Day 62 – Brockman Mine
Thursday, July 26, 2012 at 08:27AM Hey everyone. Well guess where we still are? Yes…. Good old Tom Price! Oh well just one week to go so we will not complain, it has been a good part of our trip. Tomorrow we will head over to Karijini and check out the scenery.
Today I went out to Brockman 2 & Brockman 4 minesites. Now seeing as some of you don’t know much about the industry here are some interesting facts about these sites.
Brockman 4 mine was commissioned in 2010 to expand Rio’s iron ore export plans. It has the capacity to produce 22 million tonnes per annum of iron ore. But before they could produce this they needed the infrastructure to get it to the port (Pt Hedland) so it cost Rio Tinto $1.52 Billion to get it to the stage where it can get the ore out of the ground. When you think about it this is like gambling… you have to put up $1.52 Billion just to get the benefits down the track? But I’m sure they know what they are doing.
The mine currently employs 650 people, and about 450 contractors so at any one time there are 800 people on site!
They work on a fly in fly out roster, and you can usually choose a roster that suits your lifestyle. Some Perth based employees work a 5&2…so basically they fly up Monday morning & fly home Friday night. Some do a 9 & 5 (9 days on, 5 days off) some do a 2 & 1 (2 weeks on and 1 week off) and some do a 1 & 1 (one week on & 1 week off) and some people even do a 3 & 1 (3 weeks on and one week off). But you have to keep in mind that they work 12 hour days, so the people that do 5 days straight are working 60 hours per week. This is why they get paid so much, it is long days & nights.
Everything is supplied on site, in previous blogs we have explained how the mess works, they usually have a choice of 3-5 hot meals & plenty of salad and fruit. Their rooms are cleaned weekly, all their work clothes are supplied along with protective clothing & footwear. Trades people are even given generous tool allowances!
So there you have it, for some people a dream job, lots of money with very little cost to the employee…. But long hours and isolation from family and friends are not for everyone.
Reader’s comments
Norm messaged from England, Hello Norm…. Did you get me a water bottle thrown from Cadels bike? And I would never compare your caravan to ours! I mean I would never attempt Pauls Lane with our caravan!..... You did!!!
Liz announced that Danni & Greg are engaged…. Congratulations… Liz I definitely want to meet Greg, I want to meet anyone that has a BMW M3!!! And she says I give my brother in law Brad A a hard time. Bad luck Liz….He deserves it!
Mel said she is going to Christmas in July tonight…. I can almost smell the Christmas pudding! I am not a desert person….. but gee I love Christmas pudding & cream!
Heather (my sister) insinuated that me & her husband were having a Bromance! The only reason that me & Brad are close is that we both know how difficult she can be, and I sympathise with him having to live with her! (Told you not to start Heather!)
And Celeste returned to the blog, welcome back Celeste….. Hope you are up to date with all that has happened….. and thanks for “Ride like the wind” that has been in my head for the last month or so!
Annie’s Blog
I heard from my friends Edward, Ashwin & Elise today, Yay…. I was almost going silly! All I see are OLD people, even older than my Mum and Dad, so it was so good to hear from you. I miss all of my friends and I can’t wait to see you all again. Ashwin great to hear you have got some tooths, once you get some more you can start crunching them together like me & Edward & Jack. You can be part of our band the Crunching Teeth. Oh and it makes eating so much better, I have been eating carrots & beans & mum even cooked a sausage for me….It was yummy as. Ashwin, Annie has pretty much started eating most things her Mum & Dad have but sometimes a little mushed up. Although she is getting a bit stubborn now and likes to feed herself so she gets lots of Banana, apple & pear pieces to eat and loves chewing on Mum or Dad’s left over meat bones…having 6 teeth does help with this.
Edward told me that he thinks I would look funny if I wasn't red, what are you trying to say Edward. Is this where I need to start to get used to red head jokes? I'd love to see a picture of Jack's piggy. Oh and my Dad says to tell your Mum, 'Very funny!'
Tomorrow we are going to the Jini place, it better be fun or I’ll be grumpy with Dad, he told me & Mum we would love it! Elise I will try and get Mum to take some flower photos for us.
Ok I better sleep….. I need to be strong for tomorrow.
Big hugs from the box on wheels
AnnieInAVan….XXXX
Reader Comments (3)
Hi everyone
I showed Natsumi your photos last night and she was blown away by wave rock, she also said that you were very beautiful - of course she was only talking about Ness and Annie!
Sydni mentioned(very proudly) that you had won a silver medal in the Japan olympics and between Brad having his photo in the paper this week and James winning a medal, she believes that we are all famous Australians lol
I will never take coles and food shopping for granted again, the look on her face when I gave her a shopping basket and told her to choose anything was priceless and I now have a love of sushi,wasabi and pickled ginger.
to top the night off Sydni (the picky eater) ate more sushi than anyone and even loved the orange fish eggs on the tofu sushi (dont ever tell her they were fish eggs or tofu for that matter (she thinks it was chicken)
As for your barb that I am hard to live with Brother, I will refrain from writing a comeback for the simple reason that I dont think Ness and Annie should witness you crying like a baby running off sooking to your mama (like you did when we were kids) Mama's boy!!!!!!!!!l lol
have a great weekend
xxxxxx kisses for Ness and Annie
James, you can kiss my #SS love ya
Just a comment about a previous post......you - as many other Australians - appear to glaze over the difficult side of Australia's history, preferring to say the Aboriginal people of the Pilbara region simply 'disappeared'. I'm sorry brother dear, but unless your definition of 'disappeared' means forced off their ancestral homelands which became large cattle and/or sheep stations, starved of their traditional hunting grounds, rounded up, massacred, poisoned, arrested, shipped off to reserves and children's homes, or forced to work as either farmhands or domestic servants for little or no pay (rations), then you are mistaken. Visit the local library or lands council in the nearest town, and I'm sure you will 'discover' the true history of the region. Also your reference to this region being 'discovered' by a white pioneer - what? Was it really discovered? Man always knew that the moon existed, but did Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin 'discover' it, seeing as they were the first white men setting foot in the place?
I have no doubts that you don't believe the Aboriginal people of the Pilbara 'disappeared' of their own accord, but it's about time we acknowledged the true history of Australia - warts and all. It is only through acknowledging the mistakes of the past that we can begin to move in the right direction and ensure that this does not happen again - to any cultural group.
Your blog is beginning to wear rose-coloured glasses - thought I'd help you spice it up a bit.
James I LOVE your feisty sisters and their comments!!! I think growing up in your house would have been very entertaining!!!