Gladstone Industry Leadership Group | Latest Forum Topics/News Articles

GILG’s year in review

Kurt Heidecker — 2011-12-16 11:27:23 +1000

Well over two thousand years ago a Greek philosopher called Heraclitus observed that, "There is nothing permanent except change." What was true then has proven to be the same for Gladstone's communities and industries in 2011.

This year Gladstone has been buffeted by a remarkable combination of external forces. Increased demands on Gladstone's social infrastructure particularly shortages of affordable appropriate housing and child care places have made 2011 a tough year for many members of the Gladstone community. Similarly shortages of skilled industry workers, changes to the taxation of greenhouse gas emissions and coal, the higher Australian Dollar and the uncertain global economy have made 2011 a tough year to be an Australian industry exporter.

While there are initial indications that some of these pressures may ease in 2012, these forces will no doubt continue to be felt in Gladstone next year.

On a positive note, the recent release of the final Clean and Healthy Air for Gladstone (CHAG) report has eased community concern in this key area and begun to rebuild confidence in the quality of Gladstone's air. By mapping out a path for ongoing air quality improvements, the final CHAG report has also helped lock-in the community's confidence in the future health of Gladstone's air.

The participation of the Gladstone Industry Leadership Group (GILG) in the CHAG process has shown that when Gladstone's operational industries jointly tackle an issue they can be much more effective than had they acted individually. In recognition of this, groups from South America, Mongolia, Cambodia, Western Australia and several Australian academics have met with GILG representatives to understand the ground breaking approaches used here by our communities and industries.

This year GILG was further strengthened by the addition to the Group of Orica's Yarwun plant. As a result Stewart Wotton has been welcomed to the GILG Board. With a change of leadership at Cement Australia's Fishermans Landing plant Simon Rice, its new Operations Manager, has also been welcomed to the Board.

With these changes to the GILG Board and all the future changes we face in Gladstone Glenn "Shoey" Schumacher, the Chair of the GILG Board for the past two years, has agreed to continue next year in this key role.

In what has been a year full of change, I would like to say a heartfelt thank-you to the many community and industry members who have so generously supported me this year.

On behalf of GILG's members and my family, I wish you and your loved ones a very joyous Christmas and prosperous New Year.

Until my next column in February 2012, cheers for now, Kurt.

Final CHAG report delivered

Kurt Heidecker — 2011-12-02 06:36:44 +1000

After the four years needed to complete one of Australia's most comprehensive air quality studies, the Clean and Healthy Air for Gladstone (CHAG) project team has delivered their final report. There are two key outcomes from this capstone report.

Firstly based on their rigorous assessment and more than 20 public contributing reports, the CHAG team was able to draw unequivocal conclusions about the quality of Gladstone's air.

This assessment was based upon looking for over 160 contaminants of concern. This list was only agreed with CHAG's Community Reference Group after several rounds of discussions in which the number of contaminants to be investigated was significantly increased. The project team then used extremely sensitive equipment to find out the levels at which these contaminants were present.

Many of these contaminants were at such low levels that they could not be detected, even with best equipment and techniques available. Where contaminants were detected, the majority were at levels much less than international health based standards. The only time these health based standards were exceeded was during natural events such as fires or dust storms and then only for a short time.

As a result of this and several independent peer reviews, Gladstone's air has been given a clean bill of health.

The second equally important outcome of final CHAG report is that it includes a roadmap of how the Queensland Government intends to keep Gladstone's air healthy. While industries were found to operate at acceptable air quality levels, the final CHAG report makes 20 wide ranging recommendations and specifies how they will be implemented.

In summary the final CHAG report recommends the review and tightening of the licence conditions that Gladstone industries have to operate within. For Gladstone Industry Leadership Group (GILG) members, this broadly includes reductions in allowable emissions, stricter reporting requirements, conditions on their maintenance and operation of plant and equipment, improvements to their incident response plans and ongoing air quality monitoring.

While independent of this report GILG's members have begun to implement some of these improvements, the solutions needed for the report's remaining recommendations are still being sought and assessed.

I agree with a comment from Queensland's Minister for the Environment that the people of Gladstone rightly expect to live in a healthy environment. It is only through continued vigilance from the community, government and industry that we can ensure that this remains the case and it is also seen to be so.

If you'd like to read the final CHAG report, the report is available at here.

I understand that a public presentation on the final CHAG report is planned for mid-December so I hope to see you there, cheers, Kurt.

Sister city insights

Kurt Heidecker — 2011-11-17 21:22:10 +1000

American President Eisenhower began the sister city movement in 1956. In this post-World War II climate thousands of people pledged to create a free and peaceful world through lasting friendships based upon closer inter-city relationships.

Given the conflicts in Australia's near neighbours in which my grandparents' generation fought and the long history of Japanese indentured labourers working in Queensland, it was poignant that the Japanese city of Saiki approached Gladstone and asked to be our sister city. While there is longstanding substantial Japanese investment in Gladstone industry, it has been through these closer cultural and educational links that this relationship has really flourished.

Considering that Japan is still Queensland's largest trading partner, I know embarrassingly little about the country and nothing about Saiki. As I quickly learnt, Saiki is pronounced Say-ee-key not sake, as in the rice wine.

There were four areas where my understanding of Japan was transformed by my recent visit to Saiki.

Manufacturing industry in Saiki is struggling under the combined pressures of the high Yen, skill shortages due to their aging workforce, fierce international competition and the cost of raw materials. It was during visits to a shipyard and coal fired recycling plant that I fully comprehended the size of the advantage that our relatively affordable energy sources give us. Equally, as high raw material prices have given our economy a huge boost, these high prices have also caused economic difficulties elsewhere.

The quality of Japan's civil infrastructure, even in the regional area where Saiki is located, was a revelation. As a Civil Engineer I was truly impressed by the quality of their roads and numerous tunnels and bridges.

The pressure on land in Japan is phenomenal. The land mass of Japan is about a fifth of that of Queensland. Yet Japan has a population of 127 million people, or about 336 people per square kilometre, compared to our 5 million people. Along the sides of roads, in spare city blocks, in front yards, anywhere that land was available vegetables grew or rice paddies had been built.

