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Speaker 1: And we try as well every few weeks to catch

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Speaker 1: up with the Darwin Port to find out exactly what's

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Speaker 1: going on out there and joining us in the studio

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Speaker 1: as the Darwinport Operations general manager in Niblock.

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Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Ian, Good morning Katie. How are

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Speaker 2: you mate?

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Speaker 3: I'm great, mate, absolutely, yeah, been busy, busy, been busy, busy. Yeah,

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Speaker 3: there's a lot going on at the moment.

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Speaker 1: It sounds like and I understand that Impecs have got

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Speaker 1: their five hundreds export cargo.

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Speaker 2: What exactly does that make?

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Speaker 3: So that was a combination of LNG, LPG and condensate,

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Speaker 3: which is like a very fine crude oil from both

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Speaker 3: offshore and onshore. So on shore obviously here in Darwin

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Speaker 3: offshore at the at the ys Field and the Linden Pride,

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Speaker 3: which is an LPG carrier took their five hundreds cargo

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Speaker 3: away from Darwin on the sixteenth.

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Speaker 2: There you go.

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Speaker 3: So, you know, I mean, big congratulations, two impacts because

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Speaker 3: it's been done really safely. You know, it's a great

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Speaker 3: success story and the port's really proud to be part

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Speaker 3: of that.

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Speaker 1: I'm surprised there hasn't been a bit more sort of

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Speaker 1: fanfare or a bit more, or maybe there.

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Speaker 3: Has and I've mister well, I'm not sure. Yeah, I

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Speaker 3: know that they did some filming and what have you.

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Speaker 3: So but maybe maybe they're saving you for a special day.

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Speaker 3: If we haven't ruined anything.

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Speaker 2: I'm sorry you haven't.

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Speaker 1: There is also a bit of work though, happening out

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Speaker 1: at the port at the moment, including the enhancement project

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Speaker 1: at Fort Hill Wharf.

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Speaker 2: So what exactly what work are you doing?

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Speaker 3: Okay, so you can imagine Fort Hill Wharf is you know,

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Speaker 3: it's getting on a little bit. It's been been there

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Speaker 3: for a wee while, and the bottom part of it

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Speaker 3: the concrete because it's a piled structure with the concrete deck,

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Speaker 3: it's in the splash zone for salt water, so the

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Speaker 3: concrete over time will deteriorate. So what we've actually done

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Speaker 3: is there's a big beam that holds the whole thing

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Speaker 3: together running down the front. The whole three hundred meters

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Speaker 3: of that beam has been excavated away underneath in small sections,

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Speaker 3: all the reinforcing checked un odes installed and then reconcreted.

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Speaker 2: Would people be able to even see that happening at

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Speaker 2: the moment.

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Speaker 3: Well, you wouldn't see that underneath the wharf, but on

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Speaker 3: the Mooring Dolphin, which sits off to one end towards

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Speaker 3: the naval base. People might have noticed the has been

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Speaker 3: a lot of scale around that, and we've done a

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Speaker 3: similar job there, but we've also installed some much larger,

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Speaker 3: larger ballards. They're the things that the ropes go on

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Speaker 3: to for the ships. So we've put big hooks on

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Speaker 3: the mooring Dolphin and we've put some bigger, bigger mooring

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Speaker 3: bollards along the wharf and that's really about future proofing it.

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Speaker 3: So the concrete work is about protecting the infrastructure, and

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Speaker 3: then the Begger bollards is about Begger ships and making

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Speaker 3: sure that we can have them alongside side.

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Speaker 2: I was going to say, what is like, how come

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Speaker 2: the work is required.

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Speaker 1: Is it just about making sure that if we do

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Speaker 1: end up with, you know, with more ships arriving, that

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Speaker 1: we've got the capacity to deal with that.

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Speaker 3: Well, it is, and it's about you know, we've had

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Speaker 3: inquiries from one of the cruise lines about a three

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Speaker 3: hundred and sixty meter long ship, which is bigger than

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Speaker 3: anything we've ever had before, and of course they've got

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Speaker 3: commensurately more windage so it's about making sure that we

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Speaker 3: can really handle those big ships and we can do

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Speaker 3: that safely, because you know, a ship coming into port,

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Speaker 3: they need to know that what bertha're on is safe

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Speaker 3: and that we can keep them more safely.

