Flying Miners (2014–…): Season 1, Episode 2 - Boom or Bust - full transcript
NARRATOR: 100,000 workers
currently hold a unique place
in Australia's mining industry
I love doing this.
The bigger, the better.
NARRATOR: They commute
tens of thousands of kilometres a year
and they're called 'FIFOs' -
fly-in fly-out miners.
- Another day in paradise, eh?
- Couldn't be happier.
This series examines a world
few people get to see,
with unprecedented access
to mines all over Australia.
Welcome to my office!
I guess you don't come out here
for the nightlife. (Chuckles)
Last week, we met the bosses
under pressure in the boardroom...
it is possible that
we could spend a million dollars
and it being an absolute failure.
...to the FIFOs doing it tough
in the pit
- Hey, buddy.
- Hello!
Yeah, it sucks, to tell you the truth.
SHANA: Yes, I pretty much
think about money all the time.
It's all about the money.
Tonight we look at
the highs and lows of the industry...
Fly-in fly-out,
it does nothing for the community.
...and the uncertainty
of the mining game...
You take what you can get.
...with millions of dollars
and thousands of jobs at stake.
We just need more people in town.
For some, mining has filled
their pockets with riches.
This is by far the biggest boom
that we've ever had.
For others,
they're only filled with regret.
It'd be close to $700,000 that we lost.
A downturn could change
our miners' lives forever.
You've just got to readjust.
It'd be tough, be tough for anyone.
Is the mining boom now over?
The extraordinary levels of growth
we have just can't continue forever.
Is bust around the corner?
There wasn't anything else
we could do to turn it around.
It's a fickle life.
It's a FIFO life.
- Yeah, just time to come home, I think.
- Daddy!
MAN: When I look at the mining industry,
it's provided an enormous gift
to the Australian people.
Its contribution has been huge.
FIONA HASLAM McKENZIE:
What an amazing
pressure-packed period it's been.
PAUL CLEARY: We just need to take
a longer-term approach as a nation
instead of really getting
caught up in a stampede.
TREVOR SYKES: Japan and Korea
are still very big customers.
The UK and Europe
are not inconsiderable either,
but certainly China
has been the cream on the cake.
Once upon a time,
we used to say when America sneezed,
Australia caught a cold -
now it's China.
China is worth over $60 billion
each year to our economy.
And with 320 million people
expected to move to China's cities
in the next 20 years -
more than the entire population
of the United States -
the big bucks could keep rolling in.
The growth has slowed a bit
and even if it's 7% at the moment,
that means they're doubling
every ten years.
Every other Western nation would kill
to have a growth rate half that size.
But mining is a cyclical business.
The good times can't last forever.
PAUL CLEARY:
It's a get-rich-quick mentality.
These are non-renewable resources
and they're going to be gone one day
and they'll actually be gone sooner
than what a lot of people think.
So what does this all mean
for FIFOs like goldminer Brad Hamence?
He's a devoted family man
working thousands of kays from home.
He's puffing his wife through uni
and securing a good future for his kids.
So the pressures on
to make a success of his FIFO life.
BRAD: I'm Brad Hamence.
I work in WA in a goldmine.
I've been mining
for about five years now.
Fellas.
I normally get on that bus, but I'll
be on this bus with the rowdy folk.
BRAD: The job itself is not too bad.
When we first started,
you'd see little bands of things,
you thought, 'Ooh, is that gold?'
BRAD: It's like any job.
It has its days. It has its moments.
I've found a few rocks and I've
shown the geos and I've thought,
'Yep, that's definitely
got some gold in it,' and nup.
BRAD: It's tough
being away from home,
but that's just what needs to be done
to get in front.
Just to find something and go,
'Wow, I actually found something.'
Gaz, how are we?
BRAD: Hopefully I am not still doing it
when I'm 40 or 50.
(Device bleeps)
Hopefully I've set things up right
and planned.
You've got to try and plan
your future out a little bit,
or else you will be here
when I'm 40 and 50.
I might do 12 months or so,
or 2 years.
After the wife has finished uni.
You know, just to really get set up
and be back on a really good wage
with two incomes
and then be home after that.
- Did you pack your own bags today?
- Yeah, mate, yep.
NARRATOR:
And home is Mildura, Victoria -
a day's travel and 4,000 kays away.
Do you want your shoes off? OK.
BRAD: Working away,
catching up with friends,
even family members
but friends as well, is very hard.
For me, with such a young family,
the week that I'm home
I just want to spend as much time
as I can with Sarah and the kids.
- You been a good boy for Mum this week?
- Yep.
SARAH: We've got a strategy.
We're doing it
so I can do what I want to do
so he can come home
and do what he wants to do.
(Jasper laughs)
SARAH: So I'm second year.
So it's a three-year course.
Not even 18 months to go now.
BRAD: Ten years down the track,
hopefully I'm home
and back to a normal routine.
SARAH: For me, it's, you know,
our family being together
and maybe expanding.
He's got to be home
for me to have more children.
I did it.
- Won't even go there with us.
- (Laughs)
SARAH: But everybody's plans change.
It doesn't matter what job you're in.
If your plans don't change,
life hasn't happened to you.
We certainly advocate having clear
financial goals while you are in FIFO
and being aware that the more you earn
the more you will spend,
so be careful on what you're spending
and where it's going,
'cause if something happens
and you have to leave your FIFO job
or if you're made redundant
or, you know, you want a change,
you've then got to
adjust back to a lower income.
I'm astounded by the amount
of prospector interest around here.
The last time we saw Brad's boss,
Silver Lake company director
Chris Banasik,
he was puffing millions of dollars
on the line.
...a ton of readings through here.
There's definitely something there.
CHRIS: I think it's really important
that we try and get up there.
Remap some of these areas.
Be sure that we've got a handle
on the rocks.
He's looking for
a new gold site to mine.
CHRIS: Mining, it's not just
a technical pursuit.
How are you going, mate? Good?
CHRIS: You can't dial it in
and expect to be remote from it.
You've got to get out there.
NARRATOR: But in a fickle market,
looking too far ahead is a big gamble.
REPORTER: Gold is back in vogue.
The big fall in the price of gold...
