard needed the land back to harvest grapes, and plans for Legoland to move it to its theme park fell through because the transport costs were too high, they said.

It was put on ebay but, sadly, no one bought it, so the plastic bricks were donated to charity once the house was, much to May’s dismay, demolished.

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May/June 2014

might want a photograph or want you to sign something or to ask you something about Jeremy or Richard. It’s part of the job, really. I don’t think you can moan about it. I very rarely get cornered by people who want to talk about aspect ratios, but I can spot them and I have several evasion tactics that I can deploy, including screaming and running from the room.

What’s the oddest place you’ve been recognised in? Top Gear is after all, one of the world’s most internationally exported and watched programs.

It is sometimes odd, because I forget that we’re on telly and that we’re quite well known. But then you have a moment, like when we were driving through Iraq and we were in the middle of nowhere – it was the Iraq equivalent of the Copley Roadhouse up in the Flinders Rangers – and we stopped at what wasn’t even a shop, it was more of a roadside store. Very, very Middle Eastern and very old fashioned. And the bloke behind the counter said, “Oh, you’re the blokes from Top Gear.” How do you know? You haven’t even got a television. But he did.

Do you like it out in the Outback?

Yes I do. I think it’s great. But it’s quite draining. Why? Do you dislike it?

Yes. It’s hot and dusty and flat and full of murderers and the deflated looking corpses of dead cattle.

Yes, there is quite a bit of that. But if you live in Hammersmith, which is sort of full of people just doing their gardens and having a curry, then it’s quite exciting to go and see some murderers and some deflated dead cattle. And dust.

Top Gear: The Complete Series 20 is out now on DVD (BBC)

INORE ORIGIN DATES

, MAY 28 GAME 1: BRISBANE E 18 N GAME 2: SYDNEY, JU LY 9 , JU GAME 3: BRISBANE

F O H T Y M THE

A L S N E E QU 22

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INORE

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May/June 2014

23

INORE GREG INGLIS: INFURIATINGLY GOOD AT EVERYTHING

“EVERYONE IS WAITING for us to fall over, and there is going to be a day that happens. But hopefully it’s not this year.’’

So said Queensland State of Origin captain, Cameron Smith. In 2010.

You could have reprinted that quote unchanged every year since, as the Maroons continued a now eight-year run of series victories. When they last lost, in 2005, New South Wales halfback Mitchell Pearce was a spotty 15-year-old. And yet the greatest rugby league contest in the world continues to be, well, not a contest.

What makes Queensland so good? Here’s one reason – when Rocks contacted the normally loquacious former Maroons prop Steve Price for his thoughts, he declined, saying any insights always ended up as motivation pasted on the wall of [a losing] Blues dressing-room. So while they’re still searching for the answers, Rocks examined nine modern Origin maxims to find out why the Maroons keep giving New South Wales the blues.

MAL DIDN’T WIN ANY TITLES AS COACH OF THE RAIDERS. HE LOST EVERY GAME COACHING PAPUA NEW GUINEA AT THE WORLD CUP.

24

May/June 2014

MYTH 1.

ORIGIN MEANS MORE TO QUEENSLAND As The Guardian’s Paul Connolly put it last year: “You would have figured that some time in the past eight years, the seemingly insatiable Queenslanders would have dropped the fork, clutched at their chest, burped long and loud, and excused themselves from the feast in order to call the paramedics.’’

Everyone remembers the moment that gifted immortality to Billy Moore – game two, 1995, bellowing ‘Queenslander!’ as his troops ran out for the second half. It seemed to typify their absolute determination to smash New South Wales at every opportunity. “Gary Larson and I thought we needed something special,’’ he explained to reporters afterwards. And if there is a dash

more passion up north, then the history books would explain why.

Before the modern-day Origin rules were introduced in 1982, New South Wales could and did claim all the best Queenslanders who had migrated from the Brisbane premiership to Sydney, leaving a lasting sense of injustice. And even when the playing field was levelled – at the instigation of Maroons administrator Ron McAuliffe – you couldn’t accuse New South Wales of being early-adopters, with their first home games played before half-empty stadia, while legions of shouty Queensland loyalists rammed Lang Park.

VERDICT: TRUE

MYTH 2.

BIG MAL IS A LUCKY IDIOT WHO INHERITED THE CLIPBOARD AT THE RIGHT TIME – ANYONE COULD COACH THE MAROONS Mal Meninga didn’t win any premierships coaching the Raiders. He didn’t win a single game at the World Cup coaching Papua New Guinea. But he’s won a hell of a lot of Origin games coaching Queensland – begging the question whether anyone in a purple tracksuit could have done the same.

But that would ignore how Meninga has cleverly connected this generation of players with Origin history; focused on meticulous detail; surrounded himself with good people; and has perfect preparation. And yes, okay, delivered the odd good speech.

“He seems to push the right buttons every time,’’ Queensland lock Ashley Harrison explained. “It’s one of the things he’s very, very good at.’’ Or as Sam Thaiday put it: “Everything he says is gold to us.’’

Kiwi coaching legend Graham Lowe remains the only non-Australian to coach a State of Origin team, having beaten lifethreatening blood clots to coach the Maroons from a bath chair to a 2-1 series victory in 1991 (although he did lose the 1992 series 2-1 to a Phil Gould-coached Blues team). He tells Rocks that actually, coaching ability doesn’t matter on this stage – the players are already highly-trained, highly-skilled athletes.

“I can’t comment on whether Mal is a good coach or an indifferent one,’’ he explains, “but that’s not what’s needed – what is needed is leadership. And Mal has got that in spades. He is probably the best leader the game has ever seen.’’

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VERDICT: FALSE

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INORE SAM THAIDAY: BORN IN NSW – UNLIKE STERLO

MYTH 3: QUEENSLAND PINCH ALL THE PLAYERS THEY WANT ANYWAY Well, they did field six born-outside-thestate-boundaries in their 2008 team, but the rules actually aren’t about where you first drew breath, but where you played your first football after the age of 16; sort of explaining why Kempsey-raised Greg Inglis can wear maroon, not blue (actually, that one’s still a bit suspect). Not that this has been calmly accepted by frothing former Blues players like Garry Jack (“If Queensland can rort the system they will. It isn’t Queensland – it’s a Rest of the World side’’); Benny Elias (“They are thieves in the night. And they blatantly do it in front of our faces’’); or Steve ‘Blocker’ Roach (“If you go into their air space you are a Queenslander”). All this rather handily ignores that the Blues have fielded such genuine New South Welshmen as James McManus (born Scotland), John Hopoate (Tonga), Elias himself (Lebanon) and the great Peter Sterling (um, Toowoomba, Queensland). Yes, says Lowe, “It’s no excuse, but New South Wales has always done it too.”

VERDICT: TRUE But mitigated by New South Wales (less successfully) doing the same.

MYTH 4: ABORIGINAL PLAYERS GET A BETTER GO UP NORTH

“IT SEEMS AS IF THE MAROONS DO SOMETHING AND NSW TRIES TO BETTER IT – IT’S SO REACTIONARY.”

And anyway, players like Inglis want to play for Queensland. A difficult issue this, but perhaps they simply have a more enlightened attitude to players of colour – helped no doubt by having a coach with South Sea Island antecedents, and senior players such as Thurston (Aboriginal) and Sam Thaiday (Torres Strait Islander). The longstanding dichotomy between Nathan Blacklock’s insatiable appetite for scoring tries and his exclusion from the Blues team, was enough for the admittedly not always rational Anthony Mundine to draw some conclusions.

More concretely, there was the ‘Joey’ incident in 2010 when Timana Tahu walked out of camp on the eve of Origin Two after Johns made a racist comment about Inglis.

Hard to suggest after that that GI had made the wrong choice.

VERDICT: MAYBE 26

May/June 2014

MYTH 5: QUEENSLAND PICKS AND STICKS, NEW SOUTH WALES CONSTANTLY TINKERS Jonathan Thurston has played 27 successive Origin matches. Queensland have used just 30 debutants since game one of the 2005 series, the last time they lost. New South Wales have selected 58 new players in that same time.

“Queensland know there is no secret,’’ offers Lowe, “It’s just the right people, the right structure, the right plans. But New South Wales are always trying to reinvent it every year, or even every game. They just need to know what works for them and what doesn’t.

It seems as if Queensland does something, and New South Wales tries to better it – it is so reactionary. Queensland just go out and do it their way.’’ If you think Lowe might be wrong, consider the temporary Messianic status attached to Todd Carney, Jarrod Mullen and Mitchell Pearce…

VERDICT: TRUE

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INORE

MYTH 6: UNTIL CAMERON SMITH FINALLY RETIRES, NEW SOUTH WALES IS SCREWED The theory that New South Wales won’t win until Cameron Smith swaps his boots for dress shoes may hold more weight in Sydney than Brisbane. Andrew Johns says he looks like “an air conditioner salesman who you might bump into inside the local TAB.” But Johns also declares him just about the best player he’s seen. Smith, then, doesn’t look like a footballer – club teammates dubbed him ‘the Accountant’, for his physique – but he understands the

BLUES PROP ANDREW FIFITA: LOVES PIES, HATES LOSING

“IT’S A HOAX. IF YOU WANT AN ADVANTAGE OVER YOUR OPPONENT, YOU BLUFF HOWEVER YOU CAN, AND THE BLUES HAVE FALLEN FOR IT.”

game. And as part of the Smith, Cronk, Slater axis, he seems unbeatable. Yet, says Lowe, the focus on Smith is typical. “New South Wales seems to look to one player each year who is supposedly going to be their answer,” says Lowe, “But it’s a team game. Smith is just an important piece in Mal’s puzzle.’’

VERDICT: FALSE MYTH 7. THE BLUES WORRY TOO MUCH ABOUT THEIR OPPOSITION “It’s a hoax,’’ sports psychologist Wayne Goldsmith once told The Sydney Morning Herald. “If you want an advantage over your opponent, you bluff however you can… and the Blues, from the selectors down, have fallen for it. Mal Meninga and others are so good at this growing-a-foot-taller thing. But it’s rubbish.’’

VERDICT: TRUE MYTH 8. QUEENSLAND IS DOMINANT, SURE, BUT NEW SOUTH WALES IS UNLUCKY NOT TO HAVE WON THE ODD SERIES New South Wales often gripes about refereeing blunders and awkwardly-bouncing balls. But over time, according to Lowe, if it truly was down to fickle fate, surely the Blues would have had a turn by now? “Maybe one team gets the rub of the green more than others, and some could call it luck, but one thing that cannot be denied is I’ve never come across anyone in the Queensland camp who doesn’t totally and thoroughly believe they will win it.’’

VERDICT: MAYBE MYTH 9. QUEENSLAND JUST KNOWS IT’S GOING TO WIN? By now the Maroons should be under huge pressure to match past deeds, but they never look stressed. Lowe credits Meninga with knowing ‘where the presure valve is.’ “There will be key players who get injured in the lead up and NSW will wet themselves at what great news it is,’’ Lowe snipes, “But it’s like what is bred into the All Blacks in New Zealand – on many occasions, they have won the game before they get on the bus.’’

VERDICT: TRUE

28

May/June 2014

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INORE

May/June 2014

31

INORE

C

rossFit might be a fitness craze – but it’s one that’s worth your attention. From inauspicious beginnings in former gymnast Greg Glassman’s Santa Cruz garage in the 1970s, the high-intensity training program is now worldwide … and for good reason. Take Australian CrossFit champion Chad MacKay’s (above) example. Introduced to the sport (yes, sport) in 2009, within three years Chad went from traditional gym user to international CrossFit competitor.

The 1.85-metre, 100-kilogram personal trainer and gym owner is currently Australia’s top ranked CrossFit athlete and 2013’s Fittest Man In The World. Between running the show at his three New South Wales gyms (in North Sydney, Artarmon and Kincumber) Chad sits casually and talks about how to get into his sport, backstage happenings at the World CrossFit games and the importance of trying not to grunt too much. Next summer it could be you! Scoff protein powder! Burn all your shirts! Grate cheese on your midriff!

THE HISTORY OF EXERCISE A slightly whiffy timeline of perspiration 32

May/June March/April 2014 2014

HOW DID YOU START?

I started training CrossFit at the gym where I was working – my boss introduced me to a workout called ‘Cindy’. It’s a 20-minute workout where you do five pull-ups, 10 push-ups, 15 air squats… and he suggested that I do it for 10 minutes and see how many rounds I got. That was my first taste.

HOW MANY ROUNDS DID YOU GET THROUGH?

About four, which I thought was a fairly good score. And then I repeated the workout the next week and I got a better score. From that point on, just from the competitive nature of how the sport is designed, I was hooked.

HOW DOES CROSSFIT WORK AS A SPORT?

The sport has developed over the past 12 years. It started in California at their original CrossFit Games, where anyone could just turn up on the day and do a random workout that was pulled out of a hopper! They threw a whole bunch of workouts in there and they picked out three or four over three days and that’s how it all came about.

But now there’s a whole process; it’s a worldwide competition. You have to make the top 50 athletes in your

2500 BC Ancient Greeks invent the job of paidotrobe, similar to a modern fitness trainer, and halteres: semi-circular stone rock dumbells.

region, which is held in 16 different locations in the world. Then you’ve got to come top three in your region to compete in the CrossFit games over in the United States.

DOES COMPETITION STILL FOLLOW THE SAME ‘RANDOM DRAW’ FORMAT?

No. ESPN is involved now, so they’ve got to design the workout so that the athletes take centre stage and the workout doesn’t. They want to showcase what the athletes can do rather than having the event take over.

FOR AVERAGE CROSSFIT CLASSES, WHAT IS THE PHILOSOPHY?

Every class involves a specific warm-up, activation and mobility.

Then we’ll do a strength component, then we’ll do our met-com, which is our conditioning piece, we’ll do some midline or trunk stability work and then finish off with a stretch. So let’s say we might squat on a Monday and a Wednesday, press on a Tuesday and a Friday and then we might do pulling movements on the others days. And the workout each day is different.

65 BC Roman philosopher/linguist/ politician Cicero states, “It is exercise alone that supports the spirits, and keeps the mind in vigor.” He was later decapitated.

INORE

IS THERE MUCH SLEDGING?

I’ve never experienced any sledging.

It’s friendly – after the other athletes do their event, they’ll come back and we’ll have a chat about how the workout was; can they suggest anything? Say there is a rope climb/ sled push, they’ll say, “Look, don’t wear your gloves, it was too slippery out there,” or, “When you’re pushing the sled you should have a pair of cleats on.” We’re all in it together. No one’s ever slagged off my tuck shop arms, haha!

HOW DO I PICK A GYM?

Find one that’s close to your home – there might be two or three.

Stronger gyms will always stay around, and there are always different levels of class experience and community. You need coaches that are looking at your technique and making sure you’re safe throughout the movements. And you want to have fun while you’re in class. So try a few.

WHAT’S THE CROSSFIT STANCE ON THOSE ‘SHIRTS’ THAT SUPER BODYBUILDERS WEAR THAT ARE LIKE THREE BITS OF STRING?

Haha! If they’re comfortable wearing their string singlet then they should be able to wear their string singlet.

... AND ABOUT GRUNTING AND DROPPING WEIGHTS? Well, everybody’s got their own style. Sometimes when I’m working out I might get a few grunts and take a bit of aggression out on the

Dark and middle ages Almost nobody is fit, except knights, ninjas and assorted tribesmen.

Dysentery effective for weight loss.

barbell. But grunting as soon as you start? I think that’s a no-no. Those are noises you don’t want to hear.

HOW MANY PUSH-UPS CAN YOU DO?

About 80 in a row. But it’s taken five years to get to that.

DO YOU IMPRESS LADIES

BY LETTING ONE SIT ON YOUR BACK AS YOU DO PUSH-UPS ON A BAR? Not yet.

FINALLY: HOW OFTEN ARE YOU SHIRTLESS?

I am sometimes without a shirt.

Although I’m not too sure whether it’s appropriate to cruise around without a shirt on at all times.

1830s The Liverpool Rubber company invents athletic shoes with canvas uppers and rubber soles. Confusingly, they’re nicknamed ‘plimsols’, after the waterline painted on a ship’s hull.

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INORE

Illustration by Rob Cowan at illustrationroom.com.au.

