Mt Morgan tours hit the wall..

[Ded Driver]

in the 70's when I was a kid (just yesterday ) my father did a couple of years hauling logs to the N/west of WA for bridges. His trips took him to/thru Wittenoom on a couple of occasions & he brought back a couple of pieces of raw blue asbestos fibre rock. ONE OF THE WORST TYPES apparently. We had a piece of that sitting on the Mantel Board above the open fire for several years!
Luckily none of us have ever developed any signs of asbestos related lung disease, & both parents have since passed away from other causes.
My sympathies to all those who have gone down from it or may in the future. If only we all knew how bad it could be way back then when it was a miracle material. It may be a bit hit'n'miss on people with low exposure, but the risk is still out there today.
House roofs are one of the biggest risks. On the outside the UV breaks down the binder & it slowly releases fibres into the area. On the inside a slower process of breakdown accumulates fibres in the dust.

 

[Matt80]

I had to do a traffic control course as part of another job years back, lve never done it in the field but l learnt a lot about the regulations. My biggest issue with road works is the way projects often drag on for many months when they should have been completed in a few days/weeks. Having people slow down for people working is obviously a good thing, but the amount of places slowing people down to 40km/h when there hasn't been a worker there in weeks makes a lot of people complacent.
The reason, at least as far as l was taught is that all the signage has to be approved by head office, commonly hundreds of KMs away. So instead of the traffic controllers being able to assess what is safe onsite and change the speed limits to what is appropriate at that time, they have to get approval for the whole site to be a set speed and that's how it remains until the job is complete.
We had a long stretch of highway up here that was set at 40km/h for six months or more even though the road was in very good order and if workers were there(often no one was) then they were only working on small sections.
I don't blame the people on site at all, but if the higher ups allowed a bit more common sense then some people would be less complacent around road works.

Of course another option would be just to let traffic controllers put down temporary speed humps to make sure people slow down when workers are there, the ones that don't slow down would quickly get the hint.

 

[diggit]

This may be a bit extreme but you get the idea, we've gone over the top these days.

Have to agree Moneybox...... this guy is making a living on the side of the road within a few feet of the passing traffic. I have to laugh at all the time wasting OH&S bull$h!te that occurs around roadworks etc. all in the name of protecting our poor endangered roadworkers.
No wonder it takes forever and costs a motza to get anything completed.
Sure, I respect safety for the workers, but an army of overpaid lollypop holders.... give me a break !

Do you have any idea how many "lollypop holders' get killed every year? Quite a few in fact.
Still think they're overpaid? I don't.
There are so many because the amount of careless, bad, intoxicated, clueless and inept drivers on Australian roads is off the charts.
Most people aren't retarded when they get behind the wheel but a lot are and they're the people you should vent at, not those charged with protecting workers and others, eg yourself, from these motoring morons who are a hazard to everyone on the road.

 

[Jaros]

Let's stay on topic.

 

[Matt80]

Let's stay on topic.

Sorry mate, l think the topic moved on to safety and regulation/over regulation/nanny state, because that's what seems to have led to the closure of this operation.
Anyone have any suggestions on how we can help this tour operator or improve the situation at all?
The whole area had a gold rush so maybe expand the tour to cover some of the other mine sites and areas? Pity the traffic through Rockhampton is so bad as a lot of the other sites are on the other side of the river.

 

[Jaros]

Thankyou Matt.