Working in the Pilbara

Well hello again for my second (and most likely last) installment of the "Working in WA" series!! I am currently working at a "Fortesque Mining Group" (FMG) exploration mine site. The absic gist of it is this: FMG want to mine iron ore here, they set up an exploration camp where they drill in a grid pattern looking for the highest grade ore, they determine whether it is worth mining. If it is, an environmental consultant company like us (Coffey Environmental) are brought in to do a fauna assessment; basically to find out what is here!! We have been in the process of digging in almost 1,900 traps (20L bucket traps and 50cm deep pipe traps), often into hard rocky ground in 40 degree plus temperatures and >70% humidity, from 6.30am to 5pm or later!! Needless to say, chaffing is a big problem out here, but I will spare you all the details.

So for the last 13 days, we have been digging, digging, digging and within the next 4 or so days, we will be done. We ALMOST had to evacuate because it was looking like Cyclone Nicholas was going to pass right over us, but it luckily travelled further west, although we still got about 50mm of rain, cloudy days and wind for a number of days, which in red, clay-like soils is a bit of a pain. Once all of the traps are in, this survey we are undertaking will apparently be the largest faunal survey ever undertaken in Western Australia, and possibly the whole of Australia (may have mentioned this in the last post...). Over the last 4 days, I have actually been spending most of the morning hours doing bird surveys. So far, I have seen about 9 new species here including (for all those bird-nerds out there) Blue-winged Kookaburra, Spinifexbird, Painted Firetail, Little Button-quail, Grey-headed Honeyeater and Black-tailed Treecreeper..... For those interested, I have kept a COMPLETE list so I can share it in detail at a later date!!!

Please have a look at the new photo album that I have created a link to to see some cool pics of the Pilbara and various bits and pieces. Aside from the scenery and amazing animals, the accommodation here is pretty spectacular. There is a smorgasborg breakfast and dinner EVERY day, which generally involves REALLY good quality food, compared to the crappy college meals I put up with for years!!! For lunch, you can make sandwiches to take out with you as well as fresh fruit salads, packs of any sort of potato chips (as many as you like!!!), and for desert, apart from ample choices of cakes, there is an icecream freezer with all sorts of magnums, gaytimes, cornettos etc.... once again, all for the taking!!!! Basically, they look after you in exchange for you staying!!! Having said all the good things about here, I am ready to go home... Working this many hours for this long is too draining, and being away from Bec for 6 weeks now is too long. Since about the 23rd January, I have only had 4 days off, so I am physically and mentally drained.

I leave here next Monday 3rd March, have my buck's night with the boys over here on Thursday 6th March and fly back over east the next day with Glynn (as he is going to Sydney for a wedding). Then I finally get to see Bec and we can continue to organise wedding stuff!!!!

ANYWAY, enjoy the pics, I hope you enjoyed the blog, and I will talk/see you all soon!!!