I’m certain that when Dr Rolf Gomes hatched the idea for his Heart of Australia project, a mind-boggling logistical effort like transporting a nearly priceless medical truck all the way to Weipa was the medical-industry adrenaline hit he was needing
After all, this is a man who had already become a successful engineer and flipped his career and life on its head to become one of Australia’s most renowned cardiologists.
Plus, it’s no cakewalk getting a truck to Weipa in October – for HEART 5, it would mean (if all things went to plan) an Indiana Jones-like four-day barge trip from Cairns.
Gomes is a go-getter, not a truck driver! A doctor whose decades of experience in rural Australia forged a passion for providing better medical care to the bush.
So, how did this 26-metre, state-of-the-art medical clinic on wheels get to one of the most remote places in Australia?
It took our logistics team a month of planning to coordinate all the truck and staff movements for this project.
“I tossed a dart at the map, Harry – so Weipa it had to be,” Gomes jokes.
A trip to Weipa does have its reasons. You see, the HEART 5 truck – Heart of Australia’s fifth mobile medical clinic – was built to tackle lung disease, particularly in the state’s mining industry.
With funding from the Queensland Government, HEART 5 has been tasked with bringing important lung screening programs to resource workers often working and living in remote locations across Queensland.
To do this, Gomes and his partners built the world’s first battery-powered mobile CT scanner.
Its next stop – Rio Tinto’s Weipa operation.
It’s no cakewalk getting a truck to Weipa in October – and for HEART 5 it involved a four-day barge trip from Cairns up around the Cape York Peninsula to the remote mining community
As part of mandatory requirements for all mineral mine and quarry workers in Queensland, all mining companies including Rio Tinto are required to comply with respiratory health surveillance measures set by Resources Safety & Health Queensland.
We go to Rio
Situated 200 kilometres from the northern tip of Australia, and more than 800 kilometres from Cairns, Weipa is as remote as it comes.
The definition of a mining town, Rio Tinto essentially owns the township, with much of the surrounding land leased to the mining giant.
Rio’s three mines and processing plants are the town’s lifeblood, and the deep bauxite-rich red soil, its currency. Bauxite mining has been the primary industry of Weipa since the late 1960s.
The question remains, how did a 26-metre medical truck get to Weipa? In a mad rush to arrive before monsoon season kicked in, HEART 5’s journey across the Cape was trusted to Carpentaria Marine Services (CMS).
We don’t do a regularly scheduled service, we do project cargo, so HEART 5 is our type of thing.
While Gomes is only new to the machinery game, for CMS this was its bread and butter. “So, we don’t do the milk run,” CMS’s Samantha Jensen quickly points out. “We don’t do a regularly scheduled service, we do project cargo, so HEART 5 is our type of thing.
“In the wet season, I would say we’d do two or three trips a month to Weipa. It’s roughly 10 to 12 days’ round trip. So, in the wet season, we’ll do two or three trips a month.
“In the dry season when the roads are open, we’d probably do at least one trip a month,” Jensen explains.
Admittingly, CMS was aware that HEART 5 wasn’t your standard mining dozer job. “When we realised what was onboard, we took out extra insurance,” Jensen laughs.
For the nautical rookies (like myself), HEART 5 was boarded onto a specialised “dumb barge” and tugged through the Coral Sea to Weipa.
In a mad rush to arrive in Weipa before monsoon season kicked in, HEART 5’s epic journey across the Cape was trusted to project cargo specialists, Carpentaria Marine Services (CMS)
“Knight Watch is our 26-metre tug which tows our 55-metre Pacific 1801 dumb barge. Because of its length and its ramp door, we are able to roll on and off large machines like the HEART 5 truck,” Jensen says.
As promised, four days later HEART 5 arrived in Weipa where over the course of a month it would screen hundreds of miners across three sites.
Heart of the team
Like any good team, you need good people. Gomes’ right-hand man, Ewan Wylie, has been with HEART 5 since day one. As a respiratory scientist for many years, HEART 5 may be a dream job.
“HEART 5 is the most advanced respiratory screening clinic in the world, no doubt about it,” Wylie says.
“Having a CT machine and laboratory lung function testing and the experienced physicians to deliver these services means that we have the most outstanding program to deliver to miners in outback Queensland.”
It took our logistics team a month of planning to coordinate all the truck and staff movements for this project.
The enthusiastic Wylie is also aware that the Weipa trip is Heart of Australia’s largest.
“We screened over 600 workers,” he explains. “We had to run two clinical teams each day with one running a morning shift and a second running an evening shift.
“All in all, we had approximately 20 staff involved in coordinating and delivering the project, requiring over 50 flights and 200 nights of accommodation. It took our logistics team a month of planning to coordinate all the truck and staff movements for this project,” Wylie adds.
For onboard doctor, Ross Baillie, the stresses the Heart of Australia team faced were well worth the effort.
As the first bauxite mine they’ve visited, he feels the good HEART 5 has done for the traditional coal miners will be replicated for mineral miners such as Weipa’s bauxite mines.
During its visit HEART5 screened more than 600 Rio Tinto workers, running two clinical teams each day with one running a morning shift and a second running an evening shift
“We’re here looking for occupational lung disease in miners,” Baillie says. “So, that traditionally has been looked at in coal miners, but now HEART 5 is screening mineral miners as well.
