Descend Commercial Update - July 2005

Descend graduate's from course No. 44

Commercial Update

It has been quite a while since we gave an update on the commercial scene. The reason is because in the 30 years I have been diving commercially I have never experienced a busier period for diving. It’s not just Descend, it’s a general upturn in the industry. You couldn’t help noticing the price of petrol!! When crude oil hit US$60 a barrel, almost doubling the normal price, we all pay the penalty at the pump. The flip side to this however, is the oil companies suddenly found it viable to develop new projects and that is exactly what is happening in Bass Straight, Portland, North West Shelf and Timor Gap, just to name a few.

The end result is that onshore divers, particularly level three divers, are being drawn offshore by the lure of big dollars and this is creating a shortage of onshore divers. There has never been a better time to be a commercial diver.

Course Update

Our course number 44 which started in January and finished in April 2005 was full and we had to turn students away (that hurt) but the best thing was all divers (except one who wanted to play footy for the winter) had jobs within two weeks of finishing the training. That’s a fabulous outcome.

We are now almost finished course 45 and have one more course (No. 46) available for 2005. This commences on the 5th September and if you are thinking of enrolling could I suggest you do it early to avoid disappointment.

To see our latest course dates select the link below:

http://www.descend.com.au/training/commercial/dates/index.htm  

Contracting Projects

Tantangra – Snowy Mountains

Challenging conditions in the Snowy Mountains

We have a couple of really neat projects running at the moment. With the drought now in its fifth year, water has never been a more critical or expensive commodity so when Snowy Hydro decided to build a new inlet tower at their reservoir at Tantangra, in the Snowy Mountains one of the critical factors was the ability of the contractor to avoid any water loss. The principal contractor was Geotechnical Engineering of Melbourne who proposed building a cofferdam on the upstream side of the reservoir, de-watering the cofferdam and building the inlet tower in the dry before backflooding the coffer and removing it. Innovative to say the least. The process started in August 2004 when Descend were contracted to survey the site. The snow was thick on the ground and the conditions freezing however the task was completed using hot water suits. The plans were drawn up and we found ourselves back on site in January 2005 to install the steelwork for the cofferdam. This involved drilling 120, 32mm horizontal holes into reinforced concrete and installing spartec anchors to hold the 30 tonnes of 700mm universal steel beams. Next the sheet pile was driven between the 700 UB’s to form the cofferdam. We then dredged the base of the cofferdam and laid 250 tonnes of concrete and de-watered the coffer sealing the holes as we went. In all we have spent over 1000 hours on the project and of course it is not yet finished. Later this month, dependant on snow conditions, the new tower will be finished and we will blackflood and coffer and cut out 30 tonnes of sheet pile using Boroko ultra thermic rods and then remove the 30 tonnes of structural steel. That should be fun???

Tularoop - Victoria

Underwater cutting at Tullaroop

Another interesting and challenging project has been the rehabilitation of the Tullaroop Reservoir inlet tower. This tower has imbedded cast iron stop log guides that over many years have started to deteriorate. Our job was to cut off the 30mm by 30mm cast iron rails underwater, clean the cut back flush with the existing concrete, position new stainless steel rails, drill 30 x 25mm horizontal holes through the embedded cast iron and 190mm into the re-inforced concrete, fit chemical anchors and then the fit of the gates.

Again a lot of fun and a very successful project.  

Now add these two big projects to two bridge demolitions, 14 potable water reservoir cleans, the survey for a new project in the Snowy Mountains, fitting and sealing stop logs at Eildon and Yarrawonga reservoirs and solving some problems with inlet  pipes at Wodonga at the same time as running commercial diver training courses then its no wonder we needed to put on some more permanent staff.

New Staff

We are pleased to welcome Rick Austin back into our team after an absence of about two years. Rick is an ADAS Level 3 diver, Supervisor and Instructor and is an ADAS Diver Trainer Assistant Manager. Its good to have him back. Rick has been running commercial courses in New Zealand and now that’s he’s back gives us three DTAM’s on staff.

Course Value Adding

Descend courses have never been better value. Apart from the fact that we are $1000 cheaper than most of our competitors we also include the provision of the ADAS Divers Logbook, textbooks, and the following endorsements; Dan Oxygen Management in Level 1, Nitrox in Level 2, and Chamber Operator in Level 3. Not to mention practical explosives and the OHS green & red card for the construction sites, all as part of our standard fee structure. In addition, up until 2006 we will include the ADAS certification fee of $250 at no extra cost. This combined with the fact that only Descend offer a full range of services including retail dive shop, sports certifications available with commercial training (the only extra fee is the certification cost), a licensed hydrostatic test station (you actually get to see how hydrostatic testing is done and if need be get your gear tested while on course), and the fact that we are a major commercial contractor and winners of the Commonwealth Government Telstra Small Business awards as;

Best Micro Business in NSW, Best Small Business in NSW & Best Micro Business Nationally. Doesn’t it make sense to kick-start your commercial diving career with Descend Underwater Training Centre? Check out our website at www.descend.com.au where you can follow a course on a daily basis, read about our major projects, search our list of divers looking for work if you are looking to hire, check out our staff profiles or download our information package.

To see our latest information package select the link below:

http://www.descend.com.au/training/commercial/packages/index.htm