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Life in a Mining Camp.

20 Sep

For sometime now I’ve been meaning to do a post on life in a mining camp for those of you that are curious as to what it is really like. 

I personally love it. Whats not to love about getting your meals cooked for you, room cleaned, free gym membership etc. And whats better is that as of last month I now work a 8:6 roster, so I work 8 days and then have 6 days off, compared to my previous 2 weeks work, 1 week off. 

Although for some the camp lifestyle wears thin after awhile. Away from the wife/husband and kids (isn’t that a good thing? – haha),  camp food, hot weather etc.

My camp is located 400km south east of Port Hedland in Western Australia (Map of Western Australia) at Woodie Woodie Manganese mine. All the mine employees get flown up to Woodie Woodie from Perth on a 30 seater Brasilia airplane, the flight takes 3 hours and lands at the mine airstrip.

The closest town is Marble Bar just over an hour away. After 8 months I still haven’t been there, and with its claim to fame is being “the hottest recorded place in Australia” I don’t really have much desire to go there, although it has one pub! Woodie is in the middle of nowhere, its just the mine and the camp, that’s it.

As far as camps go, Woodie Woodie is apparently scrapping the bottom of the barrel as it does not have cell phone coverage or reliable internet for personal use, and these comforts (or maybe these days, necessities) are pretty important, especially if you have a family back in Perth. This is probably why the camp turnover rate is so high, being estimated around 80%. Although a new camp is planned to be completed by the start of 2009.

The people that complain about conditions are usually people that have worked in the mining industry for a long time and are use to the high standards of other camps. But for me being new to the industry and compared to the oil/gas rig camps I was staying at in Canada, Woodie is 5 star

Some of the Western Australian mining camps should be called Mining resorts. My mate works at Tefler Gold mine, they have a basketball court, Olympic sized swimming pool, massive gym, big bar, driving range, playing field, a bowling green, en-suite rooms with internet/phone, plus they get air points for flying to work!  - and they pay you to stay there!

So now I will run you through my typical day at work.

0440- beep beep beep – No your not stuck in traffic, its that dreaded sound that pulls you from the lovely dreamland and signals the start of the day. I bounce out of bed ready for another glorious day in the Mining Industry.  I start my extensive beauty regime, I apply my make-up, brush my hair, have a shave – NO – I put on my clothes, do 20 minutes of back exercises, then its off out the door.

0510- Breakfast time runs for a few hours, from about 4am to 7.30am. As they have to cater for the guys starting day shift at 5.30am and the guy’s finishing night shift at 5.30am. There’s breakfast options for everyone, for the people that want type 2 diabetes there’s always a cooked breakfast, aswell as cereals and fruit etc.  You also pick-up your lunch for the day at a self serve buffet counter, with breads, salads, lunch meats, fruit etc on offer.

0530- Each department eg Exploration, Mining, Dewatering etc have there morning shift change/safety meeting.  The first thing completed is the pre-shift alcohol breatho, where you have to blow zero’s before starting work. A safety topic is discussed, an update given from the night shifts drilling (mines are 24/7 operations) and tasks to be completed for the day planned.

0545-1730 – Then for the following 12 hours I complete my tasks (I work as an Exploration Field Assistant which involves taking samples, marking out drill sites, etc – basically I’m a boy scout). If you are interested in what I do click here on this link What is my job?

1745-1830- This time I usually go to the gym and work on adding some meat to my skeletal system – I think I’m one of not many on-site that has a 24pack (of ribs). The mine site also has an on-site Physiologist who organises events each night, eg fitball classes, volleyball etc. 

 1830-1900 – After showering, its time for dinner at the communal mess hall (dining hall), where you choose from 3 meal options and side dishes. Dinners served from 1600 to 1930.

 1900 – 2000- Sometimes I head down to the wet mess (bar) for a beer after dinner.  The Wet mess opens at 1700 and shuts at 2030.  Although now with the new astroturf soccer field in place there’s less time spent in the wet mess which benefits the health and wallet, although the on-site injuries have skyrocketed with some rough soccer games, haha 

2000 - till bed time-Then its back to my Donga (the name for your allocated room with accompanying ensuite) where I chill out, read a book, watch a movie or just hit the sack and get ready to do it all again tomorrow.  It can sometimes feel like ground-hog day especially when you stay and work a long swing (4 weeks etc).

So thats my life while at camp. And before you know it, its fly out day and your on the plane back to Perth, woop woop!

The Snake and the Camel Toe!

