Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Executive Director of Darwin Harbour Infrastructure Projects Shane Dahlhelm provides an update on the discovery of an unexploded ordnance at Darwin Harbour

Transcript

Executive Director of Darwin Harbour Infrastructure Projects Shane Dahlhelm provides an update on the discovery of an unexploded ordnance at Darwin Harbour · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: As we know, you might have heard that divers have
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: been conducting surveys at this side of the new ship
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: lift in Darwin and yesterday they found an unexploded ordinate
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: and declared an exclusion zone around Darwin Harbor. Now joining
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  Speaker 1: me to tell us more about this discovery, as the
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  Speaker 1: executive director of Darwin Harbor Infrastructure Projects, Shane Delman. Shane,
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: you might have to just tell me how to pronounce
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  Speaker 1: your last name. Good morning to you.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: Good morning Katie, It's Shane Dlhelm.
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  Speaker 1: Oh, good on you, Shane. Thank you so much for
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  Speaker 1: your time this morning. Shane, tell us a little bit
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  Speaker 1: about this unexp exploded ordinate. Is it just an unexploded bomb?
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  Speaker 2: Look, Katie, we're still looking into Its contacted Navy and
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  Speaker 2: the clearance diving team and we're working through that. We
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  Speaker 2: identified an object that might have been a possibility. We
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  Speaker 2: then took that to Defense. They look at it and say, look,
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  Speaker 2: it is possible. It isn't confirmed that it's a UXI
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  Speaker 2: or unexploded audit at this point in time, but for
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  Speaker 2: public safety reasons, we obviously need exclusion zone. So this
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  Speaker 2: is all part of the preparation works the Data Ship
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  Speaker 2: Year project prior to works commencing on site.
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  Speaker 1: All right, So is this a fairly normal thing that
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  Speaker 1: you would expect to happen, you know, when you are
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  Speaker 1: sort of dealing with construction in the Northern Territory.
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  Speaker 2: I know that.
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  Speaker 1: Obviously we do seem to have quite a few of
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  Speaker 1: these unexploded ordinates around at different times.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, Katie, it's for dipple departner, infrastructure planning logistics. It's
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  Speaker 2: not unusual. It's not that frequent either that it does
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  Speaker 2: occur from time to time. I think in my time
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  Speaker 2: in the top end in construction, this is supposed a
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  Speaker 2: third or fourth find, so it's not that frequent, but
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  Speaker 2: it does occur from time to time. It is generally
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  Speaker 2: planned for in the event that we do find something,
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  Speaker 2: so we've got appropriate measures and procedures in place to
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  Speaker 2: ensure that we do with these things in a safe manner.
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  Speaker 1: And how long do you anticipate that that exclusion zone
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  Speaker 1: is sort of going to remain in place or what's
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  Speaker 1: a situation with that.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, So look, we're working with the Navy at the moment.
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  Speaker 2: The clearance dive teams are typically into state, so they're
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  Speaker 2: talking with their teams today and trying to get a
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  Speaker 2: bit of a plan as to when they can deploy
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  Speaker 2: to then come and have a look at it and
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  Speaker 2: determine whether it is the UXO or not. Then depending
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  Speaker 2: on what that scenario, producers will then determine our next
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  Speaker 2: course of action. So at this stage, I'd suggest at
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  Speaker 2: least a few days, if not a week, we'd hope
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  Speaker 2: to wrap it up inside.
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  Speaker 1: A week and do you reckon that's going to cause
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  Speaker 1: much of an impact for people in the area, No.
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  Speaker 2: Katie, In the proximity of the multi years of barge ramp,
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  Speaker 2: it's not heavily frequented by harbor users. Most people that
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  Speaker 2: leave East boat Ramp will traditionally go straight out from
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  Speaker 2: the boat ramp and around Catalina Island. It would only
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  Speaker 2: affect those potentially wanting to run between the barge ramp
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  Speaker 2: and cataline Or Island, which on certain tides isn't possible.
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  Speaker 2: Well anyway, so it should be a very minimal impact,
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  Speaker 2: I would think.
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  Speaker 1: And is it going to be a difficult sort of
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  Speaker 1: you know, difficult situation in terms of retrieving.
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  Speaker 2: It, Well, again, it's really dependent on what Navy finds
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  Speaker 2: and determines. If it is an unexploded ordnance, then there's
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  Speaker 2: a bit of a process to deal with that and
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  Speaker 2: determine the safest way to resolve the matter. Removal of
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  Speaker 2: sometimes an option, sometimes it's not. So it just depends
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  Speaker 2: on what is the safest option, assuming it is at
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  Speaker 2: this point in time, it's not confirmed.
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  Speaker 1: And Shane, what other items are you guys expecting to
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  Speaker 1: find or what are they searching for at this point.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, so basically we do sidescan surveys, magnetomola surveys, which
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  Speaker 2: is effectively a toe behind a vessel metal detector, and
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  Speaker 2: we look for the ferrous and non ferrous objects and
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  Speaker 2: that can sometimes even be rocks with a bit of
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  Speaker 2: magnetic set of property to it. Today we found a
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  Speaker 2: range of things. Some are you minium bent and obscured object,
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  Speaker 2: some beer cans, rifle cartridges, spent rifle cartridges not unusual
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  Speaker 2: as well. For the top end, we've found lengths of
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  Speaker 2: chain and rope attached to them, and shackles and the like,
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  Speaker 2: bits of steel, a car tire, So those sorts of
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  Speaker 2: things are not unusual. UXO is anticipated so that we
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  Speaker 2: have a plan in place, but it's not very frequent.
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  Speaker 1: Well, it certainly sounds very interesting, Shane. We really appreciate
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  Speaker 1: your time this morning. Thanks so much for having a
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  Speaker 1: quick chat with us.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you Katie, thank you