Life In Australia

Well, yesterday it was doctors and nurses that Queensland wanted - today there’s good news on the construction front.

Leighton / Abigroup have been chosen as the preferred tenderers to build Brisbane’s $1.88 billion motorway upgrade and the new Gateway Bridge.

Construction work should begin by the end of the year. The builders are going to build a new Gateway Bridge 50 metres east of the existing bridge and upgrade 20 kilometres of the Gateway Motorway between Mount Gravatt and Nudgee.

More than 5,000 jobs will be created during the four-and-a-half year construction period. The government is estimating a flow-on into the local economy of $450 million in wages and salaries.

To help meet the cost of the project, tolling on both the new and existing bridges will continue for 30 years after the works are completed.

In 2011, the toll to use the bridge - collected electronically - is expected to be $3.10. rather than the $2.20 if the Federal government had supported the project.

There are always plenty of healthworker wanting to emigrate from the UK.

Recently Queensland has been very active in recruiting healthcare workers - and is still recruiting! According to the government, in the last year, recruitment figures for additional staff (extra staff over and above existing staffing levels) in Queensland have been:

• 397 extra doctors
• 1,812 extra nurses
• 601 extra allied health professionals

In real terms, that translates into 4,949 doctors working in public hospitals today compared to 4,552 in June 2005. 23,723 nurses today compared to 21,911 in June 2005. 6,407 allied health professionals compared to 5,806.

The Government says it will continue to recruit aggressively to ensure hospitals have the clinical staff they need.

I see that 170,000 southeast Queensland pool owners will be required to buy pool covers (average cost $500 each) by July 2007. This will stop milions of litres of water a day being wasted by evaporation. (It should also be a big boost to businesses who supply pool accessories.) People who fill pools from rainwater tanks will be exempt.

To add to this particular financial grief felt by pool owners, they will also be required to do further penance by installing at least two of the following: dual flush toilets, a water-efficient washing machine or water-efficient taps and shower heads.

Come the end of October, using a bucket or a watering can to water gardens in Brisbane will be allowed only on alternate days. (A hosepipe ban came in months ago.)

Businesses and government offices are also going to face mandatory restrictions for the first time.

The top 10 per cent of business water users will have to come up with ways to reduce their usage by 25 per cent or implement best practice management for their industry with fines of up to $15,000 waiting for those who don’t pull their socks up.

I thought I would revist my stock market exploits. In May I wrote about how well I had done by investing in mining / resource stocks in the previous 12 months, growing $100,000 to $373,800. I sold my shares, looking for other opportunities. I wrote that I hoped it wouldn’t prove to be a case of “a fool and his money are soon parted”.

For the many who can’t be bothered reading my previous post, let me remind you that I initially had $100,000 to invest, which I split it into four $25,000 chunks and bought:

• Compass Resources CMR at $0.54 per share
• BHP Billiton BHP at $16.30 per share
• Oxiana OXR at $0.83 per share
• Kagara Zinc KZL at $1.19 per share

I sold all of my shares in May for:

• Compass Resources CMR at $3.60 per share
• BHP Billiton BHP at $28.65 per share
• Oxiana OXR at $2.95 per share
• Kagara Zinc KZL at $3.54 per share

Today these shares closed at:

• Compass Resources CMR at $4.20 per share
• BHP Billiton BHP at $25.05 per share
• Oxiana OXR at $2.69 per share
• Kagara Zinc KZL at $4.92 per share

If I had held my shares for another 3.5 months, my $100,000 would have grown to $417,249. The shares I sold increased in value by 11.6% in 3.5 months. That’s an annualised gain of about 40 percent.

So although this fool and his money have not been parted - I’ve been too cautious to do anything with the money - this fool would have done better if he had not sold his shares at the first hint of trouble.