Jaguar and The Float

Gday to everyone.  I thought it was about time I put up another post on my blog since I have now got a few days off work.  To be exact, today is my first day off since moving to Jaguar mining camp just over 6 weeks ago.  I haven’t done a lot today apart from catch up on sleep, although my body clock still managed to wake me at 4am this morning it was a great feeling to be able to roll over and go back to sleep.

I was at Jaguar for 4 and a bit weeks.  At the beginning, camp life was rather good.  Although there was only a dozen or so of us staying in the camp, so there wasn’t a whole lot of atmosphere, the food was pretty good, the rooms were excellent and the facilities (gym, rec room, etc.) weren’t too bad either.  I was joining a crew that had started building a tailings dam.  This is a dam where the tailings, (waste slurry) is sent to after the processing mill has extracted the minerals out of the slurry.  Eventually the slurry will harden in the dam and become part of the landscape.  I started out on a dump truck again but as time went on I was able to jump onto other machines including the water cart, grader, rollers and front end loaders.  Once we had finished constructing the dam wall (which was 1800m in circumference) a few of us were given the task of laying drainage (aggi) pipe on the floor of the dam to assist with the hardening process.  This was fairly labour intensive but was a good change from being in the machines.  By the end of the project there were only five people left in the camp which was quite dull and the food was becoming rather repetitive so I was definitely looking forward to the project finishing.

 Top: The view of the tailings dam from on top of the waste dump (we used this waste dirt to build the dam)

Bottom: The view from the centre of the dam of two loaded dump trucks travelling around on top of the dam wall to compact it 

A few days before finishing at Jaguar I was told that the float driver had lost his license for drinking too much and not getting a taxi, and asked if I wanted to float the machines back to the yard from Jaguar.  I jumped at the opportunity as it was a chance to learn something new and also meant I would have some work in between Jaguar and the next site starting.  So for the last two weeks I have been racking up the kilometres on a beautiful caterpillar prime mover and expandable float.  On my first solo day I was given a baptism by fire as I was asked/told to bring back the big water cart (a caterpillar 769, which holds about 70,000litres of water).  This machine was so big that I had to remove the water canon on top so as to be able to get under powerlines.  That said, when the water cart was loaded onto the float I was 4.6m high (the maximum allowed for my permit) and 3.6m wide which meant I required a pilot vehicle as well.  There were a few scary moments when there was an oversized load coming the other way but all in all the trip went pretty well, as did the following two weeks, and I learnt a bucket load in a very short amount of time.



 Top: The float loaded with the cat 769 water cart

Bottom: The float loaded with a 30tonne excavator

 

Tomorrow I have booked in for a round of golf with three other boys from the dongas here in Kalgoorlie.  I then have Monday and Tuesday off before travelling to the next job on Wednesday.  The next site is called Edna May and is located just off the main road half way between Perth and Kalgoorlie.  Again this will be a camp job.  Hopefully there will be a few more people in the camp this time to provide a bit more buzz.  This project is a tailings dam lift.  Once a tails dam is full and it has hardened the hardened slurry can be dug out and used to build up the walls of the dam, which provides more volume to the dam.  The lift on this dam is estimated to take 6 weeks, so I will be making the most of these few days off as it will most like be another 6 weeks before I see a sleep in again.  After that I will have to wait and see what comes up.

I have been loving the warm weather here in WA and hope that the sun is shining where you are too.  Cheers

Remote Camp Living

Just a quick update to let everyone know, that the open pits that I have been working on just south of Kalgoorlie have now been completed.  So I am being sent about 3 hours north to a mine site between Leonora and Leinster.  I am rather happy about this move as I will be put up in a camp.  I will again be living in a donga, but this time there are a lot more facilities, including a gym and recreation room.  The other massive advantage with living in a camp is all the cooking and cleaning is done by chefs and cleaners.  This will make life a lot simpler and save me a lot of time, effort and money.  The only down side that I can see is that I will not have internet access while I am away (stupid Optus).  At this stage I believe I am going to be there for around 6 weeks, with my roster being 13 days on 1 off, then 13 nights on 1 off.  I believe this will be a pretty tough roster but by the end I should get a good pay packet having worked so many hours.

