River rig sets off waves of memories

WITH big waves coming in strong and hard, Hobart man Tim Smith remembers looking out the port hole a number of times and wondering if he was going to be OK.

“Bass Strait could be a funny place,” he said.

“It could be dead calm like a piece of glass and then it could be like hell on earth.

“A lot of seamen I worked with said it was the roughest place they’d ever worked.”

He was a young and fresh faced 19-year-old, the youngest on board when he landed a job on the Diamond M Epoch oil rig in 1985, which also docked in Hobart for repairs.

He spent two years working in Bass Strait and said the Ocean Monarch drilling platform now moored off Taroona in the River Derwent brings back fond memories.

“Seeing the rig off the coast every day brings back great memories of that time and sometimes I look over there and think it would be like going back home,” he said.

“That thing that comes to mind more than anything is the comradeship of everyone on board. I look back on it and I’m proud I went out there and worked on it.”

He did a fortnight on and a fortnight off working in catering and doing odd jobs.

“I was working long shifts which helped you appreciate things a little bit more when you got back home,” Mr Smith said.

“As soon as I finished my shift I would go to the weights room and do weights for a solid hour to pass the time and then go up and watch TV to relax.”

He said the scariest part was getting onto the rig.

“When it was really rough weather getting off the chopper on the flight deck was the scariest part, you had to be so careful,” he said.

“If anything was loose it could fly into the propeller.”

In 1987 Mr Smith decided he wanted to try something different and moved on to grave digging and cutting bush tracks in the South-West before settling into a job at the Education Department.

He now works as a school attendant at Taroona High and can spy the Ocean Monarch everyday while he works.

“I would love to go back and work out there but unfortunately health would be the issue,” he said.

The Diamond M Epoch was docked on Macquarie Wharf No.3 in September 1985 for two weeks for works which included fitting a helicopter refuelling plant and a concrete pumping system.

The repairs were done by Taylor Brothers which is also completing the works on the Ocean Monarch.

TasPorts said the Monarch was moored in Ralphs Bay and not the wharf because it was deeper than the Diamond M Epoch so it had to be further out. It also said the Hobart Port was a lot busier than 1985 and they couldn’t guarantee the wharf space for the length of time required.

The rig will remain there for eight to 12 weeks.