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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2012-11-29 Daily Xml
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Adjournment Debate

HANSON'S QUARRY

Mr ODENWALDER (Little Para) (17:14): Thank you for the opportunity to say a few words at the end of this session. I had the enormous privilege several weeks ago to accompany the minister for minerals on a visit to Hanson's quarry in my electorate to see firsthand some of the innovative practices they are using to both save water and produce a better product for our building and construction industries.

All members of this place are grateful to attend the opening of a piece of infrastructure or a new building across the state or in their electorate. Sometimes we are invited to cut the ribbon or make a speech and often we pay tribute to the contractors and builders involved during construction. We take the time to highlight the economic impact the project has had in relation to the jobs created and the economic activity associated with the construction phase, and we often make observations of the future of the economic output.

However, this visit to the Hanson quarry broadened my perspective on another important industry which often gets overlooked at the time of the cutting of the ribbon. It might seem like a trite observation, but we rely heavily on concrete to create this infrastructure and to generate this economic activity to build our schools, bridges, hospitals, stadiums, our homes and our workplaces.

It comes from the local concrete batching plants around Adelaide, and it is in turn supported by Adelaide Brighton Cement's plant at Birkenhead and myriad local quarries (around 350 in number), which extract the aggregate and sand to produce this complex but vital final product, and Hanson's in Golden Grove is one such quarry.

Across Australia the heavy construction materials industry directly employs around 18,000 individuals, and it further supports the employment of 85,000 flow-on jobs. It is absolutely vital to our residential, commercial and civil construction industries. It is literally the foundation on which our modern economy is built. So, at the invitation of Hanson and its peak industry group, Cement Concrete & Aggregates Australia (CCAA), I toured Hanson's Golden Grove quarry with the minister, and it was then that the importance of the industry in supplying our local construction industry was really brought home to me.

We were there looking at the extraction of sand, which is being used in the concrete to build the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute, for example, and the Adelaide Oval redevelopment, and it has recently been used in the Tower 8 building which members in this place would know opened earlier last month and which will be the home of one of Australia's iconic companies, Telstra.

I am aware that back in June the minister presented the CCAA Environment Innovation Award for South Australia to Hanson for its stockpiled dewatering system. To briefly explain, concrete sand is required to be of a higher and consistent quality and is washed to remove any impurities. The traditional method is to then stockpile the sand onto a concrete pad where it is simply left to dry to reach the right moisture content.

As you can imagine, with the volumes involved, Hanson was noticing this drying process taking over a week, and the water was pooling in and around the stockpile and evaporating. In addition, as the sand was collected, the heavy moisture content meant more fuel usage and loss of water in the transportation process. Hanson was noticing that the moisture content in the sand was still high in relevant industry terms.

Hanson, in seeking a more environmentally-friendly option, researched international innovation models which it adapted and then introduced at Golden Grove. First, it removed the concrete paid and then dug a sloped recess, lined it, laid ag pipe, covered it with specifically graded aggregates and what they call 'sacrificial sand' and then stockpiled the sand on top.

Not only does the system substantially reduce the drying time and improve the consistency and moisture content of the sand, but along the way it has led to water savings of 35 million litres of water each, the equivalent of 14 Olympic swimming pools worth of water. Importantly, it does not use power-drawing pumps like some European models, instead relying simply on gravity to sufficiently drain the stockpile of excessive moisture. This innovation not only won the SA award but recently took out of the CCAA National Environmental Innovation Award, which was awarded at the Construction Materials Industry Conference in Melbourne recently.

When it came to judging, it was recognised as a simple but very effective model which was relatively cheap to construct. It can be easily transferred to other sites and leads to beneficial improvements to the product; and, in addition, obviously recycles a substantial amount of water. It is great to see a South Australian operation based in the north-eastern suburbs win this national award, and I congratulate Hanson on its outstanding achievement.

I would also like to pay tribute to the CCAA which has created not only this environmental award but also an occupational health and safety award as part of its annual awards. This gives its member companies appropriate credit, and it gives the employers and member companies peer recognition and makes the whole industry strive to be greener and safer.

Again, I congratulate Hanson, which I know is just one of many innovative companies operating in this state. I want to thank particularly Mr Todd Hacking (who some of us here may know), the State Director of the CCAA, for introducing me to its operation.

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