12 NT NEWS. Saturday, July 27, 2013. www.ntnews.com.au
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Roper Highway Road Update
Sherwin Iron has commenced the transport of its bulk sample of iron ore from its Roper River Project to the Port of Darwin later this week as part of its ongoing exploration and testing program.
This will mean up to 24 road trains per day will be transporting the ore along the Roper Highway through to Mataranka and north to Darwin for a period of six months.
Safety is our priority
To make the journey as safe as possible, road trains will be formed into convoys of four and escorted along the Roper Highway by pilot vehicles. This will give oncoming or passing motorists plenty of warning before they come across the trucks.
Once on the Stuart Highway at Mataranka, the trucks will continue the journey north to Darwin without escort.
Safety tips for travel on the Roper Highway
If you come across one of the convoys you should:
UÊ Pull over to the side of the road
UÊ Let the road trains pass
UÊ Obey any directions given by the pilot vehicles.
Upgrades to the Roper Highway
As part of its commitment to safety, Sherwin Iron will be progressively upgrading the Roper Highway over coming months. This will involve reforming and maintaining the gravel section of the road from the end of the bitumen to 200m past the Roper River Project turn off.
Sherwin has also committed to more substantial upgrades to the highway before it commences mining, likely in early 2014. This includes widening and the construction of passing lanes. These upgrades will considerably improve safety of the highway.
We regret any inconvenience
Sherwin Iron is a Northern Territory company that is committed to our local community. We regret any inconvenience that may be caused as we work together with Territorians to create a new iron ore province.
Our project is already providing 50 jobs, which will rise to 200 as mining commences.
Contact us for more informationFor more information about the project, telephone (08) 8941 3844 or email [email protected]
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Protesters gather at the entrance to the Spirit of Tasmania yesterday Picture: CHRIS SCOTT
Jobs rownot in thespirit, sayactivistsMELBOURNE: About 100dock workers and supportersblockaded the Spirit of Tas-mania in Melbourne toprotest against staff sackings.
The protesters were stop-ping trucks loading cargo onto the Spirit of Tasmania,which was due to depart Mel-bourne’s Station Pier at7.30pm (AEST) yesterday.
David Schleibs of the Mari-time Union of Australia(MUA) said the communitymembers wanted stevedorecompany QUBE which em-ployed the workers to nego-tiate their return to work.
‘‘The company has termin-ated them and they believeit’s been unfair,’’ Mr Schleibssaid. He said that sixmen may have an unfairdismissal case.
The MUA believes the wor-kers were sacked becausethey had raised safety con-cerns but the company saidthey had refused to carry outduties for which they hadbeen trained, and had pre-viously performed.
A QUBE spokesman saidonly one worker had beendismissed and the action ta-ken by the union was illegal.
QUBE will take the MUA tocourt over the protest, thespokesman said.
The rally was not expectedto delay the ship’s departure.
Kidnap baby safely backBy VINCENT MORELLO
and SAMMCKEITH
SYDNEY: A dramatic searchfor an eight-month-old Sydneyboy abducted at knifepoint byhis father has ended in relief,with a family member hand-ing him over to police.
Zhaiden Mifsud was handedin about 5pm (AEST) yester-day — about 20 hours after hewent missing — at Campbell-town police station by a femalerelative of his father.
‘‘He seems well and unin-
jured,’’ a police sourcesaid.‘‘It’s a good result.’’
The baby was checked byambulance officers and maygo to hospital as a precaution.
His father, Steven Hume, isknown to police, to commun-ity services and is subject toan AVO.
Police yesterday continuedto search for the 24-year-old.
He allegedly forced his wayinto the Chester Hill home ofhis ex-girlfriend Casey Mif-sud, 16, and their son about8.30pm on Thursday.
He allegedly grabbed themat knifepoint and put them inhis Toyota Camry before as-saulting Ms Mifsud at a high-way rest stop, and driving offwith the baby, police said.Zhaiden was in a booster seatand Mr Hume had no suppliesfor the baby, who was lightlydressed when abducted.
His car was found on AvonDam Rd at Bargo, south ofSydney, on Friday morningafter it slammed into a tree.