The gold price is continuing
to hit all-time highs...
REPORTER: Gold took its biggest fall
in three decades last week
and forced companies
to tighten their belts.
CHRIS: There is very much a direct link
between the commodity price
and the sorts of things you can do.
Should we make the decision to mine,
this will be an open pit.
Just going in to see Dave Price,
our chief geologist at the site.
Have you caught up with
what's been going on?
I have, indeed.
CHRIS: It's difficult
to make the decision
to put projects into the go mode
at a time when the gold price
is going to get lower,
but we've invested a lot of money.
We've invested
six years' worth of exploration.
But, yeah, it looks like they did
a really good job on the goodbye cuts.
It's all come away really clean.
Months and months of environmental
surveys, consultants' hours,
time spent with local Indigenous groups
and pastoralists.
And the same
with the watering gauze as well.
They're ready to go
when we want them to happen.
Yeah, righto.
None of this is a foregone conclusion
in any way, shape or form
but you've still got to
do the preparatory work
to make those decisions right.
CHRIS: You're always taking
some form of risk.
You look at the risk, you evaluate it
and you say, 'Is it worth it?
Is the risk versus reward worth it?'
It's a fairly unsettling time
in the industry.
Nickel and gold aren't very special
from a price perspective,
so there's a lot going on.
People are concerned.
'Jeez, Bano, am I going to
be working tomorrow?
What's the gold price going to be?'
All those issues.
When things are good, you've got to be
careful that you build up your coffers
because one thing's for sure
in the mining industry -
it's going to turn.
The upside to that
is that when it's bad,
you know it's going to turn as well.
When it's bad, you've just got to
cut back as much as you can
and just hang on.
Also working at Silver Lake's Murchison
Mine is goldminer Andrew Carstairs,
who's just starting his night shift.
When you've been doing it
for as long as I have,
late at night,
you see faces in the din.
Like, 'Is that Elvis?'
My name's Andrew Carstairs.
I've been mining for approximately ten
years and I'm a mobile plant operator.
Just, yeah, operating
different bits of machinery and stuff.
It's good. Enjoy it.
The mobile office, I call it.
You're in it for that long.
It's a Komatsu.
It's the latest one out, I dare say.
It's got all the mod cons and stuff,
so you look after it
and it looks after you.
You've got a button here.
The thing digs by itself, for example.
Auto dig. You know, I mean, what's next?
Christ, it won't even have a seat
and it'll be doing it by themselves.
I was here
when this place first started.
I watched them
build this place from scratch.
I've been here, oh, jeez,
it'd be close to 18 months now.
You know, in mining sometimes
that's a long time.
You know, a lot of people come and go.
Especially in the uncertainty, you know,
we don't know if we're,
just at the moment...
...everything's son of up in the air.
Mining, gold prices are down
and so you take what you can get.
I've actually got an opportunity
hopefully with another big company
closer to home, so fingers crossed.
It's a normal son of job,
I like to call it.
There's no fly-in fly-out.
Home every night.
See the wife, the kids.
No, that's something
I'm looking forward to
because I've missed out on it
for so long, you know.
I've got to get it yet.
I mean, I've passed a couple of stages,
so I think one more to go
and I should hopefully find out soon.
It's a time of uncertainty
that's familiar to Andrew,
having separated from his first wife
after ten years of marriage.
I got the opportunity.
It was like, 'Mining, yeah!'
And we both thought, 'Oh, you know,
we'll make heaps of money.
We'll do this. We'll do that.'
And, yeah, I just guess overtime
we just son of...
we son of grew apart, you know?
She son of got used to me
not being there,
and I son of, you know, came home
and son of just wanted to, you know,
see the boys and have a good time.
And I son of look back now
and think, 'I had a lot to do with it.'
I'm very clear in saying that FIFO is
not the cause of marriage breakdown
or family break-ups, but if you have
trust issues in your relationship,
if you're not communicating properly,
that's when you'll see
the cracks appear.
So it's not the cause,
but if you've got those underlying
issues, it's like turning the volume up.
It amplifies it.
But I've got a second chance now
and a small family
and I look at things different
and it's... and that's why I think
hopefully getting up to Gove,
you know, where my partner's working
is, yeah, like, the home every night
thing, we'll see how that goes.
She'll probably get sick of me
after the first two or three weeks
and she'll go, 'Why don't you bugger
off and go fly-in fly-out again?'
So, nah, it'll be good.
It'll be good to see how it works.
Most people in mining
that I've come across are doers.
It's about having an optimistic view.
Even when things look lost
and even when times are tough,
most people who have
been in mining for a long time
will say to you,
'Oh, well, we always have tough times,
but it'll get better and I'm going to
hang on until things get better.'
While the price of gold
might be up and down,
68-year-old copper miner Rob Dolan
is hoping his job is set in stone.
ROB: I've been working as fly-in fly-out
for 13.5 years.
I've always been pretty active
and worked.
I was born in Atherton, on the Atherton
Tableland, but I was reared in Cairns.
I was always interested in sport
in one way or the other.
Most mornings I wake up about quarter
to four and go for a swim in the pool.
They've got a lovely pool out there.
And I'll get on me bike, ride to work.
It's about 4.5 kays.
NARRATOR: Fitter than men half his age,
this is how Rob has started his day
for the last 13 years.
ROB: I was always interested in boxing
when I was younger.
I used to be a bit of a wild kid,
I suppose.
I always seemed to be
getting into fights and stuff.
I've got a good lead
on the rest of the pack, I think.
Lance Armstrong, eat your heart out.
ROB: I had about 50 amateur fights.
Ended up winning
the Queensland Golden Gloves.
I've never been on the dole,
never, ever got the sack from a job.
Another day in paradise, eh?
Always left on me own terms
or got made redundant or shifted
because of, you know,
like, going to a better job.
NARRATOR: Officially he's
a Fixed Plant Trades Assistant,
but Rob's got another name for it.
I just call myself a general
shitkicker. Pretty interesting.
You're doing something different
every day just about.
All those sort of little jobs
that need doing.
ROB: Mining is a very up and down game.
You know, like, it all depends
on the price of the commodities
that you're producing.
Yeah, I got to check the...
dip the fuel tanks.
