It’s all happening……….

The fall-out over the sudden collapse of the South Australian  Construction/ Engineering company,  York Civil, continues with sub-contractors owed hundreds of thousands of dollars and projects in Adelaide, Western Australia and New South Wales now under threat. I was not being facetious the other day when I said that staff arrived at work on Monday morning and by lunch had all their things in cardboard boxes and were heading out the door – that is exactly how it happened. By  Monday evening there was some hope – by Tuesday it was gone and the company ceased trading. In the last few months we have lost two Engineering Companies here – Stassi Engineering and Ottaway Engineering, which is not helping. However, York Civil was not involved in any projects here. I thought the big City Council / GFG Alliance Joint Announcement was yesterday but I was wrong -it is today (Wednesday) The reason for today is that the

State Premier, Steven Marshall, will be here today.

During my Adelaide trip Yogi went home.  Jim’s son came and collected him. We don’t mind looking after Yogi – he is no trouble and he and Benji get on well.  Jim is not allowed to drive and Fay is looking after him, so I have become the taxi driver for the Coffee Ladies ( well,  three ) until further notice. Jim’s son will be going home to Western Australia to his own family  today.  I have spent the last two days organising people for the  RFDS Stand at the Show this weekend. We have one and a half days to be on duty and I have managed to get everyone organised and ready to go. I will be there on Saturday covering two shifts from 1pm to 8pm and close. It’s really an information only stand. We can have donation tins and we can run a raffle but we are not allowed to sell anything. Still it should be an interesting day and a half and I would like to think that we get to talk to a lot of interesting – and interested – people. I spoke to the chairman of the Men’s Shed and they were offered a stand at the show, but couldn’t get any volunteers to help run it — which I thought was sad.

1st Announcement: The Premier has just announced that the State Government will commit $100 million to the building of a new 7

-12 High School to replace the three  current, and declining  High Schools. The Senior High School, was a 1960s style school and it showed it. The students did not like it, mainly because  it was quite depressing and its facilities were old and worn.  The labor government did an assessment of the school and suggested that it was too big for the number of students, so they wanted two wings closed down and classes merged – and – they would no longer pay for the cleaning of these areas. Three teachers refused to move because of the disruption it would cause their students. They were told by admin. that their classrooms would no longer be cleaned. Fine!! The three “rebels”bought a decent  Hoover between them and undertook to clean the classrooms themselves. Their students decided that they would help out so some came in early to help their teachers clean up. Recently the School has spent a lot of money trying to brighten up the place. It’s not too bad looking now, but it’s still tired.

2nd Announcement: British Billionaire owner of GFG Alliance has announced the launching of a $1Billion energy program, the first phase of which will begin outside of Whyalla in early 2019. This will be a 280 Megawatt Solar Power Station capable of powering 100,000 homes and the larger part of the needs of the GFG Alliance Steel Plant. Initial creation of 350 new jobs.  The company said the 600 gigawatt hours of generation per year was enough to power 96,000 average homes, with its 780,000 solar panels spread across 11 square kilometres, an area 550 times larger than Adelaide Oval. It would offset 492,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide each year.

3rd Announcement: GFG Alliance will supply the steel for the construction of the  165 metre  Jetty. The Jetty was damaged in a storm surge over a year ago and has been out of commission since.  A public debate was held and suggestions made for the shape and size of the new jetty and the final plans will now go out for tender. Once approval is granted, the Council, State Government and GFG Alliance will each contribute to the funding of the project. Again, the creation of new employment

There were a few  minor announcements but these were the main three, so it is possible that things will start to look up and  I hope this will start to rebuild the confidence since it is now certain that the major players, the State Government and GFG Alliance have illustrated their commitment to the future of the area.