Finally the real highlight of this sister city exchange was the Japanese people themselves. I was taken aback by the warmness of their welcome and their hospitality, regardless of whether they were Saiki's city leaders or people in the street.

This shouldn't be a surprise. People enthusiastically reaching out to better understand and appreciate one another is the enduring strength of the sister city movement, cheers, Kurt.

Why does Gladstone have a Japanese sister city?

Kurt Heidecker — 2011-11-04 18:55:58 +1000

Given that China recently passed Japan as Australia's largest export destination, it's no wonder that Australia's press concentrates on the importance of China to Australia.

However in Queensland, Japan is still our largest trading partner. In 2010–11, Queensland's exports to Japan were valued at $11.1 billion. This represents 22.8% of Queensland's total exports. These exports were mostly made up of coal products ($6,560 million) and meat products ($1,302 million).

These exports compare to Queensland's imports from Japan of only $3.6 billion in 2010–11, which was made up mostly of road vehicles.

Japan has a long history in Queensland, indeed Japan's first Australian consulate was established in Townsville in 1896. The consulate supervised the thousands of indentured Japanese workers who then laboured in Queensland.

Since the 1970s Japan has invested heavily in Queensland. This investment began with real estate and tourist developments, particularly in the Gold Coast. Locally this extended to the at times controversial Iwasaki resort at Yeppoon, now called Rydges Capricorn International Resort.

This Japanese investment has increased so that last year they spent $118 billion in Australia. Japanese investments now include several major coal production projects including the Central Queensland miner BHP Billiton Mitsubishi Alliance (BMA). BMA is Australia's largest coal miner and exporter and the world's largest supplier to the seaborne coking coal market.

Locally Japanese companies also own 20% of the Gladstone Power Station and 40% of Boyne Smelters Limited.

With these strong historical, financial and trade links, to me it makes sense that Gladstone has a sister city relationship with a similar Japanese city. This city is Saiki, on Japan's most southernmost major island of Kyushu.

Given these links this is also why I, and many other people over the past 15 years, have paid to be part of a sister city delegation to Saiki city.

Saiki is a major port city about 780 km south-west of Tokyo and has a population of about 52,000. Its main industries are cement and paper pulp production, shipbuilding, manufacturing and fisheries.

Along with participation in cultural activities, being part of our November 2011 sister city delegation will also enable me to promote business and industry links between our two cities. In recognition of this, representatives of the Japanese owners of Gladstone industry have already expressed their appreciation that the Gladstone Industry Leadership Group will be part of this year's Saiki delegation.

If you would like to find out more, click on these links for information on Saiki city and Queensland's trade with Japan, cheers, Kurt.

Employment challenges for our school leavers

Kurt Heidecker — 2011-10-07 18:01:20 +1000

For all the talk in Gladstone of "jobs, jobs, jobs", a recent Queensland Education report paints a different picture for school leavers in our Central Queensland Gladstone school district.

Each year Education Queensland surveys the previous year's Year 12 cohort six months after they graduate and then compiles a "nextstep" report on their employment status. This year's "nextstep 2011" report for the Class of 2010 makes sobering reading.

Of last year's Year 12 graduates in Queensland, 28% are either working part time or unemployed. This group is primarily of interest because presumably most of them would have preferred full time employment or further training, if they were available.

Given the buzz which surrounds employment in Gladstone, I was surprised that 34% of the 679 members of our district's Class of 2010 are either working part time or unemployed. This does not include former students who are studying for higher qualifications (29%), working full time (15%) or apprentices and trainees (22%).

One highlight in Gladstone is that 22% of high school graduates are in apprenticeships or traineeships compared to 12% in the rest of Queensland. Members of the Gladstone Industry Leadership Group (GILG) have a proud record of providing these entry level opportunities to school leavers. In 2010 over 7% of our members' direct employees, or about 240 people, were either apprentices or trainees. This compares very favourably with Australia's industry averages.

This number is still relatively small when compared to the whole graduating class. Indeed by far the largest proportion of employed school leavers, nearly 50%, is in sales assistant, food handler or receptionist / secretary roles.

Disturbingly looking over previous "nextstep" reports dating back to 2007, full time employment opportunities for Gladstone's Year 12 graduates have fallen from 21% in 2007 to 15% this year. As would be expected this percentage fell dramatically to 12% during the Global Financial Crisis years but has yet to fully recover to pre-Crisis levels.

Regardless of these sobering numbers, when I talk to Gladstone high school students I envy their employment opportunities. It was a very different story when I graduated.

Today's students are in the right place at the right time but there is still very tough competition for jobs. As I tell my son, "You may be first in line to take advantage of the great employment opportunities in Gladstone, but if you don't, there's a queue of people behind you who will."

If you would like to take a look, the "nextstep 2011" reports for Gladstone and Queensland are available at these links, cheers, Kurt.

Industry performance snapshots for 2010

Kurt Heidecker — 2011-09-30 08:28:57 +1000

With so many demands in our busy lives it's no wonder that we feel like there's never enough time to get everything done.

That makes it hard to find the time to do the things that many of us may like to do. Like, for instance, find out how Gladstone Industry Leadership Group (GILG) members went in 2010.

Our GILG surveys have found that the Gladstone community wants to be better informed about industry performance and wants industry information to be clear and easily understood. With all our family and work commitments and so many other demands clambering for our time, this is no easy task for either community members or industry sites.

Our surveys have also found that only a small number of community members use industry publications as a source of information. With the recent release of several GILG members' 2010 sustainability reports, I'd strongly encourage you to take a couple of minutes and have a quick look at these reports. Maybe you'll then decide they are worth a closer read.

To me the strengths of these reports are that they are a comprehensive snapshot of each site's annual performance and they are frank.

Each year each site sets targets for the next year. These challenging targets go across a wide range of areas that could be of interest to you. Typically each report covers the community, people, safety and health, environment, greenhouse gas emissions, business performance and improvement projects.

These reports don't pull any punches. They use a green, orange and red traffic light assessment to clearly show whether a site has achieved each of its targets. The advantage of this for you is that you can quickly home in on issues about which you may want to find out more and then read those sections in detail.

If you want to dive deeper into a particular area of interest, the reports also contain useful reference information, diagrams which clearly show how processes work and have interesting case studies about the people and improvements on each site.

