WHARF WHISPERS – DARWIN CITY WATERFRONT APPEARS

MONTH BY MONTH

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March 2006

You could be forgiven for thinking it was April Fools Day, but unfortunately it's the 1st of March and it's no joke! The month got off to a bad start with the news that the dredge can't keep up and that earthworks on the seawall will have to stop for a fortnight. The day just got worse with not one but two 30 tonne excavators getting bogged on the same afternoon as the highest tide of the year; 8.0m. One was saved but the other went under!



Progress was very slow in the earthmoving department, although the swimming excavator was eventually salvaged and the longreach arm refitted to a hire machine. Sitzler Barclay Mowlem JV pushed on and, by the third week of March, were well into preparing the basement for the Convention Centre with Frankipile driving the first of many support piles.

We sat, and we waited, and the dredgies dredged, as fast as they could, but even uncovering an unexploded bomb didn't hold them up for too long. Finally the floor of the first residential peninsula was clear of mud and back they went to preparing the base for the sea wall. Yaaay!!





There was some serious monsoon rain during March, nearly 450mm for the month, but by the end of the month there was real progress on all fronts. SitzlerBM JV had two piling rigs in full swing and fill haulage started in earnest again; artics on the sea wall and the housing area, with the road train fleet back into it.