Second Quarter 2007 (pdf 4.8 mb)

SECOND QUARTER 07
— REACHING FOR GLOBAL MARKETS
TALL POPPY COVER STORY:
ABORIGINAL ART
THE CHINESE INVEST
in Territory resources
innovations
in aquaculture
Andrew
Liveris
> DOW
Chemical
CEO
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insidethisISSUE
Acknowledgements
Territory Q is published by the
Department of the Chief Minister,
Northern Territory Government.
Correspondence should be directed to
The Department of the Chief Minister,
Communications and Marketing,
GPO Box 4396,
Darwin NT 0801,
Australia.
Welcome to the
sixth edition of
Territory Q.
Telephone 08 8946 9544
Email [email protected]
Writers
Territory Q promotes business and
investment opportunities across the Territory
to national and international audiences.
It also keeps Territorians up-to-date with
what’s happening in their own back yard.
Our cover story takes us out to remote
Territory communities where international art
dealers and collectors meet and get to know
Aboriginal artists in the places they live.
We speak with Andrew Liveris, the
worldwide CEO of Dow Chemical, about the
role his company will play in our economic
future. And we also look at China’s
manufacturing boom and how it’s led to
new relationships between Territory miners
and Chinese business leaders.
Dennis Schulz
Martin Blaszczyk
Stephen Garnett
Samantha McCue
Jo Reiter
Your seat in
the corporate box at the
V8 Supercars
awaits
The Territory Q message has never been
clearer: the Northern Territory is a great
place to live and make a living – and a place
of unlimited opportunity.
Photographics
Dennis Schulz
Wayne Miles
Great Southern Railways
Dow Chemical
Jo Reiter
Major Events
Graham Monro
James Fisher
CSIRO
Menzies School of Health Research
Norman Marine Services
Strategic Aviation
Design/layout
Boyanton Advertising, Darwin
Aboriginal art goes international
4
Riding the Global Freight express
8
Majestic Orchids: the exquisite essence of the tropics
13
The Chinese are coming! The Chinese are coming!!!
16
Compass Mine nears production
18
GBS Gold: sitting on a gold mine
20
Territory Iron feeds the dragon
22
Rogue: world premiere set for Darwin
23
Charmaine Baltis: tropical inspiration
24
Darwin’s seafood farming engine room
28
Home of the prawn whisperers
30
Roughing it: Conways cattle station
32
Small is beautiful on Tanumbirini
36
On the road with Centre Bush Bus
40
Spot on the money: Spotless
41
Moving Defence: Strategic Aviation
42
Big business backs bush fire education
44
Revving the economy: V8 Supercars
46
New business from old water
50
REGULAR FEATURES:
Tall Poppy: Andrew Liveris
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Fast Facts: the Territory economy
52
Stephen Garnett on the knowledge economy
Innovation recognition
Paddock to Plate
Sweet meat
Clare Martin
Chief Minister of the Northern Territory
page46
The Northern Territory Government respects
Indigenous cultures and has attempted to
ensure no material has been included in
Territory Q that is offensive to Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander peoples.
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Cover > Papunya Tula artist Nancy Nungurrayi paints her depiction of Ngami, a rockhole site near Kiwirrkura.
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56
Parting Shots!
© Northern Territory Government 2007
While all reasonable efforts have been made to ensure
that the information contained in this publication is
correct, the information covered is subject to change.
The Northern Territory Government does not assume and
hereby disclaims any express or implied liability whatsoever
to any party for any loss or damage caused by errors
or omissions, whether these errors or omissions result
from negligence, accident or any other cause. Opinions
expressed in Territory Q do not necessarily reflect those of
the Northern Territory Government. Requests and inquiries
concerning reproduction and rights should be addressed
to Communication and Marketing, Department of the
Chief Minister, Northern Territory Government. All images
appearing in Territory Q are protected by copyright.
New shipping link to Indonesia
58
Identeart validates the million dollar painting
58
DOWNLOADyourQ
Enjoy the convenience of e-Territory Q. Download current and past editions,
fully bookmarked and hyperlinked to the web!
Visit www.theterritory.com.au and click on ‘publications’.
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Right > Paddy Japaljarri Simms explains his
painting to Kerry Smallwood.
“C’mon, what’s the
consensus?” demands
Kerry Smallwood in her
California accent, as she
spreads the lavish canvas
atop a dozen others on the
art centre floor. “Is this as
wonderful as I think it is?”
From around the gallery
her art tour colleagues
gather around the painting
by Indigenous artist,
Paddy Japaljarri Simms.
Ms Smallwood is the
curator of the Kelton
Foundation Collection,
the largest catalogue of
Aboriginal art in the United
States, and she’s about to
add to it during this visit to
the Warlukurlangu
Art Centre in Yuendumu,
300 km west of
Alice Springs.
AboriginalArt goesINTERNATIONAL
cover story:
“Splendid,” replies North Carolina
art blogger and collector Will Owen.
“A worthy addition to the Kelton
Collection.” Mr Owen was introduced to
Australian Aboriginal art a decade ago
at a small gallery in New York City.
“It was everything I liked: it was
geometric, it was minimalist, it was color
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field,” he recalls. “Everything I thought
about great contemporary art was there
on the walls of that gallery. Two years
later I was on a plane to Australia.”
The Paddy Simms painting became one
of 20 that Ms Smallwood purchased from
the Warlukurlangu artists, with art tour
buyers making collective purchases of
over $30,000.
The Yuendumu art centre is just one of
17 communities and 24 art centres that
were visited by the American contingent
of the 2007 Indigenous Art Mission. The
tour, plus a second for European buyers,
was organised by the Northern Territory
Government and Austrade, supported
with contributions from Newmont
Mining, Energy Resources of Australia,
Rio Tinto and the Kimberley Development
Corporation. Travelling by commercial
jet, 4WD vehicles and light aircraft, it
was designed to stimulate international
market interest in Aboriginal art by taking
the buyers to the source.
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Right > Nana Booker admires the
beadwork at Maruku Arts
in Mutitjulu.
Below centre > Wolfgang Schlink
with wooden sculpture
at Maruku.
Below right > Kerry Smallwood
checks out the paintings
at Yuendumu.
RIDINGthe
This image > Nancy Nungurrayi
paints for the Papunya Tula artists.
GLOBALFREIGHTEXPRESS
This was the fourth such tour, with the
previous three chalking up over $500,000 in
direct art centre sales. “Our goal is to open
up the market for Aboriginal art in the US,”
says Joel Newman, Business Development
Manager for Austrade in Los Angeles.
“On this tour we put together a group of
delegates including collectors, and dealers
from large institutions that we hope will
continue to purchase works from art centres
on an ongoing basis.”
Most of the delegates saw the tour is a once
in a lifetime opportunity to visit a host of
communities in the desert and Top End that
produce the highest quality work: Kintore,
Yuendumu, Balgo, Maningrida, Yirrkala,
among others. “It’s important in developing
linkages to markets for the future,” explains
John Oster, executive officer of DesArt, the
Central Australian Indigenous art centre
promoter. “The art centre cellar door sales
have been significant, but it’s the building of
relationships that’s even more important.”
Tour delegate Margo Smith, director
and curator of the famous Kluge-Ruhe
Aboriginal Art Collection at the University of
Virginia, is here to support the art centres.
She knows that community art centres not
only authenticate a work’s provenance, but
they also provide economic opportunities
for more than 5000 artists in the Territory.
They act as the bush community’s cultural
centre where young and old meet, often
forming the social hub of the town. “For me
it’s an opportunity to see how the art centres
are working, meet the artists and see their
process, and learn how we fit in with that,”
she says. “Is there a possibility of doing an
exhibition with the art centre? If we wanted
to acquire works or commission works,
how do we go about that? It’s not all about
buying. I’m also thinking about the future.”
It is a future that has never looked brighter.
The national Indigenous art market is
worth an estimated $500 million a year,
with the first million dollar work purchased
in May. Earth’s Creation, a 6.3 m work
by Utopia artist Emily Kame Kngwarreye
was purchased by Alice Springs’ Mbantua
Gallery for $1.056 million. That painting
also was one of the first to bear the new
Identeart certification, complete with a
microdot acknowledgement of the work’s
provenance (see page 58). Identeart
certification is an effort to rid the industry
of unscrupulous traders eager to cash in on
Indigenous art’s growing popularity.
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That popularity is now reaching fine art
markets around the globe. There has been
a recent upswing in European galleries,
keen to exhibit Aboriginal art. But the
potentially huge US market has been
slow to take a commercial interest. Large
exhibitions in major centres like New York
and Los Angeles have been successful, but
according to the tour buyers, they have
been too few to inspire commercial activity
on a wide scale. “The United States has
suffered from the lack of major museum
exhibitions of Aboriginal art,” observes
Nana Booker, owner of the Booker Lowe
Gallery in Houston. “Every major museum
exhibition gives credibility. And the
credibility translates to confidence building
in collectors who are not familiar with the
art. Collectors aren’t instinctive buyers.
They still want to be absolutely certain that
somebody else said it’s OK to buy that art
because it’s got value.”
One of the greatest promoters of Aboriginal
art in America is the Kelton Foundation,
which was the first to exhibit Australian
Aboriginal art in the US in 1982. Richard
Kelton, a California real estate developer,
started his collection of 1200 works while
traveling the Asia Pacific area in the late
70s. In the Pacific, he was dismayed to see
how very few people had continued to
their culture, but when in Australia he was
revitalised after encountering Aboriginal
art. While exhibiting regularly, the art
form is yet to catch on. “We’ve tried over
the years to get art museums to show
the work,” explains Ms Smallwood. “It’s
very difficult because art museums don’t
consider it contemporary art and it’s not
ethnographic enough for natural history
museums. It falls into this no man’s land.”
All the American buyers on the Indigenous
Art Mission agreed that education and a
stronger exhibition presence in the country
would trigger greater interest and more
commercial sales of Aboriginal art in the
States, with greater Australian Government
support being crucial to that success.
It’s an event designed to kick-start business activity.
The Global Freight Connect (GFC) formula is simple: invite the
region’s major logistics, transport, mining and chemical company
executives and their spouses to a conference with a difference
aboard the legendary Ghan passenger train. It’s hoped that within
the relaxed confines of Gold Kangaroo Class carriages, these
like-minded executives
and entrepreneurs
will hatch new
business initiatives
that will ultimately see
more freight travelling
across the outback to all
points between Darwin and
Adelaide.
The buyers, however, did their part.
On the American and European tours,
they purchased over $200,000 in direct
sales and developed relationships with the
community art centres that will continue
well into the future. Nana Booker, for
example, bought 15 works at Yuendumu
and plans an exhibition that will profile
the Warlukurlangu artists. “That’ll be in
November,” she says, “when Yuendumu
comes to Houston.”
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Many of those on board were veterans
of the initial Ghan GFC in 2005. It
was then that the rolling networking
formula was proven to be a successful
way to stimulate transport business.
The focus of that event was on shipping
from the Asian region connecting into
the Port of Darwin. Shipping people
came from Hong Kong and around
the region, relaxing into cross-country
Ghan negotiations. “It saw new trade
from China onto our shipping services
and new investment into the Darwin
Business Park. The idea of a Classified
Goods facility was discussed, which is
now becoming a reality,” explained NT
Government organiser Brian O’Gallagher.
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“We saw about $20 million worth of new
investment come from the last Global
Freight Connect.”
As a result of the first GFC, Chinese
manufacturer Sinoz Chemicals and
Commodities began exporting its mining
chemical agents through the Port of
Darwin for the first time. “It put me
in touch with shippers who weren’t
previously shipping into Darwin because
they didn’t have the volume,” explained
Sinoz Manager Nigel Watt. “It put me in
touch with trucking companies who took
it down from Darwin to the mines across
northern Australia.”
Mr Watt joined the Ghan for this year’s
event, anxious to network and look for
opportunities and new customers. Mining
industry delegates from Mt Isa came
along to test the water and have a look
at the Port of Darwin. Miners stepped on
board, eager to develop transport supply
links to their remote operations. Miner
Robert Brand from Olympia Resources is
set to begin production at the new Harts
Range Mine. ”The ultimate future for
one of our products is to export large
tonnages out of the port of Darwin, for
our overseas markets,” says Mr Brand.
“And when you are delivering several
hundred thousand tonnes, the railway
is the preferred way to do that, and I’m
here to talk about that.”
Bruce Watson, the Utilities Manager
with Swiss mega-miner Xstrata in Mt
Isa, was onboard with a couple other
interested parties from the Isa, looking
for ways of moving mining chemicals
from the port to the site in western
Queensland. Tired of having their goods
backed-up in the busy port of Townsville,
he talked with Freightlink’s CEO,
John Fullerton. “If you reduce your lead
times, you reduce your stock holdings
and therefore you don’t have all your
money tied up in inventory,” says
Mr Watson. “There are advantages by
having a shorter lead time. The freight
costs are pretty attractive as well.”
After arriving in Darwin and touring the
new East Arm Port the next day, the Mt
Isa trio even went as far as to discuss the
possibility of building a spur line from
Three Ways in the Territory, to Mt Isa
– over 600 km away. Mr Fullerton was
diplomatic in his reply. “I wouldn’t rule it
out, but ultimately the volumes have to
justify the construction over such a very
long distance,” he said.
Central to many of the delegates‘
future transport and supply moves will be
Darwin’s new $6 million Classified Goods
facility in Hidden Valley where dangerous
chemicals used in the mining industry
will be stored under high security
before distribution to their destination.
While it is still under construction, the
two principals behind the facility, Alan
Harmer and Chris Dunphy of Adgile
Services, were aboard the train, gauging
the interest of the industry.
And the interest was intense. “We were
able to get a good feel for the industry’s
needs for shipping through Darwin as
an alternate route to market for their
goods,” explained Alan Harmer. “Instead
of everything going by the eastern states
or the west, now it can come into Darwin
direct from Asia and feed into the
Sunbelt of the north of Queensland,
the Northern Territory or WA.”
Mr Harmer believes that many of
those aboard the Ghan on Global
Freight Connect will be “significant
customers” when their doors open
later in the year. He says Darwin offers
real logistics opportunities, especially
in capitalising on back-loading vessels
and freight cars once they’ve unloaded.