So if you want an easily understood snapshot of some of GILG's members' performance in 2010 and you've not previously had a look at their sustainability reports, I'd recommend them as a great place to start.

This is the link to the Boyne Smelters Limited Rio Tinto Alcan Yarwun Gladstone Sustainable Development report 2010 and QAL's Health, Safety, Environment and Communities Report 2010. When you have a couple of minutes spare, it's well worth the effort, cheers, Kurt.

Monitoring of grass fire smoke

Kurt Heidecker — 2011-09-23 08:35:59 +1000

I'm sure that you'd agree that over the past week the smoke from grass fires has been bad. I've found that where I live in Tannum Sands that it's much worse at night and in the early morning.

As shown by continuous air quality monitoring done by the Department of Environment and Resource Management (DERM), this is the same across Gladstone and in other towns such as Brisbane, Mackay and Townsville where DERM also monitors air quality.

This monitoring shows that the readings for Particulate Matter are very high. Particulate Matter, commonly referred to as dust, is made up of solid particles suspended in the air which vary in shape and size.

DERM monitors two sizes of Particulate Matter (PM), PM 2.5 and PM 10. PM 10 is about 1/6th the diameter of a human hair or about the size of a pollen particle. PM 2.5 is about the size of small bacteria or large viruses. These particles are monitored because they can penetrate into the lower airways of our lungs.

As we've seen, PM 2.5 and 10 particles can also remain in the air for several days or longer and can be spread by winds long distances from the fires.

Air quality standards are used to assess the severity of DERM's readings. These standards are based on the standards recommended by the World Health Organisation.

To make these standards easier to understand, DERM uses a grading system based on the percentage a reading is of its air quality standard. If a reading is between 0 to 33% of its standard, it is said to be Very Good and if it is between 34 and 66% of its standard the reading's grading is Good.

Should the reading be between 67 and 99% of its standard it is assessed as Fair and it is Poor if it is from 100 to 150% of its standard. If it is worse than that, the grading is Very Poor.

Over much of the past week PM 2.5 and PM 10 levels have been Poor or Very Poor.

Each day page 2 of The Observer has a summary of the air quality results for the previous 24 hours up until 3 PM the previous day. This summary takes the worst hourly DERM reading for the worst contaminant and publishes this grading as the daily air quality index for each monitoring location.

If you want to see the latest air quality results, the GILG front page has a link to this DERM monitoring data where you'll also find a more detailed explanation of DERM's air monitoring processes.

If you want to find out how to avoid the grass fire smoke, this link has some useful information, cheers, Kurt.

Change of guard at CA

Kurt Heidecker — 2011-09-16 15:02:34 +1000

After five years at the helm of Cement Australia's Fishermans Landing plant, Kevin Doyle has handed over responsibility to the plant's new Operations Manager, Simon Rice.

The Board of the Gladstone Industry Leadership Group (GILG) would like to publically thank Kevin for his loyal support and insightful contributions to the Board over the past nearly three years since GILG was established. As a founding member of the GILG Board, Kevin has seen many challenges and changes in Gladstone.

Kevin's tenure in Gladstone included the buoyant economic times that preceded the Global Financial Crisis, the Crisis itself and now the resurgent resources boom which is driving our economy in Central Queensland. His time also saw the closure of the Cement Australia plant at Rockhampton and the redeployment of several of this plant's employees to the Gladstone plant.

Kevin began his career with a range of technical, operations and management roles throughout the manufacturing division of Cement Australia. His success in these roles led to a series of Plant Manager appointments at Cement Australia's three largest manufacturing facilities.

Kevin started these senior management roles at the Kandos plant in New South Wales and was he then promoted to be the Plant Manager of the Railton plant in Tasmania. His accomplishments in these positions then led Kevin to be appointed as the Operations Manager of Australia's largest cement manufacturing plant here in Gladstone.

As a strong supporter of the philosophies which underlie GILG, Kevin is especially proud of the role that GILG has played to restrengthen the ties between Gladstone's industries and community. After the challenges that confronted Gladstone in 2008 and 2009, he leaves this relationship in a much better state.

The GILG Board and I wish Kevin and his wife Ivana all the best in the future.

Kevin's replacement, Simon Rice, hails from the north of The Emerald Isle, Northern Ireland. Prior to his last nearly three years as the Production Manager for Cement Australia's Gladstone plant, Simon held global roles in locations such as the United Kingdom, Europe and Indonesia.

Simon is another resident of Boyne Tannum and lives there with his wife and children.

GILG's directors have warmly welcomed Simon as the Cement Australia representative on the GILG Board. He has some big shoes to fill but I am sure that Simon is more than up to that challenge, cheers, Kurt.

Guy Fortin and BSL

Kurt Heidecker — 2011-09-08 16:15:12 +1000

Tucked away at the northern end of Boyne Island is Gladstone's largest and probably most complex industrial site, Boyne Smelters Limited (BSL).

BSL processes alumina to make the metal aluminium. All the alumina used by the plant is produced by Queensland Alumina Limited (QAL) and transported from QAL to BSL using a 9.5 kilometre long conveyor system. BSL's aluminium is then produced in reduction lines that are over one kilometre long.

BSL employs over 1,300 people and has operated since 1982. In 1997 the facility underwent a $1billion expansion to increase its production from 260,000 to more than 550,000 tonnes of aluminium per annum. This made BSL Australia's and Rio Tinto Alcan's largest smelter.

The plant is nearing completion of another significant modernisation project that will also extend the life of BSL. This project is worth $685 million and will upgrade BSL's technology, increase its energy efficiency and reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.

Thirteen per cent of the aluminium produced by BSL is sold to customers in Australia. The rest of the aluminium is exported to South East Asia and North America. The aluminium is used to make a wide variety of products such as aircraft, cars, cans, alloy wheels, zippers, window frames, door frames and even yacht masts.

Guy (pronounced ghee) Fortin has the demanding job of leading the BSL team. As you can tell from his name, Guy is another of the global general managers that Gladstone industry is very lucky to have.

Guy has been in Aluminum industry for 23 years and has spent over 30 years working with heavy industries. During this time he has worked on four continents and has held a wide range of roles in process engineering, sales and marketing, strategic planning and general management.

