Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
As we know, an unexploded ordnance has been recovered from
Stokes Hill Wharf. It's understood that the bomb was discovered
near the barge ramp yesterday afternoon. Police evacuated people from
the area and blocked off road access, with the Defense
Force brought into dismantle it. Now joining me on the
line is Warrant Officer Kyle Johnson. Good morning to you, Kyle.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Good morning, how are you?
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Yeah, really good?
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Thank you so much for your time. Now, I understand
that you led the response. Who made the discovery In
the first instance.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
It was the contractors that are down there basically doing
the prep work for the new Cultural Senat that's to
be installed or built.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Yeah, right, And so it was like, what was their response,
I suppose in the first instance from what you can gather, so.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
They actually had it in like the bucket of an excavator,
So you know, they're clearing the ground doing all that,
and they'll put in through a bucket that's a sifter
of separating separate rock sizes, and I think the operators
looked down and gone, well, that's an awfully weird looking
rock and he's dropped it on the ground and they've
realized pretty quick that it could be a bomb or
something along those lines. They did the right thing. They
(01:12):
called the anti police police responded and we have a
pretty good relationship with them up here, and they caught
us in pretty much straight away.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
And then what happened next, So we.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Got the phone calls here at work, We're just going
about our normal day business. They're just doing licenses and whatnot,
and then basically got the pictures through going yeah, that's
definitely explosive ordnance, and we pretty much got in our vehicles,
grabbed an additional member from one brigade, the ones here's
the unit up here, grabbed him, drove into the city,
(01:45):
got their liais with the cops and the city contractor.
At this point, it still isn't classes as a bomb yet,
so I did my first approach once I got guys
on a new straight away what it was, went back,
we got on the computer, confirmed the type, and from
that point on where you know, we class as a
bomb and we started the police or the police started
to evacuate the area.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Yeah, right, so everybody was obviously evacuated. I know, we
got calls here to the station. We've had messages about
being evacuated this morning. But I guess every you know,
like every safety measure measure sort of has to be
followed through at this point because you really don't know
with some of these unexploded ordinance or bombs, exactly what's
going to happen, do you.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
No, You're you're exactly right there. You never know. Even
though I didn't say get tossed around in a bucket,
that could have been the last straw for that fuse
or the reason. It could be the last step before
it explodes. So any sort of touching it could cause
that explosion. So our best practices are to what we do,
and the police call it this as well. But establish
according like an area where only central personnel are located,
(02:48):
get all the civilians out, get all the workers out,
and then just basically occupy that area and conduct the
procedures we need to do from there to make the
area one hundred centation.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
Yeah, so then what you guys sort of have to
have to like detonated or what do you have to.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Do sorry or that?
Speaker 1 (03:04):
So what exactly then do you sort of you know,
do you have to dismantle it, what do you have
to do?
Speaker 2 (03:10):
It all depends on what it is in this case,
here we go through there's a various amount of reasons
why something will function, so we make sure we don't
do any of those. We get what we call positive
ID on it, so you know, we draw it, we
take pictures of it, We go back and we read
some of our technical publications. We've got a little computer
that helps us we identify what it is basically what
(03:31):
makes it kick, and then from that point there we
come up with what we call a render faith procedure,
or a procedure we need to do to make the bomb. Say,
you know, that could be using a kinetic tool to
shoot a fuse off, using an explosive charge to shoot
a fuse off, or sometimes moving them by hand to
a location suitable for disposal.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
Right, So what did you end up having to do yesterday?
Are you able to.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Say, yeah, I can get some detail. So we basically
age so the bomb was in a safe condition to move.
Once that was done and approval was granded, we actually
got pretty lucky. Being a construction site, there was you know,
a lot of excavators around, so they dug it to
a nice little hole about a meter eighty deep, and
(04:16):
they also filled us up two palets where the sandbags.
