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PLUMBING GROUP

FROM THE DIRECTORS

It is a clique, but the years appear to be getting shorter, as we approach the end of the first quarter in 2022. It’s great to be able to travel and catch up with our teams and walk the sites Nationally, to see firsthand the positiveness, energy, and productivity that the new year has brought. Transitioning out of COVID-19 lockdowns, relaxing of social distancing restrictions and the wearing of masks indoors, has not come quick enough, but not forgotten as we stay abreast of individual State legislation and Pandemic mandates, without question, the CDPG community banded together and for that we are thank full and proud.

We would like to thank Kevin McKeown and our COVID-19 Management Team for their professionalism and the consistent communication updates of everything COVID-19 to our team, our partners, our clients and supply chain.

World Plumbing Day held on the 11th March saw CDPG nominate three Apprentices for the annual “Apprentice Skills Contest” which was held at PICAC Brunswick – the competition is designed to test apprentices’ skills, critical thinking and problem-solving abilities. It was fantastic to see Daniel Cooper return from last year’s event to take out first place. Also, congratulations to Connor Caldow and Andrew Thompson who has just completed his Apprenticeship with C&D (QLD) congratulation to all who represented CDPG with such high skills on the day.

The 2021 Plumbing & Fire Industry Awards took place at the Crown Palladium on 17th March (held in lieu of last years cancelled event) and we are very proud to have won four awards across CDPG - congratulations to the entire Victorian Plumbing Industry, organisers, finalists and individual award winners, In particular our magnificent team who made it possible to achieve these industry accolades.

• Project of the Year Award – Sunshine Hospital Emergency Department

• Indigenous Professional Award – Kaelun Brown (Pathway Plumbing Services)

• Frank Maskell General Plumbing Award - Khayne Horman

• Andrew Letten Gold Medal Award – Khayne Horman (which is the Brownlow of Plumbing awards)

The well published collapse of ProBuild had been a shock for the entire Construction industry and created a lot of work for our teams and management, a priority for us was to maintain consistent communication to our staff and supply chain, which provided confidence that CDPG was actively working towards favourable outcomes for everyone involved. I am delighted to update, and with thanks to the client CSL, Probuild administrators, the original Probuild Project team, incoming Builder Roberts & Co and the dedicated CDPG team that we are back on site at CSL Melbourne. The CBUS Properties project at 433 Queen Street Brisbane is still a work in progress, with a focus to receiving payment for works completed and currently owed, whilst negotiating in good faith with the developer and the appointed builder, yet to be announced.

In February we welcomed Pathway Plumbing to our head office in Keilor Park, Ricky and Kaelun now have a specific area to work out of and will no doubt benefit from the support of the CDPG team.

We had a long-awaited visit from Cooke & Dowsett - Rosetta Management and personal friends Robert Pearshouse and Andy May at the beginning of March, reminding us all how important face to face personal engagement and contact is. Both of Tasmania`s finest sported very distinctive interesting Melbourne haircuts before or after a few beers, is still unknown.

It was great to see John Colley our Albury based Estimator in at HQ, working alongside our great Estimating team, to introduce some new process`s and carrying out some training on our new Estimating software.

My first road trip since lockdowns, was Regional NSW, where I accompanied Craig Proctor (CDA Construction Manager) for a few days, visiting several of our sites on our way through to Cootamundra. I spent some time in the Albury office catching up with Ian, Paul, and the team. Visiting our site`s is so rewarding and this trip was no exception. Cootamundra a redevelopment of a large Abattoir, which is being delivered jointly by owner and operator Australian Meat Group (AMG) & Monde Constructions. Matt Quick and I, also spent some time, with Justin, Chris, Travis, and the team at our Qld office, I am looking forward to visiting all our business divisions over the next couple of months, as the restrictions ease and floods subside.