Guy started his career by studying metallurgical engineering in Canada and has successfully lead teams there and in South Africa, Europe and now Australia.

Guy is an avid sportsman and particularly enjoys that in Queensland he can cycle all year round. Having said that, he does miss skiing and ice hockey but no doubt he'll be able to catch up on those sports when he heads back to Canada on holidays.

If you want to find out more about Guy, some more information is available at www.gilg.com.au, cheers, Kurt.

Orica and Stewart Wotton

Kurt Heidecker — 2011-09-01 16:54:19 +1000

Just because Orica’s Yarwun plant doesn’t have the same profile as the other world scale industries in Gladstone, don’t let that mislead you. The Orica plant is a world leader and is crucial to many of our resource industries.

While the site is one of Gladstone industry’s smaller employers with about 200 workers, the products that Orica makes are used throughout Central Queensland and as far afield as South America, Africa and the wider Pacific region.

The Orica plant uses a complex series of chemical processes to make products in three streams. The plant produces about 560,000 tonnes per year of ammonium nitrate which is principally used to make explosives for both open cut and underground mines. It also makes about 80,000 tonnes per year of sodium cyanide which is used to leach precious metals from mining ore. Finally the Orica plant produces about 9,000 tonnes per year of chlorine. This is mostly used by local councils to purify drinking water for our water supplies.

Orica’s Yarwun plant is the latest industry site to join the Gladstone Industry Leadership Group (GILG). This decision was primarily driven by the site’s new leader, Stewart Wotton.

Orica’s commitment to operate at the highest standards of safety, health and environment meant that Orica easily fulfilled the requirements of GILG’s Code of Conduct and Orica was warmly welcomed into our group.

Stewart’s initial training was as a Chemical Engineer. He has since worked at alumina refineries throughout Australia and in the United States, West Indies and South America. His professional and managerial roles have spanned alumina process engineering, production, maintenance, occupational health and safety, environment and residue disposal. As if to prove his versatility, before his current role as Orica Yarwun’s Site Manager, Stewart spent two years with Bechtel Australia as a senior process engineer.

While he was a keen surfboat rower and swimmer, these days in his little spare time Stewart tries to get in the occasion round of golf.

Stewart is a passionate supporter of the mighty Rabbitohs, but his real passion is for his children and grandchildren.

Next week’s column will be about the largest of GILG’s sites, Boyne Smelters Limited, cheers, Kurt.

RTA-Yarwun and Mike Dunstan

Kurt Heidecker — 2011-08-26 09:21:35 +1000

The Rio Tinto Alcan Yarwun refinery may be the new industry kid on the block, but with its youth come several advantages.

For the numbers people, the refinery produces around 1.4 million tonnes of alumina each year from bauxite shipped from Weipa. This alumina is then shipped to customers in Australia, New Zealand, China, and the Middle East, where it is used to make aluminium.

The Yarwun refinery's first stage was completed in 2005 and is near the end of a multi-billion dollar expansion which will increase the plant's annual capacity to 3.4 million tonnes. The refinery currently employs about 500 people and will recruit a further 250 people for the Yarwun expansion.

This expansion and the new technology used in its first stage have brought Yarwun a number of key advantages. One great example of this is the co-generation plant built in the Yarwun expansion. The co-generation plant makes more electricity than the site needs by burning natural gas in a jet engine similar to those on a Boeing 747. The engine's waste gases are then used to make process steam for the refinery. This reduces greenhouse gas and other emissions and is much more energy efficient, which is good for the plant as well as the environment.

Mike Dunstan heads up the Yarwun refinery. Mike is a long time resident of Gladstone and has been in the aluminium industry for over two decades. This includes 18 years at Boyne Smelters Limited (BSL) and the last three years as General Manager of Rio Tinto Alcan's Yarwun alumina refinery.

As Yarwun's General Manager, Mike is responsible for all aspects of this complex refinery and is a committed member of the Board of the Gladstone Industry Leadership Group.

Even with all these responsibilities, he's also renowned for his commitment to his personal fitness. Mike regularly competes in triathlons, and has a regimented weekly training routine that includes up to 12 kilometres of swimming, 300 kilometres of cycling, and 50 kilometres of running. Mike has represented Australia in triathlons five times, and his best accomplishment was achieving 13th place at the world championships in Mexico.

If you want to find out more about Mike, his biography please click here, cheers, Kurt.

QAL and Phil Campbell

Kurt Heidecker — 2011-08-12 11:10:24 +1000

Queensland Alumina Limited (QAL) is the granddaddy of industry in Gladstone. Before QAL, Gladstone was in trouble. In the 1960s it was a town of about 7,000 people and one of its largest employers, the abattoir, was about to close.

This galvanized the Gladstone community and they pushed for QAL to be built in Gladstone rather than in Southeast Queensland, where it was originally planned. The city's leaders were successful and when QAL was commissioned in 1967, it became a major catalyst for the industrial development and prosperity that followed.

QAL takes bauxite from Weipa in Northern Queensland and makes alumina, the fine white powder that is used to make Aluminium. Until recently QAL was the world's largest alumina refinery but now with a production of just under 4 million tonnes per year, is number three in the world.

One of the many things that I find remarkable about QAL is that QAL originally produced less than 2 million tonnes per year of alumina. While about $250 million has been spent in the last ten years on environmental improvements and infrastructure replacement, the plant is fundamentally as it was originally built more than 50 years ago. What has changed in that time are hundreds of small, incremental improvements to the plant's chemistry, efficiency and processes. QAL is a great example of how industry applies continuous improvement.

With about 1,150 permanent employees and several hundred permanent contractors, QAL is one of the largest employers in Gladstone and a foundation member of the Gladstone Industry Leadership Group (GILG). Since 2008, Phil Campbell has led this complex site.

Phil's path to this leadership role has taken him all over the world. He started his career as a Metallurgist at BHP's Port Kemble Steelworks and often talks fondly of his professional start there. He then joined an alumina research organisation before holding a series of increasingly responsible mining, operational and expansion roles in Alcoa's Western Australia's alumina business. Phil then left Australia and worked for Rusal, the world's largest Aluminium producer, and was based in Moscow and Jamaica. This experience was particularly valuable as Rusal owns 20% of QAL.

