British 1986

After taking the invitation, he saw that it was still early. Allen smiled and nodded in agreement. This was all planned. Unexpectedly, the old guy held back until he left before bringing it up.

They are very similar to each other. Everyone likes to save important things until they are mentioned inadvertently.

Looking at the vehicles that had gone away, Old Carl looked at Alan who was staring silently into the distance and said: "Master, should we wait a few days before going to the Northern Territory for inspection, or should we go there in the near future?"

After thinking about it for a while, I came out this time not only to escape the limelight and take a vacation, but also to take a look at the steel plants and other ancillary industries in the Northern Territory. It was better to go there sooner rather than later, since I have been here for a while. Well, why not go over there and have a look first.

Thinking of this, Allen nodded and said: "You can arrange it. We will go there in the next few days and have a good look around there. When the time comes, we will fly directly to Sydney from there after we are done."

"Okay, I understand, Master."

Old Carl smiled and bowed slightly. His fat beer belly looked very interesting.

There were no curtains drawn, and one side of the bedroom was a large panoramic floor-to-ceiling window. Outside was the sea cliff and the sea. Alan hugged Nicole and woke up to the sunshine.

This feeling of having the sun shine on your body through the glass window, and the temperature slowly rises and you wake up naturally, is very comfortable.

I rubbed my eyes and yawned, looking at the sea outside the window. This feeling of being able to see the vast sea when I open my eyes is very magical. It makes people feel like they want to fly so early in the morning, and I feel that my whole body is full of energy. strength.

Before the plane landed, Allen curiously looked at the port in the distance. There was a small area next to the port with a bunch of colorful boats. They were a bit far away. The specific types of ships could not be seen clearly. They just felt like these. The boat looked like it was made of broken pieces, much like the junk boats made by refugees made of broken bottles in those overseas videos I watched before.

It’s my first time to come to Darwin, one of the biggest “big cities” in Northern Australia.

Speaking of this city, Allen, who is used to staying in Wales, can't say he doesn't think highly of them.

The entire city has a population of only about 100,000, and most of them are immigrants. It is already the largest city in the Northern Territory and one of the largest cities in northern Australia.

But in this kind of city, there is only one public university in total, and other infrastructure facilities are relatively backward.

As for any ancient buildings, there are none.

The entire city of Darwin was almost destroyed by bombing during World War II. It was later rebuilt with great difficulty, and was destroyed again by hurricanes a few years ago. The current city of Darwin has been rebuilt several times.

To highlight one, "Our city is very young and constantly being rebuilt."

The economy was originally underdeveloped and the population was not large. In addition, there were frequent storms, and limited funds had to be used to rebuild the city. In addition, this was one of the old places where prisoners were exiled, and there were many indigenous people living there. People, this has brought a lot of trouble to the local economy.

Anyway, to sum up, let’s just say they are poor. It also depends on who they are compared with.

But compared to Wales, Darwin is really very, very poor.

In order to reduce the damage caused when a storm rages, all the buildings in the city are low. No matter how high they are built, when a storm comes, nothing will be left.

It is better to build low-rise buildings and survive longer.

Allen's steel plant certainly cannot be built in such a dangerous city.

The place Old Carl chose was a satellite city that was still some distance away from Darwin and a little further inland.

This small town seems to have been newly built in recent years. It has few people, few buildings, and average environment. However, it is safe, relatively close to Darwin, and the roads can be used normally. A factory is built here to produce products. If shipped directly to the port in Darwin, it can be shipped to all parts of the world, especially to Asia, which is more convenient.

As for the safety issue, this is a bit special. Although there is a Torrens River in Adelaide that provides entertainment for the natives, this is not the case in Darwin.

There is no specific place, but it can be said that it can be anywhere.

As long as someone is in need, some well-meaning indigenous people who can't rest can come forward at night to help immigrants who come from Southeast Asia and want green cards.

Fortunately, there is an air force base and a military port near Darwin, so the safety of British nobles setting up factories here can still be guaranteed.

As soon as he got off the plane, Alan could clearly feel the difference between Darwin and Adelaide. Not to mention the city appearance, the environment was too different!