We were pleased to host our CDPG annual Golf Day in March at the magnificent Northern Golf Course, located in Glenroy. The beautiful morning started with a Welcome to Country Smoking Ceremony conducted by Kaelun from Pathway Plumbing. Over 140 people were in attendance, which included our chosen supply partners, sponsors, clients, and staff. Our celebrity panel consisting of Wayne Carey, Campbell Brown and Corey McKernan kept the audience entertained with their amusing stories. Congratulations to the winning team captained by Matt Quick (go figure). A personal thanks to Jacqui Besanko, Corey Mckernan and the CDPG team for organising such a magnificent day. Thanks once again to our sponsors who made the day possible.

Scott & Chadd Directors

RECENT PROJECT WINS!

Victoria

Oakleigh Warehouse Development – H.Troon

WA Quarantine Facility – Grove Group

New South Wales

Murray Bridge Bunnings SA – H.Troon

All Saints Estate Winery – All States Estate

Community Care Accommodation – Joss Construction

Glenrowan Interprative Centre - Midson Constructions

Tasmania

Hobart Youth Foyer – Vos Construction & Joinery

Tas TAFE Trades & Water – Hansen Yuncken

Sigma Healthcare Warehouse - Ahrens

Queensland

St Andrews Early Works – John Holland Group

Roma Street B4 Swewe - CPB

Ripley Hospital - Hutchinsons

Tugan Hospital - Hutchinsons

Click image to watch.

PEOPLE AND CULTURE

Congratulations Hayden Smith receiving apprenticeshop certificate.

Welcome Kellie Tapping, (Shah) Muqtader Shah, Shenali Warnakula and Christina Battiloro

2022 has seen us kick start the year on a positive, welcoming a number of new positions the Group! We continue to recruit candidates with a broad range of knowledge and experience to build our strong team foundations.

Ardien Muhammad – Estimator (CD VIC)

Ben Dowsett – Graduate Placement (CD VIC)

Charlotte Salmon – Marketing Consultant (CD VIC)

Christina Battiloro – Purchasing Officer (CD VIC)

Kellie Tapping – Administration Assistant (CD VIC)

Marc Busbridge – Warehouse Assistant (CD VIC)

(Shah) Muqtader Shah – Finance/Project Business Partner (CD VIC)

Shenali Warnakula – Assistant Accountant (CD VIC)

Ahmed Dahir – Plumbing Sales Assistant (CENTRAL)

Aaron Harrison-Stewart – General Manager (TPAGG)

In January and February alone, we recruited over 30 plumbers to help build our site teams! A huge shout out to Matt Camm and Kevin McKeown for assisting in the recruitment and onboarding of the guys!

Daniel Tadinac and Hayden Smith recently completed their apprenticeship’s and were congratulated on site by their respective team members – great effort guys we congratulate you on your hard work!

Congratulations to Neil Moxon who has chalked up his 10-year Anniversary with Cooke & Dowsett Pty Ltd in March 2022. Our Group Accountant Neil heads up the finance team and is instrumental in running our Vic office social events. Congratulations Neil on achieving this milestone with Cooke & Dowsett - we look forward to working together for many years to come.

Employee Engagement

We’ve made it even easier to join the CDPG team. With the introduction of our new payroll system, an employee self-start option is now available, so our newest team members can provide their details directly into our payroll system. This process is part of a project to streamline the onboarding process and includes a new online editable employment form which will make it easier to capture relevant information. As we continue to improve our processes, stay tuned to see some of our most used forms available in an online version.

Group Accountant - Neil Moxon

TRAINING & DEVELOPMENT

With the return of face-to-face learning on the horizon, we are continuing to provide a number of training opportunities to employees.

The training calendar kicked off with Project Manager’s Mark Dalton and Dane Peterson attending a 2-day Contract Management course with the Australian Institute of Management. The course provided a practical guide to managing contracts through exploration of the contract lifecycle; from tendering and negotiating to managing risk and administering contracts. Feedback from both Dane and Mark was the course provided a good overall understanding of contract management and was very beneficial!

