Australia Adventure: Phase III

And so with the advent of field work, phase three of my journey began!  It was January 2nd and I was meeting my fellow coworkers at the Perth airport for our travel to the worksite.  The company I had been hired by was called Panoramic Resources Ltd and I was going to be working at their Gidgee Gold project.  The same company had in fact bought out Magma Metals in Thunder Bay, so I happened to be working for the company that owns a project right next to my hometown!

Pillow Basalts!

The flight from Perth took about an hour and a half, landing in the small town of Meekatharra.  From here we drove another hour and a half east to the Gidgee Gold site.  This gave me plenty of time to gain an introduction to a few of my coworkers and the project at hand.  Panoramic had acquired the Gidgee project in 2011 along with a tenement package containing a resource of 1.16 million ounces (Moz) of gold.  The project is located in a greenstone belt, with the geology consisting of layers of mafic conglomerate, dolerite, and ultramafics.  Most of the exploration had been carried out in previous years and our task was to carry out a resource drilling program to increase the value of the project.  I learned that I would be part of an eight person exploration team consisting of two Canadians, one Scotsman, a Dutchman, a Frenchman and three Australians.  The rest of the people at the camp were support staff and drillers.  

My regalia of sorts!

Upon stepping out of the ute (utility-vehicle; similar to a truck back home) I was hit by a wave of heat.  It was the middle of the Australian summer and we were going to be working in 40+ degree Celsius weather!  This had implications for everything we did, including the way we packed our lunch (coolers and ice packs), kept our water cool (5L and 10L insulated jugs), and the duration of our work day.  The mining industry standard in Australia for the work day is a twelve hour shift.  In order to make the most of this shift, we were starting work at 5am each morning.  This allowed us to beat the heat.  However, we found ourselves working to 6pm most days, racking up thirteen hour days and sometimes even more.

Working as a field assistant (Fieldy for short or JAFFA - Just Another Fucking Field Assistant), my duties varied from drill operations (sample collecting, quality control, magnetic susceptibility readings), rehab, re sampling, and cord-yard tasks (core orientation, cutting, sampling).  In the beginning, our drill program consisted of two RC (Reverse Circulation) drill rigs.  These rigs would pound the rocks and smash it up into dust or pieces a few centimeters in diameter.  These pieces are then sent back up to the surface and then logged by the geologist.  These rigs were soon joined by a few diamond drills (which I am more familiar with from my previous jobs in Canada).  These rigs churn out solid rods of core which contain great structural information along with lithology and alteration.

 

RC Drill operations son!

Along with my fieldy duties, I also had to learn to drive stick!  The utes were all manual, and since I had only driven automatics back home, I needed a crash course in switching gears.  Riding the clutch slowly came along and shifting gears soon followed.  I also had to get used to driving on the left side of the road.  Having my Western Australia driver’s license (which I acquired when I first landed) was necessary as most of the areas where we needed to drill were a twenty to thirty minute drive from camp.  The project had been worked upon since the 1970’s (mined for iron ore) so there were many large open pits for us to explore and observe. 

Bungarra on its way to a big meal!

The rocks weren’t the only things to see and look out for though.  The Australian outback has plenty of animals, birds and insects that add some flavour to the orange-red landscape.  There are cattle stations located near the project and we were always on guard for a wayward bull or cow crossing the road.  Bungarras and goannas (lizards of one to two metres in length) were also very common around camp and the pits, although they posed no threat unless we were to provoke them.  The biggest danger came from kangaroos hopping across the road.  They are most active at dusk and dawn (more or less when we are driving to and from project sites) and had an unfortunate habit of jumping in front of our utes when we were driving upwards of 100km/h along our gravel roads.  It was common knowledge that when you saw one roo there was another one not too far behind.  One day while I was driving with Ryan (the Scotsman), a few roos decided to cross the road in front of our vehicle.  He slammed on the break just in time to avoid hitting them, and then from the left came this giant kangaroo.  We were sure to hit this one when Ryan swerved to the right.  We came so close to this beast that I could see the roo’s eyes bulge in what I can only assume was a mixture of terror and realization of its end.  If roos wore pants, this one would have shat them.  It was lucky that Ryan’s swerve was enough to miss hitting it. 

Giant feather duster.