“The rates associated with that are
advantageous,” he says.
Sinoz’ Nigel Watt was talking about
his Chinese chemical manufacturing
operation when, suddenly, a man sat
down, thrusting a business card under his
nose. The ‘intruder’ was Gerhard Magis,
the Forwarding and Logistics Advisor to
MIF Forwarding and Logistics, based in
Jakarta. “I’m so pleased I finally found
you,” smiled Mr Magis to Mr Watt.
“I believe we have much to talk about.”
Indeed they did. Mr Magis proceeded
to outline a transport and storage idea
that clearly caught Mr Watt’s interest.
“For us this conference is a marvellous
thing because we’re concentrating on
mining, oil and gas industry,” says
Mr Magis. “I would come back any time
because the organisers have attracted
the right people. The right contacts.”
Far left > Delegates relax over a drink on the Ghan.
Centre left > Delegates network during a Katherine break.
Centre right > Nigel Watt from Sinoz in discussion with Chris Dunphy
of Adgile Services.
Above > Chris Savage from Micron Research enjoys an NT sunset.
This year, around 50 invited industry
delegates made the journey, networking
ways to improve their operations
though savings in delivery time and
transport dollars.
“If you reduce
your lead times,
you reduce your
stock holdings and
therefore you don’t
have all your money
tied up in inventory.”
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regular feature:
He has been called
‘Darwin’s greatest business
export.’ Andrew Liveris is
the Chief Executive Officer
and Chairman of the Board
of Directors of chemicals
and plastics manufacturing
multinational, the Dow
Chemical Company. He
was born and raised in
Darwin before moving to
Brisbane where he studied
chemical engineering
at the University of
Queensland.
Mr Liveris’ 30-year
career with Dow began
in Australia and has
spanned manufacturing,
sales, marketing, new
business development
and management. He
was General Manager of
the company’s operations
in Thailand, and later
head of all Asia-Pacific
operations. Dow uses
natural gas components in
the production of many of
its products. He spoke to
TERRITORY QUARTERLY…
TALL POPPY
: getting the most from our resources
TQ – Having left the Territory so long ago, have
you kept up with Darwin’s economic growth?
AL – Absolutely. We are multigenerational Territorians and I still
have lots of family there. I still have all
of my father’s interests, property-wise,
so I’ve always made a point of
staying connected.
TQ – do you think you’ve taken anything
from your upbringing here in Darwin into the
boardroom of Dow?
AL – I wouldn’t trade my upbringing
in Darwin for anything. There are two
things that are really important: Number
one, Darwin is one of the most diverse
cities in Australia. All the various races
of Asia are there – plus first-generation
immigrants from round the world. It
is a real melting pot. In this day and
age, you’ve got to use the full breadth
of talent around the world to have a
successful corporation and I think that
growing up with that has made it very
easy for me to do that.
Number two, Darwin people leaned on
each other. They worked together and
played together. My Dad was a bluecollar carpenter who built up a successful
business there, and growing up in the
environment of a small community
is something near and dear to Dow
Chemical’s heart. We’re a company
that’s in 150 hometowns around the
world, including our headquarters here
in Michigan. And having the mindset
where small is beautiful, and having
communities to help you on key issues, is
something that I carry to this very day.
Being Australian, one of our country’s
biggest attributes is that we’re not afraid
to take risks. We take on challenges.
We’re itinerants. We’re nomads. We’re
agile and flexible. Sometimes we’re
too straight, too candid. That aspect of
Australia has stayed with me as well.
TQ – Do you think Australia capitalises on
its natural endowments, particularly in the
resources sector?
opportunity. Australia’s resources,
certainly in the oil and gas domain, which
is pertinent to my knowledge base at
Dow Chemical, really don’t get valueadded within the country. That’s mostly
because Australia’s an adherent to the
free-market policies that create a situation
where it makes greater sense to export
the resource at basic fuel value than to
provide a local price for domestic use that
is less than the export price.
If you provide that local price, you can
get the value-add through non-fuel uses
of oil and gas. Think of it this way: it’s
very easy to export oil and gas. But if
you want to invest in an industry that
uses natural gas, you can’t justify that
investment at LNG export prices. You
have to provide a discount and give
the domestic users reason to invest in
Australia rather than the alternatives.
The alternatives to Australia are places
like the Middle East, which do provide
those price incentives. But if you do
choose to provide that subsidy and that
discount in Territory, every job that
gets created in the value-add sector
provides five jobs in the service sector.
And the reason the Middle East countries
make that discount off the free-market
price is that they want to employ their
population in high-value jobs. For
Australia to get an industrial base you
need to create a domestic gas price, and
frankly, that means the politicians have
to intervene to make that happen.
I’ve been around this topic for 30 years.
I was hired by Dow to help build a
petrochemical complex in Australia.
We looked at it in Gladstone; in Sale,
Victoria; we looked at it in Redcliff,
South Australia; in Bunbury, south of
Perth, the Northwest Shelf, and now we
can potentially look at it in Darwin and
the Timor Sea. We’ve gone around the
Australian coast and every time we’ve
gotten close something has stopped
it. But I believe Darwin and Australia
has the rare opportunity to bring it all
together and figure a way to make it
happen this time.
AL – I’ve been very vocal to every
politician that’ll listen that it’s a lost
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TQ – Given the jobs on offer, why hasn’t the
Federal Government delivered a national
domestic price?
TQ – It’s certainly in our interest to create a
manufacturing industry in Darwin. Do you
see that happening now that gas is on shore?
AL – It’s free-market economics. The Howard
Government, and frankly you can’t criticise
them for this, runs one of the most open
and free economies in the world. But there
are some things that need a national policy.
People are saying we need a national
approach to climate change. But a national
approach to climate change really means a
national approach to energy. That means that
Government has to develop that, working
with all the sectors.
AL – We at Dow are definitely interested
and have a team of people looking at ways
of making that happen. I must say that the
coincidence of a boy from Darwin heading
the world’s largest chemical company
shouldn’t be lost on the NT Government.
So a national approach to petrochemicals and
chemicals means you’ve got to say natural gas in
the Territory is worth this much – not exporting it
as LNG. To do that really means people will have
to say, ‘I want those jobs in Australia.’
You’ve got to work with your gas producers
and, instead of exporting the natural gas
liquids, you use them locally to value-add. That
really needs a domestic price, not an export
price. Because, when this stuff gets shipped
to Asia, they make chemicals out of it there,
and then it comes back to Australia as finished
goods, whether it be refrigerators, cars or
plastic bags. So Australia misses the biggest
part of the value chain. You export it as raw
material and it comes back as finished goods.
All the jobs and all the tax that you put on the
middle part is lost to foreign economies.
It would take coordination between the
Federal Government and the Territory
Government, and here let me add that your
Chief Minister, Clare Martin, is very aware of
this and is an advocate to make it happen.
It really needs a strong push at the federal
and Territory level to make it happen.
I believe that if the Territory really wants
value-adding industry to come, and it looks
like the Government there does, then, I do
believe there is a rare opportunity to get a
petrochemical complex based on Timor Sea gas
and condensate put together in the Territory.
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Let me give you a sense of the opportunity:
Dow is investing in the Middle East right now
because of natural gas being priced at a lower
level than the fuel value. We’ve invested over
US$5 billion in Kuwait. We’re investing the
same amount in Oman, and we announced a
project in Saudi Arabia that will be between
US$12 billion and $15 billion. Each one of
those projects will mean thousands of jobs
– engineering and manufacturing jobs in
the chemical sector, which is the highest
paying sector in manufacturing in the USA
and Europe. These would be valuble jobs
for technology graduates from universities.
The compelling reason to do it should be
something the Federal Government grabs
a hold of. And frankly, I’m very open to
coming and helping the Federal Government
work out a way to do it.
When you look at my portfolio of places to
invest, I’m looking at countries in the Middle
East. I’m looking at Russia, at South America.
These are fairly risky places that we have to
manage because that’s where the resources are.
Australia is a very low-risk place to invest, so
frankly, it’s a natural fit if we can make it happen.
Three groups must make one step and
coordinating that is not easy. They are: The
governments – the Federal and the Territory –
and the suppliers of the resource in the Timor
Sea. The third is the company that wants to
value-add, which is hopefully a company like
us. Getting that together needs one of those
parties to coordinate, and frankly, I believe
the chief coordinator has to be the Territory
Government. Clare Martin and her team
there are very conscious of it and are working
very hard on it and they know they have a
willing participant in Dow.
If you look at me as an investor around the
world right now, our company is on the march.
We’re growing in lots of places and it would
be a sweet irony if one of those places was my
hometown. I think one of the biggest questions
I’ll have to cope with at the boardroom is,
‘Are you doing this out of emotion?’
My answer will be very simple: ‘I didn’t
get here by making emotional decisions.’
theEXQUISITEessence
ofthetropics
Mother’s Day is still three
weeks away and already
the phone is barking nonstop at Majestic Orchids.
Customers from across
the country are calling in
their orders for that special
exotic tropical gift for mum
on her day. It’s a family
business; Mark Forster
takes a phone order as
daughter Jenna arranges
a bouquet of orchids for
shipping, and Production
Manager Pauline Forster
heads to the shade house
to collect more blooms.
It’s the Darwin-based
orchid farmer’s frantic
period where they do
about 30 per cent of their
annual business. Selling
direct from the farm to
the customer’s door, both
nationally and globally,
Majestic has become the
largest tropical orchid
producer in Australia.
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Introducing visitors to their product produces
‘customer pull’ and regular future sales.
Below > Mark and Pauline in a Majestic shade house.
This year the Forsters are hoping for a less
eventful Mother’s Day period than last year.
At the end of April 2006, the unseasonably
late Cyclone Monica crashed in from the east,
splashing over 300 mm of rain in one day on
the Top End, nearly ruining the orchid plants
before the blooms could be harvested. Mark
Forster recalls that it was like having a hose
running continually on the flowers for several
days. At that rate a flower eventually gives up
and simply falls over.
It’s taken the best part of a year for their
farming operation to recover the first
such deluge in the business in its 17-year
long history. But if it happens again, the
Forsters will be ready. They have developed
a concertina-like shield that covers the
sprawling shade house flower beds during
cyclonic rain conditions, deflecting the water
off the blooming orchids.
Over that 17-year period, Majestic has
earned a reputation for producing quality,
long lasting tropical orchids, selling them
direct to the customer at competitive prices.
Located near the outer Darwin township of
Berry Springs, where 500,000 mature tropical
orchid plants flower under several acres of
shade houses, Majestic guarantees delivery
of gift bouquets of fresh orchids, spiced
with other tropical flowers, to any Australian
capital city the next working day.
Customers are often astonished at how long
the orchid blooms last. “We guarantee them
for two weeks but generally they last about
a month,’ explains Mark Forster. “But we’ve
had people write to us – and we’ve got lots
of letters – saying that the last flower lasted
up to three months from when they first
received them!”
It is an operation that took years to refine
into the mature business it is today. Majestic
Orchids was originally owned by Mark’s
father, Norm Forster, situated at a nearby
Darwin River location. Tourism to the site was
encouraged and orchid flower sales were
directed to the florists and supermarkets.
However, the florists preferred to buy from
wholesalers and wholesalers preferred to buy
from the markets, with all those costs added
to the product.
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One supermarket chain took the line on and
actually complained that the orchids lasted
too long. In talking with supermarket owners,
Pauline Forster discovered that the flowers
didn’t follow the usual supermarket shopping
cycle. Because the Majestic orchids lasted so
long, people were only buying once a month
rather than every other week. In the end, the
supermarket chain was happy to see them go.
arrangements, delivered fresh for prices well
below florists’ retail prices. “By changing to
the direct sales, we had people buying small
amounts and they were paying by credit
card so our cash flow started to pick up,”
says Mr Forster. “From there it took another
four years before the direct sales reached
a point where we no longer needed to use
wholesalers, supermarkets or florists.”
Mark and Pauline bought the business in
1996, opting to change its marketing thrust.
They decided to distribute the product direct
to the customer, cutting out all the middle
men in between. They perfected methods of
keeping the flowers fresh during shipping,
offering customers gift boxed tropical
Customers recognise quality. The farmers
have spent years producing fine, healthy
orchids, breeding a number of hybrid
flowers themselves. Once a plant is found
that produces brightly colored, long-lasting
flowers they are cloned by the thousands.
Two varieties even bear the company name
– Majestic Whites and Majestic Pinks.
Mrs Forster has produced farming techniques
that were able to produce higher quality
flowers with more vibrant colors. She observed
that flowers growing in certain areas under
certain conditions had more vibrant colors and
better stems. She decided to duplicate those
same conditions in other shade houses, finding
that the entire crop benefited.
With quality assured and direct sales
blossoming, the Forsters are planning a major
move back towards tourism at their new farm.
Introducing visitors to their product produces
‘customer pull’ and regular future sales. But
the improvements required for tourism are still
a few years away. The infrastructure required
to run tours through their shade houses is
expensive, as is the construction of a shaded
café area designed to offer morning and
afternoon teas.
They will soon be planting long rows of
tropical heliconias and gingers which will
enhance their orchid bouquets, offering them
for sale when orchids are not at their peak
flowering in September through February.
“This will give us continuity all year round,”
says Mr Forster. “To be able to deliver that
special bouquet of orchids and tropical
flowers for your special day – whenever it is.”
p
15
Left and below > The Chinese delegation visits the Compass processing plant.
Bottom right > Chen Run‘er, General Secretary of the Changsha Municipal Committee, meets Compass Managing Director Richard Swann.
It was a satisfying moment
for both the Australian
miners and the Chinese
financiers. In the great hall
of Darwin’s Parliament
House, representatives
from Compass Resources
and the Hunan Nonferrous
Metals Corporation had
just publicly signed a deal
formalising a joint venture
agreement that will
see the Chinese invest
$72 million in the
development of the
Brown’s Oxide mining
project near Batchelor
100 km away. ”Frankly,
I’m quite proud of the
way we’ve put this
together with Hunan,”
says a beaming Compass
Chairman, Gordon Toll.