Congratulations to Liberty Wallace (TPAGG) and Matt Howe (CD VIC) who will be undertaking further studies in 2022. Liberty is undertaking a Diploma of Project Management and Matt is undertaking his Diploma of Business & Construction (Management).

Interested in undertaking further training or education, please contact me to discuss!

FIRST AID TRAINING – VICTORIA

Various office and site staff recently completed Workplace First Aid training held at our head office. The nationally accredited first aid training provided valuable knowledge and skills to all participants

CAREER OPPORTUNITIES

Did you know you can access the newest internal job opportunities from around the country via our Careers Page?

https://www.cookedowsett.com.au/careeropportunities/

We are continually looking for new employees with varied experience to broaden the depth of our team, if you know someone who is interested in joining the CDPG, please forward a copy of their resume to info@cookedowsett.com.au

Jo Bomm

People & Culture Manager

Daniel Tadinac and the VIC Clinic SIte team

The year has got off to a good start with works commencing at the Northcote Aquatic Recreation Centre, MITS in Richmond and Brighton Social Housing Projectkeeping the team busy across all sites. We are closing out at the Chelsea Train Station which proved to be challenging in particular the 42-day occupation period which has seen the site working 24/7 for this period and had the team stretched thin but we got to the end and had a well-deserved break.

Apprentices, Keith, Djuane and Jamie have recommenced trade school and starting their second-year studies which, they are enjoying. It helps when trade school compliments the works onsite allowing them to gain good experiences across a broad range of plumbing.

The Brighton Social Housing project has seen the team install stormwater drainage and pits throughout the site with the challenge of keeping the existing drains live. Well done to Djuane Wright and Paul Johnson for putting the hard yards in the last week to get the final drain connected. This had additional challenges including deep excavation, live services and traffic to contend with but to their credit they got it over the line.

PATHWAY PLUMBING

The commencement of the in grounds at Northcote Aquatic and Recreation Centre has seen two Pathway Plumbing Services apprentice’s Keith Morgan and Jamie Kairouz working on the installation of stormwater, sewer and water lines. Pathway Plumbing Services are proud to be involved in this project given our teams close link to the area, both Keith and Jamie live nearby and are active in the local community. We look forward to working with Kane Constructions to deliver this project.

Kaelun Brown (KB) has been busy with the closing out of the MITS project in Richmond with the final connection to the Hot Water Service completed there is only the water tapping to finalise. A big shout out to the Cooke & Dowsett guys who helped with the fit off inside to get the job across the line.

Ricky Morris Director

Installing RCP at Brighton Social Housing Project

Paul and Djuane installing stormwater pipe

Djuane installing his first shower base

As we are all starting to get back to some form of normality post our harsh Covid-19 lockdowns last year, we have commenced the year strongly. Our current work in hand is healthy and we have a strong pipeline of potential projects. Inground works have commenced on both the Epping Private Hospital and the Northcote Aquatic Centre, whilst we are also now back on site at CSL after coming to commercial terms with the ProBuild Administrators, which is a great result for all involved. We have finally finished our contract works on the Docklands Studio project, Elgar Road Childcare Centre and the Chelsea Station crossing removal. Works are continuing works on our 3 Pathway Project’s (State’s Mental Health Facilities) which will see each one being completed during the year, with Grace McKellar finishing up around Easter.

Since we last communicated, we have successfully secured the final stage of the GMHBA Stadium in Geelong, the new Spirit of Tasmania Terminal also in Geelong, Chirnside Park commercial precinct and a 26-factory development, both with Troon Developments. We were also successful in securing additional prefabrication works for Grove, as part of the Western Australia’s Quarantine Facility, following the successful delivery of Victoria’s facility.

The Pathway Plumbing team are currently completing the Melbourne Indigenous Training School Boarding House project and the Brighton Social Housing early works package with Icon. As previously noted, Pathway Plumbing provides CDPG another alternative option in the market place by providing a social procurement solution to our clients, whilst promoting employment opportunities for indigenous apprentices. We are collectively exploring strategic opportunities to differentiate ourselves within the Tier 1 builders and local councils.

