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Katie gets a Port Report from Darwin Port's Ian Niblock · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: Joining me in the studio right now is Ian Niblock,
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  Speaker 1: Captain I and Niblock, the general manager of operations at
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  Speaker 1: the Darwin Port. Good morning to you.
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  Speaker 2: Ian, Good morning Katie. You haven't seen you for a
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  Speaker 2: week while.
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  Speaker 1: I know I was thinking the same thing. You've been
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  Speaker 1: away have you know?
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  Speaker 2: I had a bit of time off after a little
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  Speaker 2: bit of surgery, but nothing. It's a good.
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  Speaker 1: Sometimes it's good to have a little break now. Ian.
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  Speaker 1: I know that there is so much that goes on
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  Speaker 1: at the port well each and every day. But something
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  Speaker 1: that's pretty interesting right now is there's been an Australian
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  Speaker 1: submarine out there.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, we quite often get submarines out in the
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  Speaker 2: harbor and they go to the submarine Boy that's a
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  Speaker 2: novel name for it. Isn't very great creative people out there.
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  Speaker 2: But this one was one of the Collins class submarines
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  Speaker 2: and came alongside Fort Hill Wharf, which is really unusual.
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  Speaker 2: And you know, submarines aren't like a normal ship shaped.
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  Speaker 2: They've got ballast tanks and all sorts of things and
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  Speaker 2: they've got sonar arrays all over them. So anyway, long
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  Speaker 2: story short, we put the MacArthur, which is the naval
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  Speaker 2: fuel barge put that side Fort Hill Wharf, put some
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  Speaker 2: fenders on it, and then put the submarine outboard of that,
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  Speaker 2: and then they had some repairs they had to do it. Look,
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  Speaker 2: you know, they put scaffolding over the top of the
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  Speaker 2: fen and then did a lot of stuff up. I mean,
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  Speaker 2: it looked like there was lots of electronics in boxes,
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  Speaker 2: so obviously something maybe has been upgraded. But it's so
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  Speaker 2: unusual to have one alongside.
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  Speaker 1: Well, that's what I was wondering. And have people actually
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  Speaker 1: been able to see it or has it not really
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  Speaker 1: been visible to the general public.
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  Speaker 2: Well, it was alongside from the thirteenth to the sixteenth,
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  Speaker 2: so it's a while back. But anyone out in a
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  Speaker 2: boat would definitely have seen it. And if you've been
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  Speaker 2: on Stokeshille Wharf at the eateries, you would have been
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  Speaker 2: able to see it. And the thing is that they're
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  Speaker 2: not really big, and of course they're meant that they
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  Speaker 2: don't have a big profile like a ship because most
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  Speaker 2: of the most of it's just the whole on their
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  Speaker 2: little fin But yeah, people driving past and their boats
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  Speaker 2: would have definitely seen it.
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  Speaker 1: I don't know if I've ever seen a submarine in
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  Speaker 1: real life aside from in the movie.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I've driven one called the Ovens, which is now
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  Speaker 2: in the museum in Fremantle, which is not a reflection
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  Speaker 2: on how old I am. It's in a museum a museum,
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  Speaker 2: but yeah, that was that was interesting that that was
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  Speaker 2: in in New Zealand years ago.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and so we obviously have submarines here fairly often,
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  Speaker 1: you'd said, but this type was a little bit different.
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  Speaker 2: Well just bring this alongside. Yeah, we'll quite often see them,
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  Speaker 2: you know, during the exercises and stuff, and you'll see
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  Speaker 2: one setting out at the boy but very unusual to
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  Speaker 2: have one alongside and certainly, yeah, a bit challenging for
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  Speaker 2: our team, but hey, we rose to the occasion and
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  Speaker 2: it all went well, apparently.
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  Speaker 1: So it starts. Hey, the other thing, this time of
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  Speaker 1: the year, we're all always sort of getting a bit
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  Speaker 1: more prepared for the wet season or for the cyclone season.
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  Speaker 1: I should say, how is that preparation going for you guys.
