Emma’s Nhulunbuy visit

HSEQ Manager Oil and Gas, Emma Gauld recently visited Nhulunbuy for an audit and the great team spirit there left her with a lasting impression. She shared her experience with us.  

In early September, I travelled to Nhulunbuy as part of the annual Northern Territory Operations Health, Safety and Environment audit. While in the Northern Territory, I took the opportunity to visit our shutdown team at Gove who go to site every six to eight weeks to perform shutdown activities.  

Due to the remoteness of Gove, it’s usually quite difficult to arrange flights and accommodation so when the opportunity arose to visit our team there, I jumped at it. It was a great chance to meet the team and experience our shutdown operations at this site first-hand. Over a couple of days, I had the chance to see both the day shift and night shift pre-starts and meet the teams. 

Although there’s a core team of supervisors at Gove, often people will return to join the team on these shuts. When I arrived on site, the team had been there for a couple of weeks, however they seemed like a very embedded and long-standing team. Despite having a few new team members, it seemed as though everyone had been there for years and knew each other well, which was truly unique. 

Being able to meet the team and spend time with them was certainly a highlight of my trip. Seeing for myself the work they are doing and their comradery shows that the Monadelphous values are clearly in place.  

The engagement of the crew at the pre-starts and the way the team were participating and responding to the supervisors gave me a strong indication of the great mutual respect amongst the team. This is critical to the foundation of our safety culture. I was really impressed with the team spirit and attitude towards safety, as well as their openness to talk to me about safety. 

The team were happy to show me what they were working on and to answer all my questions. The facilities on site and the camp accommodation are not exactly The Ritz… think communal showers! However, when I asked the team how they were enjoying being there, they all had a very strong can-do, upbeat, attitude and work ethic. I think this can be attributed to a strong, supportive leadership team who build and maintain this culture. 

While on site, Area Operations Manager, Rick Doyle took me for a drive around the township and explained that, due to the remoteness of Nhulunbuy, most materials and equipment are sent by barge. This is because road access to the town is only available during the dry season and by 4WD vehicles, as the distance consists of over 600 kilometres of unsealed roads. 

If you ever get the chance to visit Nhulunbuy, I recommend taking the opportunity as it is truly a unique place and there is a wonderful group of people there. 

You can read more about what we are doing in the Northern Territory here.