Thank you all once again for your efforts and commitment to the business as we look to build on a successful first quarter of the year. Please take care and keep safe.

Matthew Quick General Manager

Cooke & Dowsett

Artist impression Tasmania Ferry Terminal - Geelong

Artist impression Docklands Studios, Melbourne

GMHBA Stadium - Geelong

SUNSHINE PRIVATE HOSPITAL

The team are busy working the first stage of the development, that will include a 30-bed medical and surgical ward, along with high dependency beds, a dedicated private mental health inpatient unit, operating theatres and an endoscopy suite. The project is led by Mark Dalton and supported on site by Andrew Wright, who are working through various design and coordination complexities with the other services contractors and Build who are the principal contractor. The design is modern, which has a business model that will enable it to take advantage of short-stay and day procedure specialist groups such as orthopaedics, ophthalmology, plastic surgery and ear, nose and throat surgery. The project is due for completion mid to late this year.

CITY OF GREATER GEELONG COUNCIL OFFICES

We are quickly approaching the completion of this project, and Jake Young has been driving the team who are busy working through the fit-off. The building contains sustainable mass engineered timber design, creating a light-filled, healthy, contemporary workplace for the central Geelong-based council employees. It will bring together City employees from seven central Geelong offices to drive collaboration, reduce costs, and future-proof the City’s workplace needs. It is expected to save local ratepayers over $2 million annually in energy and rental costs alone.

Geelong Civict Precinct artists impression

Works progressing well at Sunshine Private Hospital

Mick Berry and Peter Mavropoulos, Sunshine Private Hospital.

This part of the country has seen one of its wettest and mildest summers in many years with record rain falls in many areas, this in turn has provided the agriculture industry in the region a massive boost of positivity, setting them up for a great year. 2022 in the bush kicked off at a reasonably steady pace, with existing projects ongoing from 2021 and some new projects coming on line.

Craig Proctor and his team have been putting some kilometers under their belts travelling far and wide to our live projects. Batemans Bay Aquatic Leisure & Arts Centre is nearing completion and has been a challenging project from a staffing point of view and I would like to thank Tim Carberry, Patrick Obrien and the whole project team for your efforts on this high-profile project. Young High School, Wagga Wagga Christian College and some refurbishment works at Kapooka Army Barracks have also been keeping the Wagga boys and a couple of the Albury team busy over the past couple of months.

Paul Harrington and his team have continued works with Lutheran Aged Care (NSW), Buronga HealthOne (NSW), Mainfreight Distribution Centre (SA) and Wodonga Secondary College (Vic). Clemo and Jimmy Obrien have the roving team of late covering a number of smaller projects in Benalla, Mt Buller and Wangaratta.

We had a number of new projects come on line in the past few weeks, a community housing project with long term client Joss Constructions, a Bunnings store in Murray Bridge (SA) with another long-term client H.Troon, The Ned Kelly Centre in Glen Rowan (VIC) with new client Midson along with a fire service upgrade at the very well-known All Saints Estate Winery near Rutherglen (VIC).

There are a couple of very positive larger longterm projects currently on the table that our entire management team are working on to try and secure, hopefully some announcements are imminent. Estimating is very buoyant at present with Johnny Colley diligently churning tenders out of his cave! John recently spent time at the VIC Head Office with our team of Estimators

gaining valuable experience and training using our new estimating software, helping to streamline our internal estimating processes. Resourcing of plumbers and apprentices is providing us some challenges of late, but good resource management by the Project Managers is ensuring we can service our clients well. All in all 2022 is looking quite positive.

