engineering

Offset Alpine fire

Offset Alpine fire is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Offset Alpine fire rather than just read about it. In short: The Offset Alpine fire was a 1993 fire that destroyed a Sydney printing plant owned by the company Offset Alpine Printing Ltd. Investigations of the incident by the police and by the Australian Securities & Investments Commission spanned over ten years, amid suspicions that the printing plant was burnt down as part of an insurance fraud.

Key takeaways

Offset Alpine fire belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Offset Alpine fire to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Offset Alpine fire from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Offset Alpine fire was a 1993 fire that destroyed a Sydney printing plant owned by the company Offset Alpine Printing Ltd. Investigations of the incident by the police and by the Australian Securities & Investments Commission spanned over ten years, amid suspicions that the printing plant was burnt down as part of an insurance fraud. It also gained attention because of the high profile of individuals involved.

Background In 1992 Stroika, an Australian Securities Exchange listed company controlled by Rene Rivkin, bought the Offset Alpine printing firm from Kerry Packer for $15.3 million. On Christmas Eve, 1993, the firm's sole asset, the printing plant, was destroyed by fire. It had been insured at replacement value ($53.2 million), more than three times its purchase price, and shares skyrocketed. The fire was blamed on a staff barbecue, but suspicions of arson have persisted. In March 1995, in Rene Rivkin's investment column in The Canberra Times, he recommended purchases of shares in 'my very own company, Offset Alpine Group,' with 'profit up from 4.6¢ a share to 13.8¢ a share, an interim dividend up to 100 per cent from 2¢ a share to 4¢ a share.' The share price in October 1995 climbed 29c to $2.30 after shareholders accepted a $2.30-a-share takeover offer from Kalamazoo Holdings. Known investors included:

Rene Rivkin, a Sydney stockbroker and entrepreneur Graham Richardson, a former Labor Senator and associate of Kerry Packer Eddie Obeid, a Labor politician Trevor Kennedy, a businessman and former Packer executive Rodney Adler, an entrepreneur Sean Howard, a businessman and one of the founders of internet company OzEmail Bill Hayden, a former Labor leader and Governor-General of Australia Ray Martin, a television personality who appeared on the Packers' Nine Network The Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC) commenced an investigation into the ownership of a 38% stake in the company via secret Swiss bank accounts. Rivkin denied any knowledge of the ownership of the stake at the time, but in 2003 ASIC discovered that he himself, in partnership with Richardson and Kennedy, had been using Swiss bank accounts to trade in Offset Alpine and other companies. Rivkin committed suicide in 2005, before the investigation was completed, after being jailed on an unrelated insider trading matter. In January 2006 after a two-year legal battle, ASIC gained access to the relevant Swiss banking records. In September 2006 it was revealed that Richardson had almost $1.5 million in Swiss accounts which he had failed to declare to the Australian Taxation Office. In 2010 ASIC discontinued its investigation and ceased the provision of legal funds for court cases in Switzerland, where a Swiss bank refused to disclose the details of Rivkin's financial records (Swiss authorities also refused to take action against the bank). An amount of $A11 million that was held in Swiss bank accounts remains outstanding upon the closure of the investigation in April 2013.

References

Further reading Chenoweth, Neil (2006). "A Very Good Fire". Packer's Lunch. Allen & Unwin. ISBN 978-1-74114-546-5.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Offset Alpine fire

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Offset Alpine fire claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Offset Alpine fire before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Offset Alpine fire ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Offset Alpine fire

In research: Offset Alpine fire appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Offset Alpine fire in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Offset Alpine fire is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1990s fires in Oceania, 1993 crimes in Australia, 1993 disasters in Australia, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Offset Alpine fire outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Offset Alpine fire in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Offset Alpine fire means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Offset Alpine fire out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Offset Alpine fire in simple terms?

Why does Offset Alpine fire matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Offset Alpine fire?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Offset Alpine fire.