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  Speaker 2: At the porch? It's going a little bit slower than
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  Speaker 2: I would have liked. But just because we've we've we've
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  Speaker 2: relocated out of our main office in Barrimar and we've
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  Speaker 2: actually put all of the personnel at Eastern Wharf now
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  Speaker 2: in one place, which is great for our business and
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  Speaker 2: fantastic for our for our team, but it's meant that
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  Speaker 2: the cycling plans had to have some more changes. But
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  Speaker 2: we've reviewed the plan. We've reviewed all of our safe
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  Speaker 2: work instructions of which there's about fifty I think that
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  Speaker 2: linked into the plan. We've attended the Northern Territory Government
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  Speaker 2: Transport Group, so we form part of the Transport Group.
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  Speaker 2: So we've done their briefing and we've done two exercises ourselves.
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  Speaker 2: So we had one for our own personnel and then
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  Speaker 2: we had another for our key stakeholders where I run
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  Speaker 2: a scenario, we talk about what we're all going to do,
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  Speaker 2: We recognize were there might be some communication issues and
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  Speaker 2: how we would go about doing those. So it's a
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  Speaker 2: regular annual exercise and it's really valuable.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: And then throughout the wet season and particularly once the
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  Speaker 2: cyclone season starts, I have a weekly meeting that I
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  Speaker 2: chair with the oil and gas stakeholders, and in particular
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  Speaker 2: that we talk about the forthcoming weeks weather forecast or
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  Speaker 2: even looking out a month as we get more into
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  Speaker 2: the season and look at what particularly some of the
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  Speaker 2: ships that we get in can't just put to sea
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  Speaker 2: at any time because of the nature of the design
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  Speaker 2: of the ship. So we have to think. We have
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  Speaker 2: to think. I had a lot more than we would
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  Speaker 2: normally do at this time of the year.
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  Speaker 1: And do you find like, when there is a cyclone
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  Speaker 1: warning called, is everybody able to mobilize pretty quickly? I'm
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  Speaker 1: assuming that you'd have to be able to.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, we have to and we you know, we're looking
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  Speaker 2: at the forecasting and we're looking at the weather systems
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  Speaker 2: ourselves well in advanced so I monitor about four different
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  Speaker 2: weather sites. And the first hint we'll start, we'll start
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  Speaker 2: thinking about what prep we need to make. We make
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  Speaker 2: sure that the port has got there's no loose debris around,
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  Speaker 2: so you know, all those inspections have already been done
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  Speaker 2: this year. And then we'll always go. We'll always go early,
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  Speaker 2: and if need be, I'll talk to the forecasters at
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  Speaker 2: BOMB and just ask them what they think is going
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  Speaker 2: to happen, which is really helpful because if we leave
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  Speaker 2: it till we get the cyclone watch, then you get
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  Speaker 2: the warning. By the time you've done that, it's almost
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  Speaker 2: too late for us. So we need to make sure
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  Speaker 2: if there's a watch going to be issued, we're right
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  Speaker 2: onto it.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah right, And so moved out of out of Bramah. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: how you how come you moved or just to.
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  Speaker 2: Well, I think it was. It was primarily around getting
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  Speaker 2: everyone in one place, you know, because we had teams
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  Speaker 2: located in three locations, which isn't ideal. So now the
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  Speaker 2: majority majority sorry tipping over my tongue, are in one place.
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  Speaker 2: And then we've just got our pilot boat team which
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  Speaker 2: are still at Fort Hill Wharf, but we are aiming
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  Speaker 2: to try and bring them over to eastn Wharf as well,
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  Speaker 2: and then we'll have the whole organization all in one location.
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  Speaker 2: And it's made a big difference already just to the
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  Speaker 2: communication and better understanding of what each of the parts
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  Speaker 2: of the business does.
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  Speaker 1: So it's good well. Captain Ian Niblock, the general manager
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  Speaker 1: of Operations at Darwin Port. We always appreciate your time.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you very much for coming in this morning.
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  Speaker 2: It's my pleasure. Thanks Kay, Thank you