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Speaker 1: And so it sounds like the pasity for some of

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Speaker 1: those larger cruise ships when when they open back up

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Speaker 1: or when it opens back up these potentially.

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Speaker 3: Absolutely yeah, yeah, we're there and when obviously we've recognized

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Speaker 3: that we were going to do this work anyway. But

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Speaker 3: in some respects COVID has been helpful because we haven't

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Speaker 3: had the big cruise ships and so we've been able

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Speaker 3: to do this job and unimpeded pretty well.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and you were telling me off there as well,

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Speaker 1: that's there's a new bulk mineral stockpile.

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Speaker 2: Area and I said, you've got no idea what that means.

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Speaker 3: So we've got what We've got a number of drainage

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Speaker 3: ponds and all of our wastewater is all handled. But

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Speaker 3: there's a natural one which is affectionately known as pond B.

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Speaker 3: You know, we're really creative with our names, and we're

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Speaker 3: putting fill into that at the moment, and ultimately that

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Speaker 3: will end up as a nice level seven hectare area

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Speaker 3: that has been compacted, and then we can put a

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Speaker 3: bulk mineral cargo for exports on top, so it could

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Speaker 3: be iron or it could be manganese. There's a number

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Speaker 3: of cargoes that you stockpile outside, so it's just future

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Speaker 3: proof again, so that we know that there's a number

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Speaker 3: of minds are going to start exporting, So this is

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Speaker 3: getting ahead of the game and making sure we've got

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Speaker 3: space for them.

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Speaker 1: And how have things sort of been going over the

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Speaker 1: last you know, the last twelve months or so, I

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Speaker 1: suppose when you talk about those exports, because I know

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Speaker 1: that COVID's had an impact in so many different ways,

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Speaker 1: but it seems as though we've still been able to

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Speaker 1: keep going with a lot of our exports.

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Speaker 2: From the territory.

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Speaker 3: Well, we have, definitely, So livestock has been pretty good.

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Speaker 3: We've noticing a little bit of an upturn in containers

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Speaker 3: at the moment, and that would be a reflection of

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Speaker 3: probably a bit more activity. Huge number of cars coming

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Speaker 3: through the port exact, Yeah, well, I guess people can't

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Speaker 3: spend them one going on trips, so they're buying cars

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Speaker 3: insteads of lots and lots of cars. That's been good.

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Speaker 3: And then the two gas plants, you know, they both

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Speaker 3: had that maintenance periods, but they're still doing their normal

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Speaker 3: numbers back up to one hundred percent capacity. So all

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Speaker 3: in all, the biggest impact is cruise ships and the

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Speaker 3: big cruise ships, because we've got domestic cruisers at the moment,

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Speaker 3: but the big ones are all I've just delayed and

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Speaker 3: people are still making forward bookings. But has there.

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Speaker 1: Been much discussion at this point in time, you know,

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Speaker 1: about when they might resume those larger cruise ships.

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Speaker 2: I guess it's so hard, isn't it, because you know,

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Speaker 2: right at the start, you know, there was real concern

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Speaker 2: around those cruise ships.

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Speaker 3: There is so you know, there's still a federal government

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Speaker 3: ban on international cruise ships coming in and until that changes,

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Speaker 3: we won't see them. And then I guess that once

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Speaker 3: that does change and we open up again, then it'll

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Speaker 3: be about the lines having sold the cruises and then

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Speaker 3: getting the ships back down here because a lot of

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Speaker 3: them they'll be in the northern Hemisphere at the moment.

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Speaker 3: So yeah, it will take time. We're confident that twenty

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Speaker 3: two we'll start to see big ships coming back. We

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Speaker 3: might even get them towards the end of this year

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Speaker 3: if we're lucky.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, oh well we'll wait and see. And nib Block,

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Speaker 1: it's always good to catch up with you. Thanks so

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Speaker 1: much for coming in this morning.

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Speaker 3: It's always my pleasure.

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Speaker 2: Thanks Kadie, thank you.

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Speaker 1: That is the Darwinport Operations General manager there in Niblock

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Speaker 1: knif