Page Content
AQIS Bulletin - January / February 2007
Other articles include:
- Capacity building in Papua New Guinea
- Australia marks 100 years of Quarantine
- Food additives banned under new Japanese Import regulations
- AQIS officer braves giant sharks to inspect Japanese tuna ships
Feature article
ALCAN Australia Wins 2006 National Quarantine Award
The winner of the 2006 National Quarantine Award is Alcan Australia, for its support in maintaining Australia’s quarantine integrity during the development of the firm’s $2 billion Gove G3 alumina refinery expansion. A significant feature of the Alcan G3 expansion project has been its imports of very large pre-assembled modules (PAMs) from construction sites in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam.
In consultation with AQIS, Alcan constructed a special washdown facility for the PAMs, which are up to four storeys high. The firm also worked with AQIS to educate employees in Australia and overseas to minimise the risk of quarantine risk material entering Australia; facilitated offshore quarantine clearance for hundreds of thousands of tonnes of heavy equipment; and introduced special quarantine audits at all building sites.
The G3 alumina refinery employs about 5000 people, with 1100 employees on site at Nhulunbuy (about 800 kilometres northeast of Darwin) and a further 4000 people in Brisbane, Darwin, Thailand and Vietnam. The project began in September 2004, and to date more than 400 PAMs have arrived in Gove, including two alumina calciners each weighing 1800 tonnes — the largest PAMs to be built off-site for any project in the southern hemisphere. Alcan’s vigilance, its co-operation with AQIS, and its commitment to maintaining Australia’s quarantine integrity, make it an outstanding recipient of the 2006 National Quarantine Award.
- Download AQIS Bulletin - January - February 2007
PDF [543kb]
