Lifestyle: Dave Lantry jumps ship

The man with multiple hard hats is handing over the ropes after 19 years of keeping the Bunbury Port ship shape.

David Lantry said each day of his 19-year career as the port superintendent was an adventure.

When he arrived at the port in May 1997 he juggled many roles, but as the port grew more people were employed and his duties changed.

He has been in charge of all land operations and maintenance which included berths, machinery, ship loaders and sheds.

In the early days of his career he recalled not being able to spend a lot of time with his family.

"There was a joke going around that I was visiting my girlfriends at the port and they were my ship loaders because I spent the first two to three years with them more than I did at home," he said.

"It's not a job - it's an adventure because every day is different and it always made me think.

"It's not like airports and trains where there is a schedule, with shipping it changes all the time."

One of the biggest changes he has seen is the amount of imports and exports out of the port.

They have more than doubled from 7.8 million tonnes in 1997 to more than 16 million tonnes today.

When he told people what goes out of the port he said they were often surprised at the variety of materials.

"We've got alumina, logs and chips that go out and things that come in like caustic and methanol," he said.

"There is going to be a natural growth of the products that already go out but changes will depend on what the world economy wants and what the South West has.

"I think we could export meat, fruit and wine and there are people within the Southern Ports Authority looking at all that."

He remembers the challenge when berths had to be isolated from the public in 1998.

Up until then the public could drive onto the berths but safety and security became an issue and in 2003 after 9/11 a maritime security regulation act was enforced.

"I understand the Outer Harbour has some of the best surfing and we have fenced off a good area of that now because safety is paramount," Dave said.

One moments he would rather forget was in 1997 when the ship loader took out one of the towers at berth eight.

They had to move the ships up and down the berth for six weeks until it was repaired, but luckily no one was injured, he said.

When David first arrived at the port there were people who had been there for 40 years and they were a "bunch of characters".

"The people is what makes it better, the team you get around you and without the team at the port and the contractors it wouldn't work, so we are pretty lucky," he said.

"I am going to miss the people, the camaraderie between everyone and the jibs and jives that I always did.

"I'm going to stay around home for a while and get the wife's list sorted out and tick off all the jobs and sometime next year we will join the grey nomads and travel around Australia."

David is also looking forward to doing some volunteer work at the Mission to Seafarers.