“I think the problems that’ve been averted with silicosis, it’s just a matter of going through industry by industry and establishing what the risks are.
“There’s a lot of technology on this truck, a lot of communication, but around that we’ve also got a whole series of specialists,” Baillie adds.
With a HEART 5 lung screening test, miners are provided with an onboard CT scan read by B reader radiologists, spirometry testing, an examination by an experienced physician, and reviews by experienced occupational doctors.
The process is a quick one, says HEART 5’s driver Carl Tito “The doctors see them in the consulting room, they walk down the stairs then up to this room where the CT is done,” he says.
HEART 5 is the most advanced respiratory screening clinic in the world. We had to run two clinical teams each day … we screened over 600 workers.
“They don’t have to drive 600km to the nearest major centre to get a CT because of this truck.”
For Tito, the Weipa experience was something new. Tito has been a truckie all his life – handling everything from furniture removal to general freight. His most recent stint had him driving triple road train fuel tankers, but never medical clinics on wheels.
Spending thousands of hours behind the wheel of HEART 5, Tito’s become a sidekick of sorts. He even got nervous when he delivered his beloved HEART 5 to the barge.
“My job was done when I rolled it onto the barge,” he says. Tito would fly to Weipa and reconnect with the truck when it arrived.
“I did start fretting as to whether it had sunk or fallen off, it was quite the experience,” he says with a relieved smile.
For HEART 5 driver Carl Tito, working for Heart of Australia is more than a truck-driving job: “I’m quite passionate about that part, it’s a lifesaving organisation,” he says
“I’ve loaded trucks onto ferries and boats before, but this was totally different. When I first rolled the truck on, I thought … whoa, I don’t know if this is going to work. But, hey, it arrived,” he jokes.
But for Tito, working for Heart of Australia is more than a truck-driving job. “You see the people being helped first-hand, I’m quite passionate about that part, it’s a lifesaving organisation,” he says.
“I know we’ve saved people’s lives just in the results we are getting. It makes a big difference when we can take the CT or X-ray to the patient and get them the treatment they need on the spot. This is HEART 5’s purpose.”
While he mightn’t be providing world-class care to patients, Baillie believes Tito is much more than a man behind the steering wheel.
“The transport industry is vital to our country, and Carl the driver who operates this truck is almost like a doctor for the truck,” he says.
The transport industry is vital to our country and Carl the driver who operates this truck is almost like a doctor for the truck.
“I mean he knows everything about it, it’s a complex bit of equipment, and he looks after it like a child. It’s incredibly important that transport operators realise the vital role they have in the system,” Baillie adds.
“I’d also like to say that regarding your health, we encourage people to look after themselves like they do their equipment. That means fresh fuels where possible and also don’t ignore the warning lights on your dashboard.”
“Cooking meals on the truck is part of my job,” Tito adds. “Fortunately for them, I like to cook and I’ve tried my hand at a few culinary experiments.”
What the truck
The combination that is HEART 5 is quite spectacular. The 2019 DAF XF 530hp truck, which is ‘like a Rolls Royce to drive’, according to Tito, is the prime mover.
The trailer is the high-tech B-double configuration built by Brisbane-based trailer manufacturer Varley.
HEART 5 is quite spectacular, with a 2019 DAF XF 530hp truck hooked up to a high-tech B-double configuration built by Brisbane-based trailer manufacturer Varley
“It’s 58 tonnes in total weight and the same width as a B-double driving on the highway, but when you open it up, it actually makes the truck 6.6 metres wide,” Carl adds.
There are two 17kVA generators, one on the A-trailer and one on the B-trailer. It’s also got solar panels on the roof.
“I think they’re 3,000 watts on the rear trailer and 2,500 watts on the front trailer,” Tito says.
“And what that means is we don’t have to go to a hospital. It can literally go somewhere and park anywhere, whether that be in a mine site or a cane field, and you can walk up those stairs and get a CT scan done.”
“What you are seeing is the world’s first battery-operated CT scanner,” Gomes announced at HEART 5’s big reveal nearly two years ago.
It can literally go somewhere and park anywhere, whether that be in a mine site or a cane field, and you can walk up those stairs and get a CT scan done.
Of course, HEART 5 is one of five trucks operated by Gomes and his plucky team which combined, has serviced over 17,000 patients across Queensland since 2014.
Travelling more than 75,000 kilometres to over 70 unique sites over the past 18 months, it’s been no easy feat, but something worthwhile for the resource workers who can’t afford the luxury of quick medical appointments in the concrete jungles of Brisbane or south-east Queensland.
And while the trip to Weipa – albeit a sizeable undertaking – is just another stop, the show keeps on rolling, as it must, to deliver the vital service to other parts of the state.
Following the Weipa adventure, Heart of Australia will move on but will return in May and September of 2024 to provide examinations for workers unable to get appointments during the recent visit.
Heart of Australia will move on but will return to Weipa in May and September of 2024 to provide examinations for workers unable to get appointments during the recent visit
In time, the project could be delivered beyond state borders, with Gomes hinting at plans to expand the service to other parts of Australia.
Always generous with his time, the Brisbane-based doctor has lifted the bar for what medical care can be delivered to our rural townships.
And like that famed Paul Kelly song, Gomes has seen his Heart of Australia project grow from little things.
Watch video
Check out ROADBOSS’s awesome mini-documentary capturing its epic trip to Weipa shot by gun videographer Josh Thies.