Phil is married with two teenage children. He's a Fremantle Dockers supporter, but that's mostly to balance out his children's support of the West Coast Eagles.

If you want to find out more about Phil, his detailed biography is available here, cheers, Kurt.

Cement Australia and Kevin Doyle

Kurt Heidecker — 2011-07-28 15:08:25 +1000

Cement has been around since at least Roman times. Some even say since the time of the ancient Egyptians. While the principle of heating limestone to make cement hasn't changed since those times, there have been huge improvements in the chemistry, efficiency and scale of cement making.

The Cement Australia plant at Fishermans Landing has Australia's largest cement kiln. The kiln makes over 1.6 million tonnes of cement per annum from limestone mined from the East End quarry near Mt Larcom. A second kiln makes about 300,000 tonnes of lime per annum which is mostly used in Gladstone's two alumina refineries.

The cement made at Cement Australia's Fishermans Landing plant is used to make concrete destined mainly for major civil infrastructure and construction projects. While most of these projects are in Central Queensland, they can also be from New South Wales in the south to the far north of Queensland.

The Cement Australia plant plays a key role in Gladstone's industrial ecology, or industry waste reuse. The two best examples of this are the blending of fly ash from the NRG Gladstone Power Station with their cement. This improves key characteristics of the concrete made with Cement Australia cement. Previously this fly ash was sent to landfills. Their cement kiln also burns and destroys the spent cell linings from Boyne Smelters Limited (BSL). These linings would otherwise also be sent to landfills.

Although with about 130 employees the Cement Australia plant is one of the smaller employers in the Gladstone Industry Leadership Group (GILG), Cement Australia was a foundation member of GILG and a committed member. This commitment has come from the top where the Operations Manager, Kevin Doyle, leads his highly skilled team and strongly believes in the principles and approach of GILG.

Kevin started his professional career as a Chemical Engineer and has over 30 years experience in the cement industry. During this time he held technical and management roles in Cement Australia's manufacturing division at Kandos in New South Wales and Railton in Tasmania.

He has been Operations Manager at Cement Australia's Gladstone plant for the past four years.

Kevin is married with three daughters and was borne into a Victorian family of Collingwood supporters. At least that's his excuse for supporting them!

If you want to find out more about Kevin, click here to see his detailed biography, cheers, Kurt.

NRG Gladstone Power Station and Glenn Schumacher

Kurt Heidecker — 2011-07-21 18:28:52 +1000

It's a strange contradiction. Electrical energy is essential for our modern lives but it's also taken for granted. We are used to a simple flick of a switch to get light, heat, vision, sound or power.

Electrical energy is just as essential for industry. For this reason, a power station was one of the first major industries established in Gladstone. The Gladstone Power Station was opened in 1976 and became the NRG Gladstone Power Station in 1994. It is now simply known as NRG.

Not only is NRG the biggest single power station in Queensland, it is one of the very few sea water cooled power stations in Australia. NRG takes sea water from Auckland Inlet to condense boiler stream once it has passed through the enormous turbines that drive NRG's electricity generators. This sea water is then returned to the Calliope River and the condensed steam is reused.

As NRG uses sea water for cooling instead of fresh water, it can continue to produce electricity even during the worst droughts.

Glenn "Shoey" Schumacher is the General Manager of the NRG Gladstone Power Station and leads its 300 employees. For the past two years he has also been Chairman of the Gladstone Industry Leadership Group.

Shoey, as he's universally known, started off professionally as a Mechanical Engineer and has since filled senior roles in the electricity generation and paper industries. While Shoey likes to refer to himself as a knuckle dragging engineer, he has an impressive array of academic qualifications.

These qualifications underline Shoey's passionate belief in the importance of continuing education, both for himself and his team. In 2010, his achievements were recognized when Shoey was awarded the Engineers Australia Queensland Professional Engineer of the Year.

His belief in continuing education also extends to the development of his team. In many ways the technical and people demands of being the General Manger of NRG match Shoey's passions for continuing education and team development.

If you want to find out more about Shoey, his detailed biography is available at this link, cheers, Kurt.

Leadership - the key to GILG

Kurt Heidecker — 2011-07-15 15:11:54 +1000

While the name of the Gladstone Industry Leadership Group (GILG) is a bit of a mouthful, it is a good description of the group. The group's purpose is to bring major industry players together to jointly resolve their shared challenges in the Gladstone region. How this is done is also the key word in the organisation's title - leadership.

The source of GILG's leadership is the group's Board. The GILG Board is made up of the Gladstone-based managers who have overall responsibility for each of GILG's member sites. These six member sites are the Yarwun operations of Cement Australia, Rio Tinto Alcan and Orica and the NRG Gladstone Power Station, Queensland Alumina Limited (QAL) and Boyne Smelters Limited (BSL) facilities.

The formation of GILG was driven by the senior managers at each of these sites. It is also because of their ongoing support that GILG has continued to operate. In part this is because the resource development boom around Gladstone has meant that there has been no shortage of shared challenges for the GILG Board.

As you know, industry has a big presence in Gladstone. GILG's members directly employ nearly 4,000 people and indirectly employ more than that again. They have also been a crucial part of Gladstone's development and its prosperity.

Being such a big part of the Gladstone community also has its responsibilities. In my experience, the Gladstone community expects that industries show that they are good corporate citizens. This is one of the reasons that GILG membership is open to all major commercial industries operating in the Gladstone region if they are willing to commit to the GILG Code of Conduct.

The community's strong support for Gladstone's industries was clearly shown in GILG's 2010 community survey. The other message that came from this survey was that the community wants to better understand Gladstone's industries and the people who lead them.

To help the Gladstone community to better know these people and what their sites do, in coming weeks I'll focus on each of GILG's member sites and their leaders.

Next week I'll kick off with GILG's Chairman and the General Manager of the NRG Gladstone Power Station, Glenn "Shoey" Schumacher.

If you have any questions you'd like to ask GILG's Board members, please drop me a note or join the GILG forum at www.gilg.com.au. If you want to find out how to do this, please click on this link.

I look forward to hearing from you, cheers, Kurt.

