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Remote area cater caringIt’s like any resort. There’s a swimming pool, a putting green and a tennis court. There’s an outdoor lounge bar, an internet café and a multi-channel satellite TV. This morning the dining room is serving both continental breakfasts and a dozen hot dishes from which to choose, plus a wide variety of hot and cold drinks. It’s like a resort but it is not a resort at all. It’s a mining camp featuring food and accommodation compliments of Cater Care Services (CCS). Welcome to the Cosmo Camp, 150 km south of Darwin, one of two camps accommodating the hundreds of workers employed by Crocodile Gold Australia. It is one of four remote mining camp catering operations operated by Brisbane-based CCS, including Territory Resources at Frances Creek and Bootu Creek manganese near Tennant Creek, along with another three urban educational services - Kormilda, Yirrara and Batchelor Indigenous colleges. Those who are under the impression that working at a remote minesite is an exercise in hardship need to think again. “A lot of these sites are built like resorts and accordingly you have to provide a high level of hospitality service that mirrors the resort style atmosphere the companies are trying to create,” says CCS national business development manager Robert Khan. “It’s a very competitive industry and high end sites assist companies in recruiting a leading workforce.” Chris Johnson is CCS Cosmo Village project manager, and it is his responsibility to feed an average of 190 people a day while overseeing the accommodation administration, site and room cleaning, the operation of the licensed premises and the upgrading of the 35-year-old village. It is a place where workers are all on different contracts and are continually coming and going. Some work seven days on and seven days off, or a normal five day week or, like Johnson, two weeks on and one week off. Their schedules and close quarters make them a tightly knit group. “We’ve become seamlessly integrated, “says Johnson. “We’re like a big family working and living together in a real community.” Remote area catering and accommodation is specialised work, requiring a wide range of skills and expertise. While CCS is contracted to produce catering and accommodation, cleaning and upkeep at Cosmo, each of their minesite operations demands differing responsibilities. All services are tailored to meet the specific requirements of each client. On other minesites CCS runs bus services, organises air transport and manages gyms, libraries, games and supporting facilities, event management and theme evenings, laundry, landscaping services, first aid clinics or convenience stores. In recent years, the mining and construction industries have turned from operating all facets of a remote operation themselves to focusing on their core businesses, mining and construction. The emphasis today is on outsourcing all their non-essential services such as accommodation management, maintenance, catering, flight manifests, medical or retail operations, to name a few. Those non-essential services are contracted to companies like CCS. CCS provides two types of service to the mining and construction industries: catering and facility services where, like Cosmo, the client provides the facility and infrastructure and CCS comes in and manages it; the other where the client asks for a BOO scheme project - Build, Own and Operate. “They will tell us that they want to start a new mine but they want someone else to establish the facilities under a Build-Own-Operate scheme,” explains Khan. “So we then raise the finance to build the facility and come to an arrangement with the client that we lease it back to them.” Getting the right staff for remote area mining and construction operations is a challenge for companies like CCS. The emphasis is on trying to attract and retain a quality workforce. They try to overcome this by creating conditions for their employees that are conducive to their social and family needs when living away from home. Multiple skills are a desirable feature on the CVs of prospective workers in remote areas. “Rather than doing one job, someone could be cleaning rooms in the morning and attending to bar work at night, or working as a chef’s offsider in the evening and during the day in camp administration,” says Khan. With the skills shortage in the mining industry showing no signs of abating, companies running remote area projects compete for workers by offering attractive services and fi ne dining. “When you go to our sites, the workforces in residence have got six course meals,” spruiks Khan. “We have seafood nights where we serve prawns and bugs, lobster and salmon. Then other nights they can choose from six varieties of hot meals and salads. People liken it to an upmarket Sizzler.” Discovering Territory B&BsAt Feathers Sanctuary Bed and Breakfast it’s hard to believe you are sitting in a Darwin inner-city suburb. Seated on the veranda of one of their units, or ‘habitats’, visitors are confronted by a surprising menagerie of Australian birds wandering through the garden. In the late afternoon owner-operator Peter McGrath enters with a handful of yellowtail fish, a telltale signal for the jabirus and brolgas to claim the best spots to catch a dinner. The bush turkey sneaks in behind him waiting for his feed, gracefully snatching the tossed meal out of the air. Feathers is not your regulation B&B. It is an upmarket, ($330 per night) tropical wildlife oasis in the heart of the Territory capital, and one of many distinctive B&Bs springing up in and around the city to cater for travellers who seek the quiet alternative to an inner-city hotel or motel. Each with its own individual characteristics and price range, B&Bs are a refreshing accommodation option and a personalised way to learn about what the Territory has on offer. “We like to introduce people to the wildlife you can see in the Territory,” explains McGrath. “The Aussies know it already, but the Europeans come here and they get such a surprise. When you walk out the door and you’ve got three brolgas