ROB: One day they could
be worth a lot of money
and overnight they could just drop.
A lot of mines could shut down
in a short time.
So if you went in to debt too much,
like well over your head,
you could end up losing everything,
you know.
That's me first job of the day
out of the road.
I'm 68 now so I could've
got the pension three years ago,
but I don't feel like retiring yet.
NARRATOR: But there's one big reason
why Rob is not retiring any time soon.
ROB: Oh, it's a long story.
I was in a... caught up with a mob
called Storm Financial.
They went bust
and give us a lot of bad advice.
You think you're doing the right thing,
but, as it turned out,
everything went down the drain.
So... just keep working.
Get back on track again, you know.
NARRATOR: While Rob is using
the boom to bolster his super,
there are two miners over
at Silver Lake's Murchison goldmine
who have travelled many a mile
to cash in on Australia's mining wealth.
We are from a small, little town
close to Cape Town
about an hour and a half drive.
Yeah, a small farming community.
I would love to go and farm,
but the money isn't that good.
Take some fruit.
Nah. Do you want the ice-cream?
MERWE: Wanted to come to Australia
so badly. Australia or Canada.
It was very hard to come in, yeah,
but eventually we got a sponsorship
through Silver Lake Resources,
on a 457 and, yeah, now we're here.
NARRATOR:
Merwe is a qualified geologist,
which means he spends hours on site,
keeping an eye
on what comes out of the ground.
MERWE: We're busy digging out the ore.
We've done a 3-D model,
and that model is sent to survey,
and then they come and they just
mark up where the ore boundaries is
and the digger basically
stays inside that mark-up.
I studied geology.
Well, I can't believe I studied
four years to count trucks.
Like, you can give that to a monkey.
You just... have to make a tick.
As soon as this truck drives away,
I'll just have a quick look.
Can we just have a quick look again?
MAN, ON RADIO: Yeah, mate, come in.
Nah, it's all good. Spot on.
While Merwe's flying out in the pit,
Zani's shying away from the 40-degree
heat in her role as a lab tech.
If somebody told me two years ago
that I'm going to be working in a lab
on a mine site
I would have probably just laughed
'cause I hated science
and chemical things at school
and I actually studied tourism.
I basically got the job
to be with my husband,
so I don't have to be alone in Perth.
But I quite like it.
We are going to do a survey
on the pebble crusher.
Get a lot of exercise, which is a bonus.
There's a wide variety.
It's not like I'm doing
all day the same thing.
Each day I learn something else.
We're doing new things every week.
So now, as you can see, each
sieve has its own... the right size,
and we just weigh it
and note everything, write it down.
Meanwhile,
on the other side of the site,
Merwe's taking a well-earned break.
It's been a hard day, dusty, it's hot.
We're just going to
cool down a bit over lunchtime
and then we're ready
for the next half-a-day shift.
And so we're just going to
one of the open pits,
which they aren't mining at the moment,
and it is far away
from all the mining operations.
We're just going to have a quick swim.
See you guys later.
MERWE: Now this is the life of a geo!
Merwe and Zani have setup home just
down the road from the Murchison Mine,
in the former goldmining town of Cue,
a place where the boom left long ago.
ZANI: We've got four bedrooms.
It's a little bit embarrassing
but there's all of our clothes
that has been washed and not folded.
This is our kitchen
and our little dining area.
But, yeah, we don't use it that much.
It's not always easy living in Cue,
and it's very small.
- There's a pub.
- There's just a pub in Cue, one pub.
And one small shop
where you can't really find anything
and everything is so expensive
that you feel so bad buying it
because it's like
five times the price it is in Perth.
When we first came in here in 1956,
there was 13 on the staff.
There was 13 people on the staff here.
You had my father in the office,
plus an accountant,
plus a lady that used to run the till.
She used to sit up there on that till.
That till there was up there.
And all these runners
used to come in to her.
We get our food in the mornings
for lunch and everything in the camp,
so, lucky for me, I don't have to cook.
Lucky for me as well
that she doesn't have to cook.
Oh, I'm not a bad cook.
But if you're cooking in Cue,
it's different from
when you're any other place
because there's
only three types of vegetables.
ROSS: The town is quiet.
I mean, there would only be,
what, 350, 400 people here, I suppose.
That would include the miners
and everything.
Put your money and everything
in there and your docket
and just put that in there
and pull this down
like a giant shanghai
and then it would just go bang,
all the way across,
and then she'd change it
and come back again.
WOMAN: The town's quiet at the moment.
We've got the Silver Lake goldmine
happening out of town, which is great,
but because it's all fly-in fly-out,
a lot of people don't move to town.
If they didn't fly-in fly-out,
some of those families would
actually move to town, it would be good.
There'd be more kids at the school,
more infrastructure and stuff happening
and maybe some of the shops
that are empty could open.
We just need more people in town.
ROSS: The town's just...
I don't think it'll ever die.
I've just got that feeling it won't die.
I mean, you've got mining companies
coming up here and spending money
and, no, I don't think
they like wasting money.
But... so there's still more to come.
Unlike Cue, which is holding on
for a return to glories of the past,
Karratha is very much mining's future.
Located in the
resources-rich heart of the Pilbara,
it's grown into a hub of FIFO activity
Just ask local publican Kim Loxton.
- What are you gonna have?
- Oh, dunno...
Are you blokes right?
This is by far the biggest boom
that we've ever had.
There's been a massive
amount of development here
over the last 13-14 years and to the
extent that the town's doubled in size.
But back in the '90s,
Karratha just wasn't ready for the boom.
There wasn't a workforce
up here big enough,
a local workforce here big enough.
The infrastructure wasn't here to
accommodate a permanent workforce.
Karratha didn't have enough housing
in the '90s and the early 2000s
because everyone was negative
and there was hardly a house built.
When there was an upsurge
in economic activity
and you had contractors coming in
outside of the FIFOs
that were working
for Woodside and Rio Tinto
and they were having to lease houses,
and there weren't enough houses
to go around,
where rentals went from 800 a week to
2000 a week in the space of 18 months.
I think what's happened in this last
major resource boom, in particular,
is that things happened so quickly
and at such a scale that, in many
cases, we've been swamped, overwhelmed.