Ian Avage

Director

Cooke & Dowsett Albury (CDA)

BURONGA HEALTHONE

Our Buronga HealthOne project is winding up with completion of rough in works achieved in February with fit off and final completion scheduled for April 2022. Big thanks to Cooke & Dowsett Rosetta’s (CDR) Sam Legro who flew over from Tasmania for a month to give our Site Manager Nathan Strang a hand, Sam also went on to work on several projects in South Australia and enjoyed some site seeing. Shout out to Rob Pearshouse and Andy May (CDR) for the assistance with this project.

Click below to view the time lapse video of the Buronga HealthOne Project courtesy of Icon/ Barpa

Mainfreight Distribution Center

MAINFREIGHT DISTRIBUTION CENTRE

Our South Australian projects in Mainfreight Distribution Center and Bunnings Warehouse – Murray Bridge are both progressing well through the in-ground stages with both projects scheduled to be completed by the middle of the year. Anthony Furmaniak and his team have been working around the clock to maintain the builders program.

Congratulations to CDA Project Manager Paul Harrington on winning one of the “Nearest the Pin” prizes at the

CDPG Golf Day in March.

Wow!! What a crazy and insane 3 months since the December newsletter in the construction industry in Qld. Literally 2 days before the EBA Christmas shutdown saw the opening up of the borders to our southern friends and it saw the state experience its first real exposure to Covid-19. We had daily case numbers of 10,000 for quite a few weeks which impacted all of our job sites when we returned on 5th January 2022. Job sites were running at approx. 60% of the workforce, which obviously severely impacted construction programs.

The collapse of ProBuild obviously effected The CBUS Properties project at 433 Queen Street Brisbane, this is still a work in progress, with a focus to receiving payment for works completed and currently owed, whilst negotiating in good faith with the developer and the appointed builder, yet to be announced.

Less than a week after the ProBuild collapse saw the devastating Brisbane floods hit our city, 70% of our normal annual rainfall falling in 3 days, which affected all of our jobs across the board. The ongoing fallout of the flood damage has brought our NPAV job to a halt as it still goes through the clean-up process with the basement levels a complete write off with all newly installed services needing to be pulled out, amenities, crib rooms, offices, meeting rooms all destroyed and needing to be rebuilt before any construction can look like recommencing.

On a more positive note, we received news in the new year that we had been awarded 2 Satellite Hospitals in Tugun and Ripley, however this was soured by the floods and delayed both start dates until around April.

PICAC Beenleigh is close to closing out the project with the final commissioning taking place on the Gas Systems. This will then allow the college to begin to implement the training of students utilising Hydrogen. At the Inner-City State Secondary College, things are slowing down for us with some of the companies affected by the ProBuild collapse.

Over at the Cross River Rail – Roma St project, we have Jeremy facilitating scope gap work and temp installs between the Roma Street and Albert Street stations and we are really putting in the hard yards in the office with both our estimating and design teams trying to secure the main hydraulic packages to these stations. The awarding of these packages has been a real slow burn, but we expect all of our hard work to pay off.

We have secured an early works package with John Holland Group out at Saint Andrews Private Hospital in Ipswich, which we hope will put us in a good position to pick up the main package involving a 5 level Cancer Centre.

Up North in Cairns at the Convention Centre, Luke has dropped down to 1 plumber as this job continues to struggle and fall behind program due to circumstances out of our control. We feel your pain Luke and Tommy, but as always in our industry when it comes will open up on all fronts.

Finally at the Queens Wharf Casino Project, when we just looked like getting ready to ramp up, the glazier on the project went into liquidation (via ProBuild), putting the brakes on the potential for an influx of labour. Chris and his crew are doing a great job with what areas they have available to them to plumb and we have been able to save blokes from redundancy with an acceleration of prefab work back at the yard.

The work behind the scenes when ProBuild collapsed, securing tools and materials from site was outstanding, the work in the office getting reports and reams and reams of unexpected paperwork for insurance, liquidators was above and beyond, the culture we have fostered among the work group, seeing many of our plumbers take annual leave to keep another plumber employed has been very rewarding and for that I thank you all.