GILG participation strengthens FBA Board

Kurt Heidecker — 2011-07-01 10:49:29 +1000

The sustainable management of the world's land and water resources has become increasingly important as the demands on our environment have increased. Getting the balance right between development and environmental sustainability is one of the biggest challenges facing us today.

As the intensity and scale of industry increases in Gladstone, the level of interest in our industries has also increased. This includes regional organisations such as the Fitzroy Basin Association (FBA).

Established in 1995, the FBA is a community-based organisation that promotes sustainable development and natural resource management in Central Queensland. In my simple terms, in essence the FBA's focus is to improve their catchment's water quality through improved land use practices.

As you can tell from its name, the FBA's area of interest is the catchment of the Fitzroy River. This catchment is about twice the size of Tasmania and stretches from the Capricorn coast to Clermont and Emerald in the West, Nebo in the North and Wandoan in the South. The FBA's region has also been defined to include the adjacent local catchments of the Boyne and Calliope Rivers. The Boyne / Calliope sub-region has a very active sub-branch which focuses on our Gladstone area.

While the FBA's patch is much larger than that of the Gladstone Industry Leadership Group (GILG), there are strong similarities in each organisation's focus. This is particularly around the FBA's focus on sustainability and GILG's focus on industry having a positive impact on our society, economy and environment.

One of the challenges for the FBA is the wide range of sometimes competing land uses in its region. This has traditionally been grazing and cropping uses competing with urban development but has begun to increasingly include extractive industries such as mining.

To help the FBA navigate these challenges and to add Gladstone's voice to the mix, earlier this year I took up a position on the FBA Board. My intention is to use my understanding of our industries to bolster Board discussions and decisions.

Happily for me, this role has also meant that I have been able to reacquaint myself with some of the outstanding members of the agricultural community in Central Queensland.

If you would like to share your thoughts on what you think the FBA should focus on, please join the GILG forum at www.gilg.com.au. If you want to find out how to do this, please click on this link.

For more information on the FBA, please go to www.fba.org.au.

I look forward to hearing from you, cheers, Kurt.

Industry tours – now’s your best chance

Kurt Heidecker — 2011-06-24 12:37:29 +1000

Albert Einstein once said, "In adversity lies opportunity."

The high Australian dollar and the mistaken impression that Queensland is still under water have been sources of adversity for many. However, the opportunity that this has given you is that now is the best time to grab a seat on a free Gladstone industry tour.

For me there is a fascination about knowing how electricity and aluminium are made and how a port works. Now is your best chance to find out how our region produces so much of our state's wealth.

You have a choice of tours that are held each week. On Mondays there is an NRG Gladstone Power Station tour for 1.5 hours starting at 1pm. If you've never seen a power station up close and personal I can guarantee it's an experience that you won't forget.

On Tuesdays there is a Gladstone Ports Corporation tour for 1.5 hours from 10am. This will give you a window into the multi-billion dollar coal export trade which passes through one of Australia's largest coal export terminals.

On Fridays there is the Mine to Market Tour of the Queensland Alumina Limited and Boyne Smelters Limited sites that takes three hours from 9:15am. On this two site tour you'll find out how bauxite from northern Australia becomes the aluminium that we use every day.

If you're more interested in the natural beauty of our town, there are also tours for you. On Wednesdays there is a tour of Tondoon Botanic Gardens combined with a Gladstone scenic tour starting at 1:30pm for 2.5 hours, while on Thursdays there is a tour of the Botanic Gardens only from 10am for 1.5 hours.

For the romantics at heart, for only $22 each, on Wednesdays at 10:40am there's a two hour Harbour Coffee Cruise.

While the gardens and industrial sites are fascinating, the best part of these tours is your very helpful and friendly guide. They are usually long time residents with industry backgrounds so they will give you a deep insight into the operation of industry sites, as well as explain the history of our region.

So if you've always wanted to do an industry tour and find out what makes these sites tick, adversity has given you an opportunity.

Bookings are essential so please call the Gladstone Visitor Information Centre on 4972 9000 to reserve your spot and find out all the other details, cheers, Kurt.

Findings of the GILG Survey

Kurt Heidecker — 2011-06-17 15:01:05 +1000

The Board of the Gladstone Industry Leadership Group (GILG) recently released a comprehensive community perception survey on Gladstone's industries. The survey report is available at www.gilg.com.au.

While the Gladstone community was generally very supportive of existing industries there was still a feeling that their performance needed to improve in some areas.

One survey question asked by CQUniversity was for an overall rating of GILG's members against nine dimensions of good corporate citizenship. The table below shows the average mark given by the 520 people surveyed.

While a mark 2.5 out of 5 would generally be seen as a pass, the lower rated dimensions are still areas in which GILG members want to improve.

The strength of GILG members' support of the community and their workforce were standout positives. Just as plainly, the believability and clarity of industry communications were also seen as areas for improvement.

These issues centre on whether the community trusts industry. The challenge for industry is that, as my Grandma would say, "Trust is earned, not given." In other words, industry must prove themselves worthy of our community's trust.

To me, to build community trust we must honestly discuss issues of concern to our community. We also need to make ourselves available at events such as this month's Ecofest and at public meetings.

While most industry representatives thought that they did these things, in the eyes of some community members we still have some way to go to earn their trust. So we need to redouble our efforts.

If you have any other thoughts on how industry can do this, please join our online forum at www.gilg.com.au. I look forward to hearing from you soon, cheers, Kurt.

See you at Ecofest

Kurt Heidecker — 2011-06-02 07:57:04 +1000

The Gladstone community can be proud of many things. For me one of those things is our Ecofest.

Ecofest is a great free family day out. It showcases real examples of what industry, government and the community do to protect our environment. It also has all the fun of a fair.

There are a wide range of interesting stalls that make coming along a must. There are lots of animals to see and touch, plenty of giveaways, entertainment for the whole family, food and stacks of interesting hands-on experiences.

On a more serious note, there are also educational displays. You can see the latest products and ideas that can help reduce your environmental footprint by changing things that you do in and around home.

All of Gladstone's major industries will also be there. Please take this opportunity to find out more about what our industries do and how they work to take better care of our environment. If you have any questions that you'd like to ask, this is your chance to get the answers you need from industry people who know.

