Today was the first chance I had to get out for some sightseeing. I have been working hard all week getting up to speed on the desalination project and making progress on the design.

Today I went with a colleague of mine, Foster McMasters, to Newcastle. Newcastle, 167 km north of Sydney at the mouth of the Hunter River is the state’s second largest city and one of Australia’s largest ports. It is a major industrial and commercial center, the export port for the Hunter Valley coalfields and for grain from the northwest.


View of Newcastle from the lookout

The city center has wide, leafy streets and some fine early colonial buildings, and reminds me a bit of New Orleans. Didn't get any pictures of the City.

First stop was the Anglican church. Foster is a member of the Kiwanis club back in Ohio, and made contact with some fellow Kiwanis folks in the Newcastle area. The local Kiwanis club is involved with a mission of the Anglican church to help local Sudanese people assimilate into the community. These people have fled their country to escape the war and killings there.


Sudanese children

Next stop was Merewether beach where are two huge pools that are built right on the beach. The geology of eastern Australia is primarily sandstone, which makes for spectacular and numerous beaches, but also makes for clean seawater and good foundations on which to build pools adjacent to the ocean. The pools are filled with seawater and provide a safe place to swim when the surf is rough. Here are the coordinates:

-32.952045, 151.756339


Merewether Baths


Merewether Baths looking out to sea

From Merewether we went on to Nobby’s beach, which is located at the harbor entrance to Newcastle. Dozens of cargo ships were waiting out on the ocean to get filled with coal. Here is a photo of a ship full of coal headed for China.


Coal-laden ship heading for China

While at Nobby’s we went out on the jetty for a look. The high winds in excess of 25 knots made for a lot of stinging sand and rough surf.

Here are the coordinates: @-32.918550, 151.797650


At the end of the jetty looking inland

We departed Newcastle and headed north to Nelson Bay. Anyhow, we made a stop at Birubi beach, which is located at the northern end of the Stockton Dunes. The dunes stretch 35 km from Anna Bay south to Newcastle, and are the longest dunes in the southern hemisphere.

Here are the coordinates: -32.785090, 152.084600


Birubi Beach (these are not the dunes)



Dunes looking south - the dunes are several hundred feet tall, though it's hard to tell from the photo




Dunes looking south


Looking towards the ocean from the dunes

From Birubi beach we headed north to the town of Nelson Bay and Shoal Bay. This huge sheltered bay is about an hour’s drive north of Newcastle. The bay, which occupies a submerged valley, stretches more than 20 km inland. It is a popular boating and fishing spot, and is well known for its resident dolphins. Each year Humpback Whales can be sighted in the bay from early June to the end of October. They migrate from the southern polar feeding regions to breeding areas off Queensland. Didn’t see any dolphins or whales.

At the tip of the peninsula that makes up Nelson Bay is Tomaree head, which is a 161 m high hill that offers spectacular views of the bay, beaches, and nearby islands.

Here are the coordinates: -32.715089, 152.185793


The trail to the top of Tomaree Head



Zenith Beach from the top of Tomaree Head


Yacaaba Head, Cabbage Tree Island, and Boondelbah Island (l to r)


Yacaaba Head


Zenith Beach looking north to Tomaree Head




Sunset over Shoal Bay

I am officially in Sydney. I was notified on Friday morning the 15th that my visa had been approved, and two hours later I had my final travel plans. I flew United Airlines from Columbus to Chicago, Chicago to LA, and LA to Sydney. Total travel time was 24 hours. I departed on Sunday the 16th and arrived at 6:15 AM local Sydney time on Tuesday the 18th. The final leg from LA to Sydney is 14.5 hours, which is a lot of time to spend over open water. I totally missed out on Monday the 17th because of the time difference. Sydney is 14 hours ahead of Columbus.

The flight from Columbus to Chicago was uneventful except for the fact that I was feeling sad about missing by beautiful family. Once in Chicago I changed terminals, and to do so, you must walk underground through the rainbow tunnel. I am not sure if this is its official name, but it is something worth checking out.

I purchased a pizza to take with me on the flight to LA since no snack service was available.
The inflight movie was The DaVinci Code. I enjoyed the book, but the movie was horrible. Save your money.

Upon arriving in the LA metro area, I spotted a few wildfires burning to the east of the City. I wasn’t able to take any pictures, but I have a nifty video here of the approach and landing.

The flight from LA to Sydney was my first time in a 747-400. This plane seats approximately 400 people with 300 in economy, 70 in business class, and 30 in first class.

I was fortunate enough to get an aisle seat which afforded me the freedom to move about and stretch without having to hassle anyone. The seats in economy are arranged in a 3-4-3 configuration and I imagine it must be tortuous to be stuck in a middle seat unless you really like the people you’re sitting next to. Because the flight is over 14 hours, there were three meal services – dinner, a mid-flight snack, and breakfast. Even though this is an overnight flight, it is difficult to get any restful sleep due to the constant activity of the meal service. I guess if you’re tired enough you can sleep right through it.

Near the end of the flight, the First Officer invited me up to the cockpit and let me land the airplane. Here are a few photos to prove it.

From the airport I went straight to the Bluewater office to begin my orientation and get to work. The Blue water team is a joint venture made up of John Holland (the contractor), Veolia (the company that will operate the plant), SKM (one of the design firms) and Maunsell (the design firm that I work for). The Bluewater team was awarded the contract to design, build, and operate the seawater desalination plant for Sydney.

On the way to the airport I managed to snap a few photos and shot a video as my cab driver took me over the famous harbor bridge.

The Bluewater office is located in the suburb of North Ryde which is west and a bit north of downtown Sydney. My office can be found here:

"Bluewater Office" lat=-33.7858314986, lon=151.12869188

I was given my own workspace and computer which you can see here.

My company set me up in a furnished apartment. It is a townhouse with a kitchen, dining room, living room, first floor patio, 2 bathrooms, and utility room with a washer and dryer, and a master bedroom with its own upstairs patio. There is a mystery room that is locked, and I later found out that this room is a second bedroom. Apparently you have to pay extra to obtain access to this room. The place I am staying can be found here:

"Medina Apartments" lat=-33.7641874885, lon=151.111893106

I haven’t been able to see much of the town yet as I go to work pretty early and it seems to be dark by the time I leave the office each evening. I did manage to pick up a few groceries last night, which will take some time getting used to the differences between here and the states. For example, is $20 AD a good deal for 1 kg of roast beef? A few notable differences in the store:

Rice Krispies are called Rice Bubbles
Skim milk is Light White
Shopping carts are trollies

By the way, I have to mention that I have the best wife and children ever. Stacy has remained very strong and supporting through this whole process. We will be apart for 56 days until she and the kids can join me here down under. I have to say that it is difficult being apart from loved ones, but Stacy is an incredible person and I have no worries about the health and welfare of her or the kids.

Stay tuned for my next post.

I have created this blog to keep my family and friends updated on my whereabouts. As I write this, my company is planning to send me to Sydney Australia to help design an new seawater desalination water plant. The plant will initially produce 66 million gallons per day, and will be designed to ultimately produce 132 million gallons per day. The plant will be located in Kurnell which is south of Sydney at the following location:

lat=-34.0257200243, lon=151.204766768

You can use Google Earth to get a good visual of the site.

So why are they building a seawater desalination plant in Sydney? Check out this link.

http://www.sydneywater.com.au/EnsuringtheFuture/Desalination/



So that is all I know for now. More to follow...