FIVE STEP CROSSFIT AT-HOME EXERCISE PROGRAM “The real improvements will come when you’re doing all your strength work, but until then, these body weight movements are great,” says Chad. “Aim to do two rounds of this circuit, as fast as you can, but be aware of maintaining proper technique and trying to move as efficiently as possible. It’s easy to pick up bad habits when you’re training on your own; you naturally tend to try to find an easier way, which will often just be poorer technique.” When you’re ready, try training at an affiliated CrossFit gym.

Try to do this circuit twice.

1892 Charles Atlas born. When a bully kicks sand in the 44kg weakling’s face at the beach, he invents weightlifting (again), and becomes ‘the world’s most perfectly developed man.’

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1960–1970 Americans buy nine million ‘bullworkers’ (chest expanders).

1977 American Jim Fixx popularises jogging with his million-selling book The Complete Book Of Running.

Dies seven years later, aged 52, of a heart attack after jogging.

INORE movement, then jump and clap your hands overhead. Your feet have to come off the ground as you clap. It’s like an air squat and a push-up combined in one.

Do: 10 4. NORMAL SIT-UPS Technique: Lay flat on your back with your arms extended overhead laying flat on the floor. Swing your arms through to come up and touch the shoelaces. It doesn’t have to be strict; you can bounce yourself up and use the momentum from the upper body to help out your abs to get to an upright position. If you’re not strong enough to sit up all the way then you can also fix your feet beneath something to help – that’s fine.

Do: 15 2. PUSH-UPS

1. AIR SQUAT

Technique: Standing with your feet about shoulder width apart, squat down to below parallel – that’s where the hip crease goes below the knees – and then standing up back tall to full extension. Focus on keeping the chest nice and vertical, and then when you stand you want to drive from the heels. Your feet stay fixed on the ground the whole time.

Do: 20 1982 Jane Fonda releases her eponymous workout video, which will sell 17 million and lead to countless awkward motherexercising-in-leotard moments.

Technique: Feet together, arms straight out to start with and make sure you get the full range of movement; you want the nipple line to touch the floor. Try and stay rigid through the midline, which means squeezing your butt and squeezing your knees straight and then pressing back up tall. Concentrate on maintaining that solid, straight ‘plank’ body line.

Do: 5 3. BURPEES

Technique: Start in a standing position and then jump your feet back, chest goes to the ground and lay flat on the floor. Then press yourself up onto your feet in one constant

2001 Women take up poledancing for fitness.

Feminists everywhere facepalm.

5. RUN

Technique: We don’t have any equipment so to finish the circuit do a 200-metre jog. Concentrate on staying light on your toes, and only strike the ground with the ball of your foot; it shouldn’t be heel-toe. Relax your upper body and try to maintain a relaxed breathing pattern.

Chad is available for training at crossfitactive.com.au and chadmackay.com.au

2005 Five years after founding CrossFit, Inc., inventor Greg Glassman licenses his thirteenth franchise.

Today there are more than 7200 affiliated gyms worldwide.

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THROUGH THE

HEART WORDS: MICHELLE HESPE

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It’s been 10 years since The Ghan made its inaugural journey through the heart of Australia from Adelaide to Darwin. It’s an experience in itself, but you can also pack in loads of adventure en route.

AS DEPARTURE time closes in, the

station platform slowly fills with a mass of people; suitcases, cameras and tickets in hand. One by one, the figures disappear, slipping in through the doorways of the 34 stationary carriages. Inside The Ghan, people squeeze by one another to find their allotted cabins, many cracking jokes about feeling like a character in Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express.

It’s a fair call. But this isn’t an Agatha Christie novel – if anything, we’re in Wolf Creek country – and this certainly ain’t the Orient Express. The Ghan’s name comes from the fact that its corridor was once dubbed ‘The Afghan Express’, after the camel trains that made their way through Central Australia. Which is probably not much comfort to the ghosts of superceded Afghan cameleers, but it is a nice nod to our colourful Outback history.

There’s a seated section at one end of the train, followed by single berth rooms. Then there’s Gold suites, which sleep two and have their own ensuite; followed by the fancy Platinum abodes that feature larger bathrooms, double beds and a lounge/ sitting room. In between the cabins are three bar and restaurant carriages for dining and indulging in a wide offering of beverages, all included in the ticket price for Gold and Platinum class passengers.

Luggage safely stowed and quarters inspected, people trickle in from the cabins to the bars, to chat with fellow travellers and toast The Ghan’s tenth birthday. Wine is poured, beers are cracked and guests sit back to clink glasses of bubbly, while tea, coffee and snacks are prepped. The adventure ahead is spread along a 2,979-kilometre track from the bottom to the top end of Australia. For many, being aboard the train is a rite of passage – a dream come true. One thing’s for sure – everyone’s fired up

THE GHAN’S BIRTHDAY CAKE

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BY CAMELS

JAMES REYNE: WHEN NOT IN SPAIN, PLAYS MAINLY ON THE TRAIN

GREAT SOUTHERN RAIL SHOT SOME EXTRA FUN INTO THE NIGHT, LETTING OFF A SPECTACULAR DISPLAY OF FIREWORKS.

for the experience of a lifetime on the celebratory trip. James Reyne is even aboard, armed with his guitar and an Aussie Crawl request set that’s sure to light up the Outback.

After a photo of the 180 passengers and 30 staff, once more gathered on the station platform, the whistle blows and the train lurches into action. There are cheers from the bar and glasses are raised once more. It won’t be the last time on the inspiring 48-hour journey.

There’s a service desk on board to plan activities if guests haven’t already locked in their itinerary, and with stops of a few hours in both Katherine and Alice Springs, everyone is keen to fit in some Central Australian adventures. Passengers can check out galleries and famous watering holes, or squeeze in a game of lawn bowls in either town. If they’re after more adventure, depending on the season, they can take a chopper ride over the Simpson Gap near Alice, go for a trek or jump aboard a high-speed boat for a whizz around Katherine Gorge. Or go canoeing. Or ride a camel through the Outback in Alice. After all, The Ghan is your oyster.

FIREWORKS, STORMS & REYNE

RESIDENTS OF PIMBA JOIN THE GHAN TRAVELLERS FOR FIREWORKS

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It’s not every day the lead man from Aussie Crawl is on board The Ghan. For the anniversary, organisers arranged an intimate concert in the tiny settlement of Pimba – which, according to the last census, has a grand total of around 50 residents. Passengers disembarked into the red desert, while the township gathered and Reyne hopped off with his guitar.

On the back of a truck, beneath a brewing storm, he dished out his classics with

UNLEASHED Darwin Katherine

Alice Springs

Adelaide

“DOES SUN CONTRIBUTE TO AGING? ASK ME WHEN I’M 21”

as much passion as ever – from ‘Reckless’ and ‘Downhearted’ to ‘The Boys Light Up’.

Behind the singer and his flatbed, the serpentine carriages of The Ghan petered off into a mirage-like postcard of Australia’s Red Centre, the sinking sun shooting muted rays through thick swathes of bruised and blackened clouds.

Show over, Great Southern Rail blasted some extra fun into the night, letting off a spectacular display of fireworks. As the sky lit up and the band packed up, the residents of Pimba and The Ghan passengers whooped at the huge expanse of the Milky Way, all the more aweinspiring with the spectacle of lights bursting into and falling from it.

GORGING ON KATHERINE As the train pulled into the next stop – Katherine, one thing was abundantly clear: the rain had made its presence heavily felt and the ‘wet season’ had begun. It served mostly to ramp up the technicolour hues of the landscape, transforming it into a lysergic palette of red dust carpet peppered with the greenest of green swatches – shrubs, trees, and low bushland as bright as a Dulux colour chart.

At this time of year, the desert grasses could easily pass for ’70s psychedelic shag pile rugs, and if you hit town at the right time (the weather is the ultimate dictator of activities here) you can fit in a hi-fi speedboat ride around Katherine Gorge.

There are 13 gorges in all, but the three main ones can be reached in succession if there is the right amount of rain: just

IT’S CAMEL TOWN. OR ALICE SPRINGS

LUNCHES ON THE GHAN GIVE STATIONARY RESTAURANTS A RUN FOR THEIR MONEY.

enough to fill them up, but not enough to block the roads leading in to them.

It’s a small window of opportunity, but if you happen to strike the right deal with Mother Nature, the gorges will be yours for the taking – creating memories as enduring as the Kimberley itself. Their ancient rugged red walls stretch up into an endless blue sky; while waterfalls cascade into the Dreamtime scenes and legends below.

HUMP DAY IN ALICE Back aboard, passengers settle into threecourse lunches that would give many stationary restaurants across the country a run for their money. The fresh, classic dishes such as kangaroo, barramundi or chicken breast, with accompanying salads and side dishes, are all served up with fine wines (a focus on the top ones from South Australia) and then it’s snooze time, or bar time. The fact is that being on a train with 180 other

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4 BLOCKS 4 WEEKS 2004 PRICES! EXCITING OPPORTUNITY TO PURCHASE IN AIRLIE BEACH AT PRE BOOM PRICES

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UNLEASHED THERE ARE 13 GORGES IN ALL, BUT THE THREE MAIN ONES CAN BE REACHED IN SUCCESSION IF THERE IS THE RIGHT AMOUNT OF RAIN TO FILL THEM UP, BUT NOT ENOUGH TO BLOCK ACCESS ROADS. people and only a small cabin to relax in, it’s easy to fall into a rhythm of sleeping, watching the world go by, eating, drinking, and starting all over. So after a party or a sound sleep, the next stop is Alice Springs.

And what better way to celebrate The Ghan and Alice than on a camel?

Camels were The Ghan before The Ghan.

These big, friendly, hardy humped beasts carted the millions of sleepers that The Ghan now travels along, out into the middle of nowhere to make the train route through the heart of Australia possible. These days, with Pyndan Camel Tracks, passengers can climb aboard a 450–600 kilogram animal, that continually and noisily regurgitates its food, and take a leisurely cruise through the back streets of Alice (read: red dirt valleys, slopes and gorges spotted with eye-achingly bright desert greenery). And here’s a tip: it’s a myth that camels spit and are generally nasty.

As they regurgitate their food, they have a problem keeping it all in their mouths, because they’re camels. So it comes out in sprays with affronting snorts and extended, burp-like grunts. But if you keep in the saddle and at a reasonable distance while patting your newfound friend, you can remain relatively free of newly puked flora in your face. Always a bonus, that.

THE LOWDOWN The Ghan

greatsouthernrail.com.au

Nitmiluk Tours

nitmiluktours.com.au

Pyndan Camel Tracks cameltracks.com

discovercentralaustralia.com

FULL MOON IN DARWIN It was 10 years ago that the people of Darwin and outskirts decided it would be a brilliant idea to greet the first trip that The Ghan made. With a conga line of their naked (and often worryingly hairy) bottoms.

So what could stand in the way of a revival a decade (and several thickets more hair) later? Just the rain, perhaps. But the residents were undaunted, and all still downed their dacks row-upon-row, to produce a coupe de grace – the final feather in the hat of the mighty Ghan.

The passengers loved it. So did news and social media channels. In fact, aboard the train, passengers greeted it with their own version of a bottoms up – from the comfort of the bar carriage.

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t’s midnight and the freeway leading from Ezeiza International Airport to downtown Buenos Aires is almost empty. Even so, I’m nervous as hell in the back of my cab.

As much as I try, I can’t seem to concentrate on what my driver’s saying.

We’ve just changed lanes three times and he’s not even looking at the road.

After a quick glance forward, Sebastian, my driver, turns back to me and repeats, louder and slower this time, pausing between the letters: “A. C. D. C. A. C. D. C!” Then, taking both hands off the wheel and clasping them together in prayer, Sebastian looks to the roof and declares, “Thank you, Australia, thank you for AC/DC!” By the time we arrive at the swanky Faena Hotel in the old docklands suburb of Puerto Madero, Sebastian and I have turned the cab into a mobile karaoke bar. After changing a fistful of US dollars into pesos at nearly 40 per cent above the ‘official’ exchange rate, Sebastian bids me farewell and disappears into the traffic with ‘Highway to Hell’ blaring.

After checking in, I head for the bright lights. It’s 1am by the time I get to Avenida Corrientes in the downtown suburb of Congreso, but the crowds look more like Sydney on a sunny Saturday afternoon than post-midnight. The restaurants and cafés are full and the footpaths are jammed. The city’s Spanish heritage is alive and well.

Grabbing a plateful of empanadas to go from one of the city’s ubiquitous pizza bars, I pound the pavement, blowing on the hot meat-filled pastries. I know I should wait for them to cool, but they’re just too good. Welcome to Buenos Aires, where the restaurants don’t open until 9pm and even the cab drive from the airport turns into a party.

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Rock and roll in Buenos Aires and discover a city like no other.

WORDS & IMAGES: NATHAN DYER

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This image: thinkstockphotos.com.au

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Come and have a taste of the opulence, glamour and excitement of Monte Carlo right here at Vanuatu’s premier casino. The Grand Hotel & Casino is in the heart of town, with crystal chandeliers, gold leaf ceilings and meticulous attention to detail throughout, you’ll feel like you’re there, and best of all it’s at a price you can afford!

With Roulette tables starting with a minimum bet of only 100vt, as well as Blackjack, Baccarat and our newest game Texas Hold’em Bonus. Or just try your luck on any of our state of the art poker machines and have a chance of winning one of our many jackpots for as little as 1vt.

p +678 27344 hotel Lini Highway, Port Vila, Vanuatu e info@grandcasinovanuatu.com www.grandvanuatu.com

Bush Adventures!

BUSHMOB’S

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Bushmob run an alcohol and drug treatment house, Bush Adventure Therapy, and an Outreach and Multimedia program.

Would YOU be willing to act as a Bushmob patron? Or be willing to make financial contributions or donations? Get in touch!

For more information on Bushmob and its services visit www.bushmob.com.au

proudly

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CITY OF EXTREMES Known as ‘the Paris of Latin America’, Buenos Aires is all tree-lined boulevards, sprawling parks and monumental statues.

At its peak, around the start of the last century, Argentina was one of the richest countries on the planet. Then came two world wars and half a dozen military coups.

The money is now long gone. Home to nearly three million portenõs, as the locals are known, Buenos Aires is a city of extremes.

One of the best ways to take in this eclectic city is to jump on a small group tour with the hip young guides from Say Hueque. First stop: Recoleta, home to Buenos Aires’ rich and famous, alive and dead. Wander the leafy boulevards, dodge doggy dos on the pavement, then dive into the sprawling Cementerio de la Recoleta and get lost searching for the elusive tomb of Eva ‘Evita’ Perón (infamously played by Madonna in the biopic). Buried deep among the ‘streets’ of the towering mausoleums of the city’s elite families, the former first lady’s tomb attracts hundreds every day. Few are ardent Madonna fans.

Next, head downtown to check out the world’s widest street. More than 100 metres across, Avenida 9 de Julio takes up 20 lanes. On its western side, Teatro Colón is a salute to the city’s halcyon past. After that, get your shopping fix and relieve your wallet of some pesos at the hip bars and designer shops of Palermo. A riot of colourful street art and funky small bars, it’s the place to be seen.

After downing a dulce de leche icecream (caramelised sweetened milk flavour) cross the city to grungy La Boca, home of the famous Boca Juniors football club (alma mater of Diego Maradona) and birthplace of the tango.

Wandering the edgy, pastel streets, I learn that tango originated as a dance among male emigrants in the 1930s as they lined up outside the city’s bordellos. With all that testosterone there were plenty of brawls. But somehow fighting turned to dancing, because that’s apparently a thing that can happen outside of musicals, and tango was born. The bordello staff soon joined in, and tango evolved into what it is today. Grab a seat at one of La Boca’s lively alfresco cafés and catch a free show.

WINING AND DINING After La Boca, it’s time to do what portenõs do best: revel in eating and drinking. From cheap eats to five-star extravagance, Buenos Aires is a foodie’s delight. To capture a slice of the past and get a caffeine fix, I head to classic Café Tortoni on the grand Avenida de Mayo, where dapper waiters in tuxedos dish out strong coffee, and churros (Spanish doughnuts) and medialunas (croissantstyle pastries) to die for.