So many more people are engaged
in, you know, fly-in fly-out.
Either government or communities
have not been ready for that.
I think if we look back at history,
we should've seen the signs
that FIFO was going to be here
for a long time
and we could have planned for it
in a far more cohesive manner.
And where towns
are moving in that direction,
the changes are quite significant,
so the better that is planned, organised
and delivered,
the better off the community will be and
the better off the FIFO worker will be.
Karratha is now home to 20,000 locals
and plenty of FIFOs,
but they don't sit easily side by side.
Locals don't like FIFOs.
It's quite simple.
They don't think they contribute
to the community,
and they think they're a riffraff
and their social skills
leave a lot to be desired.
The biggest negative is they don't
really become community-minded,
and that's fair enough because their
families are down in Perth or elsewhere,
Melbourne, Sydney, and they come up
for a specific reason, that's to work,
so they don't really commit to the town.
You blokes right for a drink?
The government really has to
get the infrastructure in place
to try and encourage the FIFOs
to shift their families up here
and become pan of the community.
Politicians are aware of the issues,
especially after former federal
independent MP Tony Windsor
chaired a committee that looked into
FIFOs' effects on regional communities.
Many communities are concerned about
the negative impacts on their towns
and feel that although they may be
the site of resource activity,
they are not the major beneficiary.
Since retiring from politics,
Tony's gone back to farming,
and his place
is right next to a coalmine
in north-western New South Wales.
I think the work practice of FIFO,
if it's extended or becomes the norm
for inland Australia,
will become the cancer of the bush.
It doesn't have to.
It can be pan of the mix.
He's not happy that even though
there are lots of towns around here,
mining companies
are building FIFO villages.
TONY: So we've actually transferred
a remote Australia work practice
into quite settled areas of Australia,
and the implications of those things,
both to the workers,
their families, their communities,
I don't think we fully understand
the long-term ramifications of that,
and I think the mining companies
because of the boom
have son of looked at, 'We've got to
get workers, skilled people,
get them in there now
and we'll worry about all this later.'
Among the 21 recommendations
in the report,
it called for more training
for locals to fill mining jobs,
but that's at odds
with the current practice.
Well, about 3km towards Tamworth
from here
there's a proposal for a major camp.
One would have to ask the question,
'Why would you need to do that when
you've got a city the size of Tamworth,
about 60,000 people - why couldn't
you train the people locally?'
But the work practice in Australia
at the moment is that every mining job,
long-term, will probably be taken
by someone who wants to
fly in and fly out if given the choice.
'Cause a lot of people
say 'I don't want to live there.
I want to live
on the North Shore of Sydney
and just go to work occasionally and get
my money from somewhere else.'
What about the people who do live there?
What about the people
who actually suffer the implications
of the cost structure
of the mining sector,
but get very little
of the benefit of that activity?
Here it is on a Saturday afternoon,
the main street of Port Hedland,
not a soul around other than us.
Some of the residents of Port Hedland
no doubt agree
with Tony Windsor's findings.
While 2,000 ships
use the port every year,
each carrying $20 million worth
of iron ore, the locals see none of it.
RAY: As far as I'm concerned,
fly-in fly-out,
it does nothing for the community,
as far as the town itself.
You know, you go to the airport
and you can hardly move sometimes
'cause there's that many people around,
but you never see their face
down the main street - never.
You know, they all go into the camps,
they go from the camp to work,
back to the airport, go home.
They don't put much back into the town.
In fact, they take their money
with them and go.
And I know one bloke was saying he's
been flying in and out for five years
and he says he wouldn't
have spent $50 in this town.
CHRIS: To operate a fly-in fly-out site
is significantly expensive.
10% of our cost is associated
with flying people in and out.
The reality, however, is that no-one
wants to live in a small town anymore.
FIONA: I think FIFO is going to be an
enduring work pattern for many sectors,
especially in the mining industry.
It's become embedded, especially
in Australia, for tax reasons,
remoteness, and we've got very small
communities and large cities.
So many people now are urban-based,
but we are also well educated.
We are inured with
the expectations of an urban lifestyle,
and inevitably the FIFO worker,
be they male or female,
will have a partner that is not easily
lured to a small, remote mining town.
ZANI: It makes it a lot easier for us
living up in Cue
because we've got each other.
It's not like we're alone. Because if I
would've been alone, I will be crazy.
But... it's very small. There's not
a lot of people our age that lives here.
Most of the people just fly in, fly out
and I don't really have girlfriends.
And then another thing -
there's honestly not much to do.
FIONA: I very much doubt
that communities
will be created by mining companies.
In fact, I know that they won't.
And the technological advances
are very rapid,
the resources are dug out
and shipped off very quickly
and it's incredibly expensive.
Out at Cue Airport,
Merwe's fellow goldminer
Andrew Carstairs
is just finishing his latest shift.
Well, there's another two weeks, boys.
But this week off could have huge
consequences on the rest of his life,
as he hopes for a new job
close to home.
ANDREW:
The job that I'm looking at getting,
they've got an even time roster,
you do two days' work,
you have a break in the middle
and then you go and do two nights,
and then you have four days off.
That's ideal.
That's, you know,
a six-months-a-year roster.
That's quality
and that's what everybody aims to get
and that's what I'm looking for.
And, yeah, I get to go home
and, you know, be a dad
and a family man, I guess.
I try and be pretty organised.
I make most of their lunches
before I go to bed,
so that I don't have to worry
about the morning.
If I don't, I'm late.
Hey, hey, he)'-
Being a FIFO wife, what you learn
is there's no point whingeing,
because there's no-one here to hear it,
so you just have to get on with it
and get things done.
Jess, she's great.
She has a full-time job.
It's quite a demanding job.
She'll do a day's work and then
she's a mother at the drop of a hat,
all the whilst I'm away,
and how she does it,
I'm not sure really, I mean, honestly.
It's as hard for Mum at home
as it is for Dad to be away.
I suppose it's the little things
that he misses out on.
Like Charlie had a birthday party
last week for one of his little mates,
and, you know, those things
he doesn't get to see.
We've lived together
for six months permanently
or thereabouts
since we've been together.
