Lady Annie camp, Australia
February and March, 2005
Christmas tree, Lady Annie style
Before I went on my RTW I spent two stints working up at Lady Annie mining camp, 200km from Mt Isa. Here are my favourite memories:
The early bird catches the worm
Or rather, runs the drill rig. But anyway. What I’m trying to say is that this was the first time in my life I woke up early enough to see the sunrise on a regular basis. We were up most mornings at 5.30am, gulping down a quick breakfast and cradling a cup of coffee lovingly as the bush came to life around us.
Worth waking up to
Getting back to basics
There’s not much you need living in an exploration camp. We had a donga (sounds kind of rude, I know), which is essentially a shed divided into tiny rooms, thankfully with air conditioning and most importantly, a fridge. This is where you store your supply of XXXX Gold, the chosen beer of the region. I was reminded that you can be pretty happy living with few things. I also found that fourX beer boxes make for great laundry baskets.
Home sweet home
Getting ridiculously dirty every day
Okay, I know it’s weird. But I really like to get completely covered in dirt. It makes you feel like you’ve had a hard day of work. Logging diamond drill core (not with diamonds in… the drill bit has industrial grade diamonds on it) I always managed to get smeared with clay of several different colours. But dirtiest of all was the RC rig (reverse circulation), where on occasion they would hit the water table. The drillers though its was funny (and me too to be honest) not to let me know when they had drilled through to it. I would stand beneath, waiting for the rock chips to fall out into my outstretched sample bag when suddenly a gush of muddy water would pour out of the machine. But it’s all good. You know you’ve made friends with the drillers if they are throwing mud at you.
Just slightly dirty
The wet season is actually pretty wet
When it rained in Lady Annie, man did it rain. On the horizon, ominous, dark clouds would appear, thundering their way towards the drill rig. This was abandon ship time. You certainly don’t want to be standing next to the huge, metallic lightning rod that is the rig in the middle of the perfect storm. It would be a dash for the cars and the higher ground of the camp as roads rapidly turned to rivers.
A storm brewing
It's actually quite rainy
Le Club and the camel jockey
One of the most best things about working in an exploration camp was when beer o’clock swung around. We would all gather outside Ray’s donga, Le Club, resplendent with fairy lights, and crack open the first beer of the night. The music was loud and mostly ACDC (although Jas, one of the guys there had a penchant for Las Ketchup which he would play on repeat for hours). And there was Ray, who in a previous incarnation had been a camel jockey, but now devoted his life to working harder than anyone during the day and partying the hardest at night. Ray is one of the best people I have met, big-hearted, hard-working and not afraid to have a little fun. And boy did we.
Hanging out at Le Club
Watch out for part II. It should be up next Friday since my hostel in Singapore apparently has free wireless.
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