“It’s a model that could be
used more so Australian
and Chinese companies can
cooperate in the resources
area. We have the resources
and they have the market
and the need.”
16
p
not be the last. The burgeoning Chinese
economy, running at over 10 per cent per
annum, demands resources of every variety
to keep manufacturing moving at that
torrid rate. A visit to China last November
by Mining Minister Chris Natt has sparked
interest, resulting in a number of Chinese
companies making reconnaissance trips to
the Territory this year.
Already having visited the Territory are
delegations from CITIC, one of China’s largest
state-owned companies, Legend International,
Global International and representatives from
China Minmetals and Sinosteel. The China
Mining Association and the China Chamber
of Commerce Metals and Minerals, a body
with 4000 members, will sign an MOU with
the Territory Government in November to
stimulate joint ventures in exploration and
mining. The Chamber has already placed the
Territory website on their own.
“The Territory Government is very keen
to work with potential Chinese investors
and introduce them to opportunities here.
However, their Government does mining,
it does manufacturing, it does exploration,
whereas we, in the Territory Government,
do none of that,” says John Carroll, CEO
of the Department of Primary Industry,
Fisheries and Mines (DPIFM). “And getting
the Chinese to understand the differences is
sometimes quite difficult.”
But Territory Government involvement is
considered essential to successful business
negotiations with the Chinese, in order
for them to feel confident that their
investments are secure. The role the NT
Government has chosen to play is that of
a facilitator, opening doors for Australian
mining companies who seek entry into the
Chinese system, and more importantly, the
Chinese entering the Australian system.
Hunan Nonferrous is indicative of many of
the visiting Chinese companies. They are not
private sector companies but state-owned
companies that have been partially privatised.
But they are huge. Hunan is based in the
central Chinese city of Changsha, producing
tungsten, zinc, antimony and lead.
With that facilitation in mind, the NT
Government formed the Chinese Focus Group
to make sure visiting delegations received
the information and attention they deserved.
The Government also sent a second mining
delegation to China in early May this year.
Australians and as for Compass, we feel
they are very competent people and very
trustworthy people,” explains Hunan
Chairman Mr He Renchun.
A vertically integrated company, it is involved
in everything from exploration to mining
and ore processing, as well as smelting and
manufacturing. It controls the largest tungsten
and bismuth reserves in the world.
This delegation was accompanied by two
exploration companies, Arafura Resources and
Sandfire Resources, for introduction to
the Chinese investors.
The Hunan/Compass deal is the first such
resource joint venture to occur in the
Territory but the NT Government and the
Territory mining industry are working
behind the scenes to make sure it will
Because Hunan is basically a provincial
government body, its expectations
of Territory Government involvement in
projects, such as the deal signed
with Compass, need clarification.
relationship—then they’ll do business,”
says Mr Tatzenko.
The NT Government’s long standing
relationship and facilitation role with the
Chinese appears to have paid dividends
for the two Australian resource companies
during the China visit. Arafura’s rare earths
project, to be mined near Alice Springs, will
fill a global demand that exceeds production
by 15 per cent. China is the world’s biggest
supplier of rare earths, used in the production
of quality electronics, LCD/plasma colour
screens, rechargeable batteries and hybrid
cars, and they are now actively talking to
the company about investment, supply and
marketing of their minerals.
Exploration company Sandfire, who holds
extensive tenements in the Territory’s Gulf
Region, has now commenced discussions on
establishing an exploration joint venture
with the Chinese. “This is probably the first
time the Chinese will invest in a ‘greenfields
project’ in Australia,” explains Mr Tatzenko.
“One with no proven deposits or advanced
exploration prospects.”
The Chinese iron and steel market is already
proving a significant market for Territory bulk
minerals. They are buying all of Bootu Creek’s
THE
CHINESE
arecoming!
To the applause of the hundred people
gathered for the signing ceremony, the
Chinese delegation of 30 provincial officials
on hand posed for photos with Compass and
Territory Government officials. It’s taken just
15 months to put this arrangement together
after Hunan’s initial visit to the Territory,
a strong personal relationship already
having developed between the joint
venturers. “We are happy to work with
Leading that delegation was DPIFM’s Steve
Tatzenko, a veteran of Chinese negotiations
who knows that striking up a good personal
relationship between the parties is crucial
to success. “The Chinese look first for
understanding and mutual respect to build a
manganese from OM Holdings and all of
Territory Iron’s iron ore from Frances Creek.
The Chinese iron and steel market is already
proving a significant market for Territory bulk
minerals. They are buying all of Bootu Creek’s
manganese from OM Holdings and all of
Territory Iron’s iron ore from Frances Creek.
There are a growing number of Australian
mining companies hoping that those two
projects are the first of many to arise from
this exciting new relationship.
p
17
”We’re hoping to
attract people who want
to go home at night to
their families.”
compass MINE nears PRODUCTION...
Just a few months ago this
secluded spot behind the
township of Batchelor was
quiet, sparsely populated
scrubland, visited only
by tourists who get lost
on their way to Litchfield
National Park. But today
it’s a hive of workers
and heavy machinery as
construction activity of
the Browns Oxide Mine
crashes into high gear.
With commissioning set
for September, the new
Browns’ plant has risen
from the forest floor,
100 km south of Darwin.
It’s a combination of new
structures, demountables
and a wide array of huge
tanks that indicate the
complex nature of the
mineral processing that will
take place here.
18
p
Left > Construction continues on the
Compass processing plant near Batchelor.
Below > Compass Plant Manager Bob Young.
in the initial stages of development with
HNC. While uranium is, as yet, not targeted
for mining, the mineral is present and the
company will be separating uranium during
the sulfide phase, and stockpiling it as well as
creating a separate company to administer it.
“Separate to our arrangements with HNC, as
a company we have the ability to develop the
uranium on our own,” says Mr Toll. “There
are a lot of people interested in uranium
development, and we’re not short of people
knocking on our door.”
At the open cut mine nearby, ore will be
removed and trucked to the plant for
processing. During the initial oxide phase
of the project, copper cathode (metal)
will be produced, while nickel and cobalt
will be produced as a concentrate. The
much larger sulfide phase, below the
oxide deposit, will require different, even
more complex processing, but will produce
enormous rewards.
The initial construction and development
that will get the project off the ground
is being financed by giant Chinese base
metal producer, Hunan Nonferrous
Metals Corporation (HNC – see previous
story). Their $72 million allocation will
assure the company the resources needed
to produce metals and to manufacture
hard steel tools and drill bits. The
investment is a major win for Compass.
“It means we don’t have to leverage
ourselves up with a lot of debt,” explains
Compass Chairman Gordon Toll. “And it
allows us to push ahead with the next phase
of development with HNC, the much bigger
Sulfide Project which will probably not leave
much change out of A$1 billion by the time
we’ve finished it.”
The magnitude of the project has earned
it Major Project Facilitation status from the
Australian Government. The Browns Oxide
Project will produce 10,000 tonnes a year of
copper metal that is immediately marketable.
It will produce over 1,000 tonnes of cobalt
a year, and just under 1,000 tonnes a year
of nickel. But Browns is quite a small project
compared with the Sulfide Project, which
will produce more than 50,000 tonnes a
year of lead as well as copper and several
thousand tonnes of cobalt and several
thousand tonnes of nickel.
Compass Managing Director Richard Swann
explains the investment deal signed with the
Chinese: “HNC is providing the capital cost
of the processing plant for the Browns Oxide
Project, with their contribution capped at
$72 million,” he says. “They’ll then be financing
the feasibility study for the Sulfide Project,
and the capital cost of that project, up to a
four million tonnes per year project. And the
operating costs of both projects will be on a
50/50 basis between HNC and Compass. On the
exploration joint venture, for the first five years,
HNC will pay 70 per cent of the exploration
expenditure for Territory base metals.”
Like many other emerging mining projects,
the company’s most difficult challenge has
been attracting experienced skilled workers
and mining professionals to run the plant.
“The biggest problem has been to get the
engineers and draftsmen – those people that
set the project going for you – like delivering
the drawings,” explains Bob Young, Plant
Manager for Compass Resources. “It really
has been hard getting those things delivered
on time. The engineering side hasn’t caused a
hold-up, but it’s been a constant battle.”
The company is already employing nearly
100 tradespeople on the construction phase
and the project will create about 80 full-time
ongoing jobs during production. They hope
to attract their entire workforce from the
surrounding area, including Darwin. “We
prefer to have people commute rather than
operate a camp,” says Mr Young. “That has
its own attractions for some people who are
tired of flying in and flying out. We’re hoping
to attract people who want to go home at
night to their families.”
Although the presence of uranium is well
known in the Compass tenements, the
mining of the nuclear fuel is not involved
p
19
Gold fever has well and
truly returned to the
Pine Creek region. Since
Territory Quarterly first
visited GBS Gold’s new
operations in July last year,
the company has mined,
processed and sold more
than $28 million worth of
gold (see TQ Third Quarter
2006). More importantly,
it has increased its
resources, identified
hundreds of prospective
drilling targets and is now
looking to buy whole
new gold mine.
goldMINE
Above > A gold pour at the GBS Union Reefs plant.
SITTINGONa
20
p
The existing processing plant at Union
Reefs was re-commissioned at the end
of August 2006 and the first gold pour
took place a month later, though the
operation was not officially opened by
Chief Minister Clare Martin until early
November. NT Operations Manager
Tom Heaton says the excellent state of
the mothballed plant took everyone by
surprise. “We initially got the mill going
on some low grade tailings sands lying
nearby to test the plant – and everything
there worked perfectly well right from
the start!” he says. “From there it was a
mad rush to get the mining operations
up and running.”
We took a tour of those mining operations
with Open Cut Mine Manager Alex Bakalov.
We began with the first two small pits,
Rising Tide and Fountain Head, then it
was onto Brock’s Creek – ‘the high grade
sweetener’. Although as an underground
mine it provides barely a tenth of the mill’s
1.5 million tonne per annum (tpa) processing
rate, Brock’s Creek’s gold-rich ore is presently
the real moneymaker for GBS.
There are many others to come. “This is the
Kalgoorlie of the north,” Mr Bakalov says,
“there are deposits all over this place.”
“Just over there,” he says pointing to
some survey markers below our vantage
point, “they pointed a drill rig in the opposite
direction and discovered a whole new deposit
– it’s now called Tally Ho.”
The processing plant also has another one
million tpa mill, which will process refractory
ores (gold trapped in sulfides requiring a
special recovery process). Additional works
are underway at Union Reefs to build a
bio-oxidation plant and a floatation plant to
concentrate the sulfide minerals. The major
refractory deposit is at the future Maud Creek
mine near Katherine, thought to contain one
million ounces. GBS Gold hopes to get Maud
Creek production going in the middle of 2008.
The other big free-milling deposits lie in
the Cosmo area, just west of the highway,
which will start to be developed from next
year. There is mineralisation along several
kilometres in this area – almost mythically
referred to as the Chinese Big Pit – in a
reference to the 19th century pioneers of
gold mining in the region.
GBS has a number of individual mineable
resources here. But the ultimate goal, if it
proves feasible, would be to join parts of
the 4–5 km stretch into a series of large
pits, which might even include a ‘super-pit’.
“Sections of it string together very nicely,
but there are gaps in between,” says
Tom Heaton. “The idea now is to drill and
fill in those gaps so that everything comes
together as one homogenous ore body.”
Recent drilling at one of the open pits in the
Cosmo area, the Chinese South Extension,
contributed to the company announcing
a 130,000 ounce increase to its indicated
resources. That brought GBS operations to
a total of 3.8 million ounces (or 118 tonnes)
in gold resources. No doubt more will emerge
from the $6 million exploration program
planned for the dry season.
GBS Gold’s policy of recruiting locally
has thus far been remarkably successful.
Only a handful of the 250 employees and
contractors fly in and fly out.
These are the specialists – mining engineers,
geologists, surveyors, electricians, and
especially underground machinery operators.
“We’ve basically depleted the gene pool
in the Top End,“ Mr Heaton says. “When
Territory Iron and Compass Resources get
going, things are only going to get worse.”
By the end of 2008, once Maud Creek and
Cosmo are up and running, the company
expects to employ up to 400 people.
GBS management is brimming with
confidence. The company recently raised
$51 million to, among other things,
buy the Tom’s Gully mine near Humpty Doo
from Renison Consolidated over the next two
years. The cash and shares deal will instantly
add another half a million ounces to the
company’s gold resource base once Renison
shareholders approve the purchase, which is
expected in July.
Both Maud Creek and Cosmo have a
projected 10-year life span but no one at
GBS believes that will be the end of the
venture. “This is the most under-explored
prospective area in Australia,” Mr Heaton
says. “We’re hoping to find the big one; it’s
just a question of when, because undoubtedly
we will. There’s one specific area which looks
very, very good. Whether it works out or not,
well… you’ll hear in the news releases.”
This image > Open Cut Mine
Manager Alex Bakalov at the
Rising Tide open pit.
Right > Tony Gallagher holds
a new gold bar valued at
over $130,000.
p
21
In the wooded hills outside Pine Creek,
the sound of heavy machinery can again be heard,
after over 30 years of silence.
Territory Iron’s new Frances Creek mine is
quickly taking shape as earthmovers prepare
to reopen a few old open pits. Water is
pumped from some of the pits that were
mined for iron ore between 1967 and that
fateful Christmas Eve in 1974. That’s when
Cyclone Tracy rampaged through the town of
180 people who once lived there, wrecking
the poorly maintained rail link that tied Pine
Creek to the Port of Darwin. Without proper
infrastructure, mining was not viable.
But now mining is back in the Pine Creek
area with GBS Gold opening an assortment
of operations and Territory Iron utilising the
new Darwin to Adelaide Railway, which
fortuitously passes just 15 km from their
minesite, to ship their ore to the port of
Darwin. The new $24 million bulk handling
facilities just installed at the Port are another
real plus to the economics of the operation.
The emergence of the railway/port is just
one of three occurrences that made mining
viable again at Frances Creek. “Iron ore is
about infrastructure and if it wasn’t there,
we wouldn’t be there,” says Doug Stewart,
Managing Director of Territory Iron. “Another
thing that’s changed is the iron ore market
has taken on extraordinary new life with
demand coming principally out of China’s
iron and steel industry. Prices have nearly
doubled in recent years.”
