KEY POINTS:
There's good money to be made mining in Australia, and many Kiwis are seeing it as a way to get financially ahead while they decide what they want to do with the rest of their lives.
Nigel Armstrong, who arrived in Kalgoorlie in March 1995, when he was 22, and left in June 1997, said there are numerous types of mines, underground and surface, and a wide range of jobs, such as truck drivers, geologists, geos' assistants, working on different types of drilling rigs and more.
It's not only the young who go to work in the mines. Aucklander Stuart Drummond, 50, spent 18 months from April 2006 at a camp for a gas rig near Chinchilla.
He was the camp attendant - which meant he cleaned rooms, made beds, did the weekly linen change, collected and laundered clothing, delivered snacks to the rig, washed dishes, disposed of rubbish, maintained ablution areas, cleaned communal areas and worked closely with the head cook. He says he got the job because of his experience as a steward in the Merchant Navy.
The workload was large, but once he had a routine, everything worked like clockwork.
"I'd start at 7am and make three beds for the mechanic, electrician and welder. I'd clean the cabins out every day. I'd clean the TV lounge, scrub the showers and do the laundry. It was pretty quick. I had a lot of down time.
"At 10.30am I'd go to the cabins and get seven guys out of bed. Once they were up and ready they'd get into a four-wheel-drive truck and go to the rig. Over there they'd swap over with another crew, who would drive back to camp. I'd have made all their beds and cleaned the cabins.
"The new guys would shower, have a meal and go to bed. In 10 hours they'd go out again and I'd go back into the cabins, clean them out and make the beds.
"I'd do their laundry every day. Every Tuesday was linen change. In the morning we'd supply food to them on the rig - this would be cold drinks, wraps, sandwiches and pies."
Drummond said he found that the people in the higher positions tended to be New Zealanders.
Safety officers would visit the camp regularly. Workers were given clothing, heat, food, recreation facilities and more.
"We got everything. We didn't pay for anything. We even ordered what we wanted for dinner and it was transported to the camp."
All in all Drummond said working at the camp was a good experience. He said he worked three weeks and was at home for two. "I made very good money."
One pay cheque shows that in a three-week period, with various allowances, he made more than $6000.
Armstrong, now 34, said diamond drilling was an extremely unpleasant job. "Depending on the type and hardness of the ground, you can drill between zero and 100m of core per 12-hour shift."
He says the first job you were likely to get was as an offsider - a manual labourer at a drill rig.
"Tasks included the carting around 3 or 6m steel rods - rod pulls. When you have to remove all the length of steel rods in the ground if a drill bit is blunt or damaged or when you have finished drilling a hole, these can take up to six to eight hours sometimes in over 40C heat.
"It is hard physical labour; cleaning core samples, general upkeep of the drill rig (cleaning, servicing, replacing oil filters etc) and anything else the driller wants you to do."
If you showed aptitude as an offsider you could, in time, become a driller. "A driller is responsible for the drill rig, the offsiders, all equipment including the three or so trucks and land cruiser and, of course, the actual drilling. Drillers earn 75 per cent of their money based on the number of metres drilled in a shift so, as an offsider, it is normal to be shouted at, sworn at, abused, forced to dodge thrown tools etc in the driller's attempt to maximise the meterage and hence his pay packet.
"A driller also must double up as a diesel mechanic especially if you are out bush because if the rig breaks down you need to get it started again, anything from replacing water pumps to complete engine overhauls."
Armstrong says he was fortunate. "My own experience was lucky. I was appointed to an extremely lenient driller. After the normal drugs tests [you must produce a negative test before a company will employ you and then be subject to random tests both by your own drilling company and also the mining company you are contracted out to], I endured my first shift as an offsider. A drill rig normally runs 24 hours a day with 6-6 being the normal shift [day or night].
"My driller eventually taught me to drill and after about nine months I was fast-tracked into becoming a driller and given my own rig."
Armstrong said you may be either based in town and travel to a drill site up to 1 hours each way - you are paid for one-way travel so you can have up to a 14-hour day - or be sent out bush, which can be eight hours' drive to the nearest town.
"There you will either be put up in a mining camp - prefab buildings where you get your own room, a dining facility and a bar - or if you are exploration drilling you may be in a caravan in the middle of the desert."
When he was an offsider he was out bush so spent nothing except on a carton or two of beer a week, and was earning about A$800 ($936.5) a week after tax and as a driller around A$1600 a week after tax.
"I have spoken to friends who have recently worked out in the mines and you can expect at least 50 per cent more these days.
"I would recommend the mines to anyone who is at a bit of a loose end in terms of what to do next."