So it'll be a huge adjustment
if he is home every night...
...working out how he fits in
to the permanent family routine.
I'm looking forward to having him around
and building those friendships here
and relationships
with other families and couples
and, son of, you know, not feeling
like a single mum half the time
when you're out.
It's good. Yeah, looking forward to it.
So there's a hell of a lot
riding on Andrew getting this new job.
Just fill in all the highlighted areas.
- Easy done.
- Easy done.
Thank you, ma'am.
Today he's having the medical, but first
he has to get through the paperwork.
- Do I have to do all this?
WOMAN: Yes, you do.
Here we go.
'Have you ever had any mental issues?'
Ooh. No.
'Ever been to a psychologist?'
They should have a tick in here
where it says 'should go'.
Insomnia, no.
Other nervous problems.
Am I breastfeeding?
Oh.
Industrial lung disease.
Do you think I'd be sitting here
if I had half of these complaints?
What's an average drink?
'Cause some of my drinks
aren't very average.
Oh, that's them, that's not yellow.
Ooh, hey, we're finished.
- OK.
- Let's go.
Let's go.
An hour later, the testis done,
and Andrew's a free man.
- I think I'm an athlete.
- I'm sure you are.
Yep.
And it's all good. You can go.
Lovely. Thank you very much
for your time.
See you next time.
For now, it's back
to the airport for a flight home,
and a nervous wait for the results.
Over in Townsville, copper miner
Rob Dolan is also heading home.
The FIFO capital of Queensland,
Townsville,
is second only to Perth
as the biggest source of FIFO workers
in Australia's mining industry
And it's been home to Rob
and wife Erna for the last 20 years.
Just go home, have a couple of beers,
she'll have something cooked for me.
Sometimes it gets very lonely
by yourself.
I go to the airport and pick him up,
he gives me a call-
'I'm here, love, come and get me.'
Hello, love, I'm here.
Probably have a quiet night tonight,
but on the weekend we've got
some grandchildren coming up.
There's a big bull ride on,
international bull ride.
So we'll have riders from
all over the world probably here.
Erna's going to
look after five grandchildren.
She son of gets stuck with
the grandchildren all the time,
but she thinks
that's part of being a nanna.
But they love her and she loves them, so
they'll have a good time together too.
There's my lovely wife. There she is.
Hey, Pixie.
Did you come for a ride too?
Did you come for a ride too, did you?
Hey?
Give us a kiss.
ROB: With the fly-in and fly-out,
if you've got the right woman,
it works out really good.
Of course you've got to have
a good woman at home, haven't you?
But you've got to have a good man
to bring home the bacon, haven't ya?
ROB: The right woman I think is one
who's pretty independent herself.
I was lucky.
I think I got the right one.
Rob and I met about 1963.
And I was out with my girlfriend and
we were supposed to be at the movies.
And I had a very, very strict mum.
Anyway, I ended up going to the party
with my girlfriend and met Rob.
He was with my girlfriend
most of the night.
You wouldn't believe it
that we're still friends,
me taking her boyfriend off her.
(Laughs)
She wasn't me girlfriend.
Well, they were canoodling together.
Oh, that was with my eyes half-shut
anyhow.
- (Laughs) That's what he tells me.
- Yeah.
Two sides to every story, alright.
I reckon she seen me and reckoned,
'What a good-looking fella that is.
I'll have to get his attention somehow.'
So she said, 'Oi!'
and hit me in the moosh with this cake.
I went upstairs looking about
who threw this cake at me,
and who do I see is this blonde chick
there with a big smirk on her face.
She looks alright.
That was it.
That was 48 years ago, I think.
- We're still going together.
- (Erna laughs)
Three beautiful children,
eight grandchildren.
Yeah, all good kids, too,
the whole lot of them.
I don't think we made a mistake.
Yeah, I've got a few photos
of the family here.
The... they all met at the mines,
actually.
They were all working
at Cannington Mine.
Yeah, we've had some pretty hard times.
We've been through
some pretty good times too,
but when we were first married,
we done it pretty hard.
This is my son Clint
and his lovely wife, Veronica.
They both met at Cannington Mine.
I used to shoot pigeons off the roof
sometimes
to make the money spin out
to have a feed.
And this one here
is our youngest daughter, Bonnie,
and her husband, Davin.
When Cherie was a baby, we'd only have
enough money to buy her a tin of milk
at the end of the week
and we'd go hungry for the last day
or two until the next payday.
We sure did.
But nothing could prepare them
for the hardships to come -
a financial disaster which tested
their relationship to the limit
Must be using a lot of towels
this week, love.
The storm clouds are gathering
for Silver Lake too,
with the Murchison site at Cue
under threat.
We announced at our
annual general meeting in November
that the Murchison operations
were under review.
And from that time on,
we've been looking at
how the Murchison has performed,
what we can do
to increase its profitability.
From a tonnage perspective,
to make an ounce of gold,
you need to mine about 20 tonnes of ore.
This is an ounce of gold.
Just for scale,
this is what a 5-cent piece looks like.
You would probably fill
a four-bedroom house
with around about
700 tonnes of material.
So 700 tonnes would
give you three-and-a-half of these.
Undoubtedly, the easy deposits
have been found.
But the challenge is
we've got to use better techniques,
be smarter and probably be faster
at finding the new ones.
PAUL: One of the really stark indicators
of the way we're getting
to the bottom of the quarry
is the way we mine gold.
So we no longer find nuggets of gold,
we actually just dig up
an enormous crater of earth
and process it using a
leaching technique that involves cyanide
and massive amounts of water
to extract the gold.
It's a very expensive,
energy-intensive process,
so it is the case that we are
getting in to the very low-quality ore,
and these are the son of techniques
we're having to apply
to extract the minerals.
It all comes down to simple maths.
Is the cost of mining the gold
more than what the gold is worth?
About 370 ounces there
and about $520,000 worth.
So with the Murchison operation
in the balance,
the pressure is on Chris and his board
to either carry on mining at Cue,
or close it.
Blissfully unaware of his boss's
concerns in the boardroom,
goldminer Brad is busy
enjoying some time at home,
where wife Sarah
has a surprise in store.
What's Mum got going on? Huh?