Justin Pitts QLD Manager

Flood affected New Performing Arts Venue NPAC - Queensland

ELIZABETH QUAY LOT 2 & 3

Both towers are now getting very close to topping out with only another seven weeks of installing penetrations for the hydraulics with well over a year of works coming to an end. Hopefully the next stages of this project will commence soon.

We have been informed (by his wife) on World Plumbing Day and via local radio that Scott Mitchell forms part of plumbing history in WA. Between Scotty, brother Brock, father Dave (a local retired legend) and Brother-in-Law Lee (another retired legend) they have clocked up over 100 years of plumbing in WA from the North West to Perth. I wonder what they talk about after work!! There are not many buildings here in the city of Perth that haven’t been worked on by a Mitchell over the past few decades while they were under construction. We are lucky to have so much experience bred into big Scotty as we head upwards here at EQ 2+3. Well done to the Mitchells on achieving a rare milestone, and hope you can rack up a few more years with the Cooke & Dowsett team.

Mark Fitzgerald Site Manager

The Lakelands Train Station project is progressing well - we have completed all civil works to the Southern car park area which includes the installation of one of the three Stormcell Retention Tanks.

We have also been working hard along the rail corridor to complete the install of services to ensure the pedestrian bridge lift shutdown remains on track.

Timber structure starting at NAB (Murdoch University)

Elizabeth Quay by night

Lakelands Train Station works

Plumbing Guru Scott Mitchell

Welcome back everyone, I hope we all had a great summer break and enjoyed some sun, family and a sneaky beverage or two. What a start to 2022, can you believe we are 3 months in already. The pesky pandemic is sticking round, but boarders are slowly opening up between Australia and New Zealand giving Cooke & Dowsett New Zealand (CDNZ) the ability to reconnect professionally with CDPG as well as personally with family after a tough 2-year hiatus.

2021 saw the Pacifica building win multiple awards through various forums, a great marquee job to be involved in and a gift that keeps on giving. Looking forward to partnering with Icon Co. again to deliver more successful projects in the New Zealand market.

2022 will see CDNZ dive into Indigo Hotel & Apartments with Icon. Ground works are well advanced, we await the jump form to be pieced together and watch this 42-story building shoot for the sky. The industry across this side of the ditch has shown great resilience in the face of multiple challenges, already in the first quarter of this year we have had to deal with the Omicron outbreak which has had a noticeable effect on staff attendances across all sectors, but with the peak in sight I am positive that the downturn will be short lived.

The market is seeing a high volume of consents and new projects coming on the market, CDPG have been working hard at chasing leads and creating opportunities to price new works that come our way. I’d like to thank the team for their efforts at showing what CDPG can do with our vast experience and professional attitude to submitting tenders, its hasn’t gone unnoticed over here and is only a matter of time before we get that next big opportunity to showcase our remarkable company on the international stage.

Gary Moore Project Manager

Indigo – Artist Impression

Indigo - Albert Street Shop Front (Below)

Pacifica Wins Prestigious Award

Click image to watch video

The Plumbing And Gas Guys (TPAGG) have completed their first small construction project for EMAC on the new Synkro Wellness Centre at the Karrinyup Shopping Centre. Thank you to Guy Vincent from Cooke & Dowsett acting as Project Manager during the project and to Ross Gallacher for stepping up in the role of Site Manager. TPAGG is continuing to work with Cooke & Dowsett in Western Australia on the Defect Liability Period for their projects, recently completing the contract for the Parmelia Hilton

We also wish to welcome our new General Manager, Aaron Harrison-Stewart. Aaron joins us with an extensive background in commercial and maintenance plumbing. We look forward to Aaron strengthening our position in the Perth market.

Jeff Hegarty Director

Come Join Our Team!

Plumber & Gas Fitters Required - Perth

The Plumbing And Gas Guys are seeking proactive residential or commercial maintenance Plumbers & Gas Fitters to join our team.

Responsibilities include a range of maintenance and small project tasks, hot water system installations, gas pipework, oven installations, leak detection, drain cleaning and commercial work.

