March 3, 2016
A big crowd turned out on Wednesday morning for the official opening of SBcare’s $238,000 extension to its Kingaroy building.
A $50,000 grant from the Tarong Community Partnership Fund kickstarted the major upgrade so it was fitting the opening also coincided with Stanwell Corporation’s regular six-monthly update to the local community.
Stanwell CEO Richard Van Breda, Meandu site manager Simon Ewart, SBcare chairman Doug Henderson and secretary Bruce Jay unveiled the plaque to rename the extended respite activities room as the “Stanwell Room”.
The extensions have also provided more office space as well as a room where staff can meet clients.
Mr Henderson told the audience that SBcare, formerly known as the South Burnett Senior Citizens Welfare Association, started in 1998 with an annual budget of $312,000, nine staff and two “crappy old buses”.
The not-for-profit aged and disability care organisation now has an annual budget of $2.6 million.
SBcare CEO Cheryl Dalton said there were 73 employees, 381 volunteers and 604 clients and its vehicles clock up 2.5 million km a year.
* * *
A guest speaker at the opening was artist Kelly Crane who has been working with SBcare’s creative arts program.
This project, also partially funded by Stanwell, has enabled 45 clients to take part in workshops to develop new skills, including sculpture, mosaics and film-making.
A public sculpture was presented to Mr Van Breda on behalf of the group.
* * *
SBcare received a $5000 boost during the Stanwell presentation.
Downer EDI Meandu project manager Dayne Somers and Meandu site manager Simon Ewart presented SBcare chairman Doug Henderson and CEO Cheryl Dalton with a cheque.
Mr Ewart said Meandu had won an award for Workplace Health and Safety so had decided to donate the prize to SBcare.
* * *
Other highlights from the Stanwell / SBcare morning:
- Unit 2 at Tarong Power Station – mothballed in 2012 – went back online at the weekend. This means all five units at Tarong / Tarong North are now generating electricity for the first time in about 3 1/2 years.
- There has been an increase in electricity demand in Queensland; on February 1 peak demand broke a record that had stood for five years
- Tarong North is the most emission-efficient coal-fire power station in Australia; and Tarong is among the most efficient
- Mr Van Breda said renewable energy was coming, although it may not cover 50 per cent of demand by 2030 as some people predicted; Stanwell would have to respond to this so “our coal-fired plants need to be the last plants standing”
- Stanwell is not interested in the Moreton Resources mining proposal. Mr van Breda said Stanwell had made its position very clear: “We have a very commercial existing coal mine that provides more competitive coal to our power stations. We have significantly reduced our coal costs to arguably what is the most competitive in Queensland.”
- The replacement of the Tarong North turbine should begin in eight weeks. TN has been running at reduced capacity but when this work is completed in June, the Tarong power stations should be capable of running at their full capacity of 1843MW.
- A workplace fatality at Tarong North last year occurred because of a hazard that had not been recognised: “We are all still struggling with that,” Tarong Power Stations site manager Dennis Franklin said.
- Stanwell was determined to fight the scourge of alcohol and other drugs in the workplace. There are regular tests on site. Unfortunately, half a dozen tests recently have been positive.
- The latest Enterprise Bargaining Agreement was ratified just before Christmas which provides “certainty for Stanwell and employees” for three years.
- There are 17 trades apprentices or trainees at Tarong at the moment; in the past 33 years about 250 apprentices have been trained on site.
- Meandu mine manager Simon Ewart said there were a number of major projects to happen soon at the mine “all about cementing ourselves as one of the lowest-cost coal mines in the State. We have reduced the cost of fuel coming out of Meandu by 20 per cent since 2008.
- A project to update the wash plant, which was built by Rio Tinto in the early days of the mine, is projected to increase yield by 2 per cent.
- The dragline will undergo a minor overhaul.
- Meandu is expanding its pits to the east to access lower-cost coal. Mr Ewart said this was a relatively simple and straightforward project but it had taken years to get it to this point because of the need for approvals etc.
- About 160ha of land at the mine will be rehabilitated back to its original land use.
After the update, southburnett.com.au asked Mr Van Breda about rumours that Stanwell was bringing in coal from Acland to supplement Meandu’s resource.
He said that about four or five years ago, 100,000 tonnes had been brought in from Acland. This was done to help the power stations meet an emission target at that time.
To put this figure into perspective, when all five units at Tarong are operating, between 3.5 and 5 million tonnes of coal are burned every year.
Related articles
 |
 |
 |
 |