looking at you, they’re fascinated and develop a real appreciation for our wildlife.” Territory B&Bs rarely resemble the Bed and Breakfast model frequented by backpackers and budget travellers passing through the UK. The Territory variety can be renting a room under the same roof as your host, but it can also be self-contained units catered for by a family offering the visitor a rare insight into a unique place. McGrath’s Feathers is what he calls “an extreme hobby”. A property developer by trade, his passion is wildlife – especially native birds. Feathers Sanctuary is a member of the Zoo and Aquarium Association (previously ARAZPA), established in 1990 to link zoos and aquariums in Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific in a cooperative regional network for wildlife conservation. The association now links over 70 institutions, all working together to protect and conserve the world’s wildlife. Birds bred and collected by McGrath and Feathers Sanctuary are traded with other member zoos without financial exchange. Another B&B offering a Territory wildlife experience is Eden at Fogg Dam, situated 60 km outside Darwin. Located just outside the Fogg Dam Reserve entrance, Eden is owned and operated by Heather Boulden and Jeremy Hemphill, offering three rooms, including one large self-contained downstairs apartment. Many visitors stay at Eden on their way to Kakadu National Park while others are interested in the wildlife and waterlilies at Fogg Dam. Others stay for the peaceful tropical environment. “Fogg Dam is in our name because it is an attraction, but a lot of people come here because we have a certified organic tropical fruit farm as well,” explains Boulden. “We grow organic vegetables, mangoes, dragon fruit, jackfruit, limes, mangosteen and avocados.” Eden attracts celebrities seeking quiet anonymity, academics and scientists. Each year scientists and graduate students from Osaka University in Japan book out Eden during the build-up season to conduct research into lightning. The scientists believe the Darwin area is the lightning capital of the world, and hope that one day they may be able to harness its volatile energy. Boulden is a board member of the national Bed, Breakfast, and Farmstay Accommodation Australia (BBFAA), an association that lobbies State and Territory governments on behalf of their members. “The whole trend among Australians who stay at B&Bs is they prefer to be self-contained. They prefer the extra privacy of being in a separate little place rather than in a traditional UK system of being in someone’s home,” says Boulden. Another Territory B&B that fits the selfcontained unit model is the Virginia Heliconia Ruralstay. Craig and Shendele Dingey built a cottage on the grounds of their heliconia farm, among the multi-coloured tropical flowers that are exported to southern capital city florists. Situated outside Darwin, they see their market as people interested in experiencing the quiet tropical lifestyle. “We’re aiming for couples and families,” says Craig Dingey. “The farm is quiet and rural, close to Litchfield Park and the Arnhem Highway, and the city is only a half hour away.” But getting started has proven to be a time consuming exercise. They missed the entire 2009 season because they could not finish their approval processes in time, but are ready to go in 2010. B&B approvals must come from three separate Territory Government departments, all with their own criteria and standards, plus insurance and marketing. Once a B&B passes all its approvals and is accredited, it can be featured on Tourism NT’s B&B website. The internet is proving to be the primary marketing tool for all operators. One person who is working for a more streamlined approval system is the owner of B&B Lure Inn, Lorraine Gardner. The Territory president of the BBFAA has been holding discussions with Tourism NT. “We want the government to understand that if we could have one set of rules and standards, it would make establishing a business much easier,” explains Gardner. “For most people, running a B&B is like a cottage industry. B&B owners enjoy sharing their home and meeting new and interesting people.” “It’s the people that make having a B&B enjoyable. We have had so much positive feedback. There’s not one guest that we’ve had that I wouldn’t invite back.” Gardner’s B&B Lure Inn overlooks the entrance to Darwin Harbour at Wagait Beach. Directly across the harbour from Darwin city, it takes an hour and a half to drive there, but is only 20 minutes away by ferry from Cullen Bay to Mandorah. Once guests arrive at Lure Inn they are accommodated in an entirely self-contained home within a home. The three bedroom apartment contains all the comforts of a private home including its own veranda and barbecue - perfect for that quiet weekend away from work in the hectic city. In fact, 90 per cent of Lure Inn’s clientele are escapees from Darwin, and the other 10 per cent are relatives visiting family in Wagait Beach. “It’s the people that make having a B&B enjoyable,” confesses Gardner. “We have had so much positive feedback. There’s not one guest that we’ve had that I wouldn’t invite back.” Feathers’ McGrath agrees. Often guests come in as strangers and leave as friends. “We have really interesting people come through,” he says. “One guy’s been to the Antarctic 40 times. National Geographic photographers stay here and take photos of our birds. The Australian Ballet Company stays here. All these people come through your gate that we wouldn’t come in contact with otherwise.” Directory: layouts -> download.aspx?SourceUrl= -> publications -> Documents Documents -> Cover Story Documents -> Cover story Documents -> Inside this issue layouts -> Factors on the basis of which import or export duty and other measures in respect of trade in goods are applied layouts -> Curriculum vitae (updated April 2016 ) layouts -> Periodic Vehicle Inspection for Emissions and Roadworthiness layouts -> Namas Proposal – nama seeking Support for Preparation Title of Mitigation Action Download 158.62 Kb. Share with your friends:
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