WHARF WHISPERS – DARWIN CITY WATERFRONT APPEARS

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May 2006

This time it really is the Dry; blue skies, and the bush fires have started already! The enlarged image left (larger than normal) will give you some idea just how far the sea wall has progressed compared with a similar image from January; click here. The area of water, middle right, is now separated from Kitchener Bay, and will form a protected lagoon, swimming beach and wave pool, that is not subject to tidal movements.



The aerial photo left was lifted from the NT Government web site about the Waterfront Development; our budget doesn't quite stretch to helicopters for site photos! The expanded image shows clearly the enclosed area of water that will become a swimming lagoon with a wave pool. The sea wall is creeping ever closer to the dredge, which is just visible upper centre, close to the shore at the end of it's run.

Looking back from the shore, where our 45 tonne excavator is clearing the batter for the rapidly approaching dredge to tie in, the dredge's cutter is clearly visible. It is raised so that workers can clear the rocks that become jammed in the cutter screen, as the the rocky shore, and any errant remnants of the demolished finger wharf, turn the last few metres of dredging into a real pain!




With prospects improving in the civil field, we bit the bullet and purchased the latest model Hitachi Excavator. It's a 470H-3, the first in Australia, weighing in at a hefty 47 tonne and christened Mat; full specs here. Mat's time at the Waterfront is limited, just a few weeks shakedown, then off to Mataranka quarrying limestone for Northern Cement; this is an annual job to produce industrial lime and will last 'til the rains come again.