The sun is low in the Pilbara (Western Australia) on late afternoon. The water surface sparkles. We sit near a campfire at the banks of the Robe River and enjoy the last hours of the day. I joined the Australian county music artist Rod Esam and his family across Western Australia. Rod is on a big promotion tour and I followed him with my video camera.
Video: Outback Australia - Road Worker in Action
Today we managed 360 km, coming from Exmouth. Our camp is located close to Highway No 1 on a 24 hours stopping area, which is a place where traveller can stay officially over night. Mostly these places have a basic toilet, this one has none, it’s flushed away with the last flood. The scrub looks a bit devastated, unbelievable what waterpower can do.
Sunset in the Pilbara
Suddenly our sunset idyll gets disrupted. A semi trailer truck turns off the highway, drives a big circle and stops right at the river bank. It is a tanker. The driver turns on a big noisy pump to fill 33000 litre of river water into the tank. Rod said to me:” There must be some roadwork’s around here, that’s the water car”. He should know because he used to work for years in the road work business. It would be great to include some road work activities in my film. The water car could be the key for my intension. Rod and I
stroll with a can of beer to the truck driver to say “hello”. The driver made us welcome with the typical Australian character as we would have known each other for years. We had a bit of a talk and we found out that the road work site is only five kilometres away. Craig the truck driver liked my filming ideas and offered some help. He got on his radio and talked to his boss. He had a couple of questions and then we were allowed to film on the road work site the next day. Craig will guide us when he fills up his truck again in the morning.
The night is fairly quite although we are only 100 metres off the highway. The road trains operate 24 hours a day and can be very noisy, especially when you’re not used to the sound. Craig turns up at 9am the next day to refill his truck. I join Craig with his tanker to get footage from the inside. Rod drives my four wheel drive. Eveonne - Rod’s wife, follows with camping bus and kids. Half way to the road work site I changed my place in the truck with one in my four wheel drive. Now I was able to get good footage of the moving tanker. Craig needs six truckloads of water per day. The water tank volume of the truck is 33000 litre, that adds up to 198 000 litre per day.
Water tanker in action
Road damage after cyclone
Water tanker in action
Road damage after cyclone
We met Brad Young at the road work site. He is the boss of the constructor company. The road leads to one of the big stations here in the Pilbara. The cyclone Monty went through the area six weeks ago and caused a lot of damage. The Robe River flushed the whole road away. The access needs to be back in place as soon as possible so road trains for stock transport can get to the station again.
Rod Esam (l.) Brad Young (r.)
Road work has a long family tradition with the Young’s. Brad’s father used to work as a surveyor and was one of the biggest road builders in Western Australia. Today a highly skilled workforce runs really up to date equipment. Brad explains that the machinery will be replaced after 2000 hour of operation. That increases reliability, saves cost of repair and the work is more efficient. You don’t need breakdown in the middle of nowhere. The way for spare parts can be long. In this case, the next town (Port Hedland) is 500 km away. Brad is proud to show us his work. I noticed that attitude many times on my trips around Australia. People do not complain and whinge, they tackle the work and they are proud about their achievements. I observe the movements on the site and try to get good footage. Brad got on his radio and directed
the grader towards my position. The grader operator jokes through the radio.” Wait a second; I have to do my hair for the camera”. The man on the grader is the boss at the site; he decides who is doing what and where. He also tells the truckers where to dump the material for the new road. The grader spreads the soil around before it gets moistened by the water car. Now the material gets pushed backwards and forwards by the grader to get everything well mixed. The next step is a job for the roller. That gives the road surface a good consistency. This process will be repeated a couple of times. The soil for the new road comes from a pit just five kilometres away. The soil needs a certain percentage of clay, sand and little rocks to make it suitable for the Australian gravel roads.
We have a look to the pit where Brad gets on an excavator to load a semi trailer truck. Road work is a tough business for the people at the site. They work a twelve hours shift, ten days in a row, after that they have four days off. That is absolutely necessary, because their way home could be hundreds of kilometres long.
Rod’s kids, Jesse (6) and Daniel (10) like to have a run over the site and play in the dirt. But no way, a road work site is no playground, so they sit with their mother in the bus and do some schoolwork for their distance learning program.
Meanwhile the time is 1pm and we have to get on our way north. The road workers get on their radio. We can hear comments like “Have a good trip” and “Save journey”, two of them stop at the bus and buy a CD from Rod (just remember he is country music artist). A few minutes later we’re back on highway No.1 again. What an interesting day with the road worker of the Australian Outback.
We have a run with Brad to the affected station. Here we get an idea about the size of the flood damage. We met the manager of the farm. He is very surprised that someone from Germany turned up and likes to do some filming for a documentary. Of course I asked first before I switched the camera on. The farmer agreed and told us about the day when the flood came in.
Everything happened very fast, you could virtually see the rise of the water. They put all the valuables in the house off the ground. But then it got worse than ever before. The farmer parked their ute next to the house and slept on the tray. In the morning the water was half way up the ute, so the men climbed on the roof of the house and got rescued by a helicopter.
Flood damage
Flood damage
The men told us the story like it was every day’s business. They lean against the fence and one rolled himself a cigarette. Cyclones occur regularly in the Pilbara. Because of the low population it ends up mostly with no casualties. It just depends where the cyclone hits the coast. I can think of some footage on Australian TV in 1995 when cyclone Bobby hit Onslow in Western Australia. Seven people died when two fishing boats capsized in rough seas.
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Outback Australia - Road Worker in Action 
