news
Correction
Austral’s continuing lineage In Brief Ian Bevan wants to retire, so he’s put Australian chlorinator and valve manufacturer Aquamaid up for sale, together with the pool service business. The company has been trading since 1974 and is now on the market with a good lease and high profile service shop. The sale is on a walk-in walk-out basis. Aquamaid makes salt chlorinators, PVC ball valves and check valves and has a large customer service list. It is also the sole Australian and New Zealand agent for SiderCrete’s Sider-Oxydro pool surface finish and Fibalon filter media. The business is in a high profile location with a good lease. Ian Bevan can be contacted on 0418 288 722. Gene Lawless is a pool and spa service tech in Sydney, looking to progress to a sales rep/territory manager/business development manager/trade sales role. Contact: gene@poolsidesanssouci.com.au. Underlining the importance everyone learning CPR, a three-year-old girl was saved by a passer-by with knowledge of resuscitation on the Gold Coast in February. According to reports, he heard the screams of adults over the backyard fence, and when he investigated found they were the family of a little girl who had been found on the bottom of the Runaway Bay pool. He performed CPR on the girl and continued doing so until the paramedics arrived, at which time they took over. The girl was transported to the Gold Coast University Hospital in a stable condition.
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SPLASH!
June/July 2015
In our last issue, SPLASH! published a piece on Austral Pool Solutions’ 40th anniversary gala. Unfortunately, we mistakenly referred to the owner Jon Richardson as Jon Anderson! Astute readers alerted us to the fact that the lead singer of progressive rock band Yes had not taken over Austral, but the company was still run by the son of founder Bill Richardson. Austral Pool Solutions is Western Australia’s biggest distributor of Australian brands for the pool and spa industry. It was established in 1975 providing pool pump and filtration equipment by current owner Jon Richardson’s late father, Bill, and Olympic champion Tom Hoad.
Jon Richardson, pool brand star
Jon Anderson, rock band star
Appointments
Access board role for AIS chief Elena Gosse, CEO of Australian Innovative Systems (AIS) has been appointed to the Board of Access Community Services Limited. Access is one of Australia’s leading community based, not for profit organisations providing settlement, employment, training and youth support services to migrants and refugees in Queensland. Access CEO, Gail Ker said the organisation was thrilled to welcome Gosse, whose journey
as a Russian immigrant to CEO of a successful Queensland company, makes her a stand-out addition to the Access Board. “Elena’s story is compelling – from arriving in Australia as an immigrant not able to speak a word of English, to gaining TAFE and tertiary qualifications and then rising up through the ranks of AIS to lead the company as CEO to its highest level of business success.” Contact: www.accesscommunity.com.au
Safety
Warnings after excavation incidents WorkCover in NSW and Workplace Health and Safety Queensland (WHSQ) are both warning people in the construction industry to be careful with excavations, following a series of recent incidents – two sadly resulting in death. WHSQ is investigating the fatal incident which occurred on March 25 at a residential landscape site in Cornubia near Logan. An excavator operator was killed when he jumped from the excavator as it rolled over. WHSQ urges people involved in excavation to consider the effectiveness of your safety management systems in preventing an incident like this from occurring at a workplace. In February, two Sydney workers were admitted to hospital after a five-metre deep trench caved in on them, in an incident which early findings indicate could easily have resulted in the deaths of both workers. General manager of WorkCover’s Work Health and Safety Division Peter Dunphy says it is absolutely critical that such high-risk work be carefully planned, safety precautions put in place and conditions continuously monitored during excavation work.
“It is also important that the business owner or site manager collaborate with workers to fully assess any potential risk before any excavation work starts,” he says. “There will be times when additional measures are needed because the conditions assessed earlier may have changed due to unforeseen circumstances, such as water seepage.” Dunphy is particularly concerned as the latest serious incident followed a fatality last December where a worker died after a three-metre deep trench collapsed. “In that instance, it appears that the soil had become unstable on both sides of the trench due to recent wet weather. As worksites are affected by natural occurrences such as rain, these should always be considered when planning any work – even if the rain fell days before,” he says. “The sides of a trench must be adequately supported from the risk of collapse by shoring, benching or battering, or by any combination of these. “The bottom line is that businesses need to ensure trenches are safe from collapse at all times.” Contact: www.worksafe.qld.gov.au; www.workcover.nsw.gov.au