From Paradise to Alcatraz without leaving 'The Rock'

Whitsundays Online from Hamilton Island today

What a day to be on Hamilton Island . . . . beautiful weather and a great trip over on the ferry, but it's not all smooth sailing on 'The Rock', as Hamilton Island is known by the locals. (The term 'The Rock' was also given to the infamous and now disused prison, Alcatraz, on an island in San Francisco Bay, USA).

Hours after the Courier Mail paid out 'World's Best Job' winner Ben Southall (the Ginger Whinger) for only posting 7 blogs (that's $3,000 a blog), The Sydney Morning Herald has reported that Hamilton Island Yacht Club construction workers have complained to the Builders Labourers Federation about the living conditions on Hamilton Island, referring them to 'as bad as Alcatraz'

The construction workers are housed at 'Palm Valley'
(at the end of the runway - satellite image/map), where five to six men are being "crammed in four-person apartments divided by thin walls" the SMH reported.

Other complaints raised by the construction workers about their accommodation was of possum poo and large numbers of mosquitoes.

Mr Lund (BLF) told the SMH that the workers have also staged stop work meetings and have withdrawn their labour from the job due to safety concerns.

There has also been claims of discrimination on the island, and claims that the construction workers were treated as nobodies.

Whitsunday Regional Council issued the certificate (approval) for Palm Valley in 2001, then by private contractors in 2005 and 2006.

According to the BLF, the supplied accommodation is too small and is in breach of the National Building and Construction Industry Award.


Top image - Front page of News Ltd's website today
Video : Today Tonight - 4 December 2003 "Class Wars on Hamilton Island"
Full story "Blast for Ben Southall as his best job falls short" - Courier Mail, John Wright
Full story "Best job' island workers liken housing to Alcatraz" - Sydney Morning Herald - Traveller
Map / Satellite image of Palm Valley - Google Maps
Tourism Trends - Has the Worlds Best Job campaign been successful for the rest of the Whitsundays?
Editors Note - Race Weeks starts in a month and the Yacht Club is still under construction.
* Tourism QLD said that it was poor internet and phone links that stopped Southall blogging . . . does that mean that Tourism QLD says Telstra's services on Hamilton and other Whitsundays Islands are poor? If $300 million dollars in advertising is at stake, do you think they could have at least got him a satellite phone?**
*Rusty sold his Take Away business to Hamilton Island a couple of years after this story. It is now called Popeye's.
* We did not get paid $3,000 to write this blog.

** Disclaimer - the editor has an interest in a business in the Whitsundays which provides satellite internet and phone services.