So yeah, we just basically moved it down that location,
put in the bottom of that covered it with about
two tons worth of sandbags. We had moved them in
three of us by hand. That was probably the most
painful part of the day. Hooked up, looked up our explosives,
got everyone for a safe distance, made sure the cordon
was under control of emergency services were ready and able
(04:38):
to respond, and then we basically Friday explosives, which caused
the UXO to explode as well, And was like.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
Did it let off much of an explosion? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (04:48):
It did. Yeah, It's obviously not like the movies, you know,
where you see a massive fireball go up and all
that sort of stuff. But it lifted about three tons
where the sandbags probably a good thirty forty meters in
the air and through them out like parallel to the
ground about booty manders as well. So wow, wouldn't want
to be standing on it. Put it that way.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
No, that's exactly right, And that's why it's so important
that all those safety procedures are indeed followed, because while
you know, while it might be able to take a
bit of knocking around like you'd said before that might
be the last sort of straw.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
For it, and you don't want that going off around people.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
No, exactly right, And we're fortunate up here in Dale
where ninety nine percent of people do the right thing
they identified as possibly something dangerous and then they will
call the police, and then the police will obviously call us.
So a majority of people one hundercent and contractors do
the right thing or the police call us up, we
come in, do what we've got to do and get
rid of it.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
Kyle. It's wild, isn't it what we see in Darwin?
Speaker 1 (05:44):
You know, like you think to yourself, imagine this being
another capital city and saying this and unexploded ordnance and
people will be like, what what do you mean? That
was near the wharf? But I guess our history is
so rich that.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
We know why.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Yeah, exactly right. So obviously every area in Australia is
a bit of a unique history. But just a quick
start I can give you's day. We average about four
hundred and twenty jobs across Australia each year, with actually
a majority of those being in New South Wales and Queensland,
so they get a lot as well. But when I
say jobs. The type of job may very we get Lobo,
(06:20):
see your Japanese, your World War two up here in
those locations down south, they may get like to seize
the states who have grenades or training areas where back
in World War Two the soldiers conducted training and left
unexploded ordinance in those locations through no follow their own right.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
So interesting, your job sounds very interesting.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Ka oh, thank you. Anyone can join. We're welcome to that.
People join up, ammunition technicians.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
I love it, mate, Thank you so much for having
a chat with us this morning. I really appreciate it,
and I reckon our listeners would have found that very fascinating.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
Awesome. No, thanks mate, very much, appreciate it.
As we know, an unexploded ordnance has been recovered from
Stokes Hill Wharf. It's understood that the bomb was discovered
near the barge ramp yesterday afternoon. Police evacuated people from
the area and blocked off road access, with the Defense
Force brought into dismantle it. Now joining me on the
line is Warrant Officer Kyle Johnson. Good morning to you, Kyle.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Good morning, how are you?
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Yeah, really good?
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Thank you so much for your time. Now, I understand
that you led the response. Who made the discovery In
the first instance.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
It was the contractors that are down there basically doing
the prep work for the new Cultural Senat that's to
be installed or built.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Yeah, right, And so it was like, what was their response,
I suppose in the first instance from what you can gather, so.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
They actually had it in like the bucket of an excavator,
So you know, they're clearing the ground doing all that,
and they'll put in through a bucket that's a sifter
of separating separate rock sizes, and I think the operators
looked down and gone, well, that's an awfully weird looking
rock and he's dropped it on the ground and they've
realized pretty quick that it could be a bomb or
something along those lines. They did the right thing. They
(01:12):
called the anti police police responded and we have a
pretty good relationship with them up here, and they caught
us in pretty much straight away.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
And then what happened next, So we.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Got the phone calls here at work, We're just going
about our normal day business. They're just doing licenses and whatnot,
and then basically got the pictures through going yeah, that's
definitely explosive ordnance, and we pretty much got in our vehicles,
grabbed an additional member from one brigade, the ones here's
the unit up here, grabbed him, drove into the city,
(01:45):
got their liais with the cops and the city contractor.