After that it’s time to find something more substantial. In a word: beef. Along with soccer, eating steak is a national obsession. The average Argentine consumes a colossal 70 kilograms of beef each year. Although traditional parrillas (steakhouses) are all over the joint, I’m keen to try the upper end, so I head for La Cabrera back in Palermo. It’s impossible to go past beef washed down with a bottle of local Malbec – and now I know why the Argentines are so proud of their cows.

CAFÉ TORTONI: FANS OF THE GODFATHER

THE TANGO ORIGINATED AS A DANCE AMONG MALE EMIGRANTS LINED UP OUTSIDE BORDELLOS IN THE 1930S. May/June 2014

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With a belly full of beef, it’s time to tango.

There are dozens of top-class shows in Buenos Aires, but I choose the up-market Rojo Tango in Puerto Madero, where the women are sizzling and the men are as sharp as razors, and where a dark-haired dancer named Carlos (obviously) steals the show. With a five-piece band filling the room with songs of lost love, the women in the room swoon with his rhythm. I, too, find myself transfixed as Carlos glides across the stage. When the lights finally come on, I stumble out onto the street, happy to be out of Carlos’ trance, and feel a bit odd. This never happens at Acca Dacca.

After tango the options are endless in a city that seems never to sleep. There are the milongas (dance halls where the real tango aficionados strut their stuff) or the more contemporary dance floors of Buenos Aires’ famous night clubs. More to my liking, though, is the city’s burgeoning small bar scene. I find a little bar with no apparent name and soon the drinks are flowing and the music throbbing.

If a day of eating, drinking and partying hasn’t convinced me of the Argentines’ passion for life, my next taxi drive certainly does. After introducing himself with a humble reference to the country’s great liberator, General San Martin, my driver, Martin, declares his three great loves. “I like football very much,” he says, turning to look at me. “And tango is my passion,” he adds, before pausing. “And women … women I love.”

I guffaw as Martin bursts into laughter.

But I must admit I’m a little disappointed AC/DC didn’t make the list.

This image: thinkstockphotos.com.au

TANGO TIME

I CHOOSE THE UP-MARKET ROJO TANGO IN PUERTO MADERO, WHERE THE WOMEN ARE SIZZLING, THE MEN ARE AS SHARP AS RAZORS AND A DARK-HAIRED DANCER STEALS THE SHOW. 46

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THE LOWDOWN Home Hotel Palermo Viejo homebuenosaires.com Faena Hotel Puerto Madero faenahotelanduniverse.com

CafĂŠ Tortoni cafetortoni.com.ar La Cabrera parrillalacabrera.com.ar

Rojo Tango rojotango.com Say Hueque tour sayhueque.com

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TIMOR-LESTE IS TRYING TO DUMP ITS ‘DANGEROUS WARTORN REP’ AND SHOW THE WORLD ITS TRUE POTENTIAL. WHICH MAKES IT KIND OF LIKE ASIA IN THE ’70S…

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COMING OF AGE

Once a war-torn country decimated by an Indonesian invasion and occupation, Timor-Leste is now a peaceful place proudly stepping into a grand new age…

WORDS: MICHELLE HESPE

oosters crow, dogs bark, and there are rustles in the thick jungle below. Sunlight spreads across a shoreline dotted with fisherman in ancient but sturdy canoes.

Bare feet crush flat the thick island grass above the waterline as a sea breeze ruffles two dozen heads of coal black hair. They move quickly and there’s some hollering and laughing now among the nimble pilgrims intent on reaching this morning’s nirvana – a rusty old swing set – first.

Dawn has broken on Atauro Island, Timor-Leste, and the kids have time to play before school. The swing set creaks into action and won’t stop for hours.

CAPTAIN NEYL ‘IMAGINE’

Largely hidden in the dense greenery beneath the Beloi Beach Hotel, the town village is springing to life. Adults head out to pluck corn, wheat and green vegetables from gardens that don’t need fences.

Everything, everywhere, just grows in abundance. Eggs are collected, fish is salted and hung to dry, water is pumped or poured from wells and tanks. Atauro Island hasn’t changed much in the past hundred years or so, although some of the houses are now made from tin, bricks or cement rather than thatched. The roads are being flattened in preparation for tarmac, which won’t come anytime soon, but other than that, people are living off the land as they always have, growing their

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own food, eating chickens, fish and some red meat – goat or beef – and just taking what they need from the land and sea to feed their family for another day.

Neyl, aka ‘Captain Imagine’, owns and runs the Beloi. He was born in Liquica, Timor-Leste, but left his country to study medical science in Australia, and then pathology in New Zealand. He came back 20 years later to work for the Ministry of Health as an advisor to the Vice Minister of Health. But what he really wanted to be doing was hospitality – with a sideline in fishing tours. So Neyl became Captain Imagine (“Anything is possible when you put your mind to it,” he says) and began renovating a dilapidated building constructed for the government during the Indonesian invasion. He now leases the building from the government.

The crumbling building already had a pathway and staircase leading up from the beach, and a sweeping road up from the village, a sprawling tiled balcony overlooking Atauro Island and eight rooms. Neyl’s loving refurbishment turned it into a welcoming boutique, hilltop hotel. “This,” he says, waving an arm to take in the sparkling ocean, the thick forest and the acre-upon-acre of wild land bursting with fresh fruit and vegetables, “is paradise”. His guests agree.

Neyl’s fishing operation – Fishing Timor Leste – consists of a couple of boats and five staff, meaning he can accommodate the Beloi’s entire guest list

IT’S EASY TO WILLOW AWAY DAYS IN TIMOR-LESTE

CAPTAIN IMAGINE ALSO TAKES GUESTS BACK TO THE DOOR OF THEIR HOTEL, AND THE BEST BIT IS, YOU DON’T HAVE TO EVEN CLIMB OUT OF THE BOAT – HIS BOYS JUST HITCH IT TO THE BACK OF A UTE.

A LOCAL THATCH HOME IN TIMOR-LESTE

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on a trip; the hotel can accommodate 16.

Heading off from Dili in the dark before the sun has risen, guests can experience a sunrise and see fishing boats coming in or departing, as they leave the dock.

In rough seas it can take eight hours to reach Atauro, but when it’s still, you can go from the busy city of Dili to the quiet of Atauro (punctuated by some local music, the odd radio and the sound of chickens) in around an hour. En route, guests can do some deep sea fishing, jump overboard to snorkel in the lukewarm water, or take scuba equipment out to explore some of the deeper chasms. There is no shortage of beautiful underwater vistas in Timor-Leste: the place is teaming with a psychedelic array of fish; dolphins frolic around the boats; and if you’re lucky, you might get to see some elusive round-nosed pilot whales. They look like a dolphin from a distance, but their thicker figure – and pug face – gives them away.

When the captain returns guests to the hotel, the best bit is that they needn’t even climb out of the boat. His staff simply hitches it to the back of a ute and off they drive through Dili, guests riding high in a trailered fishing boat like an ad hoc parade float, waving to the locals.

’70s, before western development took a hold. The footpaths are being haphazardly dug up (teenage hopscotch skills are handy during a stroll) as some kind of pot shot infrastructure is established, and store owners giggle, smile and practically hide or run away rather rather than push you to buy anything. Like most Asian cities, however, the roads are a free-for-all and anything goes. You can get plenty of those ‘six family members plus chook, cow and bed on a moped’ photos here.

The new era has brought a wide offering of wonderful accommodation in

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City-wise, Timor-Leste is still in that awkward teenage state where she’s not yet grown up into a confident Asian metropolis, but is certainly no longer a child. It’s been to hell and back with the Indonesian invasion and occupation, (which started in 1975 and ended in 1999) and since then, has been trying to dump its dangerous war-torn rep to show the world its true potential. Which makes Timor kind of like much of Asia in the

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and around Dili. Many smaller hotels are dotted along the beach below the famous Christo Rei statue (like a smaller version of Rio’s Christ the Redeemer), but if you want to be in town, there are three hotels that offer completely different experiences.

The Discovery Inn, owned by local businessman and entrepreneur Sakib Awan is a true oasis in the centre of downtown Dili. It boasts lush tropical

AN AERIAL VIEW OF DILI

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SIPPING ON A GLASS OF CHAMPAGNE IS A FINE WAY TO TAKE IN THINGS TIMOR HAS ALWAYS HAD GOING FOR HER – THE OCEAN, JUNGLE AND THE LOCALS. gardens, a deck bar with slowly rotating wooden fans and one of the finest restaurants in town. It’s where dignitaries, business people and locals with big dreams gather to jawbone over a lot of the ideas for Timor-Leste’s redevelopment.

An elegant tiled entrance hallway leads to rooms that are large, stylish and thoughtfully decorated with handmade local artworks and fabrics, and air conditioned rooms with all the mod cons give guests a welcome reprieve from the often-relentless equatorial humidity.

The restaurant, called Diya, dishes up wonderful Indian and Timorese cuisine, and if you haven’t had a prawn curry in Timor, this is the place to indulge. And Sakib, who spends half of every year in Paris, is a lover of both red and white, so the wine list is sure to impress.

Hotel Timor, which is also in the middle of town but closer to the central business hub, is a grand hotel with a sweeping entrance that is favoured by the Portuguese. Its high-end suites are world-class, with sophisticated, English gentry-style elegance. Guests can choose rooms with a separate lounge and kitchen area, and the hotel has a pool with serene, shaded seating areas – a bonus in a country that often hits 40 degrees.

Timor Plaza Hotel is the latest addition to the three prime hotels, and it’s different again; it’s the modern addition that TimorLeste needs as development momentum continues to build. Everything about the hotel is modern, yet with traditional flourishes – artworks and colour palettes – and the large, light-filled rooms would not be out of place in Sydney or Bangkok.

The hotel is also above a thriving mall, where the nation’s first takeaway chain has just opened its doors – Burger King.

If that’s not your thing, dip into the hotel’s enormous modern restaurant –

that accommodates large conferences and parties – with incredible views panning across all of Dili. Keep an eye on the catch of the day, as you could score freshly hauled-in salmon, beautifully plated alongside local vegetables and salad.

On the beach strip beneath Cristo Rei, there’s a string of great bars where you can get to know the locals – many of them expats. Australian expat, Taululi Valley Golf Club owner and local character, Phil Parkes, settled here a decade ago with his Timorese wife, and while they don’t yet boast nine holes, they have a driving range and kid’s mini putt. There’s also a lovely upstairs balcony bar across from the beach, and Harleys for hire if you fancy cruising around Timor.

Down the road is another gem owned and operated by an Aussie couple called Dili Beach Hotel. It’s not unusual to find a gathering of people having sundowners here while chilling out and listening to music. Heading further back into Dili is a new restaurant that has the town talking – and rightly so. With tables and chairs on a balcony that’s barely a metre above the lapping waves, the DiZa is the perfect way to wrap up an experience in TimorLeste’s capital. Sitting on the balcony with the sun dropping over Cristo Rei, sipping on a glass of Champagne is a fine way to take in things Timor has always had going for her – the ocean, jungle, and the locals’ smiley savoir faire – but this restaurant also seems to herald the start of a new age for Timor-Leste. One where she leaves her troublesome teenage years behind and really finds herself.

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May/June 2014

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The Dutch capital offers more than a clichéd dash into the nearest coffee shop just to stagger back out. Buckle up for a weekend clogged with non-stop (non-chemical) highs.

48 HOURS

IN AMSTERDAM WORDS: WOUTER SPANJAART

I TAKE ONE last look at the schedule

on my phone, wondering again if I’ve bitten off slightly more than I can chew.

It’s the sort of 48-hour ‘must-do’ list that would test a jetpack-clad Jack Bauer, and I’m already up against it, without a single jetpack or “Dammit, Chloe!” to help me out. I want to do as much as possible, so I stride out of Amsterdam’s Centraal station, camera ready and game face on. A Japanese gentleman walks towards me.

“Oh no,” I think, “why did I take my camera out here?” I glance about. The sun is out and every tourist in the world is trying to get his or her picture taken in front of the pretty station, which opened in 1889. It services 250,000 passengers a day. About half of whom are now eyeing me hopefully.

“Sir, excuse me, could you take our

photo?” I should have kept my head down.

“Sure,” I say, and I take a snap for the Japanese pair. And then an American couple. And then some Brits. And a Turk.

It’s one of the first days that feel like spring, and everyone in the city is outside.

Nearly half of those people are riding a

May/June 2014

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A LITTLE LESS EMAILS A LITTLE MORE EXERCISE What will you do a little less & a little more?

Tell us at littlelesslittlemore.com.au

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HANNEKE’S BOOM: BEER FOR THE HIP

FAST FACTS

AMSTERDAM IS KNOWN AS THE MOST BIKE-FRIENDLY CITY IN THE WORLD

DON’T CYCLE OVER TRAM TRACKS – I SAW ONE AMERICAN BREAK HIS NOSE. “DUDE, THIS BUS CORNERS LIKE IT’S ON RAILS!”

In 2009, Amsterdam police reported a new craze called ‘Smart Smijten’, or ‘Smart Tipping’, whereby drunk groups of men would hurl tiny Smart Fortwo cars into the canals. “Yobs apparently derive fun from tipping over these types of vehicles,” chided police.

bicycle. The Dutch love their bicycles; over 60 per cent of all trips in its cities are made on one. Cyclists swarm across the street, occasionally passed by a scooter, all lapping up the new sunshine. Spring and summer are the best times to visit this city. Sure, European winters can be charming – if not a bit wet, but outside is where you’ll want to be, so plan your trip accordingly.

GRAB A DRINK

As I want to enjoy my two days, I might as well start it off by grabbing a drink.

Hanneke’s Boom (hannekesboom.nl) is a

charming little, well … hut, that’s within walking distance from central station and serves excellent drinks and food.

It’s all a bit hipster’s paradise, but the prices are very reasonable (€10–20 for a decent plate of food; about €2.50 a beer) and it’s completely surrounded by water, which adds to the serenity. If all you want is coffee, try out Moods Coffee Corner (themoods.nl). It’s a tiny joint (no, not that kind!) in the gallery-chocked Jordaan, one of the prettiest parts of the city, boasting quality service and even better coffee.

TRAINS, TRAMS & BIKES

Amsterdam has a great network of public transport and one of the quickest ways to get around is by using the tram. In every tram they sell 24-hour (€7,50) or 48-hour cards (€12) that give you unlimited access to buses, trams and metros, and there are stops everywhere – almost literally. But you want to travel like a true Dutchman, rent yourself a bike from one of the several places (expect to pay around €15 for 24 hours). Be sure to ride with a sense of purpose, or to feign one, as Dutch cyclists show no mercy. It’s a good idea to get some insurance too. And, just a tip, don’t cycle across the tram tracks. One American tourist broke his nose right in front of me.

May/June 2014

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Make a splash in the boardroom! and celebrate being the organised individual you are with Catherine Manuell’s designer accessories – in an unrivalled and wonderful array of fabrics and prints.

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IT SAYS IN PULP FICTION THAT THE DUTCH DROWN THEIR FRIES IN MAYO. WELL, THAT’S TRUE.

DROWN IN MAYO

In the movie Pulp Fiction, the character of John Travolta, Vincent Vega, tells Samuel L. Jackson that the Dutch drown their fries in mayonnaise. Well, that’s true. So, if you’re feeling brave, grab Belgian fries at Vleminckx (vleminckxdesausmeester.nl), as those fries are some of the best in town.

If mayo isn’t your thing, there’s plenty of more diverse food on offer. Amsterdam is an enormous melting pot of cultures, so you can basically eat whatever you want. An especially nice – and slightly hipster – place is Mondo Mediterraneo (mondomediterraneo.com) that sells really cheap and tasty Italian food. They change the menu around a lot, but you’re always sure to find something you’ll like.

It’s cheap too. A three-course meal will set you back around €25.

TO SLEEP…

Eventually even Jack Bauer needs his sleep (his bed is made of terrorists’ limbs). You’ll want something nicer though, so try The Conservatorium Hotel (conservatoriumhotel.com), a clean, classy and modern place (with a Neo-Gothic facade) that’s been open for just over two years, just across the street from the Van Gogh Museum. Make sure you get a room on one of the top floors, as the views are spectacular, and do order a cocktail at the bar. I stopped in for a nightcap and was pleasantly surprised by the bartender who made the most brilliant Old Fashioned I’ve ever had. If you’re not into that sort of thing, the gin and tonics are quite good as well. But their Old Fashioneds are to die for.

