05.00 AM

First alarm.

05.09 AM

Second alarm. Time for the shower of life.

05.45 AM

Drive to work taking in glimpses of the beautiful early morning sunrise and enjoying the relaxing, scenic short commute to Dampier Salt. Arrive at work, Dampier Salt - Port Hedland, WA. Rio Tinto’s Dampier Salt business is 50 years old and is one of Australia’s largest salt producer and exporter.  The salt is used primarily for industrial purposes including chlorine, caustic soda, glass and in the food industry. 

06.00 AM

Pre-start with contracting team for the Field Civil Infrastructure project I’m leading. The project’s objective is to mitigate against identified failure modes and return the field back to growing quality salt and safe operations. This morning we have a team of 18 in our portable office. I’ll report this information to our Operations Manager. We go over yesterday’s work, covering what we did to work more safely and discuss today's safety focus. Today our safety focus is dropped objects.

06.15 AM

Frank safety review of operations with project supervisors. Close out hazards in system.

06.30 AM

Drive around site with DSL project supervisor and senior geotechnical engineering consultant where we stop at two open work areas.

First stop - corner of a crystalliser (area where salt is grown) colloquially known as ‘Simon’s Corner’. Million dollar question is “Who was Simon?”… At the corner we observe the padfoot roller vibrating the subgrade and make a call on whether suitable compaction has been achieved. I value the viewpoint and observations of my team so I ‘pick their brains’ before we make a call. 

Second stop - clay borrow pit. We have been using a dozer and loader to stockpile clay. Material at Simon’s Corner appeared wet so I asked the operator to turn the material over, mixing in the wet with the dry. We will also get the moisture content tested to see if it is within our acceptance criteria. I reflect on how much more comfortable I now am making calls onsite - six months ago I didn’t know anything about designing and managing a borrow pit. Through being onsite and working with experienced operators, I’ve learnt a lot and developed confidence in my ability to lead the project.

07.45 AM

Morning meeting with contractor supervisors and DSL project supervisor who leads the meeting. He focusses on short-term planning and day-to-day operations and my focus is long-term planning and quality control / assurance of construction.

08.30 AM

Debrief with senior geotechnical engineering consultant. I only have him onsite for two days so am asking many questions on our current work.

Prepare for meeting at 11am with project stakeholders. Key in man hours for month end and send off for collation. These figures are sent to the Department of Mines each month. 

11.30 AM

Meeting with project stakeholders which includes superintendents and supervisors across departments, operations manager and site integrated planner. I have been mentored on how to run these meetings and am building confidence in presenting to management and being asked those hard questions! Luckily I managed to arrive three minutes early so have time to connect my laptop to the projector before the meeting starts.

12.20 PM

Drop consultant at airport. Talk about plan for next week.  

12.50 PM

Lunch 

13.20 PM

Prepare for end of year review. My plan and objectives have changed since we put them in at the start of the year. When business priorities shift your role can change. This is ok and I’m learning how to adapt to such change. I fill out my review independently and will talk over my comments with my manager during our one-on-one. 

14.00 PM

Weekly phone catch-up with manager 

15.00 PM

Quiet afternoon so time to sit down and smash out my to-do-list. Service enter invoices for contractors, answer emails prioritising what needs to be attended to first next week, finalise a report, research the methodology for upcoming work, prepare timesheet template for contractor, organise for the clay from the borrow pit to be tested (Atterburg limits and particle size distribution for material gradation). 

16.30 PM

Nearly time to head off but first inspection of structural repair work onsite. 

16.40 PM

Review to do list for Monday and… turn off the laptop. Happy Weekend!

18.00 PM

Water polo game time. In 40 degree heat, the pool is the place to be.

20.00 PM

Dinner… left planning until last minute so looks like it’s Zambreros 

21.30 PM

Bed. Need to be up early tomorrow as spending the weekend volunteering at a Pilbara Indigenous Community with the charity, Fair Game.