Kunawarritji Car Wash — A Mammoth Undertaking
Vehicle inspections are an important job for the rangers. To start, a large tarp has to be laid down before work can begin to ensures tools and parts don’t get lost. But these checks would fall monthly, sometimes daily.
The system of setting up a tarp, driving the vehicle over, and repeating per job, didn’t seem the most efficient to the rangers. So it was no surprise when they devised a solution — the Kunawarritji car wash! — to better carry out their vehicle inspections.
The rangers nominated a section alongside the ranger station, near a tap as the best spot to lay a concrete slab. This was dependent if the opportunity and funding ever arose. This came last November, when Nifty Mine donated a few tonne of cement and reinforcing mesh. Since then, there’s been plenty of work undertaken.
Thirty-three rangers used tray-back and trailer to pick up enough cement and steel to lay 3m x 8m slabs for both the Punmu and Kunawarritji ranger stations. This was a mammoth day, which involved driving nearly 900km and loading and unloading two tonnes of cement and eight sheets of reinforcing steel.
A tractor with bucket and trailer were used to gather gravel from a nearby borrow pit, making up three sections of formwork, mixing concrete and finally screeding. The new slab adjoins the existing verandah slab and falls away for drainage. The new slab is perfect for doing vehicle inspections and cleaning.
For washing cars, the team use a pressure cleaner hooked up to the tap (community ground water, solar bore pump). And due to the slab’s placement, it’s also become a focal point for the community in the mornings when people can gather in the shade.
As far as we know, the Kunawarritji car wash is the first Martu ranger station to get one! Be sure to check out the gallery below where the rangers are currently painting a ‘Kinyu Rangers’ mural on the wall next to the car wash.
