KIAMA VILLAGE ACCIDENT SITE

all of the teak internal cabin walls in the accommodation cabins back to their original glory.

The teak main cabin timbers inside and out have been restored. This was achieved by literally hundreds of hours of hand and machine sanding by Rookie and Smokey. The detail on the trim made this task even harder as we have maintained wherever possible the original pieces. To date five coats of varnish have been applied on the outside surfaces and two to the internal. When finished ten coats will be applied to all surfaces.

Scotty, one of the new members has taken over the arduous task of stripping years of built up paint on the flybridge.

Paul O’Keefe who fabricated the starboard rudder from scratch. The original one was damaged beyond repair. The new one, made from stainless steel, is an exact replica of the port bronze rudder. He is also repairing the exhaust tubes damaged when the SIGNA hit the harbour wall when it broke its mooring. We reached out to the Kiama Woodcraft Group for assistance with the intricate one piece, round tapered timber trim mouldings around the air vents and the outrigger poles. One of the members, David Bywater, was able to reproduce the mouldings in the turpentine timber from the demolished house in Minnamurra- ultimate recycling.

A contractor working at the Kiama Village redevelopment was taken to hospital after an onsite accident.

The Bugle understands the contractor fell through a roof on 27 July at roughly 1PM. SafeWork NSW are still investigating the incident.

A spokesperson for Growthbuilt confirmed the good news that the worker was discharged from St George Hospital only a day after the accident. The worker was employed by Noppen Group and was working under Urban Core at the time of the accident.

Four ambulances and three police units attended the site, and workers were immediately evacuated. One of them told The Bugle that a safety audit was being conducted at the time.

A Woolworths Group spokesperson said: "Our thoughts are with the contractor and their family. We’re also offering support to other contractors and team members who were on the site at the time. We are assisting authorities with their investigations.

We’re grateful to the local emergency services who were quickly on the scene to offer assistance."

The worksite remains closed until further notice, as well as the BWS and Woolworths popup shop located within Kiama Village.

However, Kiama Health Pharmacy is still open. Staff told The Bugle that the Woolworths popup store was planned to reopen on 3 August.

by Mark Whalan

The hull has been sanded back and undercoated in readiness for the final coating. Rex has spent hours filling imperfections and sanding them back. The hull will be painted with a resplendent high gloss white. The cleaning of the engine bay and painting was a task that only the fully committed would take on- Rex started and finished the job.

A special thanks go to

After twelve months of hard work the volunteer group is starting to see the light at the end of a very long tunnel. All going well, the hope is that the SIGNA will be back in the water in Kiama Harbour at the end of October. A big day to be shared with the community who has supported our project.

Watch this space… by

Mark Whalan