After receiving the invitation and looking at the time, Alan smiled and nodded to accept it. This was all planned. He didn't expect that the old guy would hold back until he was about to leave.

It's very similar. Everyone likes to save important things for casual mention.

…

Looking at the car that had gone far away, Old Carl looked at Alan who was staring at the distance in silence and said, "Master, should we wait a few days before going to the Northern Territory for inspection, or should we go there soon?"

After thinking about it for a while, I realized that this time I came out, not only to avoid the limelight and spend a vacation, but also to take a look at the steel mills and other ancillary industries in the Northern Territory. It’s better to go there first since I have been here for a while.

Thinking of this, Allen nodded and said, "You arrange it. We'll go there in the next few days and have a good look around. When we're done, we'll fly directly to Sydney from there."

"Okay, I understand sir."

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

…

There were no curtains drawn. On one side of the bedroom was a large panoramic floor-to-ceiling window, with cliffs and the sea outside. Alan hugged Nicole and was awakened by the sunlight.

The feeling of being awakened naturally by the sunlight shining through the glass window and the temperature slowly rising is very comfortable.

I rubbed my eyes and yawned, looking at the sea outside the window. The feeling of being able to see the vast ocean as soon as I opened my eyes was very magical. It gave me a feeling of wanting to fly early in the morning, and I felt full of strength.

…

Before the plane landed, Alan looked curiously at the port in the distance. He could already see it. There was a small area next to the port with a bunch of colorful boats. The distance was far enough to make out the specific types of boats. It felt like these boats were made up of broken pieces, very similar to the garbage boats made by refugees out of broken bottles in the overseas videos he had seen before.

This is my first time in Darwin, one of the big cities in northern Australia.

Speaking of this city, Alan, who is used to staying in Wales, can't say whether he looks down on them or not.

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

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

As for any ancient buildings, there are none at all.

The entire city of Darwin was almost destroyed during World War II. It was rebuilt with great difficulty, but was destroyed again by a hurricane a few years ago. I don’t know how many times Darwin has been rebuilt now.

Just one that stands out is, “Our city is very young and is constantly being rebuilt.”

The economy was underdeveloped and the population was small. In addition, storms often raged, and limited funds had to be used to rebuild the city. In addition, this place was once one of the old places for exile of prisoners, and there were many indigenous people living here, which brought a lot of trouble to the local economy.

Anyway, to sum it up, if you say they are poor, it depends on who you compare them with.

But compared to Wales, the city of Darwin is really, really poor.

In order to reduce the damage caused by storms, all the buildings in the entire city are not tall. No matter how high they are built, a storm will destroy everything.

It would be better to build them into low buildings so that they can last longer.

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

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

This small town seems to have been newly built in recent years. It has few people, few buildings and an average environment, but its advantage is that it is safe and close to Darwin City, and the roads can be used normally. If a factory is built here, the products produced can be directly shipped to the port of Darwin City, and then shipped to all parts of the world, especially to Asia, which is more convenient.

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

There is no specific location, but it can be anywhere.

As long as there is a need, some kind-hearted indigenous people who can't sit still will step forward at night to help those immigrants who come from Southeast Asia who want green cards.

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

…

As soon as he got off the plane, Alan could clearly feel the difference between Darwin and Adelaide. Not to mention the cityscape, the environment is so 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 when he got here, the temperature soared to more than ten degrees, to the twenties, and it would be even hotter at noon.

Old Carl, who always cares about his image, took off his suit jacket, unbuttoned his collar, and fluttered his clothes.

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

“No hurry.”

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

"ah?"

Old Carl was stunned by the question, looked around and found the tour guide who came to greet him, a middle-aged local native.

Old Carl beckoned him to come over, frowned and asked the tour guide in a low voice with a fierce look on his face.

Alan smiled as he watched the native nodding and bowing as he explained to Old Carl. Old Carl listened for a long time before waving his hand to signal Alan to go over and help move things.

…

"Master, it's said to be a beer can boat race. The people here like to drink beer. I don't know how such a small population consumes so much beer every year. Anyway, there are a lot of leftover beer cans, and they make small boats out of beer cans and then race. It's said that the stakes are high, and some well-known beer brands come to sponsor it. It's one of the more famous local festivals here."

“Oh~”

The boat is made of beer cans. No wonder it looks like junk from a distance. It is just junk. Alan doesn't understand the meaning of this kind of competition at all. As long as they are happy, that's fine.

Old Carl saw Alan smiled and stopped talking. He thought Alan was curious and wanted to go and take a look. Just as he was about to ask, Alan took a step and headed towards the direction of the convoy.

…

Sitting in the car and turning on the air conditioner, the air was finally not so hot. Alan looked curiously at the local Aboriginal tour guides outside. This was his second time meeting these Australian Aborigines.

He didn't feel anything before, but after listening to Nicole's story about walking by the river to ask for a green card, Alan looked at these natives and felt that they were more and more despicable.

Why is a green card called a green card?

So that's what green means. It's all my fault for being so narrow-minded before.

