In July, towers which had been used on the KEGP Project in Western Australia were freighted across to Whyalla to provide complete coverage of the Whyalla Pipeline for NACAP. This project is an interesting one, with one slurry pipeline, one return water line providing water for reuse in the slurry process, and cables all going into the trench.

Three towers were required to provide complete coverage of the mine and pipeline route to the steel mill. A telephone system in the Whyalla office, two base stations, approximately 90 mobile and 16 handheld radios have provided the project with all its communication requirements. In August, John Nixon and two of his pipeline crew flew from Gladstone to South Australia, in the Cessna 210 which was loaded with equipment for the job.

Also in July, it was off to Delco’s Central Ranges Gas Pipeline Project in New South Wales. To establish complete communication coverage of the 300 km from Dubbo to Tamworth, six towers were required, either freighted from Western Australia or towed in by the boys from the central storage yard in Gladstone. Heavy rain in the area resulted in some initial delays, but by early August the system was fully installed with a base station and phone system in the Tamworth office, camp TV broadcast system plus associated equipment on site ready for camp mobilisation, and the necessary mobiles and handheld radios ready for the vehicles and men to arrive.

Much closer to home is the Braemar Gas Pipeline from Condamine to the gas fired power station at Kogan, being constructed by Leighton Contractors. By late August, the locations for the two towers to cover the project had been identified and the sites established, the base station was installed in the Tara office and mobiles and handhelds were on site ready for the project kick off. Driving to the pipeline project was quite an unusual experience for Tim Atkinson, Nixon’s Pipeline Supervisor, and the boys, who usually are flown by John Nixon in the Cessna Turbo 210 to locations throughout Australia.

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This was the mode of transport required for the installation of the communications for the Nifty Gas Pipeline, a lateral off the Port Hedland to Telfer Pipeline to the Nifty Copper Mine. This job for McConnell Dowell required two towers, a base radio, mobiles and portables, with installation completed in September.

Despite the completion of the SESA Project at Penola and the Bauhinia Rail Project from Blackwater to Rolleston nearing completion, Nixon Communications is still extremely busy. Aside from all of the projects mentioned above, the company continues to provide permanent communication systems for a range of clients.

Delco’s Thunderbox Project in Western Australia is complete and now Nixon is installing a permanent data repeater tower facilitating telemetry control of the pipeline.

At the Spring Gully Coal Seam Gas Gathering Project north of Roma, Nixon has installed a permanent system at the gas plant for voice and radio telecoms. Project Manager, Gary Davis has overseen installation of telemetry to transmit data from the well heads and establish control alarm management via the two way radio system.

Another technically interesting project has been Nixon’s work for Ordyss in conjunction with Geo Dynamics, a company exploring Hot Dry Rock and geothermal energy. HDR geothermal energy is produced using heat extracted from buried hot granites to superheat water to 270oC five km below the earth’s surface at Innamincka. The process represents a massive source of renewable energy, free from CO2 emissions. Test units at eight bore sites have been set up to measure seismic activity and Nixon has been commissioned to fine-tune the 2.4 Ghz wireless network to transmit the data to the main hub where it is then sent via computer and satellite to Germany. The ability of Nixon’s pilot technicians, including Noel Davison, to fly direct to such remote locations is obviously a huge benefit for the client.

With many pipeline construction projects in progress throughout Australia and various permanent systems also being installed, the Nixon team is busy travelling to all points of the country to meet the communications needs of clients.