OR NOT TO SLEEP?

VAN GOGH PAINTED THIS COFFEESHOP YEARS AGO. REALLY...

You’re only in town for 48 hours (“Dammit Chloe, we’re running out of time!”) and there’s so much to do, so it’s time for some music. Start off at Paradiso (paradiso.nl).

From the outside it looks like you’re going to a classical concert, but first impressions can be deceptive. You’ll find every kind of music here; just make sure to check who is playing, because you could end up listening to unlistenable German folk or a four-hour Mongolian throat-singing aria. That’s a slight exaggeration, but the acts are really

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Photos by Michael Lawrence & Duncan Macfarlane

A non-profit humanitarian organisation whose aim is to improve the health, wellbeing and self-reliance of people living in isolated regions connected to us through surfing. surfaid.org

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diverse. On the weekend, Paradiso hosts enormous parties that last the entire night.

If you are determined to get as little sleep as possible, visit Trouw (trouwamsterdam. nl). Getting in will cost you around €20, but you won’t be leaving until the sun is up and most Dutch people are almost leaving for work, so it’s money well spent. It’s open from Thursday to Sunday and is one of the best party spots in a town big on revelry.

FULL OF HISTORY

Amsterdam has a rich and interesting history. The city was captured by the Germans in World War II, and it was at that time that Anne Frank wrote her famous diary. You can still visit the house where she used to live (annefrank.org), as selfobsessed pre-pubicist Justin Bieber did last year, only to write in the guestbook that he hoped “she would have been a Belieber” – y’know, if she hadn’t died in the BergenBelsen concentration camp. Do go early, as the lines to enter the iconic and inspiring teenage diarist’s house tend become incredibly long by the afternoon.

Amsterdam is also famous for its canals, so if you’ve got time to spare, make sure you get on a canal boat. It’s a very relaxing way to see the city (and rest from the day before). For a change of pace, it’s worth spending a few hours taking in the Van Gogh Museum (vangoghmuseum.nl). Even though it’s named after (and features lots of work by) the famously earless Dutch painter, they also exhibit the work of other painters. Some of whom he may not always have gotten along with. Historians now claim that, rather than removing it himself, Van Gogh’s ear may have been sliced off by fellow art legend (and nominal ‘friend’) Paul Gaugin during a row.

SHOPPING

Amsterdam’s busy Kalverstraat has pretty much every shop you’ll ever need, whether you’re after traditional souvenirs like wooden clogs or a windmill (try to spot a tourist walking on clogs; hilariously,

IT’S NOW THOUGHT VAN GOGH’S EAR MAY HAVE BEEN SLICED OFF BY PAUL GAUGIN DURING A ROW. they’re the world’s least practical shoes).

If you’ve still got a bit of budget left, visit ‘De Bijenkorf’, right across from Madame Tussauds and the ‘Paleis op de dam’ (Royal Palace) – a department store with enough high-end brands to fill a Kardashian’s walk-in wardrobe. If you want to spend even more, take a tram to the Pieter Corneliszoon Hooftstraat. It has everything from little – very expensive – boutique stores to a Tesla showroom.

After that, it’s time to head back to the airport. A quick tram-and-train ride to Schiphol Airport (around 30–40 mins) later, you can dash through security and then bide your time with a Café Chocolat before your flight. Your two days in the Dutch capital can fly by – even if you never see the red light district. Guess I’ll just have to go back.

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101% PALE

4 Pines Brewing Company Drink Responsibly

SOLVETHIS

1. To be alert is to be ‘bright-eyed and what’?

2. What was the first name of famed designer of Canberra, Burley Griffin?

3. The Virgin Mary is always depicted wearing which colour in Italian art?

4. What is another name for 40-40 in tennis?

5. What type of food is Mahi-mahi?

6. Dance graduate Cressida Bonas is dating which eligible bachelor?

7. Which German figure started a religious reformation with The Ninety-Five Theses?

8. Which country is set to host the next Winter Olympics, in 2018?

ARROW WORDS

PUZZLES

QUIZZED UP

Infancy Fury

Beatle,

Former lovers

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Copy

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Sheepdog Lentil dish

Holy city

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Paddle

Nourished

Trees, silver --

9. Which country produces 50 per cent of

Eggbeaters

Vampire beast Bias

Outline

the world’s cork?

Heath-

Drop

Signify

land

10. The old AD or Anno Domini has been replaced by the initials CE. What does CE stand for?

Front

Build

Serpent

Chicken

Actor, -Danson

Upon

11. Paris’ abduction of which Greek beauty

Boats

triggered the Trojan War?

Loaned

12. Which attraction was originally called Surfers Paradise Ski Gardens?

Emit

13. The White, Black, Indian, Javan and

Glossy

Gyp Hangs © Lovatts Puzzles

Sumatran are all species of which mammal?

Moderate 3603 © Lovatts Puzzles

14. Which weapon do you associate with Damocles?

Fill the grid so that every column, every row and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 to 9.

15. John Keats wrote an ode to which bird?

16. Out of the fourteen countries that share

Rating:

their border with China, which one stretches the longest?

3

17. What do the national anthems of Spain,

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20. Which organisation was known as the

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performance in Blue Jasmine?

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Actress Golden Globe and BAFTA for her

7 2 9 4 8 1 5 6 3

Australia’s first-ever TV police drama?

19. Which Australian actress won the Best

2 6 7 8 9 3 1 4 5

common?

18. Airing between 1964 and 1977, what was

9 5 1 7 6 4 8 3 2

and The Republic of Kosovo have in

4 3 8 1 5 2 6 7 9

Bosnia and Herzegovina, San Marino

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QUIZZED UP SOLUTIONS: 1. Bushy-tailed 2. Walter 3. Blue 4. Deuce 5. Fish 6. Prince Harry 7. Martin Luther 8. South Korea 9. Portugal 10.

Common Era 11. Helen 12. Sea World 13. Rhinoceros 14.

Sword 15. A nightingale 16. Mongolia 17. They have no official lyrics 18. Homicide 19. Cate Blanchett 20. INTERPOL

ROCKS JOKES

HIGH JINKS

Perfectly pointless amusement at altitude “THE FIRST GUY WHO PERSUADED A BLIND MAN THAT THEY NEEDED SUNGLASSES, HE MUST HAVE BEEN A HELL OF A SALESMAN.” “I HAVE NO PROBLEM WITH BUYING TAMPONS. I AM A FAIRLY MODERN MAN. BUT APPARENTLY THEY’RE NOT A ‘PROPER’ PRESENT.” “THEY SAY THE CAMERA ADDS 10 POUNDS. STOP EATING CAMERAS.” “SCIENTISTS HAVE DEMONSTRATED THAT CIGARETTES CAN HARM YOUR CHILDREN. FAIR ENOUGH. USE AN ASHTRAY.”

OLD SEA TALES A sailor is having a drink at a bar when a gnarled old pirate sits down beside him. The pirate has a hook for a hand, a peg leg and an eye patch, and eventually the sailor bucks up the courage to ask him what happened.

“Yar!” says the pirate. “I was swept off the deck by a giant wave in a storm, and before I could be hauled in, a shark bit off my leg!”

“What a story,” said the sailor.

“What about the hook?”

“I was in the middle of a swordfight on the high seas, and a scurvy dog chopped off me hand with a sword!”

“Wow!” says the sailor. “Another great yarn! And what about the eye patch?”

“T’was a balmy day, and while I was gazing up at the clouds, a seagull pooped right into my eye.”

“You lost your eye to bird poo?” splutters the sailor.

“Well,” says the pirate, “it was the first day with my hook…”

“I LIKE TO GO INTO THE BODY SHOP AND SHOUT OUT REALLY LOUD, ‘I’VE ALREADY GOT ONE!’”

ENGLISH STAND-UP COMEDIAN JIMMY CARR

“MY GIRLFRIEND RECENTLY HAD A PHANTOM PREGNANCY AND NOW WE HAVE A LITTLE BABY GHOST.”

Social analysis It’s Saturday night and a man goes up to the check out at a supermarket carrying a six-pack of beer, barbecue shapes, a frozen pizza-for-one and some toilet paper.

The cashier says, “Single, eh?”

The man laughs and says, “Yeah, how can you tell?”

The cashier says, “Because you’re ugly.”

WHAT DO YOU CALL A FRENCHMAN WHO’S BEEN ATTACKED BY A BEAR? CLAUDE. 64

May/June 2013

“I got a call from the bank and a woman on the phone said ‘Mr Barron, your bills are outstanding’.

I said ‘Thankyou!’”

CARL BARON, AUSSIE COMEDIAN

insidemining Issue 12 – June 2014

08

TAX DEBATE

INDUSTRY FOCUS We take a look at plant and equipment hire 15

TECHNOLOGY Innovation in crane and lifting technology 20

What do companies in the resources sector really think of Abbott’s pledge to axe the tax?

SPECIAL REPORT Aboriginal contribution to Australian mining 27

:42 PM

news+views RECORD PILBARA PROJECT After more than two years, Gina Rinehart’s Roy Hill mine in the Pilbara has secured $10 billion in funding for what is Australia’s biggest mining construction project.

As well as the mine, which is expected to produce 55 million tonnes of iron ore per annum, construction will include a processing plant, an airport to support its fly-in fly-out workers, a 1200-person accommodation village, a port stockyard and two-berth export facility in Port Hedland, and a 344-kilometre heavy haulage railway linking the mine to the port.

The $10 billion has come from loans and guarantees from five separate export credit agencies and a consortium of 19 commercial banks from Australia, China, Korea, Singapore, Japan and Europe.

Roy Hill CEO Barry Fitzgerald, believes it to be the largest ever finance package for a land-based mining project worldwide, and is currently spending an estimated $10 million a day on the mine and its associated infrastructure.

and increase their financial security”.

The report also found FIFO is a choice that many employees make instead of relocating, noting: “Some workers might prefer long-distance commuting rather than relocating themselves, and potentially their families, to a mining region. Long-distance commuting might allow them to maintain links with their friends and family and broader community, and accommodate the career of their spouse.”

SOUTH AUSTRALIAN PREMIER ANNOUNCES WINNERS OF MINING AND ENERGY AWARDS BHP Billiton’s Olympic Dam took the award for Excellence in Social Inclusion in the 2014 Premier’s Community Excellence Awards in Mining and Energy.

The awards recognise companies that deliver community and social benefits to South Australia. These companies operate in the mineral, energy resources Advertorial

PRODUCTIVITY COMMISSION FINDS FIFO IS BENEFICIAL TO THE BUSH A Productivity Commission research report released in May has busted the myth that fly-in fly-out (FIFO) is a “cancer of the bush”, according to the Minerals Council of Australia (MCA).

Instead, the Productivity Commission research report: Geographic Labour Mobility, found the FIFO system helped the economy adjust to major structural change and has been “critical to meeting labour demand” all over the country.

The recommendations from the Commission range from aiming to help employment mobility, to ensuring there is a supply of affordable rental properties to people on a low income.

The report found there are many benefits of FIFO for families, such as high salaries that “allow workers to pay off debts, including mortgages,

SPECIALIST SAFETY TRAINING

Being the distributors of a wide range of workplace safety and protection products, Protector Alsafe, part of the Wesfarmers Industrial and Safety group, knows a lot about the safety needs and requirements of the mining and resources workforce and is Australia’s leader in nationally recognised workplace safety training.

The company offers an incredibly broad range of specialist competency-based workplace safety training courses in the areas of confined space entry, working at height, fire safety, driver safety and emergency response training.

Training can either be conducted onsite for convenience, or at one of their fullyequipped training centres around Australia. Some courses are also delivered online.

The full range of courses on offer can be viewed on their website, as well as costs and locations around the country. For more information, visit training.protectoralsafe.com.au

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and extractive industries and associated services sectors.

The winners were announced in May at the SACOME (South Australian Chamber of Mines and Energy) Resources Industry Annual Dinner, held at the Adelaide Convention Centre.

IMX Resources Ltd won the award for Excellence in Supporting Communities, while Thiess Pty Ltd was awarded for its Excellence in Leadership – Women in Resources.

Iluka Resources Ltd won the award for Environmental Excellence while OZ Minerals Ltd and Murray Zircon Pty Ltd were highly commended.

FOUR MILE URANIUM MINE BEGINS OPERATION

FREE TRADE AGREEMENTS ARE GOOD NEWS FOR MINING Australia’s historic free trade agreements (FTAs) with Japan and South Korea are good news for Australia’s resources industry, but leaders need to reform key areas of domestic policy regarding competitiveness and productivity to take full advantage, said Steve Knott, CEO of national resources industry employer group Australian Mines and Metals Association (AMMA).

Japan and South Korea are top consumers of Australia’s resources exports, including coal, copper, iron ore and crude petroleum. Prime Minister Tony Abbott

and Trade and Investment Minister Andrew Robb secured the agreements with Japan and South Korea in April.

“Free trade gets Australia into the game, but success will depend on reforming our economy and labour markets to make it easier to do business in and from this country,” said Knott in a statement on aapmedianet.com.au.

“The first step should be supporting the abolition of the carbon and mining taxes – taxes shown to produce negligible outcomes for our economy and our community, but which damage our global competitiveness and investment prospects. We must also get back into the business of labour market reform, firstly by the Senate passing the government’s initial round of improvements to the Fair Work Act that will start to make it easier to

VICTORIA’S GLOBAL MINING CONFERENCE

The International Mining and Resources Conference (IMARC) 2014 brings a worldclass event of global reach to Australia. Held in Melbourne, the event will run over five days, from September 22–26 and is the only truly international mining conference in the country.

Drawing on a multitude of international relationships with key stakeholders from across the mining value chain, IMARC creates a global mining event for Australia that will connect mining leaders, policy makers, financiers, technical experts, innovators and educators all under one roof. It has been created through a partnership of the leading associations in the Australian resources industry, including MCA – The Minerals Council of Australia, AusIMM – the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy and Austmine – the association representing the METS industry, and in conjunction with the State Government of Victoria.

In his video invitation to delegates, the Hon Peter Ryan, Victorian Deputy Premier and Minister for State Development says: “I am sure you will find this conference a great opportunity not only to hear about the latest developments in the global industry, but to learn more about what Victoria has to offer and make connections that will open doors to new opportunities.”

IMARC creates a global mining event for Australia as a major stop on the global mining events calendar. Attendees can connect with the drivers and thinkers of the global mining industry at a major forum where mining leaders, policy makers, financiers, technical experts, innovators and educators are brought together under one roof. Register to attend at imarcmelbourne.com

Advertorial

South Australia’s Four Mile Uranium Mine started operating in mid-April, with production expected to begin during the second quarter of the year.

Four Mile is located 550 kilometres north of Adelaide and is adjacent to the Beverley Uranium Mine. It is one of the world’s most significant uranium deposits discovered in the past 25 years and is worth $110 million.

Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Tom Koutsantonis said: “The government’s Plan for Accelerating Exploration (PACE), played a key role in the discovery of the resource at Four Mile.

“This government has achieved international recognition through the success of our PACE programs, which have led to new discoveries and new mines over the past decade. Combined with our world-leading regulatory environment, we have been there to assist industry to invest, grow and create jobs.”

Mr Koutsantonis said Four Mile will provide ongoing employment in the remote part of South Australia for about 200 people, including contractors.

The project is a joint venture between Quasar Resources Pty Ltd and Alliance Craton Explorer Pty Ltd, while Heathgate Resources has been appointed the mining operator of Four Mile.

“Heathgate Resources has always demonstrated a strong commitment to partnership and support to local communities,” Mr Koutsantonis said.

“I understand the start-up of Four Mile will ensure about 40 of the on-site jobs are secured for Aboriginal workers.”

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news+views

attract new major resources industry developments to Australia.”

The Minerals Council of Australia (MCA) also welcomes the Australia–Japan FTA. Chief executive Brendan Pearson said in a statement: “Japan is Australia’s biggest coal customer and our second-largest trading partner. In 2012–13, Australia exported $25.7 billion worth of coal, iron ore, copper and other concentrates to Japan. Coal contributed $13.7 billion of that total.

