OzXXIX - Out of the pan into the old gold mine

I had been working for the past couple of months at the Cosmos mine site for Jubilee Mines. During my last swing on site I was informed that I was moving to their other site, Bannockburn, in an hour and I was to pack my things. This was due to someone senior's nephew being a muppet. He was moved to Cosmos and I was moved to Bannockburn. Needless to say I wasn't pleased being used in such a way. However, it turned out to be a great experience and topped off my time in Australia. The Bannockburn is much more isolated, when we flew in we still had an hour's drive along dirt tracks to get to the site. The great thing about Bannockburn is that it is small. People are generally friendly and you get to know them much quicker. There is more work to do as a Fieldy but it is more varied and you spend a great deal of time driving through the Bush getting to whether you need to go. Backpackers don't come here and Englishmen are rare. There is a great feeling of space.

Bannockburn is an old gold mine abandoned in 1996 and is currently used as a base for Jubilee's Exploration team in the area. At Cosmos there is already an open pit and underground tunnels. Bannockburn will become the Sinclair mine for Jubilee and will begin operations in 12 months. There is currently no infrastructure at Sinclair hence why the Exploration team have to use the old gold mine accommodation. The rooms are old and the beds aren't great. You cannot drink the tap water due to frog's nesting in the supply. The frog's climb out of bathroom drains and toilet bowls. At Cosmos there are about 300 people on site at anyone time, whereas at Bannockburn there are only 40. This means the quality and variety of food is much less (especially as the cooking facilities are pretty poor). The Bannockburn core yard, where I spend most of my days, did not have any shade over the racks due to the core shed being built 200 metres in the wrong direction. Making a mistake with GPS coordinates isn't cheap, they moved the shed at a cost of $20,000. The only toilet facility at the core yard is a hole in the ground with a steel drum on top and a black plastic lid on top of that. The unfortunate thing is that this does not have a roof so under the Australian the black plastic seat gets awfully hot on top of the steel drum.

I still fly to and from site. We fly to a place called Leonora on smaller 18 seater planes. There is one row of seats on either side of the aisle and you have to crouch as you walk down the aisle. There isn't a toilet on board. Before we boarded the flight the pilot and co-pilot stood gave us our inflight food and drink as we waited to board (a cost cutting masure Ryanair may consider introducing). During takeoff and landing the curtain between the cabin and the cockpit is pulled back so you can see out the front and see what the pilot is up to. On my first flight out of Leonora we were informed that the flight was going to be delayed due to a fuel pump problem. I was sitting near the plane and overheard a member of the ground crew say "sometimes the trip switch in the cradle doesn't work, so I kicked it twice and now it's working." I hope this conversation doesn't take place at Heathrow. The pilot had already told us that he didn't fancy gliding into Perth and I wouldn't have liked to hear the request from the pilot for someone to climb out on to the wing and give it a kick.

In general there is a great deal more wildlife around due to there being alot less people. There are more snakes, emus, eagles, kangaroos, and bungarra lizards. There are a number of resident bungarra's who have decided that the core yard provides an excellent source of drinking water and food for them. You will be cutting on one of the saws, turn round, and have a metre long lizard under your feet. At the russbish tip a massive bungarra has taken a very comfortable residence amongst the food scraps. The other day I watched a Kangaroo being chased by an Emu across the road as we drove by, we nearly managed to wipe out an entire Emu family on the roads the following day. One evening we had a BBQ out in the bush at a place called Eagle Rock. On the way back we saw a Kangaroo and a small Joey in the middle of the road. At the sight of us approaching the Joey tried to leap back into mum's pouch but she wasn't having any of it. We pulled up next to Joey and he bleated at us, then decided it was probably best to hop after mum. I unfortunately managed to hit an Emu on my way to the airport as I flew out for the last time.

A member of the wildlife fraternity who I wasn't quite so pleased to see more of were the flies. The number of flies was quite incredible. As soon as the sun was up they would swarm all over you. They would fly into every hole on your face. You could swipe away as much as you want, but even if you managed to get one another would soon follow. Someone would be having a covnersation only to start wretching as they swallowed a fly. We resorted to fly nets to preserve our sanity.

While I was there I managed to go to the Leinster Races. Leinster is a town owned by BHP Biliton. The company chooses who lives there and they run all the services. On the outskirts of town is a dirt horse racing track that they use periodically. It was obviously a big event in the Goldfields social calendar as people came from far and wide to drink and gamble. During the races most people stayed next to the bar and waited to hear the results rather than go outside and watch the horses fly passed. After the racing finished it was then followed by a game of 2-up. This involved even greater drinking and even more gambling. We were graced with the presence of the World Champion of 2-up.