I will be there on behalf of the Gladstone Industry Leadership Group (GILG) and our member industries. While Ecofest started in 1999, this will be my third Ecofest. For me the festival is a great chance to meet a wide range of Gladstone people. If you want, I'd really like to talk about how you think that industry, our community and the environment are getting along together in Gladstone.

I'm keen to talk to you about any issues that you want the senior managers of Gladstone's major industries to be across. This could include concerns around air quality but also the role that industry should play in issues such as social infrastructure, skills shortages, health services and training. I'm also very interested in your comments on our community perception survey recently completed by CQUniversity.

Or if you would prefer, just drop by, say hi and grab a GILG balloon for the kids.

Ecofest is a great Gladstone event so I encourage you to make the most of this opportunity. Come and see what it's all about and enjoy the community spirit of the occasion.

I look forward to talking to you on Sunday. See you at our beautiful Tondoon Botanic Gardens between 9am to 3pm, cheers, Kurt.

GILG survey air quality feedback

Kurt Heidecker — 2011-05-25 10:37:52 +1000

Earlier this month the Gladstone Industry Leadership Group (GILG) Board released the results of CQUniversity's independent survey on Gladstone industry. The complete report is available at www.gilg.com.au.

My take on the report is that our community is generally supportive of Gladstone's existing major industry but still feels that industry performance needs to improve in some areas.

Community concern about the potential health impacts of industry air emissions was the chief reason that GILG was established in 2009. Over the past two years the GILG Board have focused on industry improvements in this area as well as better explaining the improvements that they have already made.

In 2009 Queensland Health (QH) surveyed 520 people and asked them, "How concerned are you that industry in Gladstone might be affecting your health?" To see whether community opinions have changed over the past two years, this same question was asked again in the 2010 CQUniversity survey.

The results are below. The red columns are the responses to the QH survey and the blue columns are the responses to the latest CQUniversity survey. The numbers on each column are the percentages of the community that made each response in each survey.

While it is fair to say that our community's air quality concerns have not reduced as much as I would have liked, most people would agree that there has been a significant drop in the number of people with higher levels of concern.

The message that I have taken from these results is that we're on the right track but we still have more work to do before some members of our community will be convinced that Gladstone's air is safe.

If you would like to read the air quality findings for yourself, the complete report is on the GILG home page www.gilg.com.au.

If you have any ideas about how industry can further reduce community air quality concerns, please share your thoughts on our forum topic, cheers, Kurt.

Industry Manual Handling Expo

Kurt Heidecker — 2011-05-20 08:39:32 +1000

Across all members of the Gladstone Industry Leadership Group (GILG), safety is the number one priority. As manual handling injuries typically account for about 40% of serious industry injuries, senior industry managers are determined to stop these preventable manual handling injuries.

One way that they have put this priority into action is through the Rio Tinto Manual Handling and Ergonomic Expo. This Expo was held for the second time at Queensland Alumina Limited (QAL) on 9 and 10 May this year.

The Expo shared the manual handling challenges and achievements of each of Rio Tinto's sites in Queensland and the Northern Territory. The aim of this information sharing is to ultimately make industry workplaces safer. This is because the best practice improvements made on one site can be replicated across multiple industry sites and thus the safety benefits spread and maximized.

The Expo also displayed a wide variety of material handling products and anti-vibration tools and equipment from over 20 suppliers.

One such area that I found impressive was valve automation technology. In this age of high tech touch phones and computer controlled systems, it's easy to forget that there are still demanding physical jobs on industry sites. This includes the effort needed to open, close and maintain the control valves that direct the flow in the hundreds of kilometres of heavy pipe on each industry site.

The consistent message of the Expo was how these and other common physical jobs can be done smarter.

A real strength of the Expo was that it was hands on. It was not just glossy pictures of equipment. It gave participants the opportunity to see how equipment can be used in real work situations and thus the difference that the equipment can make to everyday tasks. Industry employees got hands on with pneumatic guns, jackhammers, air compressors and hand tools of all descriptions.

On behalf of the many hundreds of industry employees who had the chance to try out new equipment and learn about the manual handling initiatives on other sites, I would like to thank the Expo's organisers for an outstanding event.

If you would like to see pictures of some of the equipment on display, please click here.

You can also join our forum topic and share your thoughts. If you want to find out how to do this, please click on this link.

I look forward to hearing from you soon, cheers, Kurt.

Release of the GILG Community Survey

Kurt Heidecker — 2011-05-06 14:03:54 +1000

In late 2010, CQUniversity completed a comprehensive community perception survey on behalf of the Gladstone Industry Leadership Group (GILG).

This survey involved more than 530 telephone and face to face interviews and focused on the corporate performance of GILG's members. The university finalized its survey report on 15 March 2011.

I would like to thank the many Gladstone residents who so willingly give up their valuable time to take part in this survey. I would also like to thank the CQUniversity survey team for their hard work and for making sure that this survey was impartial.

This survey had a number of firsts. It was the first time that an independent third party, in this case CQUniversity, has completed a community perception survey on Gladstone industry. It was also the first time a community perception survey of this size has been completed on Gladstone industry. Finally, it was also the first time that five major Gladstone industries have participated in the same community perception survey.

I hope that all these firsts will build the confidence of the Gladstone community in the survey's findings.

My one line summary of the survey's findings is this. The Gladstone community is generally very supportive of existing industry but still feels that their performance needs to improve in some areas.

For me this is the report's key sentence.

"The combination of the performance of Gladstone industry and the high level of acceptance within the Gladstone community indicates that Gladstone industry is performing satisfactorily in the task of maintaining a 'social licence to operate' in the region."

At its last meeting the GILG Board decided to publically release the complete survey report to the Gladstone community. The Board strongly felt that this was the best way to show that GILG's members care about the opinions of the Gladstone community and that GILG's members are open and honest.

Today GILG has therefore released CQUniversity's complete report on their community perception survey of GILG's members – warts and all.

If you would like to read all the report's findings for yourself, please click on this link.

You can also join our forum topic and share your thoughts. If you want to find out how to do this, please click on this link.

Over the next month I will use this column to focus on different aspects of the survey report.

I look forward to hearing from you soon, cheers, Kurt.

Orica joins GILG!