What's Mum got going on?
ALL: Surprise!
Surprise.
G'day, guys.
When I first started mining,
like, the plan was to get married.
I don't think Sarah knew about it.
I asked her to get engaged and whatnot.
That was one of my main reasons.
Probably only see these people
once or twice throughout the year.
These are people
I don't normally get to catch up with
because of work, so this is something
I didn't know was happening.
(Laughs)
So we've got family members,
cousins, friends.
Things have changed a little bit.
We've got a family now and you've
always wanted to become a nurse.
That's son of my plan.
Trying to, yeah,
get Sarah through nursing.
I'm not too concerned about myself.
So what's been happening?
Sometimes it's a bit hard
to tell if Brad is surprised.
He's not an overly visual,
emotional person,
but I knew that he was very happy
and...
It doesn't pay to show your emotions.
...and that it means a lot to him
that everyone's here.
Nah, it's good.
SARAH: Mining's given us the opportunity
to have our boys and for me to study
and do what I want to do.
Which I want for Brad as well.
I want him to do what he wants to do.
Hello.
It's all good?
Science is OK,
but I really like maths and English.
Oh, a little bit.
So this is the gentleman here
that said to me, 'Oh, come out to site,
you might get a job'
five years ago.
And, well, yeah,
I've been doing it ever since.
- He's only just retired from doing...
- Retired.
...from doing mining, yeah.
MAN: Yep, I've just decided
to come back to town.
Missed the kids too much.
So I've come home to spend
a bit more time and help the wife out.
Finally.
He's going to do the away thing now,
I'd say, for a little bit longer,
but I've definitely... for me that's it.
I have had enough for a little while.
But he's doing quite well.
It takes its toll on you.
Not only on you,
on your family and everything.
It does. It takes its toll on everybody.
We've got everything set up.
We've got a house.
We've got everything
going on the right track.
And if I was just to say, 'No,
that's it, I've had enough of doing it,'
we'd have to sell up and start...
go back to, you know,
start from square one again.
The plan is another maybe 2-3 years
and I'm home
and back to a normal routine
of possibly a normal job.
Hopefully.
While Brad dreams
of a perfect workflife balance,
Andrew is one step closer
to making this a reality
In preparation for landing,
please ensure your tray tables and
seat backs are in the upright position.
He's waiting to hear about a new job
that will bring him back home for good.
Daddy!
He's learned from mistakes of the past
and is finally pulling his family first.
- How are you?
- Good.
My last relationship,
I can always remember my wife
saying, you know,
'We got married for a reason.'
And I look back now and I think,
'Yeah, that was to be together.'
Hey, sweetie. How are you?
ANDREW: And I've learned from that.
I want cuddles!
ANDREW:
I've learned a heck of a lesson...
How are you doing?
ANDREW: ..and that is you need
to give yourself to them
because they're the ones behind the
scenes doing all the hard stuff, so...
NARRATOR: The welcoming party
consists of partner Jess, son Charlie
and baby boy Daniel.
ANDREW: And what are we going to do
when we get home?
- Are you going down to Saxon's house?
CHARLIE: Yep.
ANDREW: Oh, alright,
you can go and play if you want,
now you've seen Dad for ten minutes.
This is what we do when
we're not living the good life fishing
and doing what we do.
I do the chores.
Quite handy around the house.
With Andrew only home every two weeks,
he's still getting used to the locals.
Yeah, you get cane toads at night
and the rain
and, oh, there's flies,
there's everything.
So you just sort of... and I'm not
the biggest fan of anything
with more arms and legs than me,
I'm not that keen on them, so...
As you can see,
I'm probably not the most
domesticated bloke you've ever seen.
It's a sheet. It can't be that hard.
Oh, this is my second swing home.
Jess has been here probably,
oh, just over a month or something,
so, oh, we're just getting used to it.
They moved to the Gove Peninsula
to further Jess's career,
but it's a big risk for Andrew.
The thing about mining at the moment,
I mean, everything's shutting down,
whether it be iron ore, gold,
it doesn't matter what it is.
A lot of places are struggling,
doing it hard.
So, I mean, I've moved up here
hopefully for bigger and better things.
And there's today's tasks completed.
What a day.
Oh.
I'll have to have
a sit down now I think.
After all this hard yakka,
it's straight to the beach
for some quality family time.
ANDREW: Oh, lovely.
JESS: On your marks, get set, go!
(Andrew and Jess laugh)
JESS: Go get him!
It's priceless. It's beautiful.
A bit more of this would be good,
though.
Less of the fly out,
more of the time spent flying in.
I tell you what,
it is paradise, isn't it?
You could just look at this, yeah.
JESS: Don't go in the deep, babe.
- How far are we from home?
What, two minutes?
It's just a shame you can't swim in it.
- I'm gonna jump over the waves.
JESS: Alright, just don't go in deep.
ANDREW: It's crocodiles.
Like the sign says.
I mean, I've never seen one,
but I dare say they're out there.
Watch that crocodile. Look.
Agh!
(Laughs)
Hopefully the Rio job will come through
and, yeah, we get to come home
every day and live a normal life,
and that's one thing
I really look forward to doing.
If I was lucky,
I could have you home every single day.
Lucky that is, hey?
Luck.
What time's that plane take off?
While Jess and Andrew are
hoping to start a new life together...
ANNOUNCER: Here we go!
...Rob is looking
to put the past behind him.
ROB: Yeah, we like to get out
as a family on a night like this.
Anyone who reckons
this is not good entertainment,
there's something wrong with them,
I reckon.
Yeah.
NARRATOR: Rob's flanked by his daughters
to see son Clint
judge in the local rodeo.
ANNOUNCER:
From sunny Queensland, Jason Marr!
Come on, man!
ROB: I never done anything like this.
I was just a few little
old bushy rodeos, you know,
like, I wouldn't last one second
on these fellas.
Family means everything to Rob,
after they saw him through a traumatic
event that changed his life forever.
ROB: We got a bit of bad
financial advice a few years back.
We went to this seminar - we thought,
'Oh, well, this is the way to go.
We'll invest with these people.'
Within 12 months, we'd lost everything.
Bought all these shares and things
that we didn't quite really understand.