To apply please forward your resume to General Manager Aaron Harrison-Stewart via email aharrison-stewart@theplumbingandgasguys.com.au

THE PLUMBING AND GAS GUYS

Synkro Wellness Centre at the Karrinyup Shopping Centre

2022 has presented Project Plumbing & Maintenance (PPM) with multiple opportunities across all sectors which is keeping the whole team very busy. We wish to welcome the following employees to the PPM Team Lachlan Mackie – Plumber, Dylan Hoysted – Plumber and Taylor Moxon – who is joining us for work experience one day a week.

PPM is also supporting Master Plumbers Apprentices by engaging Justin Coliero who has started his 2nd apprenticeship. I had the pleasure of working with Justin’s dad (Danny) for 20 years and there is no doubt Justin is following in his dads’ footsteps.

Rodney Smith

General Manager PPM

Check out the informative article on Project Plumbing & Maintenance in the latest edition of the Plumbing Magazine.

https://plumber.com.au/blog/member-profile-projectplumbing-maintenance/

Projects Recently completed

• Melbourne Uni Clean Lab

• Victoria Police Museum & Storage

• Melbourne Central Tower Level 42 to 45 Lobbies Amenities Upgrade

• Level 3 and 8, 446 Collins Street Melbourne

Projects Recently commenced

• North Melbourne Football Club – Stage 2 Extension and Redevelopment of existing player and umpire facilities.

• Homes Victoria – Mind Australia – Upgrade to water damaged existing facility.

• Melbourne Central Tower – Level 45 Tenancy fit out.

• 385 Bourke Street – Level 27 Tenancy fit out.

• Aus province Vic Head Office – Amenities Upgrade

• ASI Solutions – 2 level Office fit out.

North Melbourne Football Club Works Melbourne Central Tower Maintenance

Underground Drains - North Melbourne Football Club

With the challenges 2021 seen across the country Nudj Plumbing were fortunate enough to have a steady flow of work to keep the team busy. The start of 2022 has been busy for the team with works continuing at the North Region TAFE Training Center. We are working on a new Hair & Beauty Salon, Hospitality Building & Student Support Services building.

As reported in the December newsletter one of our young apprentices Blake Bin Swani recently completed his apprenticeship – a milestone that was celebrated at our Christmas Party with the whole team! Blake came to Nudj Plumbing as a shy 17-year-old with plenty to give. Blake comes from a very well-respected local family known to many within the community. Blake was fresh out of High School and was eager to join the workforce. Blake has seen faced by many challenges which saw the completion of his apprenticeship pushed back by 6 months. Some of which were out of his control including knee complications (too much rocking the dance floor). The adversity faced by Blake did not dampen his spirits and he continued to successful complete his time. We would like to congratulate Blake for his hard work and dedication. We look forward to working with Blake and watching him grow from strength to strength.

Remote works are continuing with the Stage 1 of Cygnet Bay Pearl Farm which includes the construction of 15 Eco Tents. This project is like working in paradise, the enthusiasm and eagerness from our team to work out there is amazing and I can’t blame them. The afterwork activities include fishing, crabbing and chipping fresh oysters off the rocks at low tide is next level. Cygnet Bay is situated 190km North of Broome on the Dampier Peninsular, not only just a Pearl farm they also offer accommodation, cultural tours, sea safaris, pearling tours and lots more. I highly recommend getting out here if you get the chance!

Small jobs continue to keep the team busy in and around Broome, this has helped to grow our clientele and reputation within the maintenance sector, giving us the opportunity to build a healthy list of clientele from a variety of businesses, including Indigenous, nonIndigenous, remote communities, as well as the private sector. We are pleased that along with the domestic and commercial side of plumbing the exposure to more maintenance projects has created a lot of opportunities and has given the team great exposure to the different aspects of plumbing.