Thirdly, the mechanics of mining have
improved dramatically. Sixties miners used
50 tonne trucks with 400 horsepower, as
opposed to today’s 100 tonners boasting
1400 HP. The work done by the old township
of 180 people will be accomplished by a
mining camp of just 80 employees.
Many of these hills are made of iron ore,
the exposed rock dark with mineralised
color. The project area itself boasts 5 million
tonnes of reserves and 9 million tonnes of
resources, with 55 known iron deposits in
the area. At Frances Creek there’s a
40 km-long line of iron ore occurrences.
The company has only explored the southern
7-8 km in detail, so initial mineral shipments
will finance ongoing exploration in the area.
Some of that exploration will take place on
other miners’ turf. Because Territory Iron is
not likely to mine gold and neighbouring
GBS Gold is not interested in iron ore, the
two have agreed to explore each other’s
tenements for what they need.
The agreement allows Territory Iron to
extend its exploration range into promising
areas as yet untouched.
The company plans on producing 1.5 million
tonnes of iron ore a year for at least five years,
which will be shipped to the busy smelters of
China. “The dragon is hungry and requires
feeding,” says Mr Stewart. “And we’re
delighted to do that because it’s an enormous
market and because of proximity, it is the
most attractive market by far. If you poke your
head up in China and look for the nearest
significant iron ore port – you’ll see Darwin.”
This image > Earthworks at the Frances Creek site.
TERRITORYIRON
feedsTHEDRAGON
Rogue
22
setforDARWIN
This image > Actor Radha Mitchell
in deep water in Rogue.
Above > American actor Michael
Vartan aboard the fateful tour boat.
Left > Actor Michael Vartan.
Greg McLean’s giant
man-eating crocodile will
rise from beneath the lotus
lilies of a Kakadu billabong
into a theatre near you in
August – so watch for it!
But before it’s released in
Australia or in 1300 cinemas
in North America in October,
the film will have its world
premiere in Darwin, near the
lush landscapes that formed
its backdrop.
p
WORLDPREMIERE
Rogue is a $30 million Australian film written and directed by Greg McLean, the man who
scared audiences witless with his 2005 sleeper, Wolf Creek. The Rogue yarn revolves around
a 7m saltwater crocodile stalking a boatful of potential meals as they enjoy a relaxing tour
of the Katherine Gorge.
It is the latest major feature to take advantage of the unique landscapes available to
filmmakers in the Northern Territory. Rogue’s locations were not all that far (as the eagle flies)
from Arnhem Land where director Rolf de Heer and his cast and crew shot award-winning
Ten Canoes, or from Darwin where Baz Lurhmann is set to film scenes from his epic, Australia,
starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman.
The Rogue producers also took advantage of the talents at the Territory’s Film Office, who
scouted locations and assisted with securing the filming permits required for work in national
parks. They are practical duties more and more filmmakers are utilising in order to achieve the
exotic, distinctive results that are only available when shooting in the Territory.
p
23
tropicalinspiration
respect if you like.”
Ms Baltis has come a long way in a short time. While
taking the popular Charles Darwin University fashion
design course, she developed a strong interest in
working with her hands, creating jewellery designs.
She took that interest into an apprenticeship at
Enmore Design Centre in Newtown, Sydney, in 2001
where she not only learned jewellery design but also
the all-important business side. She returned to Darwin
to give business a whirl.
Following an initial successful collection shown
at Framed Gallery, she and partner, photographer
Wayne Miles, made their way to Bali to set up a studio
with a team of six trained jewellers. Today, she takes
some of her collection designs there, shows them how
they are made, and after they make the components,
she imports them back to Darwin.
There’s leggy Texas supermodel Erin Wassin from the States who tries on a pair
of Ms Baltis’s crocodile skin earrings while a reporter from the Herald notes her
choice. International buyers are there too, with Austrade’s BDMs – Business
Development Managers - offering advice. Ms Baltis is keen to export. “She has
some wonderful points of difference in her work – particularly the crocodile
links,” notes Bernie Eggington, export advisor for Austrade Darwin. “The
integrity of her product is very good and some of Austrade’s BDMs in Europe
registered a definite interest in Charmaine’s jewellery.”
While some of those designers exhibiting at the event pulled out when their
work was passed by, Ms Baltis was pleased she came. “There were some who
decided to leave because they were really disappointed with the sales. They
saw it as a trade fair,” she says. “But it was really about marketing and brand
awareness. In that respect, it was very, very successful for me.”
Charmaine Baltis, 31, is a jewellery designer trying to develop a national
business from Darwin – a capital city thousands of kilometres from the
industry epicentre. The Fashion Week experience and the interest generated
by her new Saltwater Collection has added to her confidence that she can
succeed in creating a national market.
This image >
Charmaine Baltis
models her red
coral and barnacle
necklace.
Top right >
Saltwater crocodile
leather bracelet.
Far right > Charm
bracelet and the
Ocean barnacle with
South Sea pearl
neckpiece.
24
of the environment, a totem of
for her jewellery to be used in the Kevin Bacon film,
Death Sentence, and her crocodile cufflinks are also soon
to appear in Crossing Over with Harrison Ford and will be
worn by either Ray Liotta or Sean Penn.
It’s the annual Fashion
Week in Sydney and while
most media attention
is focused firmly on
the catwalk and the
designs showcased here
by Australia’s leaders in
the field, the fashion
industry’s concentration
is much broader. Over at
the ‘Source’, an exhibition
hall where up-and-coming
designers are displaying
their collections and their
‘Look Book’ catalogues,
industry players take the
opportunity to check
out what’s new and eyecatching. One of those
grabbing attention is
Charmaine Baltis from
Darwin, the industry
people admiring her
tropically influenced
jewellery designs.
p
“My designs prompt awareness
The new collection features distinctive designs based on saltwater motifs
common to the Top End: crocodiles, barnacles, and siren-inspired serpents
done in sterling silver and gold, featuring South Sea pearls and crocodile
skin from Territory farm Porosus. Odd subjects for original jewellery?
“My designs prompt awareness of the environment, a totem of respect
if you like,” says Ms Baltis.
However, one person’s ‘odd’ is another’s ‘edgy’. The young designer has
drawn interest from unexpected quarters. Descriptions of her designs
reached players in the American film industry, resulting in purchases made
by Hollywood costume designer Kristin Burke. She contacted Ms Baltis
Ms Baltis then hand-finishes all items herself in her
workshop at her Star Arcade retail outlet. “Getting
some of the heavier silver smithing work made in Bali
means I have greater flexibility for my collections,” she
explains. “It also gives me the time to go out and sell it,
so I began making sales trips to Sydney and Melbourne
to establish myself.”
Local interest in her work is also growing. Her Saltwater
Collection was officially launched at Darwin’s Char
Restaurant with nearly 150 glittering guests showing
up to the event. Local celebrities like Arts Minister
Marion Scrymgour and QC Colin McDonald mingled
with guests wearing Ms Baltis’s creations. Real models
bearing Ms Baltis’s jewellery were seen beneath
banners displaying crocodile skin and sea wasp motifs.
Champagne flowed and the Top End’s unique saltwater
culture was celebrated.
p
25
Trepang are exported to a
seafoodfarmingENGINEROOM
DARWIN’S
With an ever-increasing
global appetite for seafood
and most of the world’s
wild seafood stocks at
their maximum sustainable
limit, the move to a viable
aquaculture industry
could not be more timely.
As science continues
to enhance farming
technology, aquaculture
can fill the gap between
wild catch supply and
consumer demand.
This page > Barramundi breeders in a
Darwin Aquaculture Centre tank.
Far right > Counting fish at the Darwin
Aquaculture Centre.
26
p
strong market in Asia where
they fetch up US $200 a
kilogram dry and the demand
is “fairly insatiable.”
For Darwin, aquaculture seems a natural
fit. Situated on the unpolluted, tropical
waters of the Arafura Sea, the Territory
capital’s warm water temperatures
have dramatic effects on the growth
rate of fish. At the Darwin Aquaculture
Centre, where fish and other seafood
varieties are studied and propagated for
the emerging industry, Manager Glenn
Schipp illustrates that point: “We take
eight to nine weeks to grow barramundi
fingerlings to 100 mm long, whereas
Atlantic salmon take almost 12 months
to get that big. There’s a real advantage
to being in the tropics. They either grow
fast or they’re eaten.”
The Darwin Aquaculture Centre (DAC),
situated at Darwin Harbour’s Channel
Island, has been the engine room for
the local seafood farming industry since
opening their doors at their old Stokes
Hill Power Station site back in 1988. With
Darwin Harbour water flowing through
its tanks, and temperature and feeding
controls reproducing the optimum
scenario for rapid growth, researchers at
the centre are expanding the boundaries
of seafood farming. Not only do they
provide between 1.5 and 2 million
barramundi per year to Top End farms,
but they have developed the technology
to farm mudcrabs, and their researchers
are working with the private sector on
the current pilot program that will see
the first sea cucumber farms initiated
along the north coast.
After nearly 20 years of patient trial
and error, the researchers at the DAC
have refined production techniques
that allow them to supply three farms
operating in the Darwin rural area: Ardatek, WildRiver Seafood and Australian
Barramundi Culture. With their major
markets in Brisbane, Sydney and
Adelaide, the producers are all planning
for expansion. “The market’s strong and
demand is good,” says Bob Richards,
Managing Director of Australian
Barramundi Culture, which adds about
300,000 fingerlings from the DAC to its
ponds every year.
The local aquaculture industry was
stunned last year with the news that
international seafood farmer Marine
Harvest was pulling its operation out of
the Tiwi Islands. The DAC was supplying
the company with millions of fingerlings
that were grown out to fillet size at the
company’s isolated facility at Port Hurd
on Bathurst Island. Marine Harvest was
set to take the current $6 million a year
industry to a projected $50 million in just
two years. However, the parent company
in Europe changed corporate hands
and, as a result, its fledgling Territory
operation was axed. The Territory
Government is currently assisting the Tiwi
community to find a company interested
in taking over the Island’s barramundi
operation vacated by Marine Harvest.
But the Aquaculture Centre’s close
association with the Marine Harvest
operation paid rich dividends in research
results, allowing it to acquire techniques
that have boosted production exponentially.
Through the growth and development of
an innovative larval fish production method
that has included intensification of live
zooplankton feed production as well as
partial automation of the system, it has
dramatically increased productivity and made
the whole process more efficient. In a tank
that once held 60,000 young fish, 300,000
fish now flourish – five times more.
“In the past five years we’ve really pushed
the envelope and come up with a system
that’s taken production from a mediocre
level to probably the most productive
hatchery in the country,” says Mr Schipp.
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27
Thousands of excess barra fingerlings are
released into freshwater impoundments
close to Darwin, enhancing the Top End’s
recreational fishing.
There are those, however, who scoff at the
notion of aquaculture, saying the taste of
farm grown fish is inferior to their wild
counterparts. That’s a notion based on
ignorance, according to DAC staff. They
say that every blind taste test they’ve done
produced top marks from farmed fish. Both
Marine Harvest and Australian Barramundi
Culture have won medals at the Sydney
Royal Easter Show for the culinary quality
of their fish.
Great results have also been made in the
farming of mudcrabs. The Top End delicacy
has been a premier Territory export to
southern capitals for many years and
farming is seen as a way of adding to the
value of this important sea food industry.
The farming of mudcrabs has traditionally
occurred in Asia but the process was
confined to simply growing out wild
caught adolescents. But DAC research has
led to advances in growing the animal
from microscopic sized eggs to a young
animal that can be taken over by farmers.
“In the past five years we’ve really
up with a system that’s taken
production from a mediocre level
to probably the most productive
hatchery in the country.”
28
p
The growing process from hatch to
crablet stage takes approximately 20
days. As the crablets continue to grow
they must be strictly separated by size or
they will eat each other. When they get
to a manageable size (10-12 mm), they
are taken to farms where they get space
to grow – one to two crabs per square
metre. It takes less than six months for
the crabs to reach a marketable size.
A number of coastal Aboriginal
communities are looking at setting up
mudcrab farms, with the Gwalwa Daraniki
Enterprise of the Kulaluk community in
Darwin already using established ponds,
and the community at Maningrida using
net enclosures in the mangroves, to trial
growing out product on a pilot scale. The
DAC’s work has drawn notice from the
marketplace where a full-on mudcrab
farm is not far away.
The same is true for sea cucumbers
or ‘sandfish’, as they’re called in the
seafood industry. The impetus for farming
sandfish comes from national export
giant, Tasmanian Seafoods, a company
that harvests sandfish (or the product,
‘trepang’) from its licences across northern
Australia. They are exported to a strong
market in Asia where they fetch up US
$200 a kilogram dry and the demand is
“fairly insatiable.”
Tasmanian Seafoods originally approached
the DAC about a research and development
operation, and the DAC suggested that
renting space at the centre was the best way
to fast-track the project. Breeding success
quickly followed with the company now
ready to trial farming techniques. “We’re
pretty close to giving it a shot at a pilot
scale now,” explains Will Bowman, hatchery
Manager for Tasmanian Seafoods. “As far
as research goes, it’ll always be ongoing.
You can always do things better.”
Bottom left > Sandfish grown at the DAC.
Centre left > DAC Manager Glenn Schipp
in the lab.
Top left > A breeding barra surfaces.
Above > Jackie Treves at the Kulaluk
Community farm with juvenile mudcrabs.
pushed the envelope and come
Nobody knows exactly where mudcrabs
eggs hatch out but it’s believed the
females travel into deep water, so that
blue water environment is recreated in
the centre. Mudcrabs do not need a male
with them to conceive in the hatchery.
When the female crabs arrive in the
hatchery they already carry sperm with
them previously obtained from a male
in the wild. The females are then able to
complete the fertilisation of the eggs by
themselves. At the DAC the females are
housed under optimal conditions and fed
prime meals of chopped fish, mussels,
cooked prawn and a pelleted diet.