At this point, it still isn't classes as a bomb yet,
so I did my first approach once I got guys
on a new straight away what it was, went back,
we got on the computer, confirmed the type, and from
that point on where you know, we class as a
bomb and we started the police or the police started
to evacuate the area.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Yeah, right, so everybody was obviously evacuated. I know, we
got calls here to the station. We've had messages about
being evacuated this morning. But I guess every you know,
like every safety measure measure sort of has to be
followed through at this point because you really don't know
with some of these unexploded ordinance or bombs, exactly what's
going to happen, do you.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
No, You're you're exactly right there. You never know. Even
though I didn't say get tossed around in a bucket,
that could have been the last straw for that fuse
or the reason. It could be the last step before
it explodes. So any sort of touching it could cause
that explosion. So our best practices are to what we do,
and the police call it this as well. But establish
according like an area where only central personnel are located,
(02:48):
get all the civilians out, get all the workers out,
and then just basically occupy that area and conduct the
procedures we need to do from there to make the
area one hundred centation.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
Yeah, so then what you guys sort of have to
have to like detonated or what do you have to.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Do sorry or that?
Speaker 1 (03:04):
So what exactly then do you sort of you know,
do you have to dismantle it, what do you have
to do?
Speaker 2 (03:10):
It all depends on what it is in this case,
here we go through there's a various amount of reasons
why something will function, so we make sure we don't
do any of those. We get what we call positive
ID on it, so you know, we draw it, we
take pictures of it, We go back and we read
some of our technical publications. We've got a little computer
that helps us we identify what it is basically what
(03:31):
makes it kick, and then from that point there we
come up with what we call a render faith procedure,
or a procedure we need to do to make the bomb. Say,
you know, that could be using a kinetic tool to
shoot a fuse off, using an explosive charge to shoot
a fuse off, or sometimes moving them by hand to
a location suitable for disposal.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
Right, So what did you end up having to do yesterday?
Are you able to.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Say, yeah, I can get some detail. So we basically
age so the bomb was in a safe condition to move.
Once that was done and approval was granded, we actually
got pretty lucky. Being a construction site, there was you know,
a lot of excavators around, so they dug it to
a nice little hole about a meter eighty deep, and
(04:16):
they also filled us up two palets where the sandbags.
So yeah, we just basically moved it down that location,
put in the bottom of that covered it with about
two tons worth of sandbags. We had moved them in
three of us by hand. That was probably the most
painful part of the day. Hooked up, looked up our explosives,
got everyone for a safe distance, made sure the cordon
was under control of emergency services were ready and able
(04:38):
to respond, and then we basically Friday explosives, which caused
the UXO to explode as well, And was like.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
Did it let off much of an explosion? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (04:48):
It did. Yeah, It's obviously not like the movies, you know,
where you see a massive fireball go up and all
that sort of stuff. But it lifted about three tons
where the sandbags probably a good thirty forty meters in
the air and through them out like parallel to the
ground about booty manders as well. So wow, wouldn't want
to be standing on it. Put it that way.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
No, that's exactly right, And that's why it's so important
that all those safety procedures are indeed followed, because while
you know, while it might be able to take a
bit of knocking around like you'd said before that might
be the last sort of straw.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
For it, and you don't want that going off around people.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
No, exactly right, And we're fortunate up here in Dale
where ninety nine percent of people do the right thing
they identified as possibly something dangerous and then they will
call the police, and then the police will obviously call us.
So a majority of people one hundercent and contractors do
the right thing or the police call us up, we
come in, do what we've got to do and get
rid of it.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
Kyle. It's wild, isn't it what we see in Darwin?
Speaker 1 (05:44):
You know, like you think to yourself, imagine this being
another capital city and saying this and unexploded ordnance and
people will be like, what what do you mean? That
was near the wharf? But I guess our history is
so rich that.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
We know why.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Yeah, exactly right. So obviously every area in Australia is
a bit of a unique history. But just a quick
start I can give you's day. We average about four
hundred and twenty jobs across Australia each year, with actually
a majority of those being in New South Wales and Queensland,
so they get a lot as well. But when I
say jobs. The type of job may very we get Lobo,
(06:20):
see your Japanese, your World War two up here in
those locations down south, they may get like to seize
the states who have grenades or training areas where back
in World War Two the soldiers conducted training and left
unexploded ordinance in those locations through no follow their own right.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
So interesting, your job sounds very interesting.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Ka oh, thank you. Anyone can join. We're welcome to that.
People join up, ammunition technicians.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
I love it, mate, Thank you so much for having
a chat with us this morning. I really appreciate it,
and I reckon our listeners would have found that very fascinating.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
Awesome. No, thanks mate, very much, appreciate it.
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