Ethan and Blake installing drains for the new Eco Tents – Cygnet Bay

Blake Bin Swani and his family celebrate his apprenticeship completion.

Ethan Corpus Manager NUDJ Plumbing

Cooking dinner, mud crab & oysters – Cygnet Bay

Sewer Treatment Plant – Cygnet Bay

Cygnet Bay at dusk

DOWSETT

April already, wow time flies when you’re having fun. The year has got off to a great start. Some projects such as Derwent Entertainment Centre and Southern Remand Centre are finishing up and some are commencing such as the Hobart Youth Foyer, a recently celebrated win. Cooke & Dowsett – Rosetta (CDR) are incredibly proud and excited that we have recently secured the TasTAFE Trades & Water Centre of Excellence, which will become the new trades school for our industries plumbing apprentices. In Tasmania, we only have one ‘trade school’ training facility meaning that once completed, all future plumbing apprentices will be trained in a building that CDR ‘plumbed’. The pressure is well and truly on for the site team to ensure everything is in place no doubt to be forensically critiqued by hundreds of future industry leaders over the years to come.

By the looks of it – it has not all been work, work, work. No less than 4 of our team have recently welcomed beautiful bundles of joy into their respective families. Extending warm congratulations from the entire team to:

Kallum Krautz and Freya who welcomed Matilda Dylan Bygraves and Bree who welcomed Luna Dan Luck and Elissa who welcomed Esther Dan Cooper and Gabrielle welcomed Charlotte

Good luck and enjoy these precious times.

The Northern team is growing and on fire smashing out our two terrific Northern Tasmanian projects, Rivers Edge and Willis Street. Lead by newly crowned Site Manager Scott Schroder along with his team of Alex and Jarryd, the team are working through in ground and suspended drainage on both sites. As well as being a first-class plumber, Scott is a highly skilled beat boxer as well as being CDR’s first employee (sorry Nathan!).

Due to the fact that the Willis Street site is on reclaimed land, the in-ground drainage is completed suspended using SS clipping and droppers. Please reach out if this methodology is required on any of your projects. We have accurate pricing, timing, and installation details if it can be of assistance with your projects. 23

THE REAL COSTS OF ROCK

We all know that at the tender stage typically we exclude excavation in rock. This is because the cost of getting rock out of a trench can vary as well as the extent of rock in the ground. What we do know is that getting rock out of the ground is expensive, and typically 5x greater than our excavation allowances in that of soil. There are far more costs than the rock breaker… Larger machines, slower productivity, over excavation, 100% imported backfill, higher disposal costs, variation documentation times and further costs in many instances.

The past months CDR have found it critically important to be on the front foot when it comes to rock having encountered it on a number of projects at the same time. As per our contracts, notify the builder as soon as the rock is found, and have them issue you an instruction to proceed. Communication and agreeing on documentation process also critically important as well as record keeping. As with many variations, initially we are carrying the can for the cost, and with excavation in rock it quickly adds up. It may seem tedious and time consuming to document thoroughly but it can become extremely important when submitting the variations for additional costs.

Sorell School in ground works

HOBART’S SOUTHERN REMAND CENTRE PROJECT IS BOWLED

Site Manager Aaron Warn and his team have all but bowled Hobart’s new remand centre. The state-ofthe-art prison features an Enware Water Management System where all fixtures are controlled electronically for times of days fixtures can be used, run times, quantity of uses, maintenance cycles and full lock out if required at times of crises. Essentially each fixture has a solenoid controlling water flow connected to a computer network where usage items are programmed by the prison. Reports can be pulled showing flow data, usage volumes, patterns of use and more. These systems are becoming more and more common particularly driven from an environmental water usage and maintenance point of view where plumbing fixtures are connecting in to BMS.

On a recent site visit I was highly impressed with the quality of workmanship from team CDR on this project. It is a first-class installation, including some technical and complex items. Our plumbing installations are the foundations upon which our company brand is built. This project is a great example of what team CDR is able to achieve…. Well done to all involved.