Anyway, I will be off the grid for a while.  I should probably have a few stories to tell when I get back.  Until then, I wish every one well.

Boys will be Boys

It has been nearly four weeks since my last update and that has been more than enough time for me to get up to plenty of mischief.  We will have to travel back some three and a half weeks to my last week off.  After catching up on a couple of weeks of washing and sorting out a rather large pile of dishes, it was time for some fun.

One of the fellas that I work with, who also lives in the caravan park has what he calls a “buggy”.  Now, if you are thinking golf buggy you’d be wrong.  If you are thinking dune buggy you’d be closer but still wrong.  This “buggy” is basically a roll cage on wheels and here is the best part… it is powered by a Honda CBR1000 motorbike engine.  So one afternoon seven of us set off with the buggy and three dirt bikes to have some fun.  The buggy was insane, and looked and sounded like a Formula 1 car as it shot past.  Unfortunately we had to pull the pin as darkness fell, but the owner had to give it one last thrash and ended up running one of the tyres off the rim and breaking one of the welds on the frame that held on a wheel.  So that was the end of the buggy until it could be repaired.  Most of the repairs have since been completed and I can’t wait to take it for another spin.



The Buggy

 

Then next day I took my troopy out with one of the fore mentioned blokes on his dirt bike to see if we could find a track or two.  We ended up on the other side of the Super Pit were it was very muddy/slippery on the flat ground and then there were rocky mounds throughout which were approximately 30meters tall and very steep, which provided some good challenges.  Whilst the bike was a lot more agile and could move a lot quicker though the bush, when I spun out in the mud, I didn’t end up lying in it.  We had a good couple of hours mucking around and there was only one hill that I couldn’t get up.  Just before reaching the bitumen on the way home we met another couple of blokes in their work landcruiser.  They had been out thrashing that car and were all smiles until my mate on the bike asked them about this big dint in the side door.  They were more than like going to get a pineapple when they went back to work.  That is the saying over here when some does something wrong, instead of getting a boot in the arse they get the pointy end of a pineapple.

After our little spin behind the super pit my mate and I decided to go for a decent off road trip.  We set our sights on a place called Cave Hill.  We started off quite well and the track was quite tame.  However, the further we went the narrower the track became and eventually disappeared.  My mate on the bike road a head a few times to see if the track started again and we were going okay but very slowly as I was having a lot of trouble getting through the thick bush.  It didn’t take us long to realise we were getting nowhere and losing daylight so we decided to turn around.  Just before reaching the bitumen I started to hear a hissing sound and new straight away that I had a puncture.  Upon further investigation I discovered that the sidewall had been punctured and the tyre would be a right off.  Returning home without ever reaching Cave Hill my mate’s bike then decided it wasn’t going to start and I found I had also busted a spotlight and an airline, we concluded that it was not a very successful trip.

So with one broken buggy, one broken bike and one broken car, the three of us were glad we were going back to work so that we couldn’t break anything else.  At least not until our next week off anyway.

This week has been a little tamer, but only just.  One of the blokes he at the caravan park made an arrangement with a mate that if he dug out a tree stump we could borrow his chiminea (pot belly fire place) for the winter.  The stump was about two foot in diameter and after an hour or so of digging he gave me a call to see if I could pull it out with my winch.  I was only too happy to give it a crack and ten minutes later the job was done.  So for the last couple of nights we have been sitting around the fire enjoying a few brews.

 Having a red wine with Bryce by the chiminea

My final story wasn’t totally my fault, but then I am not sure who else to blame.  Anyway I will start from the beginning.  A few of us have set up a media player and hard drive in the crib room to watch movies of an evening.  However the crib room gets rather cold at that time as there is no heater, so we have taken to lighting the gas oven and cook top to warm the place.  This has been quite successful and doesn’t take long at all.  A few nights back at about one in the morning I was half asleep on the couch watch a movie with the burners going, nice and warm when I heard a bang.  Looking over my shoulder the first thing I see is the two/three foot flames on top of the cook top.  After extinguishing the fire I found that the plastic grill off the roof mounted exhaust fan, located above the cook top had fallen off.  No damage was done, apart from the loss of the fan grill and an hour later I had cleaned up the melted plastic and vented the room of the thick black smoke.  I then decided it was time for bed.

