Ray Clarke Looks Back (continued)

The second trip to Lihou Reef, on the Cape Pillar, was a breeze. The reef and island is a very isolated spot only visited by huge turtles and one could visualise the odd yachtie or shipwrecked sailor. There were plenty of good fish about, cod and sweetlip, etc, until the sharks came on the scene. They were huge, too; many big tigers around the four to five metre mark. Even so the water was too good not to swim in, but we continually looked over our shoulder for the fast-moving fin. The stinger shells there are reputed to be deadly within 30 minutes so we took few souvenirs.

Without wanting to bore the reader, I will briefly mention the duties and responsibilities of being an installation supervisor, which role I filled for 16 years. The job is not all beer and skittles or a paid holiday as one station OIC in his cups told me one day. I didn't take long to set him straight even though I was in his backyard.

Major projects always started on the drawing board, with some having lead times of from two to three years. Early planning included site surveys, reconnaissance trips, Regional Office comments, etc, and assuming a proposal got the nod from Management, it became 'live' and was listed in the following year's budget. Some proposals could get the 'knock' right up to the last stage of planning, which could be quite frustrating if you'd put a lot of personal effort into it.

In the last month or so of the planning period for an approved project, a work flow program was prepared which, amongst other relevant data, listed the installation period, dates/times, names of the installation team members and allocated duties for each. Quite often, Regional 'techs' were seconded, with the RMO's agreement, since the Installation Section was generally undermanned.

Bureau of Meteorology