Local police, PolAir, theDog Squad and volunteers
from the State EmergencyService and Rural Fire Serv-ice scoured the area, but wereunable to find the pair.
Superintendent Dave Eard-ley made a last plea for anyonewith information to come for-ward minutes before Zhaidenwas turned in to police.
He also said Mr Hume had anumber of associates in theBargo area who had been as-sisting police.
Supt Eardley defended theeight hour gap between the ab-duction being reported to pol-
ice and a public alert. ‘‘I be-lieve the investigation that weconducted was thorough andproper and we followed thecorrect processes,’’ he said.
He said Ms Mifsud had beenreleased from hospital aftertreatment and was distraught.
Ms Mifsud’s sister, JadeLee, said she reported the cou-ple to the Department of Fam-ily and Community Servicesas recently as two weeks be-fore the abduction. Her con-cern was directed at Mr Humeand the safety of the baby.
‘‘Just so everyone no’s (sic)yes I did report my sister todocs,’’ Jade Lee wrote on herFacebook page on July 10.
She also said her sister re-acted negatively to the action.
Speaking about Mr Hume’sabduction of Zhaiden, shewrote: ‘‘This is what I didn’twant to happen this is why Icalled docs cuz I new (sic)what was gonna happen.’’
Community Services Min-ister Pru Goward and the de-partment declined to com-ment about any action taken.
State of emergencyas bombs detonatedBRISBANE: Controlledblasts will continue into thenight as bomb squad officersdestroy homemade explos-ives which have already clai-med a man’s fingers.
Police late yesterday de-clared an emergency situ-ation at the home in West Ip-swich and surroundingareas after finding more dan-gerous chemicals.
Officers declared it anemergency situation after anexplosion on Thursday even-ing, but this was revoked formost of yesterday.
It had to be reinstated afterpolice found suspicious
liquids and chemicals in thehouse inside small jars wrap-ped in tape.
Police say they’ll detonatethe jars in the home’s back-yard and residents within500m have been advised tostay inside.
Acting Inspector GeoffreyNoller earlier told reporterstwo men were injured in theinitial blast.
One man, 43, was dis-charged from hospital withminor injuries.
But a 37-year-old man re-mained in hospital late yes-terday with severe injuriesto his hands and groin.
Rudd still to close schools deal with WAPERTH: Kevin Rudd has notsecured a breakthrough dealwith West Australian Prem-ier Colin Barnett on the Fed-eral Government’s schoolfunding plan.
But Mr Barnett said thenewly re-installed primeminister was already proving
a lot easier to deal with thanpredecessor Julia Gillard,and he was confident thestate could be involved in theDisabilityCare program incoming months.
The WA Liberal leaderemerged from his Perth officeafter a one-hour meeting
with Mr Rudd on Fridayafternoon refusing to acceptthe prime minister’s insist-ence the scheme formerlyknown as Gonski would notinvolve Canberra wrestingcontrol of schools from statesand territories.
That remains the main
sticking point for Mr Barnett.Victoria and Queenslandcontinue to hold out, and Ed-ucation Minister Bill Shortenconcedes a deal with theTerritory is unlikely.
Mr Barnett said WA couldbecome involved in Dis-abilityCare, however.
Eight hurt in car yard fuel tank explosionSYDNEY: A witness has de-scribed hearing a sound‘‘like a big bomb’’ as anunderground fuel tank ex-ploded in Sydney’s north-west, injuring eight peopleand shattering windows.
Three people were workingon the disused tank on Blax-
land Rd, Eastwood, when itexploded about 12.20pm yes-terday, a fire spokesman said.
It’s understood they wereattempting to remove theunderground tank. AlanChan, who was driving an ex-cavator at the site, said it wasa terrifying experience.
‘‘It was a very big ex-plosion, like a big bomb, itwas a very big explosion,’’ hetold Macquarie Radio.
The tank was reportedly ata car dealership, which hadall its windows blown out.
An ambulance spokesmansaid the injured included lo-
cals and passersby, and somehad possible hearing damage.
The fire spokesman saidthere was an explosion at thesite but no fire.
‘‘There have been some in-juries and some damage tosurrounding buildings withbroken glass and windows.’’