So it has been a fun couple of weeks off with a little bit of work in between.  Also we a re just about finished on our current sight so I am not sure if I will be moved to another or what.  Until next time…  Cheers

First Stint Completed

Today is the first day of my week off, and I spent most of it staring at the inside of my eyelids.  Since starting work on the 2^nd of the month I have had one day off, and the last 7 I have been on nightshift.  So it is a bit of a relief to be getting a few days of in a row.  Three crews have now been assembled and a roster has been formed: 1 week of days, 1 week of nights and then 1 week off.

Upon knocking off at 6:30 this morning after a pretty tough night, working through a bit of a storm (yes, there was plenty of drifting going on) it was a unanimous decision to head straight to one of Kalgoorlie’s many pubs.  I managed to get 1 bourbon down, and then decided that a feed was what I was really after.  Thankfully Hannans (the pub) does a mean breaky and I tucked in to a plate of spaghetti on toast whilst the other boys (most of whom are Irish) just kept drinking.  An hour or so later I called it quits and headed for the minibus.  Not bothering to start the engine, I went straight for the bench seat at the rear of the minibus and slept for a couple of hours before driving home to sleep some more.  This evening after waking up I discovered that my neighbour (one of the Irish lads from work) was no home yet, so I thought I do a mercy run back to Hannans before handing the minibus over to the next shift.  I found him still there propped up at the bar unable to walk or talk and barely able to keep his eyes open.  I had a good laugh with the bar maid who was rather relived to see me and then carried my mate out.

Working a 12 hour nightshift on the mine site was pretty tough.  It was hard to see, particularly when there were rain droplets on the windows and mirrors, and what limited lighting there was always seemed to be shining in my eyes rather than on where I wanted to be going.  Also it was hard to see the potholes in the haul road, so I was constantly getting bounced around.  The hardest part though was staying awake, especially around 4am nearing the end of the shift.  Thankfully I am on probably the best and definitely the most relaxed of the three crew and there is a lot of rubbish thrown around on the two way radio which helps to keep me awake.

Whilst over the last month I have spent most of my time in the Dump trucks I can also say that I have been in every machine on site.  It has been good to get back into an excavator and found it was like riding a bike (you never forget how).  I have spent a small amount of time on the grader and dozer.  The hardest part of the grader is that there are so many different ways to adjust the blade to cut the road, but at least you can see the front of the blade so you know when to make an adjustment.  The dozer is the complete opposite, you cant see a thing, it is all done by feel.  Also, the dozer has so much power so it just keeps on pushing and it is really easy to dig a hole if you haven got your level right.  I think I will need to spend a few more hours in the dozer before I get the feel for the right level?!

Well that should just about bring you all up to speed on where I am at.  Hope all is well wherever you are in the world, and hopefully the weather is being a bit kinder to you.  Another storm has just blown in, thankfully it is someone else turn to go to work tonight.  I think I will go and have a quick bite and then go back to bed.

Drifting Dump Trucks

Gday All.  I have been working for a week now and although my first day was rather difficult, I have started to get used to the routine of working again.  My alarm goes off at 3:30am but all I have to do is reach up and turn on the heater, then fall back to sleep.  My next alarm goes off at 4 and this is the painful one because it is now time to get up, at least the donga is now warm.  By 5am I am across the road at the Caltex waiting to be picked up in the mini bus to arrive on site by 5:45.  A quick toolbox meeting (safety meeting) and the machines are being started around 6 o’clock.  We get a 15 minute smoko at 10:30 and 45 minutes for lunch about 1:30pm, we then push through til 5:45pm to be out the door at 6 and home just after 6:30.  I will then cook tea and eat with the donga boys and am in bed generally around 8:30, ready to do it all again the next day.