Not to be forgotten were the emus.  These birds (which look like giant feather dusters) did not cross in front of us, but preferred to stay off the roads.  I remember driving alone back to camp once and seeing three emus off on the side.  Not having a photo of one yet, I decided to stop the ute and approach them.  They sensed me coming and sprang into action, strutting across the desert until reaching a brisk run.  So I decided to run after them, camera in hand and steel-toed boots on foot.  I must have followed them for just a minute but they took me far enough from the ute to leave me gasping for air.  And I didn’t even get the photo!

Unlike Canada, where the danger to your physical wellbeing comes from large predators such as cougars or bears, Australia features dangers of a much smaller kind.  Spiders and venomous insects own the outback and a bite or a sting from one of them can leave you in agony.  I was fortunate enough to see (and not get bit by) a huntsman, a few redbacks and a wolf spider.  I also saw a 20cm long centipede (they cause painful bites) and a small scorpion.  Whereas Northern Ontario has to deal with swarms of mosquitos, the main source of frustration in the outback are the flies.  However, these insects don’t bite but instead like to get real friendly with you by exploring the grooves and cavities on your face such as your eyes, nose, ears and mouth.  I managed to build up a psychological immunity to the flies while on drill duty, which entailed just letting the flies sit on me.  It worked in the sense that I was rarely bothered by their presence, but it meant that I would have a fair amount crawling all around my head.

Mining work in Australia is often termed FIFO, as in Fly-in/Fly-out, which for me meant a rotation of two weeks of work and one week off for a break.  On my week off I would return to stay at the hostel and meet up with friends old and new.  I also thought my week off would be a good opportunity to go visit the rest of Australia.  Marlis, a friend from Tbay, had just moved to Melbourne so I decided to go visit her!
 

Melbourne

It took a three hour flight to get there, and since I was heading East, the time moved forward by three hours, so I arrived in darkness to Tullamarine airport.  After a bus and a taxi ride, I made it to the hostel I would be staying at in St Kilda.  Over the next few days I would tour the city with Marlis and visit cool parks and attractions.  I could see why Melbourne was consistently ranked at the top of the world list for best city to live in.  Its city contained numerous green parks for its citizens to take their lunch in and enjoy their afternoons and weekends.  The transit system seemed quite efficient and the city enjoyed a bustle of pedestrian activity along its main roads and walkways.   

Staying true to Aussie culture, Melbourne also had an abundance of pubs and restaurants to spend your evening and night in.  One such restaurant was ‘Naked for Satan’ in which we enjoyed some drinks and food on the rooftop.  We also made it up to the top of Eureka Tower, which rises 297 meters above Melbourne and offered us a fantastic view of the city.  I decided to get a taste of the nightlife in Melbourne and found the clubs fantastic to party in.  I was also able to make it to the Crown Casino and had a fun night of roulette and socializing there.

Also living in Melbourne was a family that we had kept in touch with from our days in the Middle East.  John (the son) and I decided to meet up for an ‘Above and Beyond’ concert.  We both didn’t remember each other (as we were so young when we last met) but enjoyed the night together along with a few of his friends.  I had actually never listened to any of Above and Beyond’s music before the concert, but their trance mixes entranced me and kept me spellbound for the night. 

Stunning!

Before leaving Melbourne, Marlis and I did a day tour down the Great Ocean Road.  We visited a few parks and beaches, but the most exciting part came at the end when we landed at the ‘Twelve Apostles’.  These are parts of limestone cliffs which have been eroded and left as single-standing structures along the coast.  They totalled twelve when they were first discovered, however there is only seven and a half now due to increased erosion.  Seeing these cliffs juxtaposed against the ocean and the evening sun was breathtaking.  You certainly didn’t have to be a geologist to appreciate the beauty of these structures.

And then it was back to camp and work as usual.  The temperature was still quite high, and reached an unbearable 54 degrees one day!  Aside from the rare days of 50+, I was getting used to heat in the forties.  What surprised me most was actually the temperature contrast between Australia and Canada at that time.  On the day it was 54 deg in the field, it was minus 40 at night in Thunder Bay.  That’s a 94 degree difference!

Unfortunately, I was working in the field for Australia day. It would have been nice to attend the celebrations, I heard they were quite ruckus.  I was also working on my twenty-third birthday, but my coworkers and the chefs were nice enough to bake me a chocolate cake which we all thoroughly enjoyed.  I should also mention that all our breakfasts and dinners were prepared for us at the camp, which was fantastic!  As per usual, I had my TV shows which I watched at the end of the day as a great way to wind down.  I got through all the seasons of Entourage, and am up to date with Arrow, Suits, and Once Upon a Time.  And then Game of Thrones season three began and I was entranced again by the troubles of Westeros and the battle between the stag and the wolf.  Plus Daenerys Targaryen is too stunning not to watch.

