The Contract: Project: Waterman

- Season 1

(2021)

WATERMAN opens his tour with a project worksite review at Ringwood Train Station. Completed in January 2016, the $66m upgrade of the railway station was initiated in September 2014.

WATERMAN's worksite specific prereview nearly doesn't happen - an early morning emergency media call sees him fronting a hungry media pack about KANE's 'workplace incident'.

The 'New Gold Rush' Media 'famil tour' continues. A finance investment jourmalist is clearly intent on throwing 'curveball' questions at WATERMAN: 'What's your vision for Melbourne's public transport infrastructure?'.

It might be his day off but...WATERMAN's attention is caught by a spectacular display of 'big boys, big toys' while passing by Level Crossing Removal works at Heatherdale Train Station.

Nature is dying. Early on a Sunday morning, LXRA contractors are conspicuously hacking into the row of majestic cypress trees that have adorned Blackburn's Morton Park for decades.

A flooding underpass at Blackburn Train Station for years. People just want input into the works that going on within and around their community. Let us have a voice.

"That digger is real!. That train is real!!. WATERMAN is caught up in the excitement like a broadcaster calling the dead-heat of The Melbourne Cup.

It's been a long day documenting works on the long-overdue works to revamp and revitalise drainage around Blackburn Train Station. Surgical precision, teamwork, planning, logistics, operational efficiency - it's all there.

Commuters - on their way to their computers, in Office Cubicle Heaven - must endure 2 weeks of transition from their comfy, heated trains onto Train Replacement Buses. Office Cubicle Heaven is a 1st world problem.

Even the news of an an earth-quake alert - 5.3 in Cost Rica - can't distract WATERMAN from witnessing a new risk to the safety of local kids.

WATERMAN is livid. LXRA has so far failed to acknowledge or respond to his concerns about safety risks to local kids at Morton Park. Worksite operations update - Lean. Green. Seen it. Believed it.

'Unwanted worksite presence' - like hell. WATERMAN cuts loose with a bitter verbal response.

The pressure grows. MASTON makes an unexpected appearance on WATERMAN's horizon. Corruption coverup? MASTON wants headlines. She's the last thing he needed.

Cost blow-outs? Can't be - WATERMAN's consultancy fees are a matter of public record. What on earth could MASTON want? Is the issue operational?

Kids, bikes and trucks don't mix. Safety risks - kick and chase. WATERMAN's anxieties about the safety risks to local kids bubble up to reveal a deeply personal loss.

"It's just so dangerous FRENCHIE. I just can't stop thinking about it". WATERMAN's foreign film crew have found him alone outside at Blackburn's former Westpac branch.

WATERMAN's a professional. Corporate espionage. Black Ops. Call it what you want - it's his job. And he has one last, risky avenue to pursue - but at what cost?