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29
HOMEofTHE
Sheltered inconspicuously
behind the mangroves of
Middle Arm, adjacent to
the Blackwood River,
is Wild River Farmed Seafood,
a multi-million dollar
aquaculture production facility,
owned by Lombard Farms of
Queensland. The spacious blue
ponds, complete with paddle
wheels to aerate the water,
belie the fact that beneath
the calm surface lay tonnes
of live black tiger prawns
and barramundi, soon to be
harvested. Thanks to the
Top End’s tropical temperatures
and disease-free waters,
the company’s employees
will harvest over $1 million
worth of prawns for
the second time in a year.
30
p
The owners researched the aquaculture
industry around the country and abroad,
settling on Darwin as the region where
climate and ocean conditions offer the
greatest opportunities for success.
They believed that the Top End offered
availability of sufficient land and water
resources at cost effective prices, as well
as established trade and freight routes to
Australian and export markets. Reaching the
stage they find themselves at today has been
an extensive 11-year process.
Unlike the tonnes of overseas-produced
prawns imported from Asian farmers, Wild
River’s quality black tiger prawns will be sold
fresh in shops in Darwin and other capital
cities. The company has worked hard to
increase its production, going from 60 tonnes
from their first effort in 2004 to 100 tonnes
today, and a goal of 200 tonnes after more
production ponds are added. “Our focus
is on production,” says Wild River Manager
Matt Seccombe. “It’s a high-risk, low-return
industry at the moment. We’re competing
against very cheap imports from places where
the cost of production is much less than here.”
Prawn production in the NT has been
successful biologically but has struggled
economically against cheap foreign imports
that come in both frozen and uncooked.
Australian farmers and State and Territory
Government bodies have petitioned the
Federal Government to restrict imports on the
grounds that they carry diseases that could
be introduced to the Australian environment.
Left > Hatchery Manager
Colin Shih, the ‘Prawn
Whisperer’.
Above > Wild River Manager
Matt Seccombe at the Middle
Arm prawn ponds.
Top left > Green tiger prawns
ready for harvest.
Top right > Processing
Manager John Jordan with
prawns ready for sale.
Canberra,however, refuses to move on the
issue. “Queensland diagnosticians have
proven categorically that serious exotic
viruses are present in imported green
prawns,” says John Humphrey, Manager of
Aquatic Animal Health for the Department
of Primary Industry, Fisheries and Mines.
“Imported green prawns are a real risk
to our bio-security.”
Wild River, however, has competed well
against the cheaper imports, basing its
marketing on a quality product. “The way
we’re competing is to produce big prawns
that are fresh. And we have a big quality
advantage in the prawns were producing.”
explains Mr Seccombe. The company grows
nothing under a ‘16/20’ – that’s between
16 and 20 prawns to the pound. The crop
currently being harvested is even larger
at 10 to 15 prawns to the pound, with a
competitive 14-day shelf life.
The prawns are produced totally in house.
The spawn are produced at the Wild
River hatchery and will take 180 days
before reaching a harvestable size. The
highly technical hatchery work is done by
Taiwanese Hatchery Manager, Colin Shih,
an aquaculture expert who has earned the
nickname, ‘the Prawn Whisperer.’ Colin is
one of 15 full time employees at Wild River in
hatching, farming and processing, a number
that’s doubled during harvests.
Wild River’s barramundi are grown out
to a 2.5 to 3 kilo fillet size in ponds from
fingerlings bought from the Darwin
Aquaculture Centre (DAC – see previous
article). Like other farmers in the Darwin rural
area the Wild River contingent has formed a
strong association with the scientists at the
DAC. “The role that the Darwin Aquaculture
Centre plays is critical to the long term
survival and viability of the whole industry
up here. Our relationship with them is
invaluable,” states Mr Seccombe.
According to Mr Seccombe, expansion is
the key to future economic sustainability.
Currently there are 27 ha of ponds at the
Blackwood River site, but 115 ha are there
to be utilised.
The company maintains close relations with
other barramundi producers in an effort to
afford their interstate customers a consistent
supply. “It’s pointless all harvesting at the
same time and dumping fish on the market,”
explains Mr Seccombe. “All that does is
weaken the market. Working together is
where the future is.”
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31
They are 21st Century
pioneer pastoralists. The
sophisticated Sydney
career woman and the
softly-spoken Queensland
cowboy took over an
undeveloped outstation in
the Territory’s Top End and,
with the help of investors,
turned it into a fullyoperational cattle station,
complete with modern
tourism facilities. Along the
way, they were tested with
life-threatening privations
more associated with their
19th Century forebears
than their contemporaries,
but always managing to
hang on to their dream of
carving a cattle business
out of the bush.
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Left >
Morgan and Nic Lorimer are the part-owner/managers of Conways Cattle Station,
a sprawling 153,846 ha slice of Territory savannah bordering on wild Arnhem Land.
When the Lorimers arrived four years ago, Conways was an outstation of Mountain
Valley which they leased from the then owners. But two years ago Conways was
excised from Mountain Valley and today the Lorimers are running 3500 head
32
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p
33
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age >
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ustere
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of Brahman breeders on newly fenced pasture, while overseeing the operation of
a successful international hunting enterprise.
However, the apparent success of the venture today belies the hardship and
commitment it took to bring the operation to this point. The Lorimers had
tried for two years to purchase a bargain priced, drought-affected leasehold
property in NSW or Queensland but something always overturned their efforts,
until they heard of the property in the Territory. As they drove down from
Darwin, the former head stockman at Brunette Downs and the retail marketing
executive were impressed with what they saw. “It was the water.” Recalls
Mr Lorimer, “Consistent rainfall and flowing creeks were something we
weren’t used to seeing in Queensland.”
The couple signed a lease with Mountain Valley’s owners and packed their bags.
“We got married,” remembers Mrs Lorimer, “and three days later we got in the car
and drove a convoy of trailers and horses up here. And when we got here there
was just nothing – no power, no water, nothing.” They arrived to find the house on
the property in tatters with, “little black footprints running through it.”
They started from scratch. The couple brought 450 head of cattle to start their
herd but found no secure paddocks. Mr Lorimer’s father chipped in and fencing
and house renovations began. Water had to be pumped from the creek to the
house and they had no power for four months.
Then the house burnt down.
It was Boxing Day, three weeks after the generator had broken down and they
set candles around the house that night. One ignited the wall in the toilet as the
couple slept. Mrs Lorimer heard the sound of glass louvres snapping. In 20 minutes
the whole house was on the ground along with all their possessions.
They were sleeping in the nude and with
all their clothes destroyed, the couple did
not have any clothes on when they drove
to Katherine to report the fire. Mrs Lorimer
went into the shed and pulled out two
horse rugs which they wrapped around
themselves before going into the police
station. They were left with nothing.
Undeterred, they began to rebuild. With
a little help from their friends, they
pitched a camp and watched as a new
kit home was erected. But that was not
the last time fire threatened Conways‘
pioneers. Some time later, while all
their hired help was taking a break in
Katherine, a wildfire swept down from
Arnhem Land, jumping the road and
threatening their prime pasture. In the
dead of night the Lorimers leaped in
the truck and the quad bike and raced
to their far boundary, 20 km away, to
back-burn before the fire destroyed their
fences and their herd’s feed.
They lit fires, back-burning through the
night and the following day, keeping the
wildfire away from their prime paddock and
effectively saving the business. “I’ve never
been so exhausted in my life but we saved
that whole western pasture,” remembers
Mrs Lorimer. “And that felt really good.”
The Lorimers persevered, slowly finding
their feet, when Mountain Valley was
sold and Conways was excised and put up
for sale. But luck came their way when a
consortium of three Kiwi farmers bought
the property, with the Lorimers holding
an interest. One of the investors also
operates Leithen Valley Trophy Hunts in
New Zealand, seeing buffalo hunting on
Conways as a natural extension of their
existing business.
The new owners were keen to see
Conways prosper and over $1 million
worth of improvements went into the
property last year. They added 3200 head
of cattle, 50 km of fencing and built
the Lodge, a smart accommodation and
tourism facility housing staff and guests.
“Our cattle numbers aren’t that high that
we can depend completely on them,”
says Mr Lorimer, “so we need that extra
income and a safety net against a drop
in the cattle export market. If we have
as many forms of income as possible
and try and do them all properly,
we’ll be better off.”
The safari hunting operator brought
in hunters from around the globe, all
seeking that trophy and an outback
experience. “They can have a great
place to stay and a fine meal here at the
Lodge,” explains Leithen Valley’s George
Stewart, “plus a few nights at the bush
camp where they can sit around an open
fire and hear the dingoes howl at night.
That’s what they pay for.”
This year 30 hunters are booked to shoot
feral buffalo, wild pigs and bush bulls.
Mr Stewart believes that Conways has
a water buffalo population of at least
2000 with enough trophy-sized animals
(100 inches from the tip of one horn to
the other) to remain sustainable for
years to come.
Now that the investments have been made
and major improvements completed, 2007
was to be the year when the Lorimers
would see a positive result from all the
hard work. And that may still happen,
but it was dealt a blow when they were
told that Conways is now up for sale,
the investors eager to test the booming
Territory rural real estate market.
They remain philosophical and hopeful.
“You never know,” smiles Mrs Lorimer.
“We may get an investor who’s happy for
Morgan and I stay on and run the place,
and they can just come here and enjoy it
and just watch their money grow.”
This image > Pushing the cattle across a
creek using a quad bike.
Top right > A wild buffalo is among an
estimated 2000 on Conways.
Bottom right > The lounge room of
Conways’ new Lodge facility.
34
p
p
35
SMALLisBEAUTIFULon
TANUMBIRINI
Maria Townsend recalls the first time she and her pastoralist husband Henry
visited Tanumbirini Station. The Gulf Region cattle station, 740 km south
of Darwin, was up for sale, and the Townsends were there looking for
opportunities. She remembers how Henry’s face lit up as they drove through
the paddocks of what appeared to be a poorly maintained property. But the
startling fact was that even though some of the paddocks had been flogged
and infrastructure was a shambles, the cattle looked in top condition.
Then in a quiet moment, Henry smiled at Maria, saying in his soft Yankee drawl,
“We could really do something with this place.”
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36
p
p
37
This page > Tanumbirini Owner/Manager,
Henry Townsend.
Top right > The Townsends’ breeding bulls.
Centre right > Weaners drafted in the
station yards.
Bottom right > Fenced paddocks are
supported by additional water points.
And they did. That was five years ago, and
since then they bought the spacious 5001 sq
km property (‘bigger than Singapore’) and
turned it into one of the most productive
cattle properties in the Territory. In that short
time the Townsends have doubled the size of
their herd from 10,000 to 20,000 head and,
more importantly, quadrupled the volume of
feed. “The Townsends are a great example
of how people can not only improve their
cattle business but the landscape as well,”
says Stuart Kenny, executive director of the NT
Cattlemen’s Association. “Henry’s is a holistic
way of operating a pastoral property where
the country prospers along with the business.”
How do you increase your herd and your
pasture at the same time? Research into
smaller paddocks is continuing on Pigeon
Hole Station by Heytesbury Beef and other
Territory stations are experimenting with
cell grazing, in very small paddocks. Henry
Townsend believes it’s all about smaller
paddocks and low-stress rotation. “Instead
of having one group of cattle in a large
paddock, you separate that large paddock
into four paddocks,” he says. “And then you
rotate the cattle through it throughout the
year. While they are in one paddock, three
paddocks are resting.”
Mr Townsend has proven that the rotation
system creates healthier cattle and landscape.
When cattle are rotated they pick up less
worm and tick problems because they are
always going onto fresh pasture. They are less
selective in what they eat because the feed
is always fresh. Meanwhile the pressure is off
the other 75 per cent of the paddock. “We
have improved the pasture by resting it, not
by planting. We keep the cattle off of them
for a wet season and just let it regenerate,”
states Mr Townsend.
38
p
“My grandparents were 55 years old when
they came to Australia—and they didn’t
come here to retire.”
Smaller paddocks, however, require infrastructure in the form of additional water points
and more fencing. Even with those extra costs, Mr Townsend believes his system to be
cost-effective. He reasons that if you can run the cattle on your property on just a quarter
of the area, you are also using only a quarter of the bores, and a quarter of the diesel
to get around. On Tanumbirini, he’s put in 50 new watering points, all poly tanks with
water gravity-fed through poly pipe connected to existing bores.
Mr Townsend credits much of this ‘small is beautiful’ philosophy to a movement started
by Resource Consulting Services in their eight-day pastoral course held in Katherine every
year. “It’s a life-changing sort of a course,” he says. “They teach you how to look after
the grass, how grass grows, what it needs to be able to grow. The soil. The weather.
They teach you about the lifestyle – working smarter and not harder.”
The results of that system are on show at Tanumbirini, especially among the Townsends’
stud cattle. The progeny of more than 800 Brahman breeders, are DNA tested so they
know which cow the calves belong to. Stud cows have an ID number branded on them.
By keeping these records, bull buyers know how many calves its mother has had. Also
by using multiple sires, the DNA test will identify the most fertile sires. Two hundred
Tanumbirini bulls were sold to Territory buyers last year,.
The Townsend family has always been associated with fine Brahman stock. Mr Townsend’s
father and grandfather relocated from their native Florida to the Territory back in 1961
when Henry was just nine years old. They bought Stapleton Station just outside Darwin,
that was later broken up into LaBelle, Welltree and Litchfield National Park. Henry grew up
with Wangi Falls as his playground.
Always at the forefront of the industry, when
the live cattle trade kicked-off in earnest in
the late 70s, the Townsends were the first to
import Brahman cattle, the favoured species
of Asian buyers, to the Territory. While other
pastoralists were hesitant to replace their
shorthorn variety, the Townsends knew how
well the Brahmans performed in the heat from
their experience in Florida. “LaBelle was really
good to us,” remembers Mr Townsend. “We
were thought of as being those ‘mad Yanks’
up there with their barbed wire. Properties
weren’t fenced off in those days. But my
grandfather always said, ‘if you}re gonna have
cattle, ya gotta have ‘em in a paddock’.”
After leaving LaBelle, the Townsends bought
into a partnership owning and operating
Delamere Station, 150 km west of Katherine.