“The FTA will provide a significant boost to Australia’s minerals exporters through a 3.2 per cent reduction in the tariff on coking (steelmaking) coal. Tariffs on aluminum hydroxide, titanium dioxide, unalloyed nickel and ferromanganese will also be reduced under the FTA. “More broadly, the FTA will further strengthen the deep and complementary trade and investment relationship in mineral resources between Japan and Australia.”

Government and reflected in our efforts to create a more enabling environment for the industry. That’s why we will not do anything to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs – like maintaining the mining tax and the carbon tax.”

China’s economy will be one to watch, he added, as it is expected to expand by more than seven per cent per year in the medium term.

Mr Baldwin described the future as “a mining boom in transition”, and claimed the production phase will bring significant benefits.

“Higher exports will mean revenue growth for Australia, and long-term employment opportunities that are

specific to production activities will be created,” he said.

He added we should not discount further investment in mining. “With more than 250 projects being planned, we may see a rebound of investment in the near future under the right business conditions.

“Across Australia, there is more than $109 billion in publicly announced projects, $208 billion at the feasibility stage, and $240 billion at the committed stage. Much of this is in Northern Australia.

“Northern Australia accounts for more than $58 billion in publicly announced projects, $147 billion in projects that are at the feasibility stage, and $231 billion at the committed stage.”

FOURTH MINING THE NORTH WEST CONFERENCE HELD IN MOUNT ISA

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QUICK FIX KITS FOR LEAKY PIPES

AN Australian company has a quick and easy solution for fixing damaged pipes during unscheduled maintenance; saving time and potential losses.

Spill Crew has introduced easy to use Fixapipe Pipe Repair Kits, designed for the temporary repair of damaged and leaking pipes in minutes. Spill Crew’s Michael Carrigg says that Fixapipe can be used on a variety of pipes; including metal, concrete, galvanized, PVC, ceramic, fibreglass, polypropylene, steel, rubber, stainless steel and copper.

“The great thing about Fixapipe is the simplicity in applying. There is no mixing needed – just add water – so there is no mess,” he said. “It can also be used on wet, dry, clean, broken, corroded and leaking pipes, and because it is so easy and quick to use it reduces labour downtime,” he added.

Fixapipe, due to its flexibility, can be used on various areas of the pipe including tees or joins, and due the variety of pipes it can be applied on, tradesmen in all industries are finding it useful.

Mr. Carrigg said that the Fixapipe bandage, when used in conjunction with steel putty, is also safe to use on pipes containing a range of different chemicals. The Fixapipe kit is available in four different sizes, from 5cm x 3.6m to 10cm x 4.9m. The kit comes complete with the bandage, a pair of gloves and steel putty.

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forefront

Axing thetax AS A PROMINENT ELECTION PROMISE, TONY ABBOTT PLEDGED TO AXE THE MINING TAX. IT HASN’T BEEN SIMPLE, BUT WHAT DO COMPANIES IN THE RESOURCES SECTOR REALLY THINK OF THE MINERALS RESOURCE RENT TAX?

Gregory Baldwin at The Illustration Room

WORDS: MITCH BROOK

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forefront

ONE OF THE most hotly debated and contested policy topics since the last federal election is the Labor-introduced Minerals Resource Rent Tax (MRRT), aka the mining tax. Tony Abbott took the Liberal–National Coalition to the 2013 election promising that the axing of the mining tax would be among his first orders of business if his party won government.

According to the Coalition’s policy documents, the repeal of the mining tax is vital because “Labor’s

“Labor’s mining tax has fundamentally undermined confidence in Australia as an investment destination.” mining tax has fundamentally undermined confidence in Australia as an investment destination and as a secure supplier of resources. To add insult to injury, the mining tax also failed to raise any meaningful amount of revenue.”

It hasn’t been so simple for Mr Abbott to axe the tax. The results of the 2013 federal election were certainly in his favour, with the Coalition winning a strong lead in the House of Representatives and also gaining control of the Senate.

While the lower house seats changed immediately, the changes in the Senate are due to take place for most of the senators elected

9

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Gregory Baldwin at The Illustration Room.

forefront

Minerals Resource Rent Tax projected income

SIZERS - MINERAL SIZERS

The MRRT is projected to raise no money this financial year, but $450 million in 2014–15, $1.2 billion in 2015–16, and $1.8 billion in 2016– 17. This falls far short of the original MRRT estimate of $22.5 billion over the four years. $22b

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The tax is based on the idea that Australia – and, by extension, its people – should benefit from companies accessing these finite valuable resources, especially when many of the corporations accessing them are from overseas.

11

on July 1 this year, somewhat delaying the Coalition’s progress on the scrapping of the mining tax.

Until the newly elected Senate is able to sit and take a vote on the mining tax, Labor and The Greens remain in control of the upper house. With an opposing view to Mr Abbott’s repealing of the tax, they blocked the repeal legislation when it was put to vote in the upper house on March 25 this year, despite being passed by the lower house in November 2013.

Many industry commentators predicted this turn of events, and it’s equally expected that, once the new Senate is in place, Mr Abbott will be successful in his attempts to repeal the legislation.

The mining tax is aimed at generating revenue from companies that are making extraordinarily high profits – compared to past mining earnings and also to other industries – from their access to Australia’s mineral resources.

Once these resources are removed from the earth, they’re gone for good, and Australia has lost any future standing related to owning the resources.

The tax is based on the idea that Australia – and, by extension, its people – should benefit from companies accessing these finite valuable resources, especially when many of the corporations accessing them are from overseas. To counter this argument, mining companies say that bringing jobs, profitable business and the money they pour into the economy should more than satisfy their obligations, alongside the company tax and royalties they already pay.

It comes as little surprise, then, that when considering if there should be such a tax at all, the most significant noise is made by the mining companies. It stands to reason that the party to be taxed is the least likely to be in favour of the tax.

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Gregory Baldwin at The Illustration Room

forefront

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“I think the tax won’t work in its current form,” says Cole Latimer, managing editor of Australian Mining and Manufacturers’ Monthly.

“Basically everyone is agreeing – people are either calling for the complete repeal or the changing of the tax.”

FAST FACT Latimer says he’s seen In 1976, when he was support for a mining Shadow Minister for Minerals tax, but there must and Energy, Paul Keating was be changes before it’s one of the Labor politicians effective. “I think there should be some kind advocating a profit-based of tax, but nothing that resources tax. looks like what it is now,” he says. “These companies are making super profits – they’re making historically high profits – and there’s no way of pouring that back into the country; once it’s gone, it’s gone.”

The sentiment runs further afield. “I think there’s no point in keeping the tax in its current form,” says Ray Keefe from Successful Endeavours, a supplier of electronic products and services to the resources industry. “But I think the concept behind the tax – that these are one-off resources and that access to the exploitation of these resources should come at a cost – is a reasonable principle.”

Inside Mining attempted to contact several of the largest mining companies in Australia, including Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton and Fortescue Metals, but none was willing to comment on their stance on the mining tax.

When contacted for comment, the Minerals Council of Australia (MCA) supplied a statement that urged the Senate to agree to the

repeal of the tax during its vote on March 25, which included the following rationale for its position: “The tax imposes an unnecessary additional burden on Australia’s mining industry, which already pays about $20 billion a year in company tax to the Commonwealth and royalties to state governments … It also acts as a disincentive to invest in Australia’s minerals sector at a time when the industry is facing pressing challenges to improve productivity and cost competitiveness.”

This stance strongly places the mining industry against the continuation of the mining tax or, indeed, any mining tax in the future.

The statement supplied by the MCA to Inside Mining further reads: “Repeal of the MRRT will help improve Australia’s reputation as an attractive investment destination in the highly competitive global resources market. A strong, growing industry attracting investment will secure prosperity, jobs and higher government revenues for Australia into the future.”

Whatever industry and public sentiment, the Abbott government will see the repeal of the mining tax as an essential election mandate, and will be sure to celebrate its axing once the newly formed Senate supports the repeal motion.

While Coalition policy deals with much concerning the resources industry and its future, it’s safe to assume that a mining tax is not part of that policy, at least in the short term.

“I think there should be some kind of tax, but nothing that looks like what it is now.”

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FIRMLY PLANTED IN THE MINING SECTOR PLANT AND EQUIPMENT HIRE IS A COMPETITIVE PART OF AUSTRALIA’S MINING INDUSTRY. WE TAKE A CLOSER LOOK AT WHAT IT SUPPLIES, ITS MAIN CHALLENGES AND ITS ONLINE EVOLUTION. WORDS: CHRISTINE RETSCHLAG

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industryfocus

In the competitive

game of mining, sometimes it comes down to the resources.

And we’re not talking about coal, iron ore and the like. Sometimes it’s not even about the man, but about the machine. Plant and equipment hire is one of the crucial links in this competitive chain and now it’s going online.

M&M Crushing’s managing director, Jason MacDonald, says his company supplies full turnkey solutions for mobile crushing and screening equipment such as drill and blast, load and haul, crush, screen and stockpile. M&M Crushing works primarily in Queensland and northern New South Wales for a mix of multinational mining companies, quarries and councils. MacDonald says the most popular items include road base, 10mm or 20mm stemming, gabion, rip rap and aggregates.

Michael Trusler started his plant hire business when he was a civil engineer and needed to source equipment fast.

“Demand is down from previous years but is steady. [However, in the future there will be] a slow increase as mines realise the massive savings that can be made by crushing on-site using experienced operators,” he says.

“Some sectors are extremely competitive and many competitors have entered the market in the past few years. The biggest problem is competing against [newcomers] that don’t have the experience to price these jobs properly and allow for all the additional costs. These companies are providing prices that are way below sustainable levels and so they go broke and don’t pay their bills.”

MacDonald says the greatest challenges include cost of repairs; distances from industry; lack of skilled electricians, mechanics and operators; and time delays related to getting people to site or inducted once they’re on-site.

PlantMiner.com.au is Australia’s largest plant and equipment hire website, offering more than 87,000 items from 1500 suppliers across the country. Michael Trusler, CEO of PlantMiner. com.au and Australian Mining Prospect Awards Young Achiever of the Year 2013, started the company when he was a civil engineer and needed a faster way to source equipment.

17

industryfocus

“PlantMiner.com.au gathers all of Australia’s plant and equipment hire companies into the one online portal, eliminating the searcher’s need to trawl through the Yellow Pages and Google, and cutting down on tedious hours spent researching and contacting suppliers,” he says.

The online portal, which has been live for one year, has sent 110,000 leads to suppliers, which equates to 4.3 million machine hire hours and more than $1 billion worth of work quoted. There’s now a smartphone app that allows searchers to access the 87,000-plus hire items on the fly. Major miners such as the Downer Group, Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton are registered searchers.

Ryan Woodhall, contracts manager at the Downer Group, says his company has saved hundreds of man-hours in tendering and project management through the site. “It’s a real innovation in the industry because it’s simplified the entire plant and equipment hire process and it’s perfect for me because it’s a completely free service,” Woodhall says.

According to Trusler, PlantMiner.com.au receives some unusual requests: “It always surprises us what people in the mining and construction industry want to hire; for example, we never realised that companies ‘hired’ environmental monitoring equipment. Since launching last year, we have signed up to four of Australia’s largest environmental monitoring equipment hire companies due to massive demand in this area.”

Equipment can sometimes present a challenge for hire suppliers. Trusler says: “There is no standard mine safety specification across the board

18

Fast facts • Among the most popular items hired from PlantMiner. com.au are midsize excavators (10 to 50 tonnes) and common earthmoving equipment such as dump trucks, loaders and graders.

• The second most popular equipment includes site amenities such as site sheds, ablution blocks and storage containers, followed by access equipment such as scissor lifts, forklifts as well as cranes.

for equipment, meaning each mine site and each mining company requires a different set of safety features on each machine, which is extremely expensive and time-consuming for hire companies to keep up with.”

However, there’s an upside. “The future is looking very strong with lots of large tenders being sent out through the website,” Trusler says. “This means there is lots of construction and mining work in the pipeline for our plant and equipment hire suppliers.”

Renfrey Plant Hire’s general manager, Chris Bradley, says his company has been in business for 40 years, starting out with what was only the seventh excavator in South Australia, back in 1974.

These days, the company supplies excavators, articulated dump trucks and water trucks, wheel loaders, dozers, breakers, graders, compactors and, recently, a DTH drill rig, with or without operators and maintenance crews.

“There are a number of mining projects in the feasibility and bankable feasibility stages in South Australia, however, so much of their success relies on funding and significant new infrastructure.

We are certainly not going to see a mining boom in South Australia, but we remain positive these projects will get up and provide opportunities in the mining sector for us over the next 40 years,” Bradley says.

“We are cautious and prudent but, overall, we have a fundamental understanding of why we’re here. Everything we do assists our clients to win more work with less risk and better results.”

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WHEN JOHN LENNON and Paul McCartney sang, “Boy, you’re gonna carry that weight / Carry that weight a long time,” it’s unlikely they were singing about cranes on mining sites. But lifting is everywhere in mining; everything you remove or add has to be handled, sometimes multiple times.

Mining environments are remote and arduous, and require cranes and hoists with the suitable specifications and reliability to meet the high vibration, and the highly corrosive and excessive heat conditions under which they operate.

Belgium-based international heavy lifting and transport specialist, Sarens, began operating in Australia in December 2009, with a fleet of nine large cranes and approximately 10 employees. Last year, Sarens Australia skyrocketed to great heights in the Australian market of heavy lifting and heavy haulage with projects at Hay Point, Tom Price, Sydney, Port Hedland, the Hunter Valley, Tasmania, Stradbroke Island, Wheatstone, Gorgon and Gladstone. The contracts, with an estimated value of $65 billion, will take place over the next three years.

“With Australia currently being the fourth-biggest LNG [liquefied natural gas] exporter in the world and the mining sector being a significant primary industry, it is not surprising these highvalue investment projects need stateof-the-art construction equipment like cranes and heavy transport machinery,” says Gert Hendrickx, Sarens Australia’s country manager.

There are often challenges in implementing new lifting technologies at mine sites. Hendrickx says it’s a huge advantage if mining companies try to analyse solutions before or during contracting negotiations. Sarens has recently undertaken several studies in partnership with the mining industry to look at new lift and shift solutions for the Australian market.

“Over the past four months, we have

executed works in direct cooperation with Rio Tinto, BMA and Xstrata, and did a front-end engineering design (FEED) study for Anglo American.

All projects were based on a strong pre-engineered solution that created trust, not only at mechanical contractor level but also at end-user level. The Xstrata FEED study started one and a half years before execution. “[This] can solve lots of problems, [and] optimise planning and execution solutions,” says Hendrickx.

The heavy lifting aspects of mining will improve in the future even while the core objective of unearthing product stays the same. In the crane and lifting business, new technologies are helping to make mining smarter and safer by becoming interconnected and intelligent.

Konecranes, one of the world’s largest crane service organisations, introduced its most advanced family of remote service technologies to Australasia two years ago.

The company says its latest innovation, Truconnect® Remote Services, includes

FAST FACT 70,000,000 containers are handled each year around the world by Konecranes. Placed side by side, those containers would stretch around the earth more than 17 times. a variety of distinct remote services ranging from periodic data reporting to real-time diagnostics, technical support and production monitoring. Maintenance activities are planned by actual crane usage and condition, not by calendar, saving money by ensuring the right amount of maintenance is done at the right time.

“Konecranes’ Truconnect® Remote Monitoring and Reporting was introduced to Australasia to help our customers

Sarens Group operating within the amazing colours of the Cimeco-FMG Solomon mine, Tom Price, WA.

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technology

Booming ahead In June last year, Boom Logistics was contracted by Redpath Mining to carry out the assembly of an imported tunnel boring machine at Anglo American’s Grosvenor coalmine in Bowen Basin, Queensland. Boom Logistics’ 750-tonne crawler crane increased efficiency by completing many lifts from the one radius. Redpath Mining is making history by being the first in the world to use this equipment to reach the underground coalmine. This new process may be the future of underground mining. boomlogistics.com.au

Boasting a 1600-tonne lifting capacity and a maximum load moment of 24,002 tonne-metres, the crane is a gamechanging addition to Tutt Bryant’s extensive portfolio of cranes and heavy lifting equipment. The CC8800-1 offers significant efficiencies in the erection and installation of large-scale facilities when compared with ring lift cranes and jacking towers.