When he was in Adelaide, he still needed to wear a coat. The temperature was around ten degrees, and it was only a little hot at noon. But here, the temperature soared to more than ten degrees, and the temperature was in the upper twenties. At noon, the temperature will be even hotter.

Old Karl, who has always been more concerned about his image, took off his suit jacket, unbuttoned the collar, and flashed his clothes.

"Master, hurry up and get in the car. Should we go to the office in the city first or go directly to the factory?"

"Not urgent."

Allen thought of the port he saw when the plane was about to land, and asked curiously: "I just saw those colorful, shabby-looking ships parked in the port. What are they for?"

"ah?"

Old Karl was stunned when he asked this question. He looked around and found the tour guide who came to receive him, a middle-aged local native.

Old Carl gestured for him to come over with his hand, and asked the tour guide in a low voice with a frown on his face and a fierce look on his face.

Allen smiled and watched as the native nodded and explained to Old Karl. Old Karl listened for a long time before waving his hand for him to go to the side to help move things.

"Master, it is said that there is some kind of beer can boat race. People here like to drink beer. I don't know how such a small number of people consume so much beer every year. Anyway, there are a lot of leftover beer cans, and then the boats are made of beer cans. , and then the competition, it is said that the stakes are high, and some well-known beer brands will come to sponsor it, making it one of the more famous local festivals here."

"Oh~"

The boat made of beer cans, no wonder it looks colorful and tattered from a distance. Isn't it just tatters? Allen doesn't understand the meaning of this kind of competition at all. They just want to be happy.

Old Carl looked at Allen and smiled and stopped talking. He thought he was curious and wanted to take a look. Just when he was about to ask, Allen took steps towards the direction of the motorcade.

Sitting in the car, with the air conditioner blowing on, the air was finally not so hot. Allen looked curiously at the local aboriginal tour guides outside. This was the second time he had met these Australian aborigines.

I didn't feel much about it before. These days, after listening to Nicole's story about walking by the river to get a green card, Allen looked at these natives, and the more he thought they were vulgar.

Why is the green card called a green card?

It turns out that the meaning of green is that way, and it’s all because of my lack of knowledge in the past.

Thinking about how these natives colluded with the islanders who secretly landed on the island during World War II, and did nothing good, no wonder they are slowly becoming like this now.

After going around in a circle, it turns out that this is all inherited, and the roots still lie with the people of the island country.

It's really better than the blue.

So fucking magical.

After coming out of the airport, the convoy drove in a mighty way to the southeast. Along the way, it first passed through the satellite city of Palmerston, passed through Palmerston, and then walked through Hampstead, and then arrived here, which is not far from the address of their factory. It's close.

Originally, Karl Sr. suggested that Allen go to Hampstead, but Allen only saw the iconic crocodile statue with boxing gloves from a distance.

This thing is ugly and cute, a bit like a crocodile Lai Lai, with a pair of red gloves.

This is Humptydu's specialty - crocodiles.

There are not many other things here, because there are wetlands, there are many crocodiles, and there are many delicacies about crocodiles.

Allen looked at Nicole and asked with a smile: "Didn't Darwin say he ate that delicious big turtle here? Why haven't I heard that he recorded crocodiles? Is it not delicious?"

Allen's question really confused Nicole Kidman. How did he know if Darwin ate crocodiles? If there were more natives at that time and it was still so far away from Darwin, maybe Darwin didn't go there. Where to go?

Looking at Nicole, who had been thinking about it for a long time and had no idea what to say, Allen signaled to go to the factory quickly. There was nothing interesting in Humpty Doo. It looked like a large village processing site.

In some places, deep pits have been dug and filled with stagnant water. In other places, factories are still being built, but the machines are still there, and the factories are almost in ruins.

About ten minutes west of Hampstead, we finally arrived at Allen's main factory in the Northern Territory, the steel plant!

This steel factory occupies a huge area. Although some of the factory buildings have not yet been put into use, the factory area has been planned first because the land is cheap. The entire steel factory is close to the Elizabeth River, which can lead all the way to the sea in the north.

