Shiploader

Went to have a look at the shiploader today. A huge amount of coal leaves Australia from this wharf, much of it bound for Japan or China.

The shiploader is about 30 metres above the sea, and is completely covered in coaldust.

My trip to the shiploader is the first time I've been out on the plant on this trip, most of my time is spent in the control room tweaking the control system. When you sit in the control room you are really insulated from the rest of the site, a nice temperature controlled environment with bars on the windows. Outside its 30 degrees C, tonnes of coal are flying past on kilometers of conveyor systems, dirty and noisy. We hear none of this, watching the coal tracking down a computer screen.

When you venture onto the plant you realise how vast this site is, and how ugly. Millions of tonnes of coal go through the facility each year.

It is on a scale I've never seen anywhere else.