Lanotec’s environmentally friendly range has found favour with a popular Western Australian tourist attraction, with Albany’s Historic Whaling Station at Discovery Bay relying on various products to protect its heritage listed assets from a wide range of weather conditions.
The site has a fascinating history and continues to be the most intact whale processing facility open to visitors worldwide, with patrons able to take a deep dive into an industry that predated wheat and wool.
Based on the site of the former Cheynes Beach Whaling Company, which was shut in 1978, the Whaling Station attraction opened for business in 1980, with the heritage listed Cheynes IV whaling ship the focal point of the interactive display.
Located on the far south coast of Western Australia, some 400km from Perth on the Torndirrup Peninsula, the site feels the brunt of winter storms, while also encountering WA’s trademark blisteringly hot summers.
It is this combination of irreplaceable features, weather extremes, and nearby environmentally sensitive locations, such as wildlife parks, nature reserves and aquaculture activities, that have seen the Whaling Station turn to Lanotec for the ultimate in protection across a range of finishes.
Environmentally Friendly Products to the Forefront
For over 25 years, Lanotec’s ever-growing range of preventative maintenance and degreasing products have been engineered to protect and perform in the harshest environments.
Made in Australia from naturally occurring lanolin, the Lanotec offering is biodegradable and safe to use in sensitive locations, something that petrochemical-derived alternatives can only dream of.
In the case of the Whaling Station, Peter Bell explains that different facets of the Lanotec range are able to keep things running in shipshape order.
“We use quite a broad selection of their products, from the Timber Seal Plus, we use Steel-Seal, and we use a lot of the Type A Grease,” said Peter.
“The biggest thing in the initial switch to Lanotec was the environmental side of it, we’ve got animals and gardens plus seawater, so we were pretty aware of it not being a pollutant.
“We use it right across the board from the ship to anything we do, and we’ve had a fair bit of success with the products.”
Having used Lanotec for over a decade, the different uses for the range continue to grow.
For instance, Type A Grease is actively applied when installing any new nuts and bolts, protecting the parts from the constant attack of sea spray.
“In days gone by, you would install a bolt, and in a month or so, it would be rusted through the threads because, obviously, the environment we have here is pretty harsh,” said Peter.
“So, when you put a bolt in, you cover the thread in Type A Grease, push it into the hole, and it squeezes out.
“Very rarely, if ever, we have had a problem getting a bolt out.”
Elsewhere on the property, protecting exposed timber is a priority, with Timber Seal Plus the pick for the job.
“We’ve got a regional garden, which we’ve spent quite a bit of money on up the back, that has quite a bit of timber in it, which we treat with Timber Seal Plus, and the beauty of that is that a lot of it is over a waterway and a wetland, so it’s very good in that respect,” said Peter.
“Another thing is that we’ve got an aquaculture lease next to us – they grow muscles and oysters, and they regularly test their water quality.
“So, for that reason, anything that we use around the ship, which is close to the water, needs to be environmentally friendly.
“We were using another sealant product that was quite a known pollutant, but that simply doesn’t make sense where we are.
“And that’s one of the beauties of Lanotec, is that it is all tested and that it’s all good for the environment.
“We’ve only just treated one of our big cutting-up decks with the Timber Seal Plus yesterday, so we just prepare it once a year, and give it a coat.
“When it starts to rain, and it gets pretty awesome, you can start to see it actually repelling the water.”
Albany’s Historic Whaling Station is open daily except for Christmas Day.