A small private port has been built here. All the goods produced here can be transported by small-tonnage cargo ships all the way to the port in Darwin. The transportation cost is extremely low, water is convenient, and of course it is also convenient to catch crocodiles.

As soon as the car entered the factory area, Allen found a row of greenhouses that looked like grape trellises. Steel cables were arranged on the roof of the sheds, and then the crocodiles were passed through the throat, like drying salted fish, and were hung on the on the steel cable.

This is a crocodile that occasionally "invades" the steel plant from the river. If it is caught, it is treated like this and hung up as a warning to others. However, it is estimated that the crocodiles are not smart enough to see the miserable appearance of their companions, so they will come anyway.

After taking the sunhat from Nicole, Allen curiously walked around the crocodile. The two or three-meter-long crocodile looked very shocking when hung up like this.

Touching the armor on the crocodile's back, Allen asked curiously: "Can't these things be made into leather goods?"

It's a bit of a pity to see the living high-end leather hanging here like this.

"Yes, but we don't have the manpower. Besides, the crocodile skin here is average. The natives sometimes sell souvenirs made of this crocodile skin, but they can't sell it at a high price. In addition, there are many crocodiles here, and the risk of hunting is high. Later, No one cares anymore.”

Old Karl explained to Allen while wiping his sweat with a handkerchief.

Putting down his hands, Allen got on the small transfer truck, and a group of people went to the small dock behind the factory.

There are only two berths in the entire pier, one for transporting supplies and one for delivery. There are two medium-sized cranes next to it.

These equipments are already everything in the entire terminal, and they look a bit crude, but now the factory has just started debugging, which already meets the needs.

Some workers have not yet been fully trained. According to Old Karl's explanation, these natives have cheap wages, but their education level is low, so the training time will be relatively long.

The population here is originally small. The entire Northern Territory is as big as one or two provinces in China. How many people are there in total?

Over two hundred thousand!

The farther inland you go, the sparser the population becomes. Regardless of whether you are a native or a white person, the wages here are not cheap. The wages of natives are just relatively lower than those of white people.

The current planning of the factory area here is like this.

With the steel factory as the main body, it mainly produces special steel coils needed by the tinplate factory.

The finished products produced by the tinplate factory can also be used by the nearby cannery to produce cans.

There are three major factories in total, a steel factory, a tinplate factory, and a canning factory.

A little further away, there is a slaughterhouse used to purchase local beef and produce beef products.

Because Allen is coming to inspect today, the work in the entire factory has been stopped, and the workers are on vacation. This is not because they are afraid of what Allen will see, but for safety reasons. With so many people here, they are still in the factory, even if there is a little negligence. , it’s a big deal.

He looked at the factory area again and took a sample of the special steel coil produced by the factory. This is the main product of this steel factory, tinplate raw materials.

To be precise, this thing should be called tin-plated iron, which is used to produce tinplate.

Tinplate is the translated Chinese name and is mainly used to produce cans, tin buckets, food packaging boxes, etc.

This thing is not easy to rust, has good sealing performance, and is non-toxic. It is most suitable for the production of cans.

At present, there is a small canning factory built on the upstream side of the steel plant. Subsequent equipment is still being acquired one after another. It mainly produces canned beef.

Since the natives here tend to herd a lot, in addition to tourism and mining, the most important thing in the entire Northern Territory is animal husbandry. It is considered a beef production area, but of course the quality is average.

The beef purchased by Allen was packaged and sold in better parts. The remaining bits and pieces of beef and the parts that did not sell well were lost and wasted, so he produced cans. Currently, these cans are still stored in the warehouse and have not been officially start selling.

Lunch was eaten in the cannery canteen. The empty canteen had been taken over by the cook brought by Allen.

Today’s meal is very special. In addition to the special crocodile that Allen ordered, there are also instant noodles!

This is a high-end instant noodle that has not yet been launched in China. Currently, the cannery is responsible for making the special ingredient packages in the instant noodles.

The golden barrel-shaped outer packaging has a cartoon image of a chef with a thumbs up on it.

There is a line of text next to it "Delicious instant noodles deluxe version."