So far at work I have spent all my time in the little articulated dump trucks.  These trucks hold around 40-50tonne of dirt.  There are three trucks and each day we run about 110 loads out of the pit each.  The trucks drive very slowly up out of the pit when they are loaded, but we have no trouble reaching their top speed of 55kph going back down into the pit.  The best times are just after the water cart has wet the road to keep the dust down.  We get about 3 runs each with very little traction and there is some serious drifting going on around the corners.  As the trucks are articulated and the drive tyres are on the trailer, it is a lot different to sliding a rigid vehicle and took me a while to get used to it but if at first you don’t succeed…  On Wednesday night it rained heavily and yesterday we were sliding all morning.  There is a tight ‘s bend’ upon entering the pit and the only thing pulling us around the bend were the wheel ruts in the road.  So far it has been quite a laugh driving these little dumpys, and the days seem to fly by.

 

The 80Tonne Excavator Loading The Articulated Dump Trucks

The D8 Dozer

 

The definite highlight of the week though had to be last night just after we parked up the machines and loaded into the minibus.  The driver then decided he would take a short cut through a huge puddle and got bogged.  We tried pushing but soon realised we were wasting our effort.  As we were still on the mine site it would have taken a lot of bureaucratic stuffing around, which no one wanted after a long day, so we quickly and quietly got the front end loader and lifted the rear of the minibus up with the front bucket and pushed it out of the puddle.  Later that night after a few drinks we were retelling each others perspective of the event, the noises the minibus was making and the worried looks on people faces, hoping the supervisor didn’t come looking for us at that moment.  We were in tears from laughing so hard.

Today three of us were given the day off because we are being moved to another crew (this has nothing to do with the minibus incident).  Tomorrow I will be starting a week of dayshift, then a week of nightshift and then a week off.  There will be three crews running so that the mine can run 24/7.  Hopefully the new crew will be as much of a laugh as the last one.  I haven’t done much today, only a load of washing and then just relaxed with the boys around the caravan park.  Well it’s about tea time so I will end here.  Hope everyone is staying out of trouble better than I am, if not at least not getting caught.

Success At Last

Gday all,

Well, today makes my 1 month anniversary of being unemployed, and depending on your point of view it’s either very sad or a top effort.  However, after a few weeks of trying I have finally succeeded in finding and securing a job.

Last Monday I made one last attempt at work in Perth and was offered a job with Veolia operating a vac truck.  My main role would have been cleaning out storm water drains and other pipes by way of running a cctv camera down the pipe then clearing the blockage using high pressure water and vacuuming the gunk up.  The pay wasn’t too bad but I had to turn the offer down as they couldn’t guarantee me constant work at that time.  So that evening I found myself having to make the rather difficult call of leaving my fantastic beachfront view of South Fremantle for the red, dry dirt of Kalgoorlie.

After yet another night in the bush, I rolled into my old caravan park in Kal early Tuesday morning, and as luck would have it my old donga was available.  Even though the price had nearly doubled since my last visit 5 years ago, I had no hesitation.  The old shoe box was just how I remember it and other than new personnel the caravan park was pretty well the same also.  It was a rather funny feeling settling in again, almost like arriving back home after a long trip.

So, with my previous knowledge of the layout and system for finding work I was confident that it wouldn’t take long to find work.  By week’s end I had three jobs offered to me all operating excavators and loaders which is what I was after.  Deciding on the best one over the weekend, I was up bright and early this morning and pushing for the job.  After a brief interview I secured the job and although I have been placed at the bottom of the food chain (driving dumps trucks) it shouldn’t take to long for me to progress as the mine site is about to start running 3 crews instead of 1.  The other advantage that this positions offers is that there is a grader and D10 (big bulldozer) on site which I should be able to learn and get experience on.  These are the two machines that I have never operated and once I know my way round them many more doors will open for me.

After a long day today of running around organising things I am finally able to retire for the evening.  Tomorrow I have a medical booked in and then on Thursday I will do the induction for the mine site.  Then with a bit of luck I will start earning some dollars on Friday.

That’s about all I have to report for now.  Am enjoying having four walls and a roof over my head, even if it is a bit cramped, and I have made a new group of friends here in the dongas, even if they are a bit rough.  Maybe that’s why I fit in?!