Aww yeah!

It was in camp where I received word that ‘Our Canada’ magazine was going to publish a photograph I had taken in the Yukon.  I was thrilled about this and was pleased with the two page spread of the photo.  I consider it an honour.

Back on my breaks in Perth, I was again busy gallivanting around town with my hostel crew, checking out the Perth zoo and the beautiful beaches.  I picked up my surfboard in the first time since my December lesson and cruised on some waves.  It wasn’t an overly successful venture, but fun nonetheless!

I was in town for St Patrick’s day and celebrated by going to the beach!  I returned to the hostel to see a rowdy bunch of Irish in full celebration, beers in hand and all decked in green.  It was a fantastic evening of boozing.  I then decided to go to the Crown Perth casino with a few others and lost a bit of money on the roulette table there.  Upon returning to the hostel, I learned that a fight had broken out.  And when the Irish have a fight, all hell breaks lose.  Chairs and tables broken, glasses shattered and blood spilled.  Damn Irish.

Staying in a hostel is a sure way to meet new people.  But after staying at One World Backpackers for so long, I also had to say goodbye to many of those I had come to call friends.  It was always a sad moment to say goodbye but you always departed with the hope of meeting up again.  I was told once by my former hostel roomie, that every backpacker meets at least twice.  I hope he was right.

In the beginning of April, Marlis came to visit Perth.  She had bought tickets to see the Script in the city so we spent the first night together at the Perth Arena...surrounded by hundreds of screaming teen girls.  As we were waiting to enter the hall, security warned the crowd not to run.  So what does everyone do?  Run of course!  And we run with them!  It was a great concert and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the Script perform.  You could tell how appreciative they were of how far they had come in their music career.

Wineries!

Over the next few days we visited Freo and took a day tour down to Margaret River to see some wineries and the surrounding area.  We also did a tour of the Swan Valley wineries, which consisted of a morning river boat cruise and an afternoon of wine tasting, capped by a visit to a chocolate factory!  We were joined in this adventure by Ruth, another Canadian who stays at the hostel.  It was during the tastings that I gained an appreciation for wine.  I had never enjoyed drinking it before, but this tour changed that for sure. 

So after Marlis’ visit, I went back to work.  The RC drills had packed up in March, and only one diamond drill was operating so we were spending our time at the core yard.  Orientating core is not really an exciting task but it was part of the job.  It was during this shift that the price of gold on the market index dropped almost $100 over the weekend, and the Australian share market shed $15 billion dollars.  This was not good. 

On Tuesday I was given a letter indicating the end of my contract with Panoramic, and on Wednesday I was on a flight back to Perth.  And just like that, my exploration job came to an end.  It was sudden, but I understood the reasons behind it all.  I soon learned that many other companies had shelved their projects and that there was a new wave of geologists looking for work.  I appreciate the opportunity that Panoramic gave me and enjoyed working with everyone at the camp.

It was strange walking back into the hostel after just one week of being away.  I needed to collect my thoughts and figure out what was next.  Travel of course!  I had wanted to travel up the West Coast and into the Northern Territory for some time, so I figured that this was to be my next journey.  Now how was this all going to come about?

Beach Bonding!

While I was waiting for an answer to that question, I decided to party.  So I spent the next week and a half in and out of clubs and bars, travelling to the beach and chilling with my hostel crew.  One day, a group of us decided to go to City beach and BBQ up some steaks.  Along for the ride was Adam, Matt, Liam and Hus, and we jumped in Hus’ newly purchased van and drove to the beach.  We picked up some steaks along the way along with a bottle of Jim Bean and enjoyed the evening, pausing for a spectacular sunset.  

It was during this outing that I learned Hus planned to travel and was looking for a partner to journey up the coast with him.  This was just the opportunity I had been waiting for!  I quickly jumped at the idea and just like that a deal was struck.

And so ends Phase three of my Australian journey.  It came sooner than I expected, but its ending gave me the opportunity to change things up and begin a trip that I am still currently on and very much enjoying.  So stay tuned for the next leg of my Australia journey!

Check out Australia Adventure: Phase I!
                 Australia Adventure: Phase II!

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