Purchased for $8 million from the enigmatic
Peter Sherwin, Delamere was sold for
$15 million just a few years later.
Now, after five years of improving
Tanumbirini, the Townsends are anticipating
a new phase of life on the land. They
put the station on the market and, in the
buoyant Territory market, it was snapped
up by Sterling Buntine of Baldy Bay Pty
Limited, with an agreement in place that the
Townsends manage the station for him for a
period of time. That should prove interesting
for a man who has never worked for anybody
before. But, at 54, is retirement an option?
“My grandparents were 55 years old when
they came to Australia,” says Mr Townsend.
“And they didn’t come here to retire.”
p
39
Top > Driver Steve
Chattley with children
bound for Ali Curung.
Bottom > Centre Bush Bus
owner Alan Passmore.
ontheROADwith
CENTREBUSHBUS
This morning we board a CBB service to
Tennant Creek via Ti Tree and Ali Curung.
Driver Steve Chattley sets out in a 20 seat
Coaster at dawn from their base in Alice’s
industrial area, to pick up his passengers from
the hostels and town camps around the town.
They have all pre-booked seats and will pay for
the trip by signing over the ticket price from
their Centrelink Social Security payments. First
stop, the Johnson kids, age eight and 11, and
their auntie are waiting outside the hostel
to travel to Ali Curung. Like most of CBB’s
passengers, the children have been in Alice for
medical treatments, and are now returning to
their bush community.
The specialised service is owned and operated
by Alan Passmore, a former resident at the
Docker River community, 700 km from Alice.
Starting out his bus service nine years ago,
he modelled it to the people’s requirements.
He knew they would have no transport to get
themselves to a bus stand, and with most of
the passengers women and kids, a pick-up
and drop-off service was needed. “When I
lived in Docker River, everyone wanted a ride
to Alice and everyone in Alice was stuck in
town for weeks needing a ride home,”
recalls Mr Passmore. “That’s when I started
the first bus run.”
Today that single service has turned into
scheduled network and charter service
supported by a fleet of 11 buses with
40
p
a new one on order, plus a workforce of
seven full-time and 20 casual staff. It is the
only company in Australia offering regular
services to remote communities, plus charter
work for Batchelor and Yirara Colleges that
takes passengers as far as Dampier on the
WA coast and Darwin, 1500 km away. When
Aboriginal people travel to town for medical
or administrative purposes, the CBB service
gets people in and out faster and at an
affordable price, thereby taking the pressure
off of Indigenous accommodation in Alice.
Centre Bush Bus also carries lifesaving freight
to the communities. They deliver medical
supplies to bush clinics and pathology
samples are delivered to Alice Springs
Hospital, while a custom-built truck with a
freight compartment is added to the Docker
River run so that remote community can
enjoy fresh fruit and veg more often than its
usual four-week general delivery entails.
It is a unique service with inherent high
operational and maintenance costs. Rising
fuel prices are a consistent issue while gravel
roads take their toll on vehicles. But the CBB
maintenance team keeps the buses going
– like the Coaster with 1.5 million km on the
clock. “I want to buy that 30 Series Coaster
when it’s finally retired,” says Mr Chattley.
“It’s really earned my respect.”
Spotless is a name
most Australians
associate with laundry,
or perhaps the national
facilities management
giant that began as a
single dry cleaner in
Melbourne more than
60 years ago. But in the
Top End, the ‘Top 200’
listed company is best
known for holding
the $40 million
Comprehensive
Maintenance Contract
from the Australian
Defence Force – from
which 140 local
businesses get a piece
of the pie.
Top > Spotless Contract Manager Dave Thorpe.
Bottom > Electronic maintenance carried out at
Robertson Barracks.
It’s a transport service
offering travel to
destinations not listed
on the usual bus routes.
Centre Bush Bus (CBB)
operates scheduled
services to communities
with exotic names like
Yuendumu, Kintore,
Pipalyatjara, Docker
River and Papunya—all
Aboriginal communities
scattered across the
Territory’s western desert
area, with CBB often
those centres’ only
regular connection to
the region’s unofficial
capital, Alice Springs.
It’s a service recognising
the special needs of
Indigenous people.
SPOTON
themoney
“We sit under Defence Support,” says
Contract Manager Dave Thorpe, “which
includes all those functions which make
Defence Capability (the weapons and troops)
work. We provide the compressed air supply
that the army mechanic uses on his rattle
gun to change the sprockets on a tank.
We don’t operate the tank, we don’t even
do the maintenance on it, but we provide
the supplies, the workshop building, and
the power. We give him a place to sleep
that’s clean, painted, has reasonable floor
coverings, air conditioning, door locks etc.”
Indeed the Power and Water Corporation
doesn’t cover the electricity supply, sewerage
or water on Commonwealth land, so Spotless
takes over. And the ‘comprehensive’ contract
can mean just that. Spotless’ services span
across Darwin, Robertson Barracks, Katherine
and several military training areas. The
company even assists Defence to rehabilitate
target ranges ripped up after bombing.
Spotless employs 90 people directly, of whom
more than half are trade staff. It has found
it necessary to retain in-house capability for
critical and urgent jobs because of tough
Defence requirements and difficulties
in getting sufficient numbers of quality
contractors. Nevertheless about 83 per cent of
the work goes to local businesses. Mr Thorpe,
who has managed the contract since 2004,
says Spotless has gone to great lengths to
establish close relationships with the industry.
“Where we don’t find the capacity or the
capability – we’ve tried to build it. That’s been
our strength and something we’re really proud
of,” he says. A prime example is Andrew
Cornish, who approached Dave Thorpe in
mid-2003 and “nervously asked how I could
become a Spotless subcontractor”. Today,
Cornish Pacific is a multi-million dollar success
story, and Mr Cornish rattles off a long list
of trade services provided to Spotless – from
earth movers and refrigeration mechanics to
painters and carpenters.
“The Spotless approach and attitude towards
uplifting a small business in the NT was
inspiring,” Mr Cornish says. In the initial
stages of development, Cornish Pacific was
guided by professional advice and moral
support from Spotless management, often
adopting the latter’s policies and procedures.
Spotless’ original three year contract started
in 2001 and has been extended annually,
indicating Defence’s ongoing confidence in its
prime contractor. The company sees a “better
than a 90 per cent chance” of securing the
nine year contract on offer later this year.
“We want a three way win,” Dave Thorpe
says, “for our Defence Client (i.e. taxpayer),
the contractor (Spotless), and the subcontractors. Without them we just couldn’t
do it. Ninety people aren’t going to maintain
over 6000 Defence buildings!”
p
41
“Da-a-a-ad-d-d-d-y-yy home,” shouted two-year old
Ben Pugh as his father, Warrant Officer Justin Pugh,
pushed his heavily laden trolley into Darwin International
Airport’s crowded arrival hall. The excited two-yearold burst from his mother’s grasp, rushing to greet his
father, home from an eight-month tour of duty in Iraq.
But Justin stopped the youngster short, holding him
by the shoulders, staring at his excited son’s three new
front teeth. “Eight months away is a long time,”
he sighs. Embraces all around.
42
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Warrant Officer Pugh was one of 100
defence personnel aboard Strategic Aviation’s
non-stop flight from Kuwait to Darwin,
delivering troops back home in Australia
after their tours of duty in Iraq. It is one of
two return flights that the Brisbane-based
charter company is currently contracted
to fly between Sydney, Darwin and the
Middle East every week. But it is Strategic
Aviation’s Darwin stop, servicing Defence
Forces stationed in the Territory capital, that
has created unprecedented growth for the
fledgling airline.
In September 2006 the company had no
employees staffing its Darwin operations.
Today, nine months later, they boast a
workforce of 48 permanent employees
– from the company’s Darwin Port Manager
and Flight Attendant Manager to cabin
managers, pilots and flight attendants. “Back
when we first started we were probably using
three times as much hotel accommodation
for crew stopovers,” recalls Strategic
Aviation’s Executive Officer Michael James.
“But those requirements have been reduced
because we’ve now got flight crews living
in Darwin and they’re leasing, renting and
buying homes.”
Strategic Aviation has only been in operation
for two years, winning the Defence contract
to move personnel and heavy machinery back
and forth to Afghanistan and the Middle
East. Before engaging the charter company
the Federal Government used a fleet of
aircraft to do the work of the Strategic
Aviation service. They used a cargo aircraft
for cargo, a Hercules transport to move all
the diplomatic cargo with all the troops
transported on commercial services like
Emirates and Gulf Air.
A Hercules can carry 13 tonnes to the Middle
East and will take two and a half days to get
there, going via different airports.
Below > Michael James, with
flight attendants.
Bottom right > ASLAVs loading
on the 747.
Centre > Shaun Aisen, Executive
Director of Strategic Aviation,
with an ASLAV on Strategic
Aviation Boeing 747 at
Amberley Air Force Base.
Far left > Warrant Officer
Justin Pugh, wife Danyon and
kids Ben and Matthew at Darwin
International Airport.
movingDEFENCE
The Airbus has everybody there plus 35
tonnes capacity in 18 hours. “We give
Defence real flexibility,” says Mr James.
“In the first six months of our operation
we saved them approximately $10 million.”
launched their invasion coupled with air
strikes. Just last month they transported two
Australian Light Armoured Vehicles to the
Middle East to replace those destroyed in Iraq
by roadside bombs.
When Strategic Aviation initially won the
contract, they leased foreign aircraft and
crew, but they soon found that it was
Australian accents that the troops returning
home were anxious to hear from the flight
crews. They are not simply normal passengers
going on holidays. They were going to and
returning from long stints in war zones.
The company also operates charter flights for
the corporate and mining sectors, but its core
business is transporting military personnel
like Warrant Officer Pugh back to their loved
ones, most often in Darwin. The company
has made full use of what the city has to
offer, operating out of Darwin International
Airport. All staff uniforms are manufactured
at Territory Uniforms, with Alpha Catering
in Darwin supplying them with 400 meals a
week and Grand Touring providing transfers
for staff. Crew transfers to and from Sydney
provided Holiday Inn Esplanade and Crown
Plaza Darwin with about 2000 room nights
already in the first half of this year.
As a result, the company leased an Airbus
A330 300 wide body but staffed it with
all-Australian flight crews. The results were
positive and immediate, with the troops
responding to the professional service
delivered by Australians just like them.
The flights feature 42 Business Class seats with
those left over spread through Economy Class
so they have a row to themselves, where they
can sleep away the long trips home.
The duties required by Strategic Aviation,
however, do not stop with troop movements.
They are often called upon to provide
emergency services. Last year, the airline
was the first into Cyprus to airlift Australians
stranded in Lebanon when the Israelis
Strategic Aviation’s rapid expansion in
Darwin is continuing. Five more pilots will
be relocating to Darwin in the next few
months in order to maintain a sustainable
twice-weekly service to the Middle East. It is a
company that has, until now, preserved a low
public profile, but its remarkable growth is
about to put an end to that anonymity.
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43
BIGBUSINESSbacks
BUSHfireEDUCATION
sets these businesses apart as
leaders within our community."
In partnership with the Local Government
Association of the Northern Territory (LGANT),
the NTFRS submitted an application under the
Australian Government’s Local Grants Scheme
through Emergency Management Australia,
for funds to produce a fire safety education
package for remote communities.
Grant approval was received in August
2006 and discussions about the content
and style of the program took place in early
September. In mid-September 2006, Alan
Stephens, NTFRS Assistant Director Strategy
and Community Safety and Glenda Ramage,
NTFRS Public Education Officer took their
ideas to Darwin creative agency, Boyanton
Advertising. The small group became more
and more animated as brainstorming grew to
fever-pitch — and SmartSparx was born!
Right > Simon Manzie,
SimonSays Television,
captures the action as
firefighters respond to
the mock alarm
at Darwin’s Illiffe
Street Station.
Inset > ‘Aunty Mary’
(Mouna Dakir) on set.
Above > Firefighter
Michael (JJ) Lew Fatt gave
up his day job temporarily
to play lead character,
Firefighter Max in the
SmartSparx DVD.
Fire education programs are not a new
concept—but SmartSparx is different.
SmartSparx is the first fire education
program specifically targeting remote
Indigenous children and it’s supported
by some of the most influential corporations
in the Territory.
SmartSparx is an innovative program that
embraces Indigenous culture and educates
through music, colour, interactivity, games
and story telling. It's a vital program
made possible by the compassion and
community responsibility from a bunch
of Territory-based businesses who—when
called upon—rose to support these Territory
children without hesitation.
44
to NT communities is what
The need for such a program was made clear
in the 2005 report “Mortality, Morbidity and
Health Care Costs of Injury in the Northern
Territory, 1991-2001”, which disclosed that
the number of Indigenous children, aged four
years and younger, admitted to the serious
burns units in Northern Territory hospitals was
close to double that of the same age bracket
in non-Indigenous children. The Northern
Territory Fire and Rescue Service (NTFRS)
Community Education Unit recognised the
desperate need to develop an education
program and acted swiftly.
"Everybody ready?
Action!" The prompter
starts to scroll and
Firefighter Michael Lew Fatt
delivers his lines as
Firefighter Max.
We're on the set
of SmartSparx,
the Northern Territory Fire
and Rescue Services' new
fire education program.
p
"The high level of commitment
In order to effectively communicate the very
important messages in the SmartSparx kit,
a multi-faceted strategy was developed to
ensure all students learned their lessons
—one way or another.
Top > Local firefighters join the
action as ‘extras’.
Bottom centre > ‘Firefighter John’
(NT Firefighter Darrin Weetra) and
Creative Director, Jo Reiter from
Boyanton Advertising, share
a laugh over the bloopers during
a break in filming.
Bottom right > Concept cover for
the SmartSparx DVD.
Supporting materials include an oversized
storybook with illustrations by noted
Indigenous illustrator Bronwyn Bancroft,
a board game that rolls out on the floor
large enough for eight children to play,
teachers resources including class activities
that are culturally relevant and puppets
for scenario play.
Naturally, development of such materials
to a professional level costs money—
that's where the community spirit of
Territory businesses came to the fore.
