Said Roger “I first became involved in the pipeline industry in 1967 in the UK working for CJB Pipelines, a major player when natural gas first hit the UK in a big way. I worked for CJB for three years, and got married, and we decided to come to Australia, arriving in Perth on 7 November 1970.

When I started looking for jobs, I found an advertisement from Red Ru Pipelines in the West Australian. Red Ru had just won a job from BP to build an 8 inch 26 km pipeline from the Kwinana refinery up to Kewdale. I knew of Ron Nicholas, the owner of Red Ru Pipelines. After agreeing to hire me, he left me with a cheque for $10,000 and instructions to set up a yard, clear 10 km of right of way and organise the skids.

I was recruited by Mole Engineering to sell pipeline equipment in 1973, and spent two years there at the start of the 34 inch Sydney to Moomba pipeline. However the call to get back into construction was too strong, and by 1975, with three spreads going on the 34 inch, and Esso starting a 30 inch pipeline at Sunshine Beach in Victoria, there were plenty of jobs.

In 1975, APC (Australian Pipelines Construction)/Woodhall took me on, and with my wife, two year old daughter, three month old son, and all our possessions, we moved out to Young in NSW. I worked on the Moomba –Sydney pipeline for most of ’75 and ’76, with a side trip to Adelaide to work for Santos up at Moomba, building gathering systems, and a return to Red Ru to help build the 8 inch Kincora – Wallumbilla gas line.

There was a lull until 1978, when McConnell Dowell secured the first of a series of contracts from Gas & Fuel in Victoria, looping the 30 inch Longford – Dandenong pipeline. I worked for them as site administrator until early 1980.

The Pipeline Authority in Canberra started looking for construction people in 1980, although what they wanted was someone who could handle the contracts and the legal side of a 12 inch gas pipeline contract. The project appealed to me, not least because we were still living in Central NSW. I went to work for them initially on the preparation, and later as assistant resident engineer, on the construction of the 12 inch Young to Wagga Wagga Pipeline.

In late 1980 I went back to Red Ru, to help in a maintenance program and assist with tendering for more work in Toowoomba in Queensland. We bid quite a few jobs (unsuccessfully), culminating in the machinations which surrounded the start of the 800 km Jackson - Moonie oil pipeline.

Bids for the Jackson pipeline were made by McConnell Dowell, Eric Newham and Prentice Bros & Minson, and sections were awarded to all three three companies. I went and worked for Jeff Shepherd and McConnell Dowell on the 400 km long Western spread of the Jackson line.

I then changed roles to be a father, rather than a pipeliner, and spent four years at home, working for Neil Mansell Transport. When the opportunity arose in 1987, I came back to McConnell Dowell again and went to work on the Bougainville Slurry pipeline in PNG. Initially I looked after the Logistics and Quality Assurance for the pipes and their special couplings, and then at the beginning of 1989, went to site as site administrator.

The villagers warned us that there was going to be trouble and just before Easter 1989, the Bougainville Revolutionary Army blew up two electricity transmission towers and burned down the main airport buildings. By early June 1989 the internal security situation had deteriorated, and everyone was sent home, except for Vic Sharp, the equipment superintendent, and me. We had a lot of valuable pipeline construction at the mine site, and it had to be shipped out somehow and this responsibility rested upon the two of us.

After we came back to Australia I was sent to Jakarta to look after a small oil and gas pipeline on the North Java coast, for ARCO. The pipeline was a short onshore pipeline about 3 km long to tie-in to another well site on the beach.

At the completion of this job I was recalled because McConnell Dowell had won the PNG Kutubu Oil export pipeline and Jeff Shepherd wanted me back.

After 1992, McConnell Dowell had a run of projects around Australia. Santos needed a gathering system around the Ballera gas fields, then we had the Turbridgi and Roller - Skate Projects in Western Australia. The latter was an offshore pipeline built onshore, and then towed out to sea and tied-in. 95-96 saw us building a gas line in Central Queensland into Barcaldine, and then we got a twin 6 inch slurry pipeline job in Irian Jaya for Freeport Indonesia.

1997 was the year of building of the 12 inch gas pipeline from Ballera to Mt. Isa, for AGL, which was a very successful project, and after that things tapered off a little bit. We went to Myanmar (Burma) to build a gas pipeline from a beach landfall across to Thailand, involving some very steep, hilly country.

In 2001, after that project, and a small 200 km 4 inch pipeline between Gladstone and Maryborough in Queensland, McConnell Dowell set up in the UK to build a 36 inch gas pipeline. I went there as Site Administrator, and found the UK work ethic is not the Australian ‘can do’ work ethic! In the UK the attitude seemed to be ‘it’s not my job’ - quite a shock!

After my return to Australia, I received a phone call from Jeff Shepherd to go and assist him ‘for a couple of weeks’ setting up an 800 km gas pipeline from Mozambique into South Africa. I ended up there for 18 months as procurement manager.

After long service leave, supervising loading out pipe for the Telfer Project, and returning to South Africa to reclaim the balance of McConnell Dowell equipment, I decided it was time to retire. However, after logistics/procurement jobs for Oil Search and Delco, I am back working on the PNG-Queensland Pipeline, once more with McConnell Dowell.

I think one of the things that makes being on the ‘hands on’ side of pipeline construction so much fun, is that no two days are ever the same – there’s always something different to look at, or to stuff up, your day!”