Last week, I was also on-site in kwinana, and I got to encounter first hand the conditions that some of the guys (mainly the tradies - not really the engineers etc) work under. There was so much dust, so much noise, and strange chemical smells at the site I was at .. and to think that the guys out there permanently work a 12 hour shift in those conditions... meanwhile, i was only there to look around and I probably got a total of 2 hours under those conditions, but I can honestly say that it was so much nicer to be back in the office. I got dirty and smelly, but I loved being out on site !

I also spent my weekend in Kalgoorlie predominantly for work purposes, but honestly, I didnt do any work at all. I flew in on the saturday and spent my day with Quan (who lives in Kalgoorlie) and explored the town. We went to the KCGM Superpit, and the Little Boulder Sweet Shop and the Australian Prospectors / Hall of Fame... and ermm.. that's about it. Kalgoorlie is a tiny little town (compared to Perth), and is very very red and kinda ugly :S I suppose the real estate people might say that it's "full of character".. but umm, it's just a bit old looking. We managed to look around the whole town in a few hours , and I noticed that very little things stayed open on the weekends (except for the bars/pubs).

[ The SuperPit - essentially a very big hole in the ground ]

But to the "serious" side of it - I was actually out there for the Mines Rescue (surface) competition, but I wasn't competing or organizing it , so it was really just a gallery watching exercise. And once again, I loved every bit of it. The competition was done really well , with about 16 teams out competing under a range of emergency scenarios. Rather than bore you with too much text, I think i might just illustrate it :

[ Confined Spaces / HazChem scenario - I *think* this is Minara Resources]

[ Fire Fighting Scenario - LionOre's team competing]