A sponsorship prospectus was offered to
Territory businesses and the response was
encouraging. ConocoPhillips signed up as
Platinum Sponsors without hesitation.
"The SmartSparx program is a valuable
educational resource with great
potential," states Mr Wesley Heinold,
ConocoPhillips HSE Team Leader.
"We are proud to be contributing to
such a relevant program that will prove
instrumental in reducing burn injuries
to children within rural communities
throughout the Northern Territory.”
After only a short conversation with Huw
Werratt from McArthur River Mining and
another with Cassie Clark from Alcan
Gove Pty Limited, two new Silver Sponsors
were secured. "It is a joy to promote this
great package. Every person who hears
about it is keen to help in some way,"
says Glenda Ramage. "TIO has also come
on board and on the creative side of this
project, Boyanton Advertising (creative and
project management), SimonSays Television
(DVD production) and DreaMedia (music
CD production) supported the project by
minimising their costs to the project through
in-kind sponsorship."
By November 2006 the team had enough
financial support to start production.
"We're so grateful to the businesses who've
participated—SmartSparx wouldn't be possible
without their support," says Alan Stephens.
"This project is so important to the safety
of Indigenous children, but it is not
mainstream—so these businesses have
participated out of genuine concern and
compassion for these children. Their high
level of commitment to Northern Territory
communities is what sets them apart as
leaders within our community."
SmartSparx is due for completion in
July 2007.
Boyanton Advertising teamed with the
talents of Chris O‘Brien from DreaMedia to
create a music CD with specially written songs,
destined to be the promotional give-away
item. It is the only component that will reach
into the general community, engaging parents
and families through song and getting the
messages into homes.
The SmartSparx kits themselves are loan
items that are borrowed by the schools as
required. The big ticket item is the DVD,
containing 12 chapters addressing the key
points of fire safety, with a heavy focus on
the role of fire in Indigenous communities.
p
45
REVVINGTHEeconomy
Sunday the 24th of June
was a glorious day for
Ford fans in Darwin as
Craig Lowndes cruised
to his second victory in
the final of three races of
the V8 Supercars. Once
again crowned ‘King
of the Valley’, Lowndes
celebrated trouncing his
in-form Holden rivals and
Darwin celebrated its
tenth anniversary hosting
of the V8 Championship
Series round. But as
the Supercars’ wheels
accelerated down the
Hidden Valley straight,
so did those of the city’s
economy, delivering a
direct fuel injection to local
business and trade.
46
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47
Going by attendance figures alone, the V8s is the biggest event on the Territory’s
sporting calendar. But the Supercars weekend gives the locals so much more than
the three days of high-octane action. What most of the 40,000 spectators don’t realise
is that the festival of motorsports brings an interstate army of 5000 into Darwin.
The racing teams and legions of Holden and Ford fans have to be accommodated,
fed and entertained during their stay – making them a favourite of the tourism sector
and a major contributor to the Territory’s dry season economy.
“The entourage that services the V8s is about
600 people,” Mr Cattach says. “There are
about 20 B-double transporters coming from
south-east Queensland and Melbourne.
Most teams stay for about four days – many
will take the opportunity to take a longer
break and go fishing.”
“It is regarded as one of Australia’s biggest entertainment packages,” says Paul
Cattermole, General Manager of the NT Major Events Company, the NT Government
owned corporation that organises the V8s and several other major events on the
Territory’s social calendar. “Every state and jurisdiction are fierce competitors to try
and win the credibility to host a round of the V8s.”
That doesn’t include supporting events like the
Porsches, the grand touring production cars and
the Holden Utes, which together add another
500 to 600 people on top of the V8s figure.
Since the Supercars first came to Darwin in 1998, successive NT Governments have invested
about $20 million in the Hidden Valley race track to produce a ‘sunken asset’ now worth
$80 to $100 million. Progressively, 34 permanent garages were built to accommodate the
teams, along with spectator areas, corporate facilities, and a bitumenised paddock.
The Government also underwrites the $3 million show. “I don’t know of any major
event that could operate without public money,” says Mr Cattermole.
The national organisers of the race, V8 Supercars Australia, attest to where all that
money comes from. Calling the Darwin round a hallmark event, CEO Wayne Cattach,
one time manager of Shell in the Northern Territory, says the Darwin race is possibly the
best attended by share of population in Australia. “Certainly it’s very difficult to get any
accommodation during the race weekend and the planes are absolutely filled as well,”
Mr Cattach says. The organisers have even had to enter into discussions with Qantas
about the possibility of putting on additional flights.
48
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irl
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fro
What is the return on this substantial investment? A good one – according to the figures.
The Government actually ends up spending only about $1 million of its own money.
The rest comes from ticket and corporate sales and sponsorships. In 2004, before
renewing the Supercar contract, NT Major Events was asked to quantify the total value
of the event. KPMG conducted the study and concluded the Supercars injected between
$5 and $11 million dollars into the local economy. (The broad range of figures reflects
different analytical methodologies that can be used to make the calculation.)
Not surprisingly, hotels are the big winners.
Many are known to double their rates
for premium accommodation during the
Supercars week and still be overbooked.
Amy Williamson, Executive Director of
the Australian Hotels Association NT, says
most hotels and hostels are fully booked
leading up to and during the V8s weekend.
“Accommodation is at a premium,” Ms
Williamson says, “but events such as the V8s
bring with them more patrons to all of our
members’ venues – including hotels, clubs
and restaurants. For many businesses in the
hospitality industry it is a welcome influx of
people to Darwin looking for entertainment,
food and fun after a long wet season.”
The initial motivation behind the decision
to attract the Supercars was naturally not
economic. The race is first and foremost
a lifestyle event, giving Territorians the
opportunity to experience live the nation’s
premier road race. But as Paul Cattermole
points out, these lifestyle events have become
integral to business people and the economy.
“We’ve sold in the vicinity of 5600 corporate
seats at an average cost of $325 – that’s $1.8
million gross,” he says. “The majority of that
business is generated from within the Territory.”
A walk through the various classes of
corporate stand on any day of racing
confirms that Territory businesses have
latched onto the Supercars weekend as
a unique opportunity to do some relaxed
networking, entertain clients, or simply
thank their staff with an enjoyable bonding
session. As the V8s are a national event, local
sponsorship opportunities are limited. But
Skycity is the naming sponsor for the third
year in a row and it has signed on for another
three years. The casino provides catering
during the race using 350 to 400 staff over
and above its sponsorship commitment.
A decade on and the Territory Government’s
contract with V8 Supercars Australia has
been renewed for a third time, so business
can plan expenditure around the event for at
least the next five years.
According to Paul Cattermole, governments
today have become acutely aware that
lifestyle is a critical part of why people decide
to live where they do. “For the Territory to
be known as the host of a round is a very
valuable resource,” he says. With two
rounds taking place overseas, the V8s are
also now an international event. And there is
no putting a price on reputation.
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49
50
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newBUSINESSfromoldWATER
a few small ponds confirmed the project’s
science – that water can be treated, captured
and recovered.
The project got the green light and is now
scheduled for completion in September 2007,
with first commercial horticultural plantings
by a foundation client about a year away. It
has been a windfall for local companies who
won $8 million worth of contracts out of the
$10 million budgeted.
They came up with a $10 million water reuse
program that is soon to begin operation.
The project will see waste water treated and
recycled to create a new horticulture industry
for Alice Springs.
Top left > Reused water already
keeps Blatherskite Park green.
Top right > Citrus could be one
of the crops planted at the new
development.
Centre left > At the Treatment
Plant, Mark Skinner surveys the new
pump house .
Bottom left > The new water
storage facility.
Bottom right > The Dissolved Air
Flotation Shed – a complex tank for
processing and clarifying the water.
In an era of drought and
an increasing awareness
of the effects of global
warming, few places in
Australia know the value
of water resources better
than Alice Springs,
situated in the heart of
the country’s arid zone.
That is perhaps why,
when consulted about a
project aimed at reusing
waste water, community
groups, regulators and
Government agreed
overwhelmingly to
proceed with the
project. “We came to
the conclusion that
we really wanted the
wasted water to be
reused, not evaporated,”
explains Power and
Water Corporation’s
Senior Project Manager
Mark Skinner. “So a
number of Government
departments and
the Power and Water
Corporation sat down
and looked at
what we could do.”
Newly constructed infrastructure will process
secondary treated effluent in a filtration
plant, pipe the treated water to a site at
the Arid Zone Research Institute outside the
town where the water will settle in filtration
ponds. The water will be further filtered as
it seeps below the surface and collected
in an underground reservoir. The ancient
underground Todd riverbed will hold the
reused water 30 m below the surface where it
will be protected from evaporation. Pumps will
then irrigate a 300 ha area that will become
the site of the new horticulture industry.
The CSIRO was enlisted to find out if it
was technically feasible and, after research,
they said it could be done. A pilot test with
Probuild won the $2.6 million contract to
construct the buildings at the treatment plant,
Ross Engineering supplied mechanical and
electrical equipment, and Charmban built the
$3 million, 6 km long pipeline to the Arid Zone
ponds. Sitzler Brothers has completed the
treatment pond construction.
Alice Springs produces about 3000 megalitres
of effluent per year, and the project will
initially reuse 600 megalitres, with plans to
double that number. Treated water is already
in use in Alice’s Blatherskite Park, providing
green pasture for horses and keeping the
showgrounds irrigated. The project is not
aiming to produce drinking water, but that
is something that could happen in the future
should the community decide to take that
step. It would need to be treated further
for potable use.
The project drew initial interest from a
horticulture industry keenly aware of
the potential of such a project. In 2002,
expressions of interest were sought with
submissions obtained from citrus, table
grapes and vegetable farmers. But now, five
years later as the project nears completion,
the industry’s attention is more focused.
“There has been a realisation that this is not
just blue sky, that there’s been a $10 million
investment,” says Phil Anning, Department of
Primary Industry, Fisheries and Mines’ (DPIFM)
Regional Director. “We’ve had a number of
parties that made informal expressions of
interest, so we’re now confident that when
we go and ask for more expressions of
interest, that other parties will nominate in a
wide range of horticultural opportunities.”
Tests have shown that water requirements
to grow table grapes will be in the order of
10 megalitres per hectare per year.
A staged development should see a 20 ha
planting in the project’s first year.
The water reuse project will mean
employment and business opportunities
resulting from innovative waste water
management. It is estimated that six
permanent and 50 casual jobs will be
created, with annual earnings approximately
$20,000 per hectare. It is the horticulture
project that Alice Springs has waited for.
“The land is available here. It’s close to the
airport, rail and road,” says Mr Skinner.
“It’s close to the engineering support that a
good horticulture industry needs, plus the
CSIRO and the DPIFM lab. All it really lacked
was a good water supply to achieve a high
probability of success.”
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51
ECONOMIC GROWTH
The ABS estimates that in 2005-06 the Northern
Territory Economy grew by 7.5 per cent to $11.5 billion
– by far the highest rate of growth in Australia.
GSP
2003-04
2004-05
2005-061
2006-07
(Forecast)2
% Change
0.2%
6.0%
7.5%
• In the year to March 2007, total construction
work done decreased by 11.5% to
$2.2 billion, with engineering construction
decreasing by 18.3% to $1.6 billion.
• Residential construction work done increased
by 5.9% to $344 million; non-residential
building work done increased by 19.9% to
$289 million.
• In annual terms, work in the pipeline
increased by 43.7% to $403 million.
7.2%
fastfacts
EMPLOYMENT
the territory economy:
• Employment in the Territory increased by
5.7% in the year to May 2007 to 108,811.
• The trend unemployment rate in May
was 4.6%.3
• In the year to May, the ANZ Job
Advertisement Series reports that the
number of job vacancies in the Territory
increased by 7.5% while falling by 2.3% at
the national level.
POPULATION
• In December quarter 2006, the Northern
Territory’s population was estimated
to be 212,551 following the release of
preliminary Census figures.
INFLATION
INTERNATIONAL TRADE
ECONOMIC OUTLOOK
• In March quarter 2007, the CPI increased in
Darwin by 4.0% in annual terms. Nationally,
the annual inflation rate was 2.4%.¹
• In the year to April 2007, Northern
Territory goods exports grew by 49.3% to
$3820 million, compared to the previous year.
• In the five years to 2010-11, the Territory’s
economic growth is forecast to average 4.6%.4
AVERAGE WEEKLY EARNINGS
• Imports increased by 19.7% to
$3026 million, giving a balance of
trade surplus of $794 million.
• In annual terms, Average Weekly Earnings
per full-time adult employee in the Territory
increased by 1.7% to $1092.40, compared
with a national average of $1117.
• Over the same period, the Territory’s Labour
Price Index rose by 3.9%, compared with
4.1% nationally.¹
• The annual rate of increase was estimated
to be 1.8%, above the national growth
rate of 1.4%.¹
RETAIL TRADE
• In April 2007, seasonally adjusted retail
turnover increased by 10.2% in the Territory
and by 6.2% nationally in annual terms.¹
• A total of 74% of Territory SMEs remain
either ‘fairly’ or ‘extremely’ confident
regarding prospects for the next 12 months.5
• The Northern Territory Government
had the highest approval rating of all states
and territories.
• The biggest increases were in recreation
goods, household goods and food.
• In annual terms, seasonally adjusted new
motor vehicle sales increased by 14.0%
to 9557 in the Territory and by 8% at the
national level.
Northern Territory BUDGET 2007–08
BUSINESS HIGHLIGHTS
The Territory Government’s
$3.4 billion budget is
estimated to result in a cash
deficit of $40 million and
return to balance in the
following year. It includes
a record infrastructure
program and major
construction initiatives.
Infrastructure
Construction
• Total infrastructure spending is estimated
to be a record $645 million.
• Home North revamped – income limits
raised and house prices capped at 85% of
the Real Estate Institute determined median
price house in each region.
• Major investment in power and water
services, including $592 million for capital
works and $222 million for repairs and
maintenance over five years.
• $113 million in new housing programs
across the Territory.
• $180 million for Territory roads, including
an extra $35 million for repairs and
maintenance over four years.
• $7 million to prepare land at Bellamack for
public release and $1.3 million for
Mt Johns Valley land in Alice Springs.
