This week at Casey: 23 March 2012

Around the beginning of each year, some of the trades undertake the annual power house shut down. This entails turning everything in the main power house (MPH) off, and firing up the emergency power house (EPH) to support the station’s power and heating needs.

Once the Sparkies and Plumbers are satisfied that everything is working as it should, the Diesos  and Sparkies start tearing the MPH to bits.

Engines are dismantled and any repairs needed are carried out. Everything gets serviced and given the thumbs up for another 12 months. This year the number 2 engine had come to the end of its service life and was changed for a new engine. Alternators are removed and overhauled. Every inch of wiring gets inspected and tested for faults. The eastern wall comes off the building and all the oil drums for the year to come are jammed into their allotted space.

Plumbers remove leaking pipe work and inspect coolers and heat exchangers. They also had the most important job of inspecting and testing the Hifog fire system for any faults. Lucky for us, it all works.

When we’ve completed all the repairs and we’re happy it will work, the Dieso’s fire up the engines and check the cooling systems are working properly and that nothing is leaking. The Sparkies do their electrical testing, checking the alternators are doing the right thing and producing good power.

Three weeks of work fly by before we are finally ready to switch back to the MPH and turn off the EPH but it all pays off and the lights are still on. That’s a win in my book!

Thanks to the Electricians and Plumbers for all their work.

Mike Kennard (and the rest of Team Dieso)

The summer infrastructure trade team have had a busy season.  We have been working on several maintenance and construction projects here on station at Casey along with a busy program of completing work on the Casey Ski-Way and up at the Wilkins Aerodrome.  Our big ticket project for the season was to commence construction of the new east wing extension to the sleeping & medical quarters (the Red Shed).  We are aiming to complete construction of the footings for this building before the end of summer.  This has involved relocation of the existing smokers huts, kitchen gas rack and hydroponics facility, followed by extensive excavation of the site, construction of concrete piers down to solid rock and placing precast concrete footing beams.  We also had to install a new concrete batching facility to ensure we would actually have concrete for the project.  Our work on the project for the season is not yet complete but the team are pushing hard to get there.  Andrew Fitzsimmons and Paul Tuplin are the main men on the job receiving assistance from Andy Daniel, Mick Denny, Mark Gallagher and Brad Robson as required.  Plant operators Gary Mason and Johan Metz, lately also assisted by Fleur Bugarin, have dug out the soil, ice and rock and placed crushed rock backfill as needed. The materials are already on site for the next stage of construction which will commence in the 2012/2013 summer with a view to moving into the extended quarters during 2014. 

Mick Tiele (Engineering Services Supervisor)

The 2011–2012 Casey Summer Darts competition is over.  The final, held last Thursday night, consisted of three rounds of Shanghai between Senior Meteorological Observer Craig George and Station Leader Mark Hunt.  It had already been a hard road to the final. The quality of players in this year’s competition was very high, with many wintering expeditioners seeing this as an opportunity to stake their claim to a place in the interstation winter comp (played over the phone).  Craig had taken out Mechanical Services Supervisor Jason in the semi, coming back from one game down to win the next two in a very close fought contest.  Conversely Mark roundly thrashed Summer favourite Hully, throwing three “Shangs” in the first game to ultimately take out the semi two games to nil. 

A small crowd gathered in the wallow to watch the final and all agreed in the end that the quality of darts was pretty ordinary, the pressure getting to both players and not a single shanghai being thrown on the night.  In the end it was Mark who triumphed, coming home comfortably in the end two games to nil and finishing the second game (and competition) with an inner bull. 

When asked what his secret was, Mark indicated that his game had vastly improved since he started playing prior to the bar opening.  Craig would only say that the timing of the final prior to the completion of his summer performance review was 'unfortunate' and quote "What choice did I have?".  Mark later went on to express his appreciation to Tony at www.dartshop.com.au for putting through a last minute rush order and getting his new darts down to him on the last plane for the season and in time for the competition.

The darts competition was not the only one finalised during the past week.  The station table tennis (Pong) competition also reached its climax on Thursday night. The last few weeks has seen some extremely competitive action on the mezzanine of the Red Shed and those trying to get to the cinema or the cardio gym after dinner have had to run the gauntlet of leaping and flailing pong players, with many a spilled drink but thankfully few serious injuries arising as a consequence.

The pong competition had taken some time to settle down after the departure mid-summer of solid performers such as Tim ‘JK’ Gill and Mumbling Mick Stapleton.  The incoming wintering expeditioners took some weeks to come to terms with the conditions and, some would argue, were still a month shy of showing their best form. Left-handers Dangerous Dan Vermazen and the Silent Assassin Cam Dempsey were thought to be a real chance to make the final if they could get past the likes of Gav ‘the Magician’ Melgaard with his slight of hand serves and Mark ‘SL’ Hunt and his low percentage but occasionally deadly forehand smash. As it turned out the wintering contenders fell by the wayside one after another with only Dangerous Dan,  SL, Bully Bri Mac and the station all round sportsman (SARS) Craig George reaching the quarter finals.  In the semi-final stage, Hully ‘the Hullmeister’ Hull met Kiwi Jim (James Hamilton) on one side of the competition whilst on the other Brad ‘the Dark Horse’ Robson met SARS Craig to determine who would play in the final. In a 22–20, 21–19, 24–22 extravaganza, trade favourite the Dark Horse narrowly overcame SARS Craig and in an equally competitive match-up Kiwi Jim just got over the top of the Hullmeister to set up a thrilling finale of contrasting styles.  The incoming wintering expeditioners took some weeks to come to terms with the conditions and, some would argue, were still a month shy of showing their best form. Left-handers Dangerous Dan Vermazen and the Silent Assassin Cam Dempsey were thought to be a real chance to make the final if they could get past the likes of Gav 'the Magician' Melgaard with his slight of hand serves and Mark 'SL' Hunt and his low percentage but occasionally deadly forehand smash. As it turned out the wintering contenders fell by the wayside one after another with only Dangerous Dan,  SL, Bully Bri Mac and the station all round sportsman (SARS) Craig George reaching the quarter finals.  In the semi-final stage, Hully 'the Hullmeister' Hull met Kiwi Jim (James Hamilton) on one side of the competition whilst on the other Brad 'the Dark Horse' Robson met SARS Craig to determine who would play in the final. In a 22-20, 21-19, 24-22 extravaganza, trade favourite the Dark Horse narrowly overcame SARS Craig and in an equally competitive match-up Kiwi Jim just got over the top of the Hullmeister to set up a thrilling finale of contrasting styles.

When asked about tactics before the game, the Dark Horse recalled that Kiwi Jim, unprepared for the athleticism of ping pong by his FTO role, had done a calf early in the season that put him off his game for several weeks. On this basis he was talking about something called the Tonya Harding manoeuvre as his best chance of winning. 

As it turned out the match-up was a one sided affair with Kiwi Jim putting in a strong performance and getting over the top of the Dark Horse two games to nil. When asked for his thoughts after the game Kiwi Jim said that his main focus from here was on gloating as much as possible between now and when he goes home in a couple of weeks.

Congratulations to James on his win. Thanks to all for their participation in the tournament and to Bri particularly for organising the draw.