At ConExpo in March this year, Liebherr’s new LTM 1160-5.2 all-terrain mobile crane had its world premiere,

which the company says sparked a great deal of interest. The LTM 1160-5.2 is the successor model to the successful LTM 1160-5.1. Both the telescopic boom length and the load capacities have been significantly increased. One innovation is compressed air disc brakes, being used

by Liebherr on a mobile crane for the first time, resulting in enhanced braking performance and optimised directional stability. These are just some of the innovative technologies helping to lift mining operations to a new level.

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.evcile nd am epeh nen viodrp rairm ch ed ®htio wSd kUcaxb isa tne tseim snaogceahtneokasm tfie eebsuesCeIRhBt A fo as srre e drllo ofrw w n-a atrreb bkc c ba afffoR RsF Fe11d# #ae e ae ett— se es W yb nO O n on d F lllla viled ,,d rro ehtt n i dn irb htt ,,®ttffo Sa rrttllU xe s W y lln ..ttn emrra g eht ekam o tt d esu CIRBAF Super-duper cranes ® htiw dekcab — sisab tnetsisnoc a no stfieneb eseht fo ..e c n a m r o f r e p n e v o r p t e k r a m f o s e d a c e d erups-teebkdra nm a YfFoICsEePdSa— otSiw artd lUexkectsaebW—htsiw ed agaru SAesTe’N ecHeavy namLift rofr&ep nehas v!o cedtfh isa batm nesti stnisenmorc nooy sEtfiM eU nS eb hO t fD o Tutt Bryant Shift ® worked alongside some of the largest !!e erru uss e eb bd dn na aY YF FIIC CE EP PS S— — ®ttffo oS Sa arrttllU U xxe ettsse eW Wh httiiw we ed da am m ssii ttn ne em mrra ag g rru uo oyy E EM MU US SS SA AT T’’N NO OD D mining, construction and commercial :ecnamrofrep cirbaf erapmoc dna soediv gnitset evil eht hctaW organisations in the country, as well as the federal and state governments. ::eeccn naam mrrooffrreep p cciirrb baaff eerraap pm moocc d dn naa ssooeed diivv g gn niittsseett eevviill eeh htt h hccttaaW W Operating one of the largest crawler crane fleets in the region and supported by other lifting and haulage assets, it has key operation centres in Brisbane, Perth, .sthgisni RF tsetal eht rof su wolloF Melbourne, Darwin, Karratha and the Hunter region. ..sstth hg giissn nii R RFF ttsseettaall eeh htt rrooff ssu uw woollllooFF In 2012, Tutt Bryant acquired the CC8800-1, the first of its kind in Sarens Group operating at the Cimeco-FMG Australia and the largest conventional Solomon mine, Tom Price, WA. crawler crane based in the country.

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specialreport

BACK TO THE FUTURE THE ABORIGINAL CONTRIBUTION TO AUSTRALIAN MINING PREDATES CAPTAIN COOK. IT CONTINUES TODAY IN A CHALLENGING CORPORATE LANDSCAPE THAT CREATES OPPORTUNITIES FOR COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT AND RECONNECTION TO COUNTRY. WORDS: MANDY MCKEESICK

LONG BEFORE whitefellas came to Australia, the Wajarri people were mining ochre.

On a scrubby ridge in Western Australia’s remote Weld Range is Wilgie Mia ochre mine, believed to have been created and protected

by Dreamtime spirits. Open pits, underground chambers, tunnels, pillars and scaffolding are testament to an industry that saw the valuable ochre traded to places as far away as Queensland.

Such is the significance of the mine that the Australian Government recognises it as a National Heritage Place.

Today, Indigenous involvement in Australian mining continues as communities strive to work with and for the corporate operations on their traditional homelands. This cooperation is a two-way street. For miners it represents the chance to employ local people and services while recognising native title, and for the communities it’s a means to engage their people in a commercial framework.

“Our main aims are to promote Aboriginal economic participation

and Aboriginal-owned businesses, which will, in turn, create employment,” says Gina Castelain, managing director of Wik Projects Ltd, an organisation that supports the Aurukun community on the western side of Cape York Peninsula

– an area that encompasses both world-class wetlands and world-class bauxite deposits.

“About 90 per cent of people here are welfare dependent – some third generation – and we want to change those attitudes and break that cycle.

Above: The VTEC pick crew at work at the Christmas Creek mine.

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specialreport

There has been mining on our country for 60 years, but up until now there has been very little Aboriginal involvement. Now we have a foot in the door with Rio Tinto and are getting a fair go for Aboriginal people.”

Aurukun Earthmoving was set up

by Wik Projects eight years ago and now has long-term contracts with Rio Tinto Alcan at its Weipa bauxite mine. Employing eight operators and two crew leaders, the Aboriginal company provides bulldozers and graders for clearing and rehabilitation work and, when required, for exploration drilling.

“The people love the drill line work because it gets them out on their country and earns [them] good money. It is a source of pride and very important to them,” says Castelain.

Forestry is another arm of Wik Projects and, with 20-year salvage rights negotiated with the Queensland Government, the business will retrieve trees that

B Rio Tinto Alcan would normally bulldoze and burn as part of its mining operations. The trees will be sawmilled, and the initiative has already gained interest from both local and overseas entities.

International companies such as Rio Tinto underpin mining towns in Australia, and while the percentage of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the general population is about three per cent, the 2011 Census showed Weipa has 19 per cent. This is mirrored in other mining towns such as Port Hedland (approximately 15.5 per cent) and Newman (approximately 11 per cent) in Western Australia.

While the mining industry may only be the tenth-largest employer of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples (health care and social assistance is the leader), it is the industry with the largest proportion of Indigenous peoples in its workforce at 3.1 per cent.

“There has been mining on our country for 60 years, but up until now there has been very little Aboriginal involvement. Now we have a foot in the door...”

E

Above: Wik Projects’ Aurukun Earthmoving equipment. Below: Trainees from Fortescue Metal’s VTEC program replacing picks on a surface miner.

Fast facts • The colours of the Wilgie Mia ochre mine are believed to reflect parts of a Dreamtime kangaroo (marlu): red is his blood; yellow is his liver; and green is his gall (bile).

• In addition to forestry and earthmoving, Wik Projects supports Indigenous-run fishing and wetland charters on Cape York Peninsula.

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Fortescue Metals Group Ltd, which has operations in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, eclipses this 3.1 per cent figure with an Indigenous workforce close to 13 per cent of its total. This is due, in large part, to its Vocational Training and Employment Centre (VTEC), which has been operating in the Pilbara since 2006.

With a vision to change the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples through employment, Fortescue Metals guarantees a job once training with VTEC is successfully completed, but the strength of the organisation is its support strategies designed to keep people employed.

“We don’t just lecture. We look at each person’s situation and address the work barriers in a holistic way,” says Fortescue Metals’ VTEC development manager, Damien Ardagh. “Alongside training we

have support systems for health, transport, work history, family and accommodation. For example, if someone doesn’t have a driver’s licence, we have a special program to facilitate them obtaining one.”

Such is the success of VTEC that the federal government has recently announced funding of $45 million, which will see the program expand into another 25 areas, working not only with Fortescue Metals but with other mining companies nationwide.

Whether employed directly by mining companies or working for contracted services, the role of Aboriginal peoples within the Australian mining industry is an important and ongoing one. There may still be challenges to face, but with proactive and progressive organisations such as Wik Projects and Fortescue Metals, the future offers much promise.

“We don’t just lecture.

We look at each person’s situation and address the work barriers in a holistic way.”

COMMITMENT TO COMMUNITIES Last year’s atWork Indigenous Employee of the Year, Morris Corporation, has awarded a two-year contract to provide transport services to its Western Australian mining hospitality business to a joint venture between Sadleirs Nexus Logistics and indigenousowned company MIB Transport.

The choice was made not only because of the quality of services offered, but also because it fitted perfectly with Morris Corp’s commitment to improving the lives and opportunities for Indigenous Australians through employment, training, mentoring and engagement.

“We went with Sadleirs / MIB because of sound freight and logistics knowledge, excellent facilities and infrastructure with a professional team. To cap this off, the new indigenous partnership will contribute to the betterment of MIB [Martidja Banyjima] people,” said Morris CEO, Rodney Molla.

This commitment is further reflected in Morris Corporation’s ‘Track to Triumph’ program, which starts with a week of preemployment preparation for living and working in remote areas. Week two is paid training, with a Certificate II qualification plus hands on experience, and culminates in an offer of employment.

Morris Corporation has found that this not only provides a clear and simple pathway to employment, but also high staff retention rates of over 70 per cent, encouraging local Indigenous communities to enter into fulltime work.

For more information, visit morriscorp.com.au

Above: Les Marsh, at one of Wik Projects’ sites. Wik Projects is an organisation that supports the Aurukun community on the western side of Cape York Peninsula.

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downdeep

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downdeep

Super Pit Gold Mine, Kalgoorlie ORIGINALLY known as ‘The Golden Mile’, the Super Pit was once a series of smaller gold mines run by different companies. In the ’80s, wealthy businessman and entrepreneur Alan Bond sniffed an opportunity and started buying up the leases on all of the mines in an attempt to streamline operations and cut costs by turning them into one massive gold mine. He didn’t quite succeed, however in 1989, the entire area was combined into one lease and Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines Pty Ltd (KCGM) was formed to manage the Super Pit. Stretching 3.8 kilometres in length and 1.5 kilometres wide, the pit – which is Australia’s largest open cut gold mine – is 600 metres deep. Unsurprisingly, output is on a similarly grand scale, with 800,000 ounces of gold being dug up each year on a roster that ensures the pit is being mined 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Originally known as ‘The Golden Mile’, the Super Pit was once a series of smaller gold mines run by different companies.

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miningreview

SOUTH AUSTRALIA IS HEADING ‘BACK TO THE FUTURE’ AS COPPER PRODUCTION RAMPS UP AND A HOST OF JUNIOR EXPLORERS JOSTLE FOR THE NEXT BIG FIND.

Image courtesy of Arrium Mining and Materials

WORDS: DARREN BAGULEY

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miningreview

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miningreview

I

n the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the area approximately bounded by the towns of Wallaroo, Kadina and Moonta, in the north of South Australia’s Yorke Peninsula, became known as the Copper Triangle.

Copper mined there was a significant source of economic prosperity for the state, and at its peak it produced one-third of the world’s copper.

While expansion plans for Australia’s biggest copper mine, BHP’s massive Olympic Dam, have been mothballed, a host of junior miners believe the state still has the potential to return to its glory days as one of the world’s largest copper producers – and they are exploring.

And it’s not just copper. Where there’s copper there’s also gold, silver, uranium and iron ore, although iron ore deposits are mostly the lower-grade magnetite rather than hematite. Other, more speculative minerals include mineral sands (zircon), kaolin and graphite.

Nevertheless, all projects in South Australia are suffering from a post-GFC rush to high-yielding stocks rather than those with potential for capital growth, according to the South Australian Chamber of Mines and Energy’s (SACOME) chief executive, Jason Kuchel.

While South Australia’s other major copper producers – OZ Minerals’ Prominent Hill and Hillgrove’s Kanmantoo – are producing well while forging ahead with exploration to further prove the existing resources, there are more projects at various stages of development and a large number of copper prospectors working in the state, according to Kuchel.

This view is echoed by Rex Minerals’ managing director and CEO, Mark Parry. “There’s a lot of South Australia that hasn’t been explored with modern mining techniques and most of the new players are focused on iron ore, copper and base metals using new and different techniques,” he says.

Rex Minerals’ Hillside Project deposit is one of Australia’s largest copper

Fast fact • According to the Geoscience Australia report – ‘Australia’s Mineral Resource Assessment 2013’, mineral exploration investment fell in every state except Tasmania in 2012–13, with South Australia seeing a decline of 30 per cent to $230.4 million.

discoveries over the past decade, with a mineral resource estimate (June 2013) of 337Mt at 0.6 per cent copper, 0.14g/t gold and 15.7 per cent iron, for a copper equivalent (CuEq) grade of 0.9 per cent.

This equates to 2Mt of copper, 1.5Moz of gold and 54Mt of iron ore.

With the mine not yet in production, Rex Minerals successfully raised $11.2 million (before costs) in March 2014 with a share issue, and will be issuing a second tranche of shares later in the year (subject to approval at its AGM).

Adelaide Resources’ Moonta CopperGold Project also looks highly promising.

Recent air core drilling samples from its Image courtesy of SACOME

A group of workers examining core on the Eyre Peninsula (Eyre Iron).

“There’s a lot of South Australia that hasn’t been explored with modern mining techniques and most of the new players are focused on iron ore, copper and base metals using new and different techniques.”

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miningreview Image courtesy of Arrium Mining and Materials

Arrium Mining and Materials is an exporter of hematite iron ore and has mines located in the Middleback Ranges of South Australia and northern South Australia.

3.5-kilometre-long flagship Alford West copper prospect, north-east of Wallaroo, have yielded, at much shallower depths, copper and gold grades comparable to early prospecting at deposits such as Olympic Dam and Prominent Hill.

Havilah Resources is working on several copper-gold projects in the Curnamona Craton region. Its Portia gold and Kalkaroo copper-gold resource is the most advanced to date.

In the southern Gawler Craton on the Eyre Peninsula, Investigator Resources’ Paris silver deposit is shaping up to be a significant maiden resource. Much of the mineralisation appears to be 75 metres below the surface with an Inferred Mineral Resource of 5.9Mt at 110g/t silver and 0.6 per cent lead (at 30g/t Ag cut-off) for 20Moz silver and a credit of 38kt lead.

If exploration continues to yield similar results, it’s possible that an entirely new ‘hotspot’ may be ripe for development.

Although Western Australia and the Pilbara get all the attention, the Eyre Peninsula is shaping up to be an iron ore area of significant activity. While South Australia has just two iron ore producers – Arrium Mining (formerly OneSteel) and IMX Resources – three of the state’s projects closest to producing are

all situated on the peninsula: IronClad’s Wilcherry Hill, Centex/Eyre Iron’s Fusion, and Iron Road’s Central Eyre Iron Project (CEIP). When Iron Road upped its estimate last year to 3.7 billion tonnes, the CEIP became the largest magnetite resource in Australia, placing it among the world’s top 20 magnetite projects.

According to SACOME’s Kuchel, if three or four of the iron ore mines currently under development were producing at full capacity at an ore price of $100 per tonne, an extra $2 billion per year would be added to South Australia’s GDP. The main factors retarding this growth, Kuchel believes, are investor conservatism and the lack of a capesize-capable deep-water port in South Australia.

While companies such as IMX Resources and OZ Minerals have deployed innovative measures such as

rotainer (rotating containers) loading, SACOME has calculated the cost of building such a facility at Port Bonython would come in at about $700 million.

“That’s relatively cheap for such a facility and, geographically, it would serve reasonably well most of the new producers likely to come onstream,” says Kuchel.

SACOME believes such an investment is unlikely until the investment environment for junior miners improves. To this end, it has been lobbying for a federal minerals exploration tax credit (METC) scheme to boost sagging exploration investment in the mining sector. An METC would enable Australian junior minerals exploration companies with no taxable income to voluntarily pass current losses on to Australian resident shareholders in the form of a tax credit.

Fast fact • Many people in Wallaroo, Kadina and Moonta are of Cornish descent and the area is nicknamed ‘Little Cornwall’. In oddnumbered years the three towns host Kernewek Lowender, claimed to be the world’s largest Cornish festival.

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spotlight

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spotlight

KEEP ON TRUCKIN’ WITH DRIVERLESS VEHICLES, IMPROVED SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY HAULAGE SOLUTIONS, MINING TRUCKS HAVE COME A LONG WAY SINCE THE DAYS OF PICKS AND PIT PONIES. WORDS: KRIS MADDEN

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spotlight

When the

Australian mining industry began in the early 1800s, material in coal boxes was backbreakingly pulled manually by miners from the shaft to the surface, and ships were loaded by basket.