Till next time.  Cheers

Life's A Beach

Hey guys,

Well another week has passed and although I am still without a job, my living arrangements are on the up.  I am no longer living in the national parks surrounding Perth and have moved to the fantastic location of Sth Fremantle, only a few hundred meters from the beach.  Today and most days I have been swimming as the water is still very warm here.  I almost don’t think I want to find a job.  Also there are BBQ’s here, so I have been doing most of my cooking by the beach.  Unfortunately there is a storm about to blow in so the photo doesn’t do justice.

After a bit of running around this week (in between beach visits) I have chased a few jobs going up in the Pilbara without any luck.  They all want people who have had a couple of years experience operating 250tonne and bigger machinery, for which I have none but I thought it was worth a shot.  However, I have an interview tomorrow morning with an agency who seemed very excited when they saw my resume.  So fingers crossed that they have something planned for me.  If not I have found some work going in Kalgoorlie operating 80tonne machines and after a phone call the other day they seem to think I would be a strong candidate for the job.  So that’s my back up plan.  The only downside to that job is that I will be stationed in Kalgoorlie permanently, but that may not be so bad for the short term.

While I think of it check out this link for comments on the caravan park that I stayed in for a night when I first arrived in Perth (the caravan park I talked about in my last blog).  Love the second comment…

https://plus.google.com/106293671947691355749/about?hl=en

The other night we had a lightning storm, which I thought only happened in the pilbara (due to the iron in the ground).  There was no rain or thunder, just lightning.  It was quite spectacular.  Here is a couple of photos…

Otherwise it has been a pretty quite week.  Probably the most exciting event for me was nearly getting a parking ticket in Perth’s CBD.  Not a bad effort I thought, ‘I’ve only been in this city an hour and I’m already finding trouble’.

Well, I am going to have to end my saga here as that storm is just about here and the BBQ’s aren’t under cover.  Til next time, best wishes to all.

Arriving In Perth

Hey guys and gals,

Here is the first of what I hope to be many instalments of my thoughts and experiences while working in the mines of WA.  But first, lets wind the clock back a week or so to leaving Melbourne on Monday morning...

Compared to the last time I came to the mines, I packed very light.  Mainly just work clothes and safety gear, enough food for a week or so and my camping gear.  Leaving Melbourne just after sun up and deciding to travel though South Australia via Renmark (not Adelaide) my first issue occurred just before Bendigo when I missed the turn off to Mildura.  Not sure how I did that as I had all the maps there and the GPS and still for some reason decided to stare at the clearly marked ‘Mildura Turnoff’ sign as I drove right passed it.  After swearing at myself for a bit, 20 minutes later I was back on the calder fwy after visiting the great town of Bendigo.  The rest of the day was pretty uneventful and I made good time surpassing Renmark and making it to Burra for the night.  Deciding on the budget option I then spent the night in the back of the car, which wasn’t too bad.  The next morning was quite nice driving through the country side to Port Augusta, and then in the afternoon the landscape opened up as I drifted into western SA.  I finally pulled up stumps in a truck stop about 300kms east of Western Australia and again took the cheapest bed going.  Day 3 was the day I was not looking forward to.  1000kms of nothing.  The last few hours of the day I was stiff and sore and wanted to be anywhere but in the drivers seat.  Also my mind was starting to go a bit loony as the only human contact I had was the truckies on the CB.  Finally arriving at my truck stop destination I was very unhappy to see that it was packed with caravans and there was nowhere to park.  Angrily I headed back out onto the highway to find another spot.  My anger didn’t last long, and I was relieved to find there was another truck stop on the other side of the road for people traveling east, no more than a kilometer up the road, and the best part was that there was plenty of room to choose from.  Hang on, my can of bourbon is empty, back in a sec.  As I had made such good time the whole trip, day 4 would be my last and I should get into Perth around 4pm or so.  The traffic on the road changed as I exited the Nullarbor and started to return to civilisation.  The highlight was being directed to pull over by a pilot vehicle.  I then noticed coming around the bend in front of me were 2 semi’s carrying the tubs from dump trucks.  They were 8.5m wide loads and were taking up 3 lanes.  That was when I new I had arrived in WA and that everything here is so much bigger than in Victoria.

