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Volume 14, Thursday, June 15, 2017
50 years for tourist icon Margot Duke recently celebrated 50 years of Andamooka Duke’s Bottlehouse Motel, initially started by her parents in 1967.
F
ar North icon the Andamooka Duke’s Bottlehouse Motel recently celebrated 50 years in operation, marking half a decade in accommodation, tourism - and opals.
Run today by Margot Duke and her partner Peter Taubers, the business was started by Margot’s parents Rudi and Inge in 1967. “Dad arrived in Andamooka in 1962, and he came home to Adelaide and said ‘we’re all going up’, so we drove up on May 17, 1964,” Ms Duke said. Although her parents tried their luck at opal mining, they eventually opened a guest house in 1967 to supplement their income, and Duke’s Accommodation Establishment was begun. Mr and Mrs Duke ran the motel until he passed away in 1979, with Ms Duke returning to Andamooka to help her mother. “In 1992 I met Peter and we decided that people wanted more upmarket accommodation so we decided we would invest and began to upgrade,” Ms Duke said. “We’ve actually demolished in stages, it’s been a 20-year project rebuilding, but now everything except the bottle house has been replaced.” The iconic bottle house at the front of the premises was originally built by Mr Duke for a local glass blower. “We had a guy who was living across the road and he was a glass blower and he decided that he wanted to blow glass here in Andamooka and make figurines and things, so my dad said ‘oh well, we’ll make you a house of glass’,” Ms Duke said. “So they built the bottle house so that this guy could sit in there and blow glass, but he really left town before he actually got to use it. “For a long time it was an entry way into a small opal shop that we had. And now it’s the icon (of the business), we have had to repair broken bottles over the years because kids used to love to throw rocks at it!” The business has grown and changed in the 50 years, from a “tin shack” being the only guest accommodation in Andamooka initially, to the original motel offering 28 rooms with outside shared toilet and foot-pumped showers. A totally redeveloped, modern site today includes nine motel rooms (with beds for 19 people), commercial kitchen and dining facilities, the Andamooka post office and an opal showroom. For Ms Duke, the 50th anniversary in May was a chance to celebrate, to look back on what her family has achieved, and also remember the many fascinating people that have come through their doors over the years. “This has been a lifestyle rather than a business,” she said. “A lot of people come and say ‘what do you see in this place, why do you stay here?’ but the world comes to me really, I get to speak to different people every day. “We have made lots of beautiful friends over the years and I’ve been able to go to so many places and visit people that have come here.” CONTINUED ON PAGE 10
Door closing on new BHP jobs E
xpressions of interest in 350 new jobs at BHP Olympic Dam close tomorrow.
Announced last month, the roles are based both locally and in Adelaide and have been created as the company expands its underground operation into Olympic Dam’s southern mine area. Olympic Dam Asset President Jacqui McGill said the recruitment drive covered
positions in the southern mine area, as well as operator, trades and functional support roles in areas like health, safety and environment across the underground and surface operations. Project team roles delivering major infrastructure and growth projects in the smelter, Whenan Shaft rehabilitation and a Brownfield expansion project were also available. People new to the resources industry
and women have been encouraged to apply. “Many of our roles are suitable for people who haven’t worked in the resources industry before,” Ms McGill said. “We are looking for people with transferable skills, who are safety focused, team players who look out for each other and have the confidence to speak up and share their ideas.” And with BHP working toward an aspi-
rational company target of a 50/50 gender balance in its workforce by 2025, strong interest has been shown in the vacancies by local women. A BHP spokesperson told The Monitor that 25 per cent of female applicants so far were from Roxby Downs, with 15 per cent from regional South Australia. More information on the vacancies and application process is available at bhpbilliton.com