Think about it, these natives colluded with the Japanese who secretly landed on the island during World War II and didn't do anything good. No wonder they are gradually becoming like this now.

After going around in circles, I found out that this is all a tradition, and the roots are in the Japanese people.

The disciple is better than the master.

It's fucking magical.

…

Coming out of the airport, the convoy drove all the way to the southeast, first passing the satellite city of Palmerston, then crossing Palmerston, then going to Humpty Dow, and then arriving here, close to the address of their factory.

Originally, Old Carl suggested that Alan go to Humpty Doo to take a look, but Alan only saw the iconic statue of a big crocodile wearing boxing gloves from a distance.

This thing is so ugly and cute, a bit like the crocodile Lailai, with a pair of red boxing gloves.

This is Humpty Doo’s specialty – the crocodile.

There isn't much else here, but because of the wetlands, there are many crocodiles and a lot of crocodile-related delicacies.

Allen looked at Nicole and asked with a smile, "Didn't Darwin say that he ate delicious big turtles here? Why haven't I heard that he recorded crocodiles? Are they not delicious?"

Alan's question really stumped Nicole Kidman. How did he know whether Darwin ate crocodiles back then? What if there were more natives at that time, and this place was so far away from Darwin City? Maybe Darwin didn't go in?

Seeing Nicole thinking for a long time but still not figuring out what to say, Alan signaled them to go to the factory quickly. There was nothing to see in Humpty Doo. It was like a large village processing site.

In some places, deep pits were dug and filled with water. In some places, factories were still being built, but the machines were still there and the factories were almost unfinished.

…

About ten minutes west from Humpty Dook, we finally arrived at Allen’s main factory in the Northern Territory, the steel plant!

This steel plant covers a huge area. Although some of the factory buildings have not yet been put into use, the factory area has been planned in advance because the land is cheap. The entire steel plant is adjacent to the Elizabeth River, which leads 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, Alan found a row of large sheds that looked like grape racks. Steel cables were arranged on the roof of the sheds, and then crocodiles were passed through their throats and hung on the steel cables like salted fish.

These are the crocodiles that occasionally "invade" the steel plant from the riverside. This is how they are dealt with when they are caught, and they are hung up as a warning to others. But I guess the crocodiles are not smart enough to see the miserable state of their companions, so they come anyway.

…

Taking the sun hat handed to him by Nicole, Alan curiously walked around the crocodile. The two or three meter long crocodile looked very shocking when hung like this.

Touching the hard armor on the crocodile's back, Alan asked curiously, "Can't these things be made into fur goods?"

It’s a pity to see such high-quality leather just hanging here.

"Yes, but we don't have the manpower. Besides, the crocodile leather here is average. The natives sometimes sell crocodile leather souvenirs at a low price. In addition, there are many crocodiles here, and hunting them is risky. Later, no one cared."

Old Carl wiped his sweat with a handkerchief while explaining to Alan.

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

…

There are only two berths in the entire dock, one for transporting supplies and the other for delivering goods, with two medium-sized cranes next to them.

These equipments are all the equipment in the entire wharf. They look a bit crude, but the factory has just started debugging them and they can already meet the needs.

Some of the workers have not yet been fully trained. According to Old Karl, the wages of these locals are cheap, but their educational level is low, so the training time will be relatively longer.

The population here is originally small. The entire Northern Territory is so large, equivalent to the land area of ​​one or two provinces in China. How many people are there in total?

Just over 200,000!

The further inland you go, the less populated it is. Here, whether you are a native or a white person, wages are not cheap. The natives' wages are just slightly lower than those of the white people.

The current plan for the factory here is as follows.

With the steel plant 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 cannery next door to produce cans.

There are three large factories in total: a steel plant, a tinplate factory, and a cannery.

A little further away, there is a slaughterhouse that purchases local beef and produces beef products.

…

Because Alan is coming to inspect today, all work in the entire factory has stopped and the workers have been given holidays. This is not because they are afraid that Alan will see something, but for safety reasons. With so many people here in the factory, even the slightest negligence would be a big deal.

I looked around the factory again and took a sample of the special steel coils produced by the factory. This is the main product of this steel plant, tinplate raw material.

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

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

This thing is not easy to rust, has good sealing properties, and is non-toxic, making it most suitable for producing canned food.

Currently, a small cannery has been built on the upwind side of the steel plant, and subsequent equipment is still being acquired in succession. It mainly produces canned beef.

Since the natives here do a lot of grazing, the entire Northern Territory, in addition to tourism and mining, the most important industry is animal husbandry. It is considered a beef producing area, but of course the quality is average.

Allen packages and sells the better parts of the beef he buys, and the remaining scraps and parts that don't look good would be thrown away and wasted, so he turns them into cans. Currently, these cans are still stored in the warehouse and have not yet been officially put on sale.

…

They had lunch in the cannery cafeteria. The empty cafeteria had been taken over by the cook brought by Alan.

Today's meal is very special. In addition to the special crocodile that Alan specifically requested, there is also instant noodles!

…

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

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

Next to it was a line of text: "Delicious instant noodles deluxe version."