MEMBERS DAY IN TRARALGON
ADRIAN TOWN, CMPA’s Development Manager reports on the Secretariat’s site visit to Gippsland and the Members Day in Traralgon.
ON 23 March 2011 Bruce McClure, CMPA’s General Manager and Adrian Town Development Manager visited several existing and potential CMPA members in Gippsland.
The first member visited was Cuthbertson Quarries at Drouin. Bruce and Adrian met Peter Cuthbertson at his Drouin office and discussed a number of topics with him in regards to the CMPA and recent meetings with government bodies. We then went to Peter’s quarry to inspect the recently installed new crushing plant and to have a look at his operation there. The recent heavy rain in the area had effected production at the quarry as there had been a ground slippage that had allowed water to enter the lower level of the quarry.
The next stop for Bruce and Adrian was a drive down to Bairnsdale where they met with Mike Betts the Manager Quarry Operations for Whelan Earth Moving in Bairnsdale. Basil Natoli also joined the meeting as he was on site for other business. Discussions were held with Mike with regards to the CMPA and the possibility of his company joining the Association. Mike was aware of the CMPA, having attended meetings when working with David Jeffery at Casacir. Mike was positive in regards to the CMPA and stated that he was going to send one of his staff to the Traralgon Slope Stability Workshop to be held the next day. Whelan Earth Moving is the largest Quarry operator in the Bairnsdale area.
The Members Day at Traralgon was held on Thursday 24 March 2011 at the Quality Inn Latrobe Convention Centre, it involved a Slope Stability Workshop, a site visit to K & RJ Matthews Quarry at Tyers and a General Meeting.
The Slope Stability workshop was the second in the space of two months (due to an overwhelming response on the issue) with close to 40 attendees at the previous workshop at Holcim Australia, Oaklands Junction. The first speaker was Ian McLeod from the Department of Primary Industry (DPI) discussing the draft “Geotechnical Guidelines for Victorian Mines and Quarries”. The final version of the draft will shortly be released via the DPI website for public comment. Lesley Munsamy from GHD spoke at length about Slope Stability in Quarries. He has extensive experience both overseas and in Australia and had some excellent examples of case studies showing some major stability issues.
Finally John Nolan from Nolan Consulting discussed Water Management Issues that affect all quarry operations. His address looked at many of the problems that usually occur and at ways of preventing many of the incidents through simple precautions. John was able to give numerous examples of what he discussed in his presentation from observations during the recent heavy rains in Victoria.
The three presenters provided much insight into the issues and complexities of Slope Stability and everyone present was appreciative of their presentations. The workshop was then followed by a visit to K & RJ Matthews Quarry at Tyers. Unfortunately the site visit was hampered by the wet weather making it a bus tour only preventing attendees walking around the quarry and plant.
The site visit was followed by a General Meeting for members commencing at 5.30 pm, Bruce McClure, General Manager CMPA welcomed everyone to the meeting. Anne Bignell from DPI was the first presenter; she spoke about recent issues and concerns of the department. Of particular interest were the comments on the stability problem at the Yallourn Open Cut Coal mine that is impacting the local freeway.
Next to present was Allan Beacom from WorkSafe who discussed a number of areas that WorkSafe had been concentrating on recently and what areas they were likely to be involved with in the immediate future.
Mead Partners Justin Sparks and John Pititto then gave an excellent presentation on Succession Planning which was very informative and gave all present much to consider with their own businesses.
Finally Bruce McClure presented an update of current and future events for the CMPA members. The meeting finished at 7.30 pm and concluded with an excellent dinner for all.
Overall the visit to Gippsland, the slope stability workshop and the general meeting were successful and well worth doing. Although numbers were low for the workshop and General Meeting the members who did attend were suitability impressed by the standard of speakers arranged to deliver the workshop and the topics at the General Meeting. It is important that the CMPA visit all areas of the state where we have members to see their issues and requirements first hand.
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