My workplace...

Car dumper is a concrete vault 6 storeys high

Ramp down to the Car dumper

I am working inside the concrete structure, fitting out all the dust suppression ductwork. The bridge overhead is where the trains travel.

Add caption

You can see the back end of a 1600 tonne crane. The boom is out of view as it is laying down flat on the ground. The temperatures expected in the week ahead. The car dumper is known to get much hotter.......!!!!

Some pics of my Donga

My sink

My Bed with a designer doona. A/C over my head.

My Verandah

My view

Google map view of  Searipple.

The camp is too full so we are temporarily placed in an old accommodation village 3 km out of Karratha called the Searipple, nicknamed the Flea ripple. Just old and a bit run down. Hopefully we will be on camp soon.

Some common mining terms

A bunch of new words relating to mining.

Swing: Your roster cycle is a swing. For me a swing is 5 weeks (4 wks on and 1 week off)

Donga: Every Eastern Stater giggles when they here this one. It is actually your cabin. A cyclone proof air conditioned room with a window, bar fridge, television and single bed with a separate toilet and shower attached.

Permanent/Casual: Full time employee that can be finished up with minimal notice.

Window seat: If you muck up on site and break rules in camp or on the job, a window seat is booked for you on the first flight back to Perth. They are tough on any indiscretion.

Motelling: Generally once your Donga is assigned to you, you can leave your personals in it for the length of your time at that site. When you go on leave you just lock it up and return back to it. If you have to pack up and put your stuff in storage when you are on a break then you are "motelling". No-one likes motelling.......

Urine chart

Charts like these are in most toilets next to the urinal in work toilets. The hot weather dehydrates. Dehydration causing heat exhaustion and heat stroke are spoken about in every safety discussion. So it is as simple as watching your colours.

25/1/13 Karratha. 1st day at work

Tropical Storm welcome.

5.25am flight out of Perth on a Qantas flight. All heading to many mines through the North of WA. Didn't know that this was a Cyclone prone area.. A tropical storm was passing  as I went to site for another induction, then back into Karratha for some more specialised Working at Height training. A lot of my work can be in a full body harness and above other workers. Rio Tinto are red hot about making sure nothing falls on workers below.

11 days in Perth training and testing.

Before I could start there was a lot that had to be done. A Rio Tinto induction, 2 days of Senior First Aid, Personal lock procedures, Full medical, Fire Extinguisher training, High Risk - Working at Height licensing, Construction training and a weld test that I had not done in 27 years. This was my greatest concern. But I got there.

3 hrs later. Finished...

Weld test. Overhead. 16mm plates

Also had time to sort out a good coffee. A small plastic plunger and freshly ground beans. I then found a bloke who is flying up a Nespresso machine in carry on baggage.... Something to think about

13/1/2013 "Here goes". Is what I wrote in my diary..

Giving WA mining a go. Fly in, fly out. 4 weeks on, 1 week off. I am based in a Rio Tinto site 1500 kms north of Perth called Cape Lambert where iron ore from mining in the Pilbara is transported in by rail and unloaded, broken up into managable chunks and stockpiled. There are 2 piers with conveyors and ship loaders, 1 which stretches 2.7 kms out to sea where Bulk tankers are loaded around the clock. My nearest airport is Karratha which is 40 minutes or 70 kms away. Perth is nearly 2 hrs away by plane. 1500 kilometers by road.
Cape Lambert accomodates 1800 personnel on site. Plenty travel in from neighboring towns as well.  I am working for a massive Engineering company that has 350 personnel on this site.