Briefly escaping the intra-state WA travel restrictions

[JohnM]

An interesting job. Does he work out there ‘all year‘, and on his own normally?

Sorry, I just realised that I did not answer this.

He, and his three workers, basically work like FIFOs. Generally it’s something like three weeks on, two off but it can vary. And its dawn to dusk every day. Unlike conventional mining FIFOs, he’s flexible in timing but he needs to deliver on his contract and ensure a full load before calling In the transport contractor with his big semi from Perth.

He’s currently on a break after a bit of stress last week with a breakdown of The Beast and just hitting his year-end contract on his scheduled last day - that he had promised his partner to be finished by and be back in Perth and a few days’ break in Margaret River. A close-run thing!

The week before last he was on the satphone to me at night and then I was immediately on the phone to the Cat dealer In Perth (24 h parts service) to order some parts and get them on the overnight express truck to Kalgoorlie. Then he had a 250 km round-trip to collect them.

Any rain over I think about 5 mm can cause suspension of operations. The fine clay soil turns sticky very quickly. The rare heavy falls can shut them down for a while and the shire council will close roads under those circumstances to avoid them being chopped to pieces.

Some, maybe most, of the contractors avoid the peak of summer heat but he has been working all year as he’s been breaking into the industry and establishing his business. The upside of summer is the long days to get a lot done; conversely for winter and the nights are very cold in mid winter under the clear skies. The best times are autumn and spring for the weather/daylength balance.