Women and children also slaved away in the mines at this time; but from the mid-19th century, new laws prohibited them from doing so and they were replaced by pit ponies. The miners often formed close bonds with their trusty and industrious little companions, which worked in the mines into the twentieth century. Pit ponies were still in use in New South Wales’ Muswellbrook mine up until 1965. Of course, rail also played an important part in those early days – but that’s a whole other story.

The wheels start turning The dawn of mechanical haulage gave the mining industry a great spur-along and the ponies eventually got the boot. The birth of the rubber tyre and diesel engine industries trounced many previous haulage and transport challenges and revolutionised the logistics chain of surface mining.

From the 1920s to the 1950s, Ohio-based company Euclid was synonymous with off-road haul trucks and earthmoving equipment. These giants roamed strip mines and quarries worldwide.

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Euclid was the first to commercialise the now ubiquitous articulated rubber-tyred loader, which is the mainstay of many of today’s heavy equipment manufacturers. Euclid trucks remain in use in some mines around the world, including in Australia.

The Hitachi Construction Machinery Co Ltd bought Euclid outright in 2000, to fill what the Japanese company perceived as a gap in being able to offer a complete mining package – that completed its existing equipment. The Euclid name was finally phased out in 2004, ending 80 years of great trucking history.

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Smart trucks Komatsu was the first manufacturer to commercialise autonomous haulage systems for mining. Each unmanned dump truck has vehicle controllers, high-precision GPS systems, an obstacle detection system and a wireless network that integrates with the dozers, loaders and shovels. Artificial intelligence learns the mine’s layout, how to avoid obstacles, and how to ferry loads from loading face to dump, with the least wear, delay and use of fuel.

The most sciencefiction-like trend in trucks is driverless vehicles and artificial intelligence.

Caterpillar, which claims the title of the world’s leading manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, produced its first off-highway construction and mining truck in 1963. In the 1980s, Caterpillar made the decision to dominate the worldwide mining sector, introducing its first mining production machine, the 785, in 1984. It still hauls phosphate in Idaho’s Smoky Canyon Mine today.

According to Michael Coulson’s book, The History of Mining, Caterpillar’s huge haul trucks and Euclid’s excavators transformed open pit mining.

Kalgoorlie’s Super Pit would have been impossible without the machines available today.

What’s next?

It seems bigger is always better. Switzerland-based manufacturer Liebherr, which was founded in 1949, says its latest diesel-electric mining trucks are designed to handle payloads of up to 400 US tons (363 tonnes). Liebherr is rightly proud of its T 282 C mining truck, which combines a high-horsepower diesel engine with an efficient AC drive system.

Greg Smith, group engineering manager, international operations, mining support group for Hitachi, says AC drive technology is the most significant advancement in rigid dump truck design in the past 20 years.

“The improvements in productivity, reliability and safety that are now incorporated into the large mining truck range because of technological developments is a huge leap forward in our industry,” said Smith in a statement.

The most science-fiction-like trend in trucks is driverless vehicles and artificial intelligence. Yes, just as the trucks did away with the ponies, they’re now ditching their drivers (with the exception of remote operators, of course). The past few years have seen autonomous vehicles introduced at sites including Rio Tinto’s Remote Operations

Y.

d y

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spotlight

Centre (ROC), BHP’s Integrated Remote Operations Centre (IROC) and Fortescue’s Solomon Hub, among others.

“Automation of trucks is providing a huge leap forward in terms of safety and productivity,” said Smith. “Hitachi is well down the path of this exact direction, and the demand from the industry to develop functional and efficient autonomous fleets is clear.”

German manufacturer European Truck Factory (ETF) says it has rewritten the playbook on haul truck design, integrating the payload advantages of a rigid machine with the all-wheel-drive, all-wheelsteering manoeuvrability of articulated trucks. ETF says it’s the first significant change in rigid haul truck design in 60 years and, indeed, its designs do look like they’re straight from a Star Wars set.

“About nine years ago, we started development of our new concept of mining trucks that could operate under the most demanding conditions.

ETF has re-redefined the vision of mining trucks and incorporated features that provide overall

“Automation of trucks is providing a huge leap forward in terms of safety and productivity.”

The world’s biggest truck Belarus-based company BelAZ, which claims it sells every third mining dump truck in the world, began production in the ’50s. Last year, the company unveiled its latest model, the 75710 dump truck, which has

vehicle efficiency, as well as being the kindest to the environment in their class,” says ETF’s CEO, Eddy de Jongh.

“Technical innovation is, and will continue to be, the driving force behind developments in large mobile mining equipment,” says de Jongh. “But what is today defined as the new age of truck design may be outdated by the next innovation.”

Let the big wheels keep on turning.

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Unburdened from internal supports, the curved shelter grants a totally free area, where every inch can be utilised. Available in kit form, an Allshelter solution can be supplied to site in as little as two weeks. These multi-purpose models are easy to assemble, dismantle and relocate using onsite personnel. Additionally, all structures are site specific, wind rated and can be engineered to withstand more than 300-kilometre per hour winds with the cover left on. Preventive maintenance and repairs have never been easier.

The Allshelter items mentioned here, and many others, are available at allshelter.com.au, by calling +612 6898 2244, or by emailing sales@allshelter.com.au

emark

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Sandvik opens new High Productivity Centre in Orange andvik has opened a major new repair, rebuild and support centre in Orange, NSW, designed to deliver industry-leading levels of environmental, health and safety performance and services to mining operations throughout the state’s Central West.

Its new Orange High Productivity Centre, incorporates a modern, high-tech repair and rebuild facility, including a paint booth, along with a large warehouse operation – all purpose-built to help it better serve the needs of mines in the region, and improve safety performance in line with its customer’s stated goals. It will also service equipment for customers from outside the region.

According to Jim Tolley, Sandvik Mining’s Vice President, Sales Area Australia, the new facility is the latest example of the company’s focus on service and support for its customers throughout Australia.

“Our Orange High Productivity Centre, as one of four of these centres nationally, will set new standards for safety and environmental performance, service efficiency and turnaround times for our Central West customers.

“It has been designed with one purpose: to align with our customer’s goals and boost the productivity of our customers,” he said.

“Sandvik’s service benchmarks are to ensure that our customers’ equipment remains safe and fully productive 24 hours a day, seven days a week, every day of the year – and to achieve that, nearly 75% of our staff worldwide are dedicated to customer support.”

Tolley said the company’s new centre was the latest example of this philosophy.

“Employing 40 people, it incorporates a

“Sandvik’s service benchmarks are to ensure that our customers’ equipment remains safe and fully productive.” state-of-the-art workshop and a warehouse, each of which are larger than our entire previous facility in Orange – and because of our standardised processes and readily available spare parts, we can provide rapid and cost-efficient repairs.

“This includes the ability to rebuild equipment to as-new condition, to Sandvik’s OEM specifications and standards, and with full factory warranty,” he said.

Complementing Sandvik’s new rebuild facilities at Orange is a fleet of mobile service vehicles crewed by a fully trained field service team with the skills and experience to handle a wide range of requirements. The field service coverage extends to Cobar and Broken Hill through the dedicated field service centres located in those key mining locations.

“Our field service technicians can also carry out machine inspections, advise on operational and maintenance practices, and assist customer technicians,” Tolley said.

In addition to its service and support capabilities, Sandvik’s new Orange High Productivity Centre will serve as its regional warehouse for the entire NSW Central West.

“In most cases, we can now provide immediate replacement of parts and components for all types of Sandvik equipment used in this region,” Tolley said.

“Combining our industry-standard service workshop, greatly expanded warehouse capacity and our extended field service capabilities gives us the ability to deliver reduced downtime and increased productivity for our customers.”

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Available at selected Carry On, David Jones and many other wonderfully colourful stockists all around Australia!

For our online store and stockist information, go to: www.catherinemanuelldesign.com 03 9499 9844

discovery

Kalgoorlie

New mineral discovered in Western Australia A new mineral has been found at Lake Cowan on Western Australia’s Polar Bear Peninsula.

The mineral was called Putnisite after mineralogists Andrew and Christine Putnis. Miners had been looking for nickel and gold in the Lake Cowan area when they came across the mineral, which appears as tiny dark-pink semi-cubic crystals on a dark-green and white rock. It is relatively soft, so it’s not yet clear what it could be used for. The Putnisite crystal in the photograph above is from the Armstrong Mine, Widgiemooltha, Western Australia, where it has also been found.

In Australian Popular Science, Peter Elliott, the co-author of a study describing the new substance and a researcher at the South Australian Museum and the University of Adelaide, said: “Most minerals belong to a family or small group of related minerals, or if they aren’t related to other minerals they often are to a synthetic compound, but Putnisite is completely unique and unrelated to anything.”

Putnisite occurs as tiny crystals no bigger than half a millimetre in diameter and combines the elements strontium, calcium, chromium, sulphur, carbon, oxygen and hydrogen, which is a very unusual combination, explained the University of Adelaide in a release on its website.

Lake Yindarlgoodoo

Lake Lefroy

First discovered here

Lake Cowan

Norseman Lake Dundas

Esperance

100kms

Putnisite Formula: SrCa4Cr83+(CO3)8SO4(OH)16·25H2O Right: The crystal structure of putnisite. Srф10 polyhedra are purple; Caф8 polyhedra are blue; Crф6 octahedra are red; CO3 triangles are green; SO4 tetrahedra are yellow; H2O molecules are large grey spheres; hydrogen atoms are small grey spheres.

Far right: Coordination of the Sr site in the structure of Putnisite.

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resourceinsight

Spotlight on opals

• A matrix opal (pictured) – is one where the opal is found in between grains or pores of its host rock.

Andamooka in South Australia is a major producer of matrix opal along with crystal and black opals.

• Opals are Australia’s national gemstone and we produce 97 per cent of the world’s supply. South Australia alone mines around 80 per cent of the world’s opals.

Opal facts • The world’s largest and most valuable opal – ‘Olympic Australis’ – was found in Coober Pedy in 1956.

• Opals come in many different types: black, white, crystal and jelly opals are just some. The internal structure of opal makes it diffract light, giving it its unique colour-changing characteristics.

• Opals can contain every colour of the spectrum, and can also be clear.

White and green are most common, while red and black are the rarest.

• The word opal was believed to have come from the Roman term ‘opalus’, which came from the Greek word ‘opallios’ meaning ‘to see a change of colour’. However most modern references suggest it actually comes from the ancient Sanskrit word ‘úpala’, which translates to ‘precious stone’.

• Lightning Ridge in northern New South Wales is famous for its black opals. In 2008, the black opal was named as New South Wales’ gemstone emblem.

Opals in folklore • In the Middle Ages, opals were believed to bring good luck. It was thought opals had all the virtues of each gemstone whose colour was reflected in the opal. In those days, it was also thought that you could become invisible if you wrapped an opal in a fresh bay leaf and held it in your hand.

• In 1829, after Sir Walter Scott’s Anne of Geierstein was published, opals became associated with bad luck and death because one of the characters in the novel dies after holy water falls on her opal. This caused sales of opals to drop by 50 per cent throughout Europe.

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LONG-HAUL TRAVEL LONG-DISTANCE TRUCKING IS AN UNUSUAL CHOICE OF JOB FOR A WORKING HOLIDAY-MAKER. MEET ONE GUY WHO TOOK ON THE CHALLENGE – AND VISITED MANY A MINE ALONG THE WAY. WORDS: RICHARD ASHER

SOMETIMES, while trying not

to fall asleep at the wheel at 4am in the middle of the Northern Territory, I would question why I hadn’t just followed the herd and copied the other gap year folk. In these dark moments I had to remind myself why I’d chosen to become an outback truckie: the delightful efficiency of getting paid to see Oz, and achieving a silly goal I’d set myself as a teenager.

How had I even got this far?

Well, I passed my licence before leaving the United Kingdom, so I’d be ready to roll when I arrived in Australia. And, to cut a long story short, I was legal to drive rigids for three months.

When I first started job-hunting in Perth, though, I felt nothing but despair and rage. Every advert demanded experience. How was I supposed to get that? Then a truckie I’d gotten to know saved the day: “Try hot shots, mate.

They’re always short of drivers.”

A hot shot company, he explained, specialises in emergency deliveries. It doesn’t do scheduled runs; it simply responds to drop-everything-andsend-it-now calls by dispatching a

two-driver truck. One that doesn’t stop, in other words.

My trucker buddy proved to be spot-on. They practically offered me a job over the phone. And it was too good to be true. I’d be driving unimaginably long distances anywhere across the continent, passing endearing one-pump desert settlements, while racking up mileage that would make your brain pop.

Pretty much every trip, it turned out, involved hauling something to a mine site. I never grasped what those somethings were. But the recipients did … sometimes.

Often, they were delirious to receive their thing. But some were strangely underwhelmed, even surprised, to hear that someone had put in a panicked phone call the day before.

Richard funded his travels by working as a truck driver.

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DENTSU00016

profile

FAST FACTS

My routine went something like this: a co-driver and I would assemble at the yard in Kewdale, grab our instructions and head to a depot. Think Halliburton in Jandakot or WesTrac in Hazelmere. At the place of pick-up, I would try to look useful by fumbling hopelessly with ratchet straps (we writers don’t gel with them) before my co-driver did it properly. And then we’d be off.

This being the age of workplace health and safety, it was important to arrive at the mine site (which could be anywhere from Cloncurry to Karratha) correctly kitted. Long trousers, sleeves, steelcaps – none of which you want to be wearing on the Great Northern Highway in January.

Hence, the open-air changing ritual that I’d go through just before the mine came into view. If ever you see a truck pulled over just short of a site entrance, and see a man in underwear duck behind the cab, it’s likely you didn’t dream it.

Still, I never knew if I’d be allowed to join my co-driver inside. I didn’t have a hi-vis uniform, and not many knew what to make of my jeans and safari shirt. I frequently forgot my hard hat. Access depended, really, on who was on the gatehouse and how important they considered themselves.

Mount Keith was the sort of place where they’d wave you in without a worry. Another Western Australian mine, Telfer, is so remote that the notion of them falling under anybody’s jurisdiction at all is faintly ridiculous.

They know it, too.

Sometimes it wasn’t uniform strife that kept me at the gates – 3am wasn’t a good time to arrive

at deserted Jimblebar. Once, we arrived at Brockman to find the internal roads had been rained on, apparently impassable. We sat outside the gatehouse for an entire afternoon, keeping a beady eye on the racehorse-sized goanna lurking in the car park.

I still can’t comprehend why, when most mining is in the Pilbara, equipment gets trucked 1000-plus kilometres up from Perth, where there’s no mining. If I had a depot, I’d put mine in Port Hedland.

However, some places are equally far from everywhere – like the exploratory rig we visited beyond Innamincka on South Australia’s Cordillo Downs Road. For that run we hauled some pipes across the Nullarbor, hung a left and drove for about another day and a half on corrugations so bad I feared my eyeballs might fall out. Epic, though, and enough to warrant a night’s sleep in camp. Never has the sight of a bed been so welcome. Ditto the plate of pork chops and veggies.

Apparently, night shift staff tried the pipes while we slept, only to conclude they didn’t fit. So they sent them back to Perth with us. But not before adding some pallets to drop off in Adelaide. Which may look like it’s ‘on the way’ on a map of Australia, but it really isn’t. Insomnia was not a problem we faced on our return run.

I look back on those experiences with fonder feelings than I may have had at the time. But I wouldn’t have had my working holiday any other way. My security induction pass from Mt Whaleback still sits proudly at the top of my souvenir pile.

I still can’t comprehend why, when most mining is in the Pilbara, equipment gets trucked 1000-plus kilometres up from Perth, where there’s no mining.

Hot shot drivers can earn as little as 20 cents per kilometre. That makes a Perth–Newman–Perth run worth $478 before tax – or $18 per hour for the run, typically 26 hours at short notice.

Road trains are limited to two trailers between Perth and Wubin, 280 kilometres up the Great Northern Highway.

Third trailers, often brought up to Wubin by drivers known as ‘dog runners’, are attached there for the run north.

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Check out some of the latest hot properties on the market in our regional towns and cities.

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National

propertyguide

TAX TIME: THE RULE OF THREE Kevin Lee is not an accountant, but as a seasoned property investor he knows that many investors dread tax time. It doesn’t have to be that way. Here are his

three simple steps for avoiding tax time troubles.