Taxes
Employment and Training
• Stamp duty on conveyancing for first
home owners reduced – tax-free threshold
increases from $225,000 to $350,000.
• Jobs Plan 3 – $21.3 million over the
next four years to promote training and
employment opportunities.
• Stamp duty removed on hiring transactions.
• 340 occupational shortage incentives
valued at $4000 each available every year.
• The Northern Territory is the lowest taxing
jurisdiction in Australia for businesses with
up to 100 staff.
• 200 incentives over three years valued at $2000
for employers who take on an apprentice or
trainee from a disadvantaged group.
• $45 million to Charles Darwin University
and $9.5 million allocated to the Batchelor
Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education
for job training programs.
Industry Support
• Bringing Forward Discovery – a $12 million
program over four years to assist mining
exploration across the Territory.
• $1.15 million to peak industry associations
for development purposes.
• $650,000 for business management
and capability programs; $830,000 for
economic development initiatives for
Indigenous Territorians; $500,000 for
regional economic development support.
REGIONAL HIGHLIGHTS
Alice Springs: $1 million initial Ross Park
Primary School upgrade; $8.1 million for the
next stage of the Desert People’s Centre; a new
$6 million Emergency Department, $5.4 million
in ongoing rectification works and a further
$3 million for upgrades to emergency power
and electrical systems at Alice Springs Hospital.
Katherine region: $10 million over five years
to upgrade the Katherine wastewater treatment
plant; $7 million for the Katherine Power Station
augmentation; $2.7 million for new health
centre at Kalkaringi; $3.45 million to complete
new school at Wugularr; $1.46 million for
Nitmiluk National Park for new facilities.
FOOTNOTES
1
2
3
4
5
52
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Barkly: $5 million for a major upgrade of
Borroloola Primary School in 2007-08;
$1 million upgrade of fire safety measures
at Tennant Creek hospital; $5 million on
beginning the upgrade to sewerage services
in Borroloola; $8.2 million on road repairs
and maintenance.
East Arnhem: $8.7 million for Indigenous
community housing; $740,000 to complete
Nhulunbuy high school facilities; $225,000
to establish ranger headquarters for the
Dhimurru Land Management Aboriginal
Corporation; $200,000 for a bicycle path
to the Alcan refinery.
Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Northern Territory Treasury.
The ABS acknowledges there is extreme volatility in monthly
Territory labour force figures.
Access Economics, Business Outlook, March 2007.
Sensis Business Index, May Quarter, 2007.
p
53
on the
RECOGNITION
This was celebrated at the Northern Territory
Research and Innovation Awards in May
where Dr Nicholas Anstey from Menzies
won the Tropical Knowledge Research
Award for ground-breaking research on
malaria treatment.
Dr Anstey has pioneered work based on a
Chinese herb, artemisia, that dramatically
lowers the death rate from malaria and is
making a huge difference to the wellbeing
of people in our regional neighbourhood.
In other areas the Territory punches well
above its numerical weight. One of these
areas is in information technology. Two of
the finalists in the Minister for Business and
Economic Development’s Innovation Award
run IT companies, Kim Ford of Editure and
Steve Rowe of SRA Information Technology,
with Mr Rowe taking out the prestigious Chief
Minister’s Research and Innovation Award.
Mr Rowe’s company has taken off in the last
few years because of its capacity to integrate
environmental inputs from mines and other
sites into reports that companies increasing
need to demonstrate that they are looking
after the environment. Although Mr Rowe
has been opening offices around Australia,
and will probably have one overseas soon,
he is utterly committed to living in Darwin.
54
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Two others among this year’s award winners also work on
environmental issues. CSIRO first became established in the
Northern Territory back in the 1950s and has retained a strong
presence here ever since. CSIRO ecologists were among the
first scientists to be resident in the Territory and it was fitting
that it was ecologists who were this year rewarded for their
innovative research.
Dr Marg Friedel, who won the Desert Knowledge Australia
Award, has lived in Alice Springs since the 1970s and currently
manages CSIRO’s Arid Zone Research Institute. She has
devoted her career to understanding the processes that shape
arid zone ecology and her papers on the subject are quoted
around the world. She also recently led CSIRO initiatives to
understand the land management concerns and aspirations of
remote desert communities.
The other CSIRO ecologist was Dr Tracy Dawes-Gromadski
who received the AusIndustry New Generation Research and
Innovation Award for her research on the role of termites in
maintaining the health of tropical Australian savannas.
Her experimental studies have demonstrated that termites
and other soil invertebrates play a critical role in allowing
water to penetrate the soil, a function that can be severely
impaired by overgrazing.
knowledgeeconomy
Top left > Chief Minister Clare Martin presents her
award to Steve Rowe.
Bottom left > Tracy Dawes-Gromadski in the field.
This image > Dr Nick Anstey from the Menzies School
of Health Research.
Regional centres like
Darwin can sometimes
have trouble getting
expertise. In some areas,
however, the city is a major
magnet. One such area
is infectious disease. The
brilliance of the research
group at Charles Darwin
University’s Menzies School
of Health Research is
attracting star performers
from around the world.
stephengarnett
regular feature:
Another who is deeply committed to life in the tropical
savannas is Multhara Munuggurr. Ms Munuggurr received
the Indigenous Innovation Award for her work on secondary
education for her people in Gunthalala, a remote outstation
in eastern Arnhem Land. Next year, for the first time, students
taught in their homelands will graduate with a Northern
Territory Certificate of Education.
Apart from the award winners, two other researchers were
given special commendations. Dr Yin Paradies won praise for
his work on the incredibly sensitive subject of racism. He was
looking particularly at the impact of racism on the health of
urban Indigenous people, finding that 30 per cent of cases
of mental health could be attributed to racist experiences.
Even subtle and unwitting racism can leave scars and, by
identifying the issue, Dr Paradies hopes to contribute towards
its eradication.
The other researcher to be recognized in this way was owner
of Aerotech Australia, Roger Leach. Mr Leach is a compulsive
inventor who has worked on everything from protective
coatings for aircraft propellers to face creams. He developed
his polyurethane coatings as a result of experience in tough
and dusty Australian conditions, reasoning that, if it can
survive here, it has a global market.
Among those presenting the awards was Dr Jim
Peacock, Australia’s Chief Scientist, who remarked at the
transformation he had seen in Darwin in the last decade.
“I am enormously impressed by the energy and the spirit of
cooperation I see in Territory research,” he said, “The depth
of talent in those involved in research and innovation bodes
well for the region’s future.”
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sweetmeat
by Sam McCue
A FOCUS ON TERRITORY PRODUCE.
Some people say it tastes
like beef with a touch of
honey. Some just say it’s
bloody delicious. Either
way, camel meat is ending
up on an increasing
number of dinner plates.
New Alice Springs bistro the Camels Hump
goes through a weekly order, worth about
$2000, in the form of schnitzel, sausages,
lasagna, curry and stir-fries (see recipes).
Part owners Brian Lockyear and Ann Tregea
are somewhat stunned, but pleased,
at its popularity.
“People come in because of the name and
they’re quite surprised to find camel on the
menu,” says Ann. “They think it’s going to
be very strong and gamey but it’s quite the
opposite – and it’s very tender. Every week
we sell more and more camel dishes.”
None of this is news to Territory Camel
Pty Ltd owner Garry Dann, who supplies a
growing number of outlets with this “good,
clean meat” and is a passionate advocate
for camel products.
“It’s low cholesterol and it has 21 per cent
protein – like beef,” he says. “It’s sweet
and it’s moist.”
his abattoir at Alice Springs processes
15 to 20 camels a week for Territory Camel
as well as Centralian Gold free range beef.
The abattoir is currently only licensed for
domestic production but is looking to
upgrade to Tier 1, which will enable it
supply up to 300 a week for export.
More than 10,000 camels, including
24 animals for Burke and Wills’ luckless
expedition, were imported into Australia
in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Now
camels number around one million, and
their population is projected to double
every eight years.
“There’s big demand overseas,” Mr Dann
says. “Africa, Indonesia, the United Arab
Emirates, the United States.”
Not surprisingly, camels are having a
significant impact on indigenous, pastoral
and crown land in Central Australia.
The huge beasts, sometimes two metres
tall and weighing up to half a tonne, are
responsible for thousands of dollars worth
of damage to property. In some populated
areas up to 80 per cent of a cattle
producer’s maintenance costs can
be attributed to camels. And, as the
drought continues to diminish water
sources, the problem grows worse.
Closer to home, one new client for Territory
Camel meat is Great Southern Rail, the
operators of the Ghan train. Passengers
will dine on camel fillet and mettwurst,
a recent addition to the smallgoods range,
as they travel straight through the heart of
camel country.
The old joke about camels asks, one hump
or two? In fact, Australia’s wild camel
population is exclusively single-humped.
Ours are Camelus dromedarius, also known
as dromedaries, not the two-humped
Camelus bactrianus that are more suited to
cold climate deserts.
Camel Stir-fry with Cashews
(serves 4)
800 g camel fillet, sliced
100 g red capsicums, sliced
100 g green capsicums, sliced
100 g sliced carrots
50 g sliced red onion
50 g sliced brown onion
50 g sliced leek
100 g sliced zucchini
300 g fresh hokkein noodles
Stuart Kenny, Executive Director of the
Northern Territory Cattlemen’s Association,
is well aware of the way camels are affecting
the environment and those whose livelihood
depends on it.
50 g raw cashews
75 ml sweet soy sauce
75 ml soy sauce
This image > Garry Dann at his abattoir
with captured camels.
Right > Camels Hump owner Brian
Lockyear with Red Thai Camel Curry.
“Pastoralists are generally concerned
with the growing pressure that camels are
putting on the pastoral estate,” he says.
“Any method, including culling, that means
we can utiltise this protein is a good thing for
the environment and the pastoral industry.”
Garry Dann’s operation may be just a drop
in the ocean when it comes to camels,
but it is at least a way to turn a pest
into a resource.
One regular diner at the Camels Hump
is doing his bit. He eats there a couple
of times a week, usually tucking away
a ragout, camel mignon, snags or his
favourite: the camel T-bone. No fancy
culinary analysis is needed: “It’s really,
really nice.”
50 ml sesame oil
METHOD: In a hot wok, sauté camel fillet with
sesame oil. Add all sliced vegetables and sauté
for about five minutes. Add hokkien noodles
and sauces. Toss through vegetables. Add
camel and cashews and serve in a deep bowl.
Red Thai Camel Curry
(serves 4)
1 kg diced camel topside steak
200 g diced carrot
1 large onion, diced
200 g celery, diced
2 diced red capsicums
METHOD: Brown camel meat in a little
olive oil. Add diced vegetables and cook
off for five to ten minutes, add Thai
curry paste and allow to cook for a few
minutes before adding the coconut
cream. Simmer for one to one and a helf
hours until sauce thickens. Serve over
fluffy rice with pappadams.
2 diced green capsicums
150 g May Ploy Thai red curry paste
750 ml coconut cream
56
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57
partingshots!
regular feature:
newSHIPPINGLINKtoINDONESIA
A new shipping link
operating between
Darwin and Surabaya
will begin operations in
July. Indonesia’s Meratus
Line has joined with
Australian company Ocean
Shipping to form the
new MOCEAN Shipping,
aimed at servicing the
mining industries in both
Indonesia and northern
Australia. The new
service was announced
at the NT Governmenthosted reception during
the Balikpapan Expo in
Indonesia in June.
next
“It is a service directly influenced by discussions held at Global Freight Connect (see page 8),”
says Mark Norman of Darwin’s Norman Marine Services, which will act as the local representative
for MOCEAN. The service will use Surabaya and Singapore as hubs for the distribution of goods
to Indonesian mining operations.
The initial service will have a 30-day frequency using the 3200 tonne MV Territory Trader.
MOCEAN Shipping is confident that its new service will be well received and that more vessels
will have to be introduced to the route in the near future. A Territory Government spokesman
says the service will provide the business community with enhanced transit time efficiency and
potential to unlock new trading opportunities.
validatestheMILLIONDOLLARpainting
Aboriginal art’s first $1million acquisition
was one of the first works to receive an
Identeart certification of provenance.
The painting by Utopia artist, Emily Kame
Kngwarreye, was purchased by Tim Jennings
of the Mbantua Gallery in Alice Springs,
one of the first galleries to take up the
Identeart technology. The piece will carry
the very first label ever produced by
Identeart: Serial Code AA-000001².
Identeart certification comes in the form of
a patch placed on the back of a painting
carrying a group of microdots that can be
read with a $3 microscopic reader. Encrypted
on the microdot is the a code carrying the
58
p
artist’s name, the gallery or art centre it came
from, a barcode and a registration number
that will correspond to the same number on
a national database.
The microdot technology was developed by
the CSIRO and Queensland Data Block and
adapted to Aboriginal art by J Easterby Wood,
the principal of Identeart. The technology has
also been taken up by Microsoft worldwide on
all of its product lines.
Who will get the Identeart certification?
To ensure the technology is restricted to
only art centres and accredited dealers, the
company has set up two bodies – Identeart
Australia, an Indigenous company, plus
an export advisory group with statutory
protection set up with objective criteria to be
used to make decisions on access or nonaccess to the technology.
Once those criterion are followed, then
access is granted. “We put together a
solution that starts with the technology,”
explains Dr Peter Toyne, a former NT
Government Minister and Identeart Director,
“but it's got a pretty well thought-out
corporate structure that we believe will
be the best way to get the more ethical,
professional parts of the industry to take up
this tool in order to clean up the industry.”
...brings Hollywood
to the Top End.
...September07
p
59
The Catalyst for Growth:
Land Development Corporation
Land Development Corporation is an industrial land developer in Australia’s Northern
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The Corporation aims to position the Territory and its industries to take advantage of the major
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Focusing on responsive land release, the Corporation provides easy access to appropriately developed
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The first stage of the Darwin Business Park development, one of the Corporation’s ongoing projects,
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Land Development Corporation can help your business realise its potential for involvement in key
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Contact: Land Development Corporation
60
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P: +61 8 8922 0633
E : l d c @ n t . g o v. a u
W : w w w. l d c . n t . g o v. a u
LAND
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CORPORATION