What the winners had to say...

POINTED:CDF ACM Angus Houston at the awards ceremony in Canberra.

Volume 49, No. 8, May 18, 2006

CAPT Richard Menhinick, recipient of Best Solution to an Identified Workplace Health and Safety Issue for HMAS Anzac’s Portable Pontoon.

“By far the best way to get on and off the ship is by use of the accommodation ladder. It is not a vertical ladder; it is a step ladder that goes down the side of the ship,” he said.
“The problem is that is a metal ladder and obviously with the ribbed rubber boats that we use these days, metal and rubber don’t work.

“Many, many times there have been serious injuries to people and damage to boats.

We thought that maybe with the number of operations we are doing in Northern Australian waters, which are quite calm, if we could obtain a pontoon which we could carry around and lower first, then you could place the accommodation ladder on the pontoon.

“Then the boat comes alongside the pontoon. That way it is guarded against hitting the accommodation ladder and the passengers have a pontoon to step on before moving up and down the ladder.”

LCDR Rachel Durbin, recpient of the Category Three award for FIMA Perth.

“Within the workshops of FIMA, we have the added complexity of significant workforce turbulence,” she said.

“This award is recognition of the continued effort from all our supervisors and troops to working safety and the fantastic safety championing of the FIMA safety management team.”

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