WITH ONLY a few weeks

KEVIN LEE

Founder and director of Smart Property Adviser

Kevin Lee is regarded by many as Australia’s most trusted property investment adviser. To attend one of Kevin’s free “No Secrets” Seminars, visit: smartpropertyadviser.com.au

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to go before June 30, property investors should be preparing their tax records now to avoid any stress.

Most investors can recall their rent and purchase price at the drop of a hat, but few know each property’s rates, interest payments, repairs and maintenance costs.

Property investors tend to make the most of the tax laws in Australia – especially the 72.8 per cent of property investors who are fans of negative gearing. (Tip: negative gearing was invented to make a poor investment look better. It’s not a strategy I would recommend for most people and it’s not a sensible long-term investment option. On the other hand, positively geared investors, you’re looking forward to some extra cash that can be put back into improving your property or paid towards your loan.)

Unfortunately, though, when it comes to tax, even savvy investors can lose out by not organising their records throughout the year. To

prepare for the end of the financial year and tax time, investors will benefit from doing the following three things.

1. Know your tax obligations and claimable expenses Do your research, which may involve calling your accountant or the Australian Taxation Office (ATO). Find out everything you need to know about your tax obligations and claimable expenses. Why? So you can file your records in a manner that makes it easy to comply, and so you have a simple method of record keeping. This will help you keep only what you need and will save you time, as you won’t have to dig through mounds of paperwork to find a document or receipt.

Depreciation is a key component for most savvy investors, helping to improve their portfolio’s overall performance.

Last year there was a change to the laws governing depreciation

claims, which means investors can only backdate for missed claims over the past two years, not four years as before. It’s even more crucial now to chase up any outstanding depreciation issues before the ATO blocks you from making these claims in the future.

Your accountant is issued with depreciation guidelines from the ATO. To get the maximum allowable deductions, ensure you have a reputable depreciation report or tax depreciation schedule. A surveyor will be able to provide a detailed depreciation schedule/report, including renovations you may not know about, which may still qualify for a significant deduction.

If your property is in a strata complex, you may be able to make a depreciation claim for a portion of the value of items in common areas, such as carpets and furniture in the foyer.

Visit depreciator.com.au for an ATO-compliant tax depreciation schedule.

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2. Organise your records The law says you’re required to keep your receipts and paperwork for up to five years as proof for taxation audits or investigations.

When sorting out your records, having a system is important. It may be time to ditch the trusty ol’ shoebox and embrace technology, including cloud hosting. If you’re not confident using technology, at least make a handwritten note of transactions in a financial diary or enter the data into an Excel spreadsheet.

One of the best tools I’ve seen for staying organised is an iPhone app called Shoeboxed (shoeboxed. com.au). It organises your receipts, invoices and other documents online, improving storage of your investment property records.

Using Shoeboxed for data storage may save you money on your accounting bill, as the data can be uploaded without manually entering it.

While you’re required to keep printed receipts and/or digital copies, recording your expenses in an Excel spreadsheet will help you clarify where your money is being spent and how much you need to budget for next year. Make a habit of entering receipts and expenses into an Excel spreadsheet or Shoeboxed on a regular basis – that way you won’t have to spend hours doing it at crunch time.

Investors with multiple properties will find things a little more complex and it’s easy to let the details slip past. To stay on top of your tax-related record keeping, keep a different file or spreadsheet for each property and keep your records for each one separate.

Take the time to ensure this is done to the highest standard and you’ll reap the benefits at tax time.

My accountant says you need to keep these records: • receipts for legal fees paid • a copy of the contract and

settlement advice to verify the purchase price • receipts for all capital expenses • receipts for pest and building inspections • receipts for agent, body corporate and advertising fees • receipts for building maintenance and repairs • copies of landlord, building and other property-related insurance policies • receipts for cleaning and pest control • copies of council rates, water, electricity and gas charges • copies of strata levy notices • records of any loan fees • loan statements for interest payments • records of travel to and from the property • receipts for accommodation and meals (if your property is interstate) • copies of land tax notices • quantity surveyor’s report/ depreciation schedule • receipts for renovation and repairs.

Tips for managing paperwork: • Streamline it. Create a system that streamlines how you receive and store records. Ask for electronic copies of receipts and statements. Input data into your spreadsheet or diary as soon as possible. Instead of weekly reports, ask for annual reports or statements.

• Duplicate it. It’s crucial to keep a backup of your records. This will minimise the risk of losing your originals.

• Scan it. Scan hard copies and save electronic files to an online cloud hosting system or external hard drive.

Don’t rely on other people

One of the best tools I’ve seen for staying organised is an iPhone app called Shoeboxed. It organises your receipts, invoices and other documents online, improving storage of your records.

– your records are your responsibility. Chase them up and don’t leave it until it’s too late.

Ensure the receipts you receive are clear and legible and have all the required information from the issuing party: date, total amount, GST charges, ABN and the words ‘Tax Invoice’. It’s smart to use a system that enables you to regularly track received receipts and reports, leaving you with a list of what you need to chase.

3. Speak with your property and finance professionals It’s likely you have a property manager, financial planner, mortgage broker and/or accountant, so make use of them.

Ask your property manager to produce an annual rent statement, as well as the regular monthly version. Find out when your next rent review is, and compare the results with other properties in the area. It’s also good to have your property valued.

If your insurance policies have been organised through a financial planner, it’s crucial to speak with them about preparing for tax time, as they may be able to point out details that you have forgotten or missed. This would also be a good time to discuss any changes or expected changes to your investments.

Your property finance should be reviewed as often as possible.

Speak with your mortgage broker or adviser about what’s on offer in terms of a better deal or interest rate. Banks won’t seek you out – it’s up to you to ask.

Well ahead of time, speak with your accountant about where you’re at regarding this year’s tax situation and develop a clear understanding of the process. That way you can better prepare for tax time next year, and it will cease to become a time of year that you dread.

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Property investment made easy!!!

Coomera Grand - Gold Coast Located in the northern Gold Coast suburb of Upper Coomera, Coomera Grand offers affordable house & land packages situated in one of the fastest growing areas in South East Queensland

Houses on the outside - two rentals on the inside The Dual Living property is a revolutionary product that fundamentally boosts the yield and cashflow available from an investment property, changing a negative gearing outlook to one that is positively geared.

From the streetfront it presents as a high-quality single residential home. It’s when you look at the floor plan that the revolutionary design becomes clear.

What appears to be one dwelling on the outside is in fact two dwellings on the inside, producing two incomes.

The fundamentals of this exceptional dual income property type include:

· Positive cashflow from the very first monthly rental payment for most investors · This means that for most investors, the property should be positively geared · Low outgoings - no strata fees, low council rates and water rates, which maximises yields & cashflows · Average investors who are able to borrow 100% will have more net income than previously after all costs are paid · Money in your pocket each week than you would have, if you didn’t own this property · Expected rents are $620.00 per week or more, instead of $400.00 - $450.00 per week · Located in high demand because they are just as affordable as the typical 4-bedroom investment house · If one of the dwellings is vacant for any period, the other will still be producing rent, minimising risk to cash flow

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t

y e

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RESEARCH: EIGHT MUST-KNOW TIPS ANDREW

CROSSLEY

From Australian Property Advisory Group

Andrew Crossley is a property investment advisor and the founder of Australian Property Advisory Group. He is also the author of the #1 International Amazon Best Seller Property Investing Made Simple

What is research and due

diligence? Everyone seems to have an answer to this question.

Many investors are drawn towards innuendo, media hype, and listening to friends, family, and backyard experts.

The real issue, which inadvertently leads to failure, lies in not undertaking proper research. Here are eight must-know points for the where, what and when in property.

This also reinforces why it is important to seek objective advice if you are time poor.

1. Research must be based on facts and figures, and reliable information – unbiased information.

2. Check the position the area is in, in its property cycle. Property cycle refers to the period of time over which

the price of a property changes by being influenced from demographic, economic, and supply and demand changes in the area. Each area may have its own cycle and be at a different stage to other areas.

3. Look at supply and demand in conjunction with population migration.

This is key and is often only looked at in isolation to each other.

4. Look for infrastructure that has actually commenced or is definitely planned, rather than just proposed, as it is much more reliable in producing a tangible, lower risk, better end result.

5. The demographic – this determines the ‘what’ you should buy in the area to lower your vacancy rate risk.

6. Look at data trends – not just the current rate, but where it’s heading – along with capital growth history, vacancy rates, yields, days on market, discounting and auction clearance rates and median house prices.

7. Many people think that when a property has been on the market

for two months, nobody wants it.

Maybe the vendor has been greedy.

Conversely, the agent has normally signed a three-month contract to sell it, and both the vendor and agent may be more agreeable to a lower price.

8. Comparable sales and the timing of these sales is handy information to have up your sleeve and is vital to your negotiations. Research all the similar sales in the area within the past three months.

In summary, narrow down the location – based on borrowing capacity and strategy – bearing in mind the basics of supply versus demand, in conjunction with population growth, and proximity to infrastructure. Also, look for a multiindustry suburb to avoid excessive risk.

If you follow this process, you will dramatically reduce risk, and impact on your lifestyle – and better your future.

For more information visit: australianpropetryadvisorygroup.com.au or contact andrew@austpag.com.au

Many investors are drawn towards innuendo, media hype, and listening to friends, family, and backyard experts.

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National

propertyguide advertorial

Getting rich from real estate isn’t all about ‘flipping’ – for savvy investors prepared to wait out a full property cycle, increased equity may mean never needing to sell.

BUY AND HOLD TO CREATE A PROPERTY ‘GOLDEN GOOSE’ KATH

MALMSTEDT

from Brisbane-based My Property Shop

Thirty-five years

ago, I bought my first block of residential land for $9,000; the land is now worth $300,000.

Seven years later, I bought a second block, part acreage, for $35,000 that is now worth $400,000. That is $700,000 that should be in my portfolio now for me to enjoy in my later years. But I had debts at the time, so I sold them.

If I’d only known then what I know now.

You should always begin an investment strategy with an exit plan in mind. Without such a strategy, it’s easy to get distracted and stray from your path to systematic investing, from the vision you have for your future.

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If you have the thought of selling to get out of debt – which is what I now know is not the way to grow an investment portfolio – let’s look at what would happen if instead, you’d covered your debt by rental income, and could use the equity gained to increase your investment portfolio.

Let’s say you only ever buy three properties in your life.

Here is a scenario: You purchase two wellchosen investment properties for $500,000 each and a family home, also for $500,000; hence the total value of your property holdings is $1,500,000. To make it simple, assume your total loan amount is also $1,500,000.

Remember that tax breaks and rental income will help you fund most of these loan repayments. And we have already ascertained that, typically, well-chosen property will double in value every seven to 10 years. So when you hold investment property through a complete cycle, you become debt-free if you then sell it.

If, instead, you use the equity (what I call ‘lazy money’) as the means to invest in

another property of the same value as that of your first one, you duplicate your investment portfolio for another life cycle.

It’s important to remember that for this strategy to pay off, you need to spend time and effort searching for a sound property in a good location that will increase in value and generate passive, tax-deductible income as it does so – in other words, a well chosen property to invest in.

If you’re not sure of how to go about this, seek the help of an expert. Though it’s not yet as common here as it is in the United States, employing a real estate expert as a ‘buyer’s agent’ can save you time, money and stress – and help you accumulate wealth down the track.

Someone with long-term, comprehensive knowledge of property markets and their

fluctuations, of booming and stagnant localities, or what buyers and tenants want, is critical.

They should also be able to understand your needs and requirements and within those parameters, be able to find suitable properties with long-term investment potential, access early and off-market property listings, and possess smart negotiation skills that can be an invaluable aid in your quest for solid investment property.

Kath Malmstedt brings a wealth of experience in real estate markets nationally, sound knowledge of property investment, a broad contact base and well-honed interpersonal skills to her work, which includes sourcing suitable investment properties, including off-market listings, for clients across Australia and internationally.

Though it’s not yet as common here as it is in the US, employing a real estate expert as a ‘buyer’s agent’ can save you time, money and stress – and help you accumulate substantial wealth down the track.

L B

S

EXPERTS ARE SAYING BRISBANE IS THE NEXT MARKET TO MOVE

So how do you find a good location?

Here are some tips:

1

Avoid getting caught up in the hotspot hype.

Look for areas that will deliver sound and safe returns over the long term, we recommend a ‘buy and hold’ strategy.

2

Keep your options open.

At all times in the property cycle there will be areas that may be better suited to different investors. Question your thoughts on where you’re considering buying and base your decision on factors such as cash flow needs, risk threshold, ability to add value through renovation. If you’re already a Brisbane resident, a property close to where you live might seem logical but formulating a strategy is a better first step.

3

Look for buyer demand.

How long are properties on the market? What’s the capital growth trend in the suburb? Can you see signs of owners investing in their properties? Demographics of Brisbane suburbs move in cycles. Are young families replacing mature-aged couples that no longer require a family-size home?

4

Consider factors that will attract good long-term tenants.

What’s happening in the area? Buying on the Brisbane city fringe is certainly desirable however there are many areas with business hubs that create employment opportunities. Planned infrastructure projects means area growth. People like to live within a reasonable commute to work and have good access to public transport. Close proximity to schools is another big tick.

BUYER’S AGENT

STRATEGISTS

You’re able to do some of this legwork yourself although it’s recommended to also obtain the views and advice of Brisbanebased professionals working within the industry.

The internet can provide copious amounts of research and information but is it the information you need, and is it correct, accurate and up-to-date?

It’s difficult to beat information gathered from people with their feet on the ground.

A lot of serious investors use buyers’ agents because they act solely on their behalf.

Hot Property Specialist Buyers Agency is Brisbane-based, which allows us to provide comprehensive analysis of a spread of Brisbane locations. We value being put to the test, answering questions to ensure your investment matches your buying criteria.

We can’t afford dissatisfied customers because our business relies on referrals.

If you’re in the market please call or email us, first contact is obligation-free. We can discuss what you’re looking for in a property. We may already have a location that’s right for you.

Zoran Solano Buyers’ agent, Hot Property Specialists Buyers Agency VENDOR ADVOCACY

Looking to buy real estate in Brisbane? Don’t do it alone!

PROPERTY MANAGEMENT

SUITE 1/15-17 MONTAGUE ST, GREENSLOPES | P (07) 3170 3760 | E enquiry@hpsba.com.au | W hotpropertyspecialists.com.au

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Bushmob is a small company based in Central Australia that works primarily with young Aboriginal young people (and families) aged between 12 and 25.

Bushmob run an alcohol and drug treatment house, Bush Adventure Therapy, and an Outreach and Multimedia program.

Would YOU be willing to act as a Bushmob patron? Or be willing to make financial contributions or donations? Get in touch!

For more information on Bushmob and its services visit www.bushmob.com.au

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Brand New Townhouses for Sale Each townhouse consists of: - 3 bedrooms & 2 bathrooms - Ensuite & WIR to main - BIR to the second & third bedrooms - Double Lock up garage - Open plan living area - Modern fittings and fixtures - Landscaping with shared recreation area - Deck LISTED: $495,000.00 REF: One11

Contact our Residential Sales Team: Sophie Keily 0408 380 091 Karley Geale 0412 474 341 Commercial Industrial: Nellie Smithurst 0413 121 241 Kim Coghlan 0432 168 952

77 Camooweal Street, Mount Isa Jays Real Estate is family owned and operated, boasting 3 generations who work in the business. As Mount Isa’s largest agent, Jays has remained independent of national franchise agencies, standing alone on its record of professionalism for over 30 years. We strive to give old fashioned service and care, with plenty of local knowledge.

Ph: 07 4744 8000 sales@jaysre.com.au

Investors be aware: Mount Isa continues to have a strong demand for modern, brand new, quality accommodation

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Absolute oceanfront luxury 2 level apartment Situated immediately above Craigmore Rocks - Convent Beach Yamba 3 Bedrooms - 2 Bathrooms - 2 Car

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02 6646 2299

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© 2014 Bose Corporation. All rights reserved. 21 day risk-free trial and free shipping refers to purchases made by phoning 1800 663 004, via www.bose.com.au or from a Bose store. 21 day risk-free trial and free shipping is not available when purchasing from other authorised Bose resellers. Quote reproduced with permission: Tech Guide, 30 August 2013.