29 Aug

Well after 7 months of working in the Australian outback and not seeing a snake I was beginning to think they were just another myth like the Lochness monster.  I had come across many snakes while at work, but they were of the rubber kind that had been strategically placed under my boots or tied to shovels that I was going to pick up, purely to scare the shit out of me (and yes it worked). 

 

So it was on a lovely blue skied early Pilbara (the region where I work) morning as the sun had just risen. I was out walking geophysics grid lines which involves walking kilometre upon kilometre marking out every 100m.  Thinking it wasn’t going to get much better than this I walk around a hill and there spread out in-front of me on the ground is the biggest camel toe I had ever seen! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I keep walking and then come across the 2 camels whose camel toes I had just been admiring. I felt a bond with them, here we all were just wandering around in the middle of nowhere, they had there hump on there backs and I had my camelback on. We were brothers from quite different mothers.

Feeling quite humble and lucky to be out and about and experiencing all this I’m walking along singing to myself looking down at the GPS.  Out of the corner of my eye 2 steps in front of me lying still on the brown rocky ground with one beady eye intently looking at me is a snake! (The Ozzies probably call this one a worm, it was just over a metre long)

Anyone that knows about my nerves and dislike of creepy crawly reptile species can predict what happened next. I let out a noise reminiscent of my early childhood days, and jumped, one of those jumps where you try and get as much of your body away from the feared object, so all my arms and legs had taken off and left my abdomen behind. I took off to a safer distant, quite happy to see that the snake slowly slithered stealthily off under the cover of some spinifex bushes.

My nerves were shot as I stood on the rock, trying to capture a photo of my reptilian friend.  The photo below is the photo I took.  I showed my workmates the photo, and they laugh and say ”Hap, it looks like your standing miles away”, “bloody aye I was standing miles away, I had all 3X of the optical zoom extended, I wasn’t getting anywhere near that”.  Its one thing getting bitten by a snake, but its bloody stupid getting bitten while trying to get a photo of one, just look at Steve Irwin, now thats a good message to the young kids at home to leave dangerous animals alone. 

My nerves were so on edge that when my camera automatically shut off and beeped I threw my hands in the air and let it fly, the only thing stopping it from hitting a space station was the strap I had luckily put around my wrist.  But not that it mattered as that night I left the camera in my pocket and put my pants through the washing machine and just to make sure it was totally ruined I put it in the dryer! – good one.

With 3 km more of grid lines to walk, I carried on like a 60′s hippy tripping on mushrooms, as every stick I came accross turned into a snake. 

Then I start thinking, if I did get bitten and venom injected, the outcome wouldn’t be good. By the time I radioed in with co-ords and located by medics, transported back to the mine camp, would be close to a couple of hours, and then have to wait for the flying doctors.

Then you start thinking, the only reason I saw the snake was because it was on brown rock, but 99% of the time I’m walking through knee high spinifex. There would of been 100′s of times I had stepped close to snakes but not known.  So 7 months of snake tolerance that had built up, was gone. Let me tell ya, that 3 km of grid lines seemed never ending. Everything seemed out to get me, kangaroos jumping out, spinifex pigeons waiting till I was right on top of them before they screeched and flew out, and even my dam daggy dreadlocks hitting my face was enough to send me into cardiac arrest. I was ready for a drink by the end.

Snakes and Camel Toes, Hap

Some photos from the Ripon Hills Remote Camp.

19 Aug

The past 4 months I was located out at the Ripon Hills Regional Remote Camp.  There was myself and a Geo, the 4 man drill crew and the dozer driver.  It was a beautiful setting in the middle of nowhere. 

Ripon was located 2 hours drive from Woodie Woodie Mining Camp, close to Warrawagine station. It had some pretty special sights around as well, Carawine Gorge, the Sink hole, old mill area and some deserted old stations, but have a look for yourself;

Ripon Hills Remote Camp Work Photos

Welcome Press Readers

23 May

G’day Press Readers,

If you read my article in the Press and decided to have a little gander at my blog, Welcome!

In my blog you can see where I have been and what jobs I have been doing the past 5 years as I undertake my little journey to live and work in every continent of the world before I’m 30. If you are more interested in my article and working in Western Australia (WA), please read on.

The aim of the article was to set the story straight for people who tell the tales of how easy it is to get work in the Ozzie mining industry.  Also I wanted to bring potential kiwi departee’s expectations down to ground, so they are not disappointed when they arrive in OZ and find it harder to get work in the mines, accommodation etc.

But please don’t abort your plans due to my article, if theres a will theres a way, and theres also plenty of people who are in the right place at the right time. Although I painted a bit of grey picture with the article to try and dampen false expectations, I love my job, I love the 2:1 (2 weeks work and 1 week off) lifestyle, I love Perth, and I’m even loving the unique landscape of the Ozzie outback.