Upon arriving in Perth the first thing I wanted was a shower.  So after a little internet research I discovered caravan parks weren’t as cheap as they used to be (wanting $40+ a night for an unpowered tent site).  I finally found a caravan park pretty close to the CBD and only wanting $25 (in hindsight that should have been my first clue) but I wasn’t thinking along those lines, so I took it.  As I pulled into the caravan park the old fellow was at my car window before I’d even shut off the engine.  I was directed to a spot just down the road and gave him my $25 which went straight into his pocket (second clue).  Before leaving the car park at reception the old fellow asked who I followed in the footy.  I thought ‘here we go’ and responded “Collingwood”.  After a few more exchanges the old man said to me “Since the AFL started there are 4 teams that have entered the competition that start with the letter F.  Can you name them?”  Before reading on, can you name them?  If you know your footy, you will have got the first 3, as did I, Fitzroy, Footscray and Fremantle.  But I couldn’t think of the 4th.  I looked at the old man puzzled and shaking my head, he smiled and said “F*#@ing Collingwood”.  I had a good laugh with the fella and as I drove down the road to my site I wondered what I was in for (maybe I had found Frankston’s equivalent).  Before unpacking I headed straight for the showers.  1 of the 3 showers was out of order and the other 2 looked like they should have been.  I took the best of the 2, which still had 50% of the wall tiles and only 1 razor on the floor.  I was surprised when the water came out clear and hot, although not much pressure, but after 4 days without a shower it did the trick.  With the mercury hitting 38*c earlier that day, I exited the shower to find it was raining, stupid of me for thinking I could escape Melbourne’s bloody weather.  After unpacking, I went to find the camp kitchen.  After a lap of the park I found out that for $25 you don’t get a camp kitchen, however there was a microwave in the laundry, and that was all I needed.  However, I opened the microwave door to find the rotating dish and been taken and that something that resembled instant noodles had exploded in there.  So, back at my car I was cooking tea when a few of my neighbours decided to introduce themselves.  After chatting with a half dozen or so neighbours, I started to discover a trend.  All bar 1 (a hard working Kiwi and nice fellow) were jobless, drunk, divorced, were missing teeth and wanted to tell me how life had treated them so badly.  At that point I though I could move up to Frankston.  I went to bed that night praying that I would still have 4 tyres and an engine in the morning.

I woke early the next morning so as to pack up and leave before my newly made friends woke from their alcohol fuelled sleep.  On the way out of the park I ran into another bloke who again was jobless but at lease could hold a conversation.  He was nice bloke and gave me a list of employment agencies to look for work at.  So, that’s how I spent Friday.  After doing the rounds in Perth, I headed south (about 45 minutes) to Rockingham to drop off more copies of my resume.  It didn’t take long for me to decide that Rockingham was at the other end of the scale to my caravan park.  Although it was a dull, dreary, raining day I could easily see myself living in Rockingham opposite the beach.  As the day drew to a close I needed to find somewhere to spend the night as I wasn’t going back to see my old mate and his caravan park.  After checking out the caravan parks in Rockingham and deciding that I spend their nightly fees better elsewhere, I headed bush to again take the cheapest bed going.  I arrived at the camping spot to find the entrance had been blocked to cars with a gate, large rocks and fallen trees.  So I found a level spot and set up camp in front of the gate.  This morning I hiked down the path to the toilets to find they had been boarded up and hadn’t been used in some time.  Obviously this was no longer a used camp ground and someone has just forgotten to take it off the internet and all of the maps.

Today I have applied for a remote area job on the internet and done a bit of exploring, and then went looking for another bush camping ground that I couldn’t find and now that I think about it am wondering if it exists.  So I headed off up a 4 wheel drive track and have set up camp, um, somewhere?! And am now writing an email and drinking bourbon, speaking of which, I think I’m empty.  So I think I will leave it there.  Has been an interesting week.  Hopefully next week will bring about a job as it is hard work looking for work.

Til next time, hope all is well wherever you are.

Cheers

Nath