What a sweet as day or two

Sailing at Moreton Bay

 

I got an amazing day sailing on Saturday, just turned up at the local yacht club in Moreton Bay.

I ended up crewing on a nice 34ft yacht, not sure what type but she sailed well. She could not point very high but we got it boogying and got our lean on.

 

Returning from the trip with the crew, got beers and homemade sausage rolls - magic!

Just Chilling

Heading for the second mark, good winds and flat seas.

We got out early as, we were a bit of a slow pig and some of the boats were amazing

The little head to head we had. They ended up getting us before the final leg.

 

 

On Sunday I decided to check out EKKA, everyone was going on about it but was not really impressed, small and not very diverse! It felt like going to a large pet day with a few food and clothing stores. The field days at Mystery Creek are far better and more interesting.

So I decided to hit the Maritime Museum.

Old Tug

Ella Watson's yacht, really nice - still in full working order, I did not realise how old this boat was (Built 1984). Crazy to think such a small boat has been round the world.

But then you see this little boat, called Happy II, it has made it around the world - a brave mad man sailed this one.

Old School Floating lighthouse

This boat is amazing you can spend all day walking around her, she is massive.

Well that was my short weekend, good fun may even head out for another sail next weekend as I will be back in Brizzy.

Outback bound

What I have been doing out in the farmland of south-eastern Queensland...

So I have been starting to get my hands on the role and been visiting all parts of the project

So this is Michael and my adventures with Powerlink

This is me and the project managers Alvin and Aaron out mapping the easements going a bit of ground truthing making sure the pylons are not placed in ponds (Melonholes or Gilgi's) and checking to see whether trees like this bottle tree fall within the easement.

Here is one of the melon holes they can be large. Quite strange in such a dry area but these soils are very heavy clays that crack and swell which in turn over time create these wet ponds.

Here is another bottle tree on easement

Out on the plains

Just having a gander at the ALPNG pipeline as we checked out the easement she's a big pipe about 1.5m

Getting my pose on kitted out in my PPE safety first

A tree within a tree

Just checking that the Boys (John Holland) are doing a good job, they are drilling the footings for the pylons took about 30min to drill all four holes to 6.5m not bad.

This is me, supervising the Stringing (getting the conductor up in the air) Gang (BBUGL) after the pylons have been built.

Getting the cable all ready to join up, The reels each have about 2.5km on them and we were doing a run of 6km

The Boss (Inspector) Dan and the stringing crew. He was the only Aussie on the job most of the stringing crew were Philippian and a few Kiwi's and Eastern Europeans. oh and orange shirt pretty much means your the boss. 

Here are the boys joining the conductor Rico the leading hand in orange, making sure shit does not happen.

Here are the blocks with the leading wire. This wire is flown by a chopper, I have not seen this yet maybe next week.

Well this is my adventure in the bush so far, keep you posted.

To infinity and beyond

Ok so where are we? I'm currently about 4.5 hours inland from Brisbane in a small country town called Miles (of about 2,000 people). Random thing about Miles is that all the bar staff are Irish. There are so many Irish out here and a few Kiwis

Shahn is B (Rockhampton) and I'm in A

 Working for a company called Powerlink as a Land Management Officer. Building the ALPNG 132kv power supply lines, a short project. Which is part of a collection system to pump the gas north.

Oh yea and its freezing this far inland easily -1 to -4 in the morning but I am on the inland side of the great dividing range which is really a small hill when compared to New Zealand.

But we can start with my first week of training in Brisbane, at the main office that has an aboretum about a quarter acre that all the office workers look out into it has little ponds and all inside with small bridges and fords very cool.

But best thing was my sweet rental cars for my first week, first I got a nice v6 commodore then I got a calais and it was awesome.

But now I'm out in the middle of nowhere, though there is a lot of work going on, but not too much fun stuff to do. Rent here is crazy $800-$3000 a week for a 3 bedroom house lucky I'm not paying that, but I have work based in Chinchilla. And I have got my self that sweet little pad in the Chinchilla and its nice.

Here is my work Ute and it is sweet as, fully set up for exploring in the rough, with diff lockers, compressor fridge and winch but I'm losing this wagon and getting a Prado at some point - bit gutted

Here is one of the powerstations we are transporting power from (just outside of Miles). Most of this area was cleared a long time ago and is not very productive land so a lot of reveg going on. I am primarily working with the Brigalow belt. This area is also prone to rapid erosion once the soil has been disturbed. Sodic soils are common and the erosion is really amazing, happens so fast.

So we have not been doing too much traveling and looking about in the last two months due to work commitments but.... good news! We now own a 4X4, to get out and about in the vast Australian outback! she is a bit of a beast but hopefully will take us to places no-one has been before,  now do we sell the little echo? not sure...

Shahn has a interview for a position in Toowoomba about 2 hours south of me, the largest inland town in australia.

I have little else to say, just can't wait to have a look around and find some fun things to get into but so it has been full on with work to do this!