We had what they call a margin loan,
and then the financial collapse came
and we not only lost our house,
we lost nearly all my super.
We never, ever son of
went into debt much,
we used to save up, buy a new
washing machine or buy a table.
We never paid anything off,
we just... we saved up to buy it.
Yeah.
I think all up, in a figure,
it'd probably be close to $600,000
or $700,000 that we lost.
My wife Erna,
she was... really took it really hard.
She was on antidepressants, you know,
on doctor's medication for a long time.
Our children helped us
as much as they could
'cause they could see
that we were doing it hard.
Clint was working with Ergon
and he helped us with our light bill
and all that son of thing,
so we battled through it as a family.
I'd be at work and I'd just
try and son of put it out of my mind,
and I was just thankful
that I had the job to keep going.
If I didn't have a job in the mines,
I probably would be
out on the street now, you know?
No matter what sort of job,
you've got to make sacrifices,
no matter where you work, what you do.
Life is about sacrifice.
And my dad, I suppose I have
always just known him
to be just a really hard worker.
Even now, you know, he just doesn't
stop, and I just really admire that.
The weekend papers for the boys.
ROB: We're back to where we own
everything here and now.
Haven't got a real lot on my super,
but I'm building it up slowly.
That should be it.
Testicles, spectacles, wallet and watch.
We're right to go.
ROB: We just put all that behind us.
That's good experience.
Maybe not good experience for us, but
good experience for our kids and that
to see how the world does really work.
The RAs been going alright?
MAN: Yeah, been running well, eh?
ROB: My plan for the future
is probably, hopefully,
if I can keep working
for another year or two
and get a little bit more behind us
and then hook up the caravan
and do a bit of travelling around
and have a good look at Australia.
If I get sick of travelling,
I can pull up
and hopefully get a little bit
of work here, a little bit of work there
or wait for the next pension cheque
to come along.
I suppose we'll be getting
a pension by then.
When we were first married, they said,
'Oh, that's a marriage
that's not going to last,' you know,
and we've more or less
been together for 50 years now,
and another couple of years and we'll
have our golden wedding anniversary,
so it's going to be wonderful.
I suppose you would walk a long mile
to meet a better man than my dad.
I'm very proud of him.
I love him to death.
- (Rob chuckles)
- I do.
Yeah.
Yes, I do.
NARRATOR: His job
may have saved Rob Dolan,
but it seems no-one can save
the Murchison Mine at Cue.
With no upturn in the price of gold,
Silver Lake have made
a momentous decision
that will affect hundreds of lives.
CHRIS: We announced to the ASX
and to our shareholders in November
that the Murchison was under review.
We gathered all the information
on a monthly basis,
and at every monthly board meeting
we reviewed the progress.
It was a decision that was worked up to
over a period of time.
And then, as a board, we had to take
all that information and consider it
and then make the final decision
that we were going to put the Murchison
operations on care and maintenance.
We tried to give the operation
all that it possibly could
and give it the longest possible chance
to turn around.
But ultimately we saw
that there wasn't anything else
we could do to turn it around.
This is our first issue
where we've had to shut something.
Yes, personally,
it's a very difficult decision.
It's been a big investment to start -
investment in people, in infrastructure
and all these things,
so the decision to close an operation
is not a trivial one,
it's not a decision made lightly.
We have to consider
all of the implications,
and the implications are far-reaching.
People, contractors, businesses,
travel organisations.
There are very large consequences.
Many of the people that have
been affected I personally employed.
It's a difficult place to be.
NARRATOR: For the 200 workers on site,
this news has come as a shock.
So as Brad makes his long way
back to work one final time,
his future is full of uncertainty
BRAD: Life after mining.
To go home to a, say, nine-to-five job,
will probably be hard for me,
I suppose, in a way.
You've just got to readjust
to that way of life.
It'd be tough, be tough for anyone.
It could take a week,
it could take a month,
it could take a year to readjust
to the lifestyle.
I've got a few things that I want
to try and probably do after mining.
I don't know if they'll take off or not.
I'll just play it by ear,
and I'm just gonna have to go home
and become a family again.
Your seatbelt must be worn at any time
the fasten seatbelt sign is illuminated.
NARRATOR: For Brad's fellow
Silver Lake worker Andrew Carstairs,
this is a double blow.
Not only has Andrew
lost his current job,
but his plans to join Rio Tinto,
down the road from his family,
are in tatters too.
It's been revealed
the Rio Tinto Gove alumina refinery
will be closed by July.
The company estimates 50% of the workers
will finish their roles
as early as April.
ANDREW: Mining, it's a fickle game.
That's the only downside
to mining, I find.
The uncertainty,
and, I mean, it's through
nobody son of close to us,
it's not their fault or anything.
It's just the way it is.
It's just... it's fickle, I guess.
I kick myself
and I think, 'Jeez, if I had
my time again, what would I have done?'
And, yeah, I would have got a trade
and stuff. But something will happen.
It always does.
I've been lucky like that, I guess.
Something will turn up.
There's always something to do,
and I'm wanting to give anything a go,
so I think I've got that on my side.
Hopefully I can live the life
I've always wanted
and that's, you know, the good job,
the good income, the family.
Time to, yeah, just time to come home,
I think, and enjoy life a bit more.
Next week, what is the future
of mining in Australia?
Any industry that's going to grow
by 30% over an 18-month period
is actually in a pretty good state.
But the warning signs are there.
Mining is a very cyclical industry.
One of the concerns I have
about Australia as an economy
is we have become more dependent on it.
Dependent as a nation,
dependent as individuals.
MAN: People get hooked on the money.
You can't walk away.
You can't walk away.
Is mining filled with opportunity?
There are at least 3,000
Indigenous people in the workforce
in the Pilbara alone.
I love working in the heat, mate.
Couldn't pick a better place.
Or is it a trap?
Going back to a nine-to-five job
would not be feasible for me.
I often wonder
how I'll get off this merry-go-round
and get back to a normal life.
There's trouble ahead
for the flying miners.
So, the golden handcuffs are on tight.
Captions by CSI Australia
currently hold a unique place
in Australia's mining industry
I love doing this.
The bigger, the better.
