The first stage – We knew that building a biodiversity centre up on the slopes of Gunung Brinchang was going to be difficult but never realised how difficult until work started early this month (we had initially decided that in order to save cost we would have to source for materials and hire skilled workers by ourselves rather than to contract out the project. We would also seek help from the Public Works Department and local farmers).

So it was with great enthusiasm that we embarked on this project but from the word go, we encountered problems. First, sourcing for building materials. Not many suppliers wanted to go up the narrow road to the reforestation site. “Road too steep; road too slippery; lorry too heavy; lorry no jack; lorry only 3 tons no 15 tons” were some of the replies we got. But the most interesting reply we consistently get was “ Road too many tourists!”, “Lorry cannot gos tan (reverse)” We finally found a reliable supplier whose prices were reasonable.“ No problem” the boss said, “ Just give us a day’s notice” Then at the local quarry, it was another learning curve for us. After 2 day’s of miscommunication we finally learned the difference between ‘quarry dust, crusher-run and ¾ aggregate’. We would like to thank the company managing the local quarry for giving us discounted rates on the materials. Next, transporting the materials to the biodiversity site.

That was a real logistic challenge indeed. Public Works Department (JKR) was kind enough to transport the quarry materials with their lorries. After major hiccups on the first 2 days a routine was soon worked out. The laden lorries started out from the quarry no later than 8.30 am in order to arrive at the site by 9am and come down from Gunung Brinchang by 9.30 am This was to avoid the influx of tourists to that area in the later part of the day which makes  the one way road hazardous. Over the course of 14 days more than 20 lorry loads of building materials were transported. The last part of the transportation  involved moving the materials from the side of the Gunung Brinchang road to the biodiversity site via a Do-It-Yourself road with a gradient of 30 to 40 degrees. That would not have been possible without the help of tractors from local farmers. The rains did not help matters and work had to be stopped for a few days at a time. Finally on the 19th December 2011, work on the foundation of the first Nissen Hut started.