So if you want to read more about what I’m doing here in WA, click on the following links to previous posts I have written. I plan in the next 2 weeks to write a post on ‘Mining camp life’, and will get photos to show you what its like at the camp I am staying at. 

Where am I working?

What is my job?

The harsh outback environment (flies and heat)

A day I would rather forget!

Thanks for visiting and please feel free to come again.

Nuthin But Love Hap

PS I will get a post up on the camp I am staying at soon.

2 weeks down, 2 weeks to go!

22 May

Howdy people,

I’m currently on a 4 week swing at work, and I am spending all my time out at the remote exploration camp where we have a caravan set up.  I’m really loving the work, great bunch of guys out there and get to sleep out under the stars and enjoy the simple things in life. But I’m obviously cut off from communication, hence my slack reply to emails, so anyone that emailed me and hasn’t received a reply, that’s the reason why.

Here’s a couple of photos of me out at the remote Ripon Hills exploration camp, which has been nicknamed “Brokeback camp”, haha, enjoy.

Showing off my sign writing skills

Getting the fire ready for my chicken soup which ended up being a chicken casserole, haha (my god thats a big photo)

 Ripon Ultimate fight cage (yes, I did spell it wrong on the sign)

Sizzling Sun and F**king Flies!

5 May

Howdy folks,

The Ozzie Outback, it really is a harsh environment. Especially coming from little Ol New Zealand, where all the animals are friendly (and yes Ozzies, the sheep are scared – hahaha). Overhere everything wants to eat you or inject poison into you, even the bloody sun wants to kill you.

Although this time of year it really is quite beautiful, blue skies welcome you every morning, the flies and rain have gone on holiday, where I don’t know, but they have gone and thats all that is important.  But I wrote this post a couple of months back when the flies were abundant and never got around to posting it, so I will continue to moan about them.

So in the outback, the sun is not your friend, but rather your enemy, unless you are a solar panel.  In previous posts I have told you that where I am located in Woodie Woodie, the closest town is Marble Bar which is the hottest place in Australia with the record of having 161 consecutive days over 37.8 degrees celcius! From fellow work mates you hear of the days where the temperatures get up to mid 50′s! All I know is that, its bloody hot when you turn on your COLD water tap and you burn your bloody hand with the water thats been basking in the pipes! (you only do that once)

Luckily for me I am built for the heat, some would say skinny, but I prefer the word, athletic. Working in the outback, it is always paramount that you have communication with base camp, but most importantly water! You never go anywhere without water, and all the exploration vehicles are kitted out with 50 litre emergency water tanks. Drinking water becomes a full-time job, a litre an hour is the recommended minimum, so when working a 12 hour day, thats 12 litres of water! And let me tell you, if your not working up a sweat, that can mean a lot of urinating!

The harsh sun leaves the not only the parched workers baked, but also the land, making it look like that pizza you forgot about in the oven. Just checkout these photos, I got a little artistic and carried away with these but they give a good idea of how aggressive this sun is.

 Out here in the outback your patience is tested, if things aren’t trying to kill you, they are trying to annoy you. First there is Spinifex, a plant that I have talked about before. Spinifex and facial hair would have a lot in common (well not with my facial hair, the spnifex isn’t patchy). Girls love facial hair, makes a guy look more masculine, but when its there boyfriend that has it, they generally just complain about the itchyness. Same with spinifex, it looks great in a photo, but when you have to walk in it day in and day out, with it pricking you, it fast looses its appeal.

 

And probably the most annoying thing in the outback, Australians! hahaha, just having a go.  Flies, my god, just look at the flies in the photos. At first they didn’t bother me, I thought it was mind over matter. But I have crumbled like a recovered alcoholic swallowing his mouthwash instead of spitting it. They are annoying, if you do not wear a fly net they have a tendancy to crawl into your eyes. And check out the photo i have of the cut on my leg, yes those 30 odd flies are drinking the blood from my cut like horses at a trough! Dam vermon, maybe they are hatching fly eggs and I’m going to start farting flies!

But really, I’m just complaining to be complaining, I love the outback, even those flying little flies, its a unique and beautiful place. I work in a sauna, and some people pay money to go to the sauna or pay extra to exercise in the hot with such gimmicks as “hot” yoga.  All I know is that working in the outback is paradise compared to the finger freezing Canadain winters. But I will leave you with a little video to show you how the flies are and give you a little insight into the landscape of the beautiful Pilbara Outback. 

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