Kurt Heidecker — 2011-04-27 17:05:38 +1000

It is my pleasure to welcome Orica to the Gladstone Industry Leadership Group (GILG).

Earlier this month Orica became the sixth member of GILG. The other members are Cement Australia, the NRG power station, the Queensland Alumina Limited and Rio Tinto Alcan -Yarwun alumina refineries and the Boyne Smelters Limited aluminium smelter.

Orica's Yarwun plant employs nearly 200 people and is headed up by Stew Wotton. Stew was recently appointed to this role and came from the alumina industry where he filled several senior overseas roles.

The Chair of GILG and NRG General Manager, Glenn "Shoey" Schumacher, has congratulated Stew on becoming a GILG Director and Board Member. "Orica is an important existing industry in Gladstone. I warmly welcome Orica to GILG and look forward to Stew's contribution on the Board," he said.

Orica started operations at Yarwun in 1989 and has since undergone several expansions. Orica's Yarwun plant is one of the biggest of its kind in the world. The plant primarily manufactures three chemicals which are mainly used in the mining industry.

The Orica plant makes about 640,000 tonnes per year of ammonia nitrate. This is a fertilizer but when it is mixed with diesel it becomes what is colloquially known as "ampho", a versatile low velocity explosive. This explosive is commonly used in both open cut and underground mines by companies digging for coal, gold and other minerals.

The Orica plant also produces about 95,000 tonnes per year of sodium cyanide. This chemical is used to leach the gold out of gold ore. Typically it can win as little as one gram of gold from one tonne of ore.

Finally the Orica plant also produces about 9,000 tonnes per year of chlorine. This is mostly used by local councils to sterilize drinking water for town water supplies.

By joining GILG, Orica's leaders have clearly shown that they want to be part of GILG's collective industry effort to resolve issues of mutual concern in Gladstone. Orica will formalize this commitment when Stew signs the GILG Code of Conduct on behalf of Orica at the next GILG Board meeting.

If you would like to see a photo of Orica's Yarwun plant or the GILG Code of Conduct, please click on these links.

To share your thoughts, please join our forum topic . If you want to find out how to do this, please click on this link.

I look forward to hearing from you soon, cheers, Kurt.

Improvements at Yarwun

Kurt Heidecker — 2011-04-21 10:23:49 +1000

Gladstone's people have sent a clear message that air quality needs to remain a key focus of the Gladstone Industry Leadership Group (GILG).

GILG's members have taken this message to heart and they are each working to improve their air quality performance. A good example of this is the co-generation (co-gen) plant at Rio Tinto Alcan - Yarwun.

The Yarwun refinery processes red bauxite ore to make the fine white powder alumina, aluminium oxide.

The process to make alumina takes large amounts of steam. Traditionally this steam is made in coal-fired boilers which release sulphur oxides and particulates. In high concentrations these emissions can cause asthma and other respiratory diseases.

The natural gas-fired co-gen plant built as part of the Yarwun expansion is very different. The heart of a co-gen plant is a jet engine similar to those on a Boeing 747. The spinning turbines in the jet engine drive a generator which makes electricity. The hot exhaust gases from the jet engine are then used to make steam for the bauxite refinery process.

Effectively the refinery gets two bites at the cherry. It uses the gas twice, once to make electricity and then again to make steam. This has many positives.

The feed gas for a co-gen plant doesn't have any sulphur or particulates, so it doesn't release sulphur oxides or particulates. Secondly gas-fired boilers are far less greenhouse gas intensive than coal-fired boilers. This means that the co-gen plant produces about half as much greenhouse gas as a coal-fired boiler to make the same amount of process steam. Lastly, the use of gas avoids the dust sometimes caused by the transportation of coal.

These differences are good for the community as well as good for the environment.

Even though it's more expensive to make steam with a co-gen plant compared to a coal-fired boiler, co-gen also makes good economic sense. This is because the refinery can use the electricity from the co-gen plant to power itself and then sell excess lower emissions power to the electricity grid.

The co-gen pant is therefore another great example of how a single project can help reduce industry's cumulative impacts on our society and the environment and still be economically positive.

If you would like to see photos of the co-gen plant please click here.

To share your thoughts, please join our forum topic . If you want to find out how to do this, please click on this link .

I look forward to hearing from you soon, cheers, Kurt.

Improvements at BSL

Kurt Heidecker — 2011-04-08 10:33:25 +1000

The cumulative impacts of industry can affect our society, environment and economy.

It therefore makes sense that we look at industry improvement projects in terms of how they impact in these areas. A good example of this is an improvement project underway at Boyne Smelters Limited (BSL).

The BSL plant turns alumina, a fine white powder made up of aluminium oxide, into the metal aluminium. The plant makes about 550,000 tonnes of aluminium each year. To do this, it uses electricity and large carbon blocks made onsite in Carbon Bake Furnaces (CBF).

In 2008 the $685 million Boyne Smelter Development (BSD) project kicked off. The project's completion is due in early 2012 and at its peak will employ 450 people. The key parts of this project are to upgrade the smelter's rail cranes, improve its alumina handling equipment and construct a new CBF.

The new CBF will reduce the smelter's carbon dioxide emissions by more than 20,000 tonnes per year and reduce the odours that sometimes come from the plant. Importantly, the new CBF will also reduce several of the pollutants monitored by the Clean and Health Air for Gladstone project. As a result, this part of the BSD project will reduce BSL's cumulative impacts on both the community and environment.

The improvements to the plant's alumina handling equipment will reduce alumina losses and thus the alumina dust around the site. This will have positive effects on the environment as well as improve the site's amenity.

The upgrade to the smelter's rail cranes will primarily improve the plant's operational efficiency.

The BSD project has several positive economic impacts. During the Global Financial Crisis downturn this project helped keep local contractors in work.

In the future the BSD project will also help ensure that the smelter continues to contribute to our local economy and provide employment and training. The efficiency gains from the project will also help the smelter's owners continue to get a return on their investment in the plant.

The BSD project is therefore a great example of how a single project can help reduce industry's cumulative impacts on our society and the environment and still be economically positive.

If you would like to see photos of the BSD project please click here.

To share your thoughts, please join our forum topic . If you want to find out how to do this, please click on this link .

I look forward to hearing from you soon, cheers, Kurt.