Wrenches, pliers, hammer and file (snake) and a big digger – a day in Housing Maintenance.
Basic repairs and maintenance of public housing, that’s the assignment of the Housing maintenance officers employed by Roper Gulf Regional Council as part of the newly won contract with the NT Government.
Small easy jobs but there are those days when it’s not that easy.
Ngukurr Housing maintenance officer Paul Amarant had one of those days recently. Ready to change washers, tighten lose screws, fix broken fly wire Paul worked into the days until he responded to an old leaking tap. First he had to remove all the wall cladding, then get in a front end digger to dig deep into the rock hard dry Ngukurr clay to find a deeply buried leak and finally had to negotiate a bath full of file snakes and tortoises to change the corroded shower taps.
It is not sure how the wildlife got into the bath or if they were in transition to a better place but the leak was fixed and shower tap replaced. Mission accomplished Paul moved on the next challenge. All in a days work.
If an external trade contractor had to be bought into the community to do the job it could have taken weeks and cost substantially more. For jobs requiring trade professionals like plumbers and electricians Roper Gulf Regional Council has to get the NT Government Housing to arrange for these as local maintenance is usually limited to smaller jobs costing under $100.00.
Response times have improved with the new contract and having locals on the ground who make the extra effort is appreciated by locals with small maintenance problems.
Paul at Ngukurr is directly supervised by Kevin Clapson the newly appointed builder trainer who is working to broaden the skills and knowledge of our maintenance officers.
To report a maintenance fault residents need to contact their local housing officer and have the request logged for action.
For further details please direct your inquiries to Michael Berto, CEO Roper Gulf Regional Council on 08 8972 9000.
ENDS