A Trip Like No Other

Power lines at the back of my donga

Today was the day. A day full of first's. Today I was traveling to a new place,the begining of my new job, a job quite different to anything else I had experienced.....

12:35 was the scheduled time, I climbed aboard a Qantas 737-800, left my somewhat misty eyed wife waving from the Airport windows and settled in for a 2.5hr commute to Mt Isa to start my first shift as an Auto Electrician at George Fisher Mine.

Firstly, let me say, as someone who normally couldn't afford to pay the overpriced ticket to fly the Qantas "experience", I was thoroughly impressed with what was on offer. Sure, the Flight Attendants (is that the PC term? I can't recall) weren't anything to write home about (yet here I am...) but the inflight entertainment system has vastly improved since the says of a 13cm colour tv that always seemed to be either 10 rows in front or directly above you, so you never knew what was actually playing and couldn't match the audio selection up to it.

Touchscreen goodness sucked me straight in, to far really, after furiously tapping the screen multiple times to get it register my inputs, I was shown quite an array of shows, music and games for my entertainment.It even had a USB slot for putting a flashdrive into and watching your own media! Also impressively, the movies where up to date and offered a half decent selection, I was tempted to watch one but seeing I had packed most of them on my flash drive to keep me company, I didn't want to spoil it. So I settled with Mega Factories - Lego (you must watch this, amazing), followed by Mr Bean, then Jimoen on Ice. Great entertainment, and before I knew it, we where landing.

The first thing that hit me was the heat, it deceived me initially, standing near the aircraft as I was walking towards the terminal I believed I was near an exhaust vent, but I soon came to realize, no, thats just the temperature. Trust me, an exhaust vent may be cooler. The terminal reminded me very much of Norfolk Island, bags on trailers waiting to leave (fans blowing over them to keep them cool, thought that was weird) open terminal with a carousel feed directly from the back, no fancy systems here.

Handlebar Hill Barracks

Finally my bag appeared, and then I started looking for anything to point me in the right direction as to where I was meant to be. Eventually I found Kathy, and from there meet Paul and Matty, both first timers as well come to Isa for the serenity (or the cash, who could tell at this point). We boarded a bus and drove to what is to be my new home, 20mins north of Mt Isa, home of the cheapest beer in Queensland ($2 XXXX Gold's), Handlebar Hill Barracks.

What can I say, I had some idea what to expect, but it was still strange and wonderful at the same time. Rows upon rows of demountable's, housing hundreds of people who in succession keep the mine running 24hrs a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year. There is no such thing as down time, it just keeps running.

This is now my home away from home. This tour I am in T268, that's T Block, Room 268. It's alright, clean, the aircon works well, has a TV and DVD player.

Rows and rows of dongas

So, here are a few things I have learnt so far in Isa.

• First, it's hot, dry hot, but hot none the less. 37 today, they reckon it averages 43-45 up here.
• The cold water is hotter than the hot water.
• The food is pretty damn good. Kinda like Sizzler, trays of different food, hot, cold, dessert's, drinks. Can't complain really.
• Telstra's service is pretty bad, Vodafone's is none existent, Optus is the best. Now I need an Optus sim card.
• So far people seem friendly, haven't seen anyone with a hardhat and a light on it, nor any canaries, but nice.

So, day one is starting to wrap up, tomorrow brings a 6:30 start and 12 hours of inductions, Tuesday is the same, and Wednesday, and Thursday, and Im sure you can see where this is going. Time to watch some Imparja (more Norfolk references) and leave you with a few pictures.