NARRATOR: They commute
tens of thousands of kilometres a year
and they're called 'FIFOs' -
fly-in fly-out miners.
- Another day in paradise, eh?
- Couldn't be happier.
This series examines a world
few people get to see,
with unprecedented access
to mines all over Australia.
Welcome to my office!
I guess you don't come out here
for the nightlife. (Chuckles)
Last week, we met the bosses
under pressure in the boardroom...
it is possible that
we could spend a million dollars
and it being an absolute failure.
...to the FIFOs doing it tough
in the pit
- Hey, buddy.
- Hello!
Yeah, it sucks, to tell you the truth.
SHANA: Yes, I pretty much
think about money all the time.
It's all about the money.
Tonight we look at
the highs and lows of the industry...
Fly-in fly-out,
it does nothing for the community.
...and the uncertainty
of the mining game...
You take what you can get.
...with millions of dollars
and thousands of jobs at stake.
We just need more people in town.
For some, mining has filled
their pockets with riches.
This is by far the biggest boom
that we've ever had.
For others,
they're only filled with regret.
It'd be close to $700,000 that we lost.
A downturn could change
our miners' lives forever.
You've just got to readjust.
It'd be tough, be tough for anyone.
Is the mining boom now over?
The extraordinary levels of growth
we have just can't continue forever.
Is bust around the corner?
There wasn't anything else
we could do to turn it around.
It's a fickle life.
It's a FIFO life.
- Yeah, just time to come home, I think.
- Daddy!
MAN: When I look at the mining industry,
it's provided an enormous gift
to the Australian people.
Its contribution has been huge.
FIONA HASLAM McKENZIE:
What an amazing
pressure-packed period it's been.
PAUL CLEARY: We just need to take
a longer-term approach as a nation
instead of really getting
caught up in a stampede.
TREVOR SYKES: Japan and Korea
are still very big customers.
The UK and Europe
are not inconsiderable either,
but certainly China
has been the cream on the cake.
Once upon a time,
we used to say when America sneezed,
Australia caught a cold -
now it's China.
China is worth over $60 billion
each year to our economy.
And with 320 million people
expected to move to China's cities
in the next 20 years -
more than the entire population
of the United States -
the big bucks could keep rolling in.
The growth has slowed a bit
and even if it's 7% at the moment,
that means they're doubling
every ten years.
Every other Western nation would kill
to have a growth rate half that size.
But mining is a cyclical business.
The good times can't last forever.
PAUL CLEARY:
It's a get-rich-quick mentality.
These are non-renewable resources
and they're going to be gone one day
and they'll actually be gone sooner
than what a lot of people think.
So what does this all mean
for FIFOs like goldminer Brad Hamence?
He's a devoted family man
working thousands of kays from home.
He's puffing his wife through uni
and securing a good future for his kids.
So the pressures on
to make a success of his FIFO life.
BRAD: I'm Brad Hamence.
I work in WA in a goldmine.
I've been mining
for about five years now.
Fellas.
I normally get on that bus, but I'll
be on this bus with the rowdy folk.
BRAD: The job itself is not too bad.
When we first started,
you'd see little bands of things,
you thought, 'Ooh, is that gold?'
BRAD: It's like any job.
It has its days. It has its moments.
I've found a few rocks and I've
shown the geos and I've thought,
'Yep, that's definitely
got some gold in it,' and nup.
BRAD: It's tough
being away from home,
but that's just what needs to be done
to get in front.
Just to find something and go,
'Wow, I actually found something.'
Gaz, how are we?
BRAD: Hopefully I am not still doing it
when I'm 40 or 50.
(Device bleeps)
Hopefully I've set things up right
and planned.
You've got to try and plan
your future out a little bit,
or else you will be here
when I'm 40 and 50.
I might do 12 months or so,
or 2 years.
After the wife has finished uni.
You know, just to really get set up
and be back on a really good wage
with two incomes
and then be home after that.
- Did you pack your own bags today?
- Yeah, mate, yep.
NARRATOR:
And home is Mildura, Victoria -
a day's travel and 4,000 kays away.
Do you want your shoes off? OK.
BRAD: Working away,
catching up with friends,
even family members
but friends as well, is very hard.
For me, with such a young family,
the week that I'm home
I just want to spend as much time
as I can with Sarah and the kids.
- You been a good boy for Mum this week?
- Yep.
SARAH: We've got a strategy.
We're doing it
so I can do what I want to do
so he can come home
and do what he wants to do.
(Jasper laughs)
SARAH: So I'm second year.
So it's a three-year course.
Not even 18 months to go now.
BRAD: Ten years down the track,
hopefully I'm home
and back to a normal routine.
SARAH: For me, it's, you know,
our family being together
and maybe expanding.
He's got to be home
for me to have more children.
I did it.
- Won't even go there with us.
- (Laughs)
SARAH: But everybody's plans change.
It doesn't matter what job you're in.
If your plans don't change,
life hasn't happened to you.
We certainly advocate having clear
financial goals while you are in FIFO
and being aware that the more you earn
the more you will spend,
so be careful on what you're spending
and where it's going,
'cause if something happens
and you have to leave your FIFO job
or if you're made redundant
or, you know, you want a change,
you've then got to
adjust back to a lower income.
I'm astounded by the amount
of prospector interest around here.
The last time we saw Brad's boss,
Silver Lake company director
Chris Banasik,
he was puffing millions of dollars
on the line.
...a ton of readings through here.
There's definitely something there.
CHRIS: I think it's really important
that we try and get up there.
Remap some of these areas.
Be sure that we've got a handle
on the rocks.
He's looking for
a new gold site to mine.
CHRIS: Mining, it's not just
a technical pursuit.
How are you going, mate? Good?
CHRIS: You can't dial it in
and expect to be remote from it.
You've got to get out there.
NARRATOR: But in a fickle market,
looking too far ahead is a big gamble.
REPORTER: Gold is back in vogue.
The big fall in the price of gold...
The gold price is continuing
to hit all-time highs...
REPORTER: Gold took its biggest fall
in three decades last week
and forced companies
to tighten their belts.
CHRIS: There is very much a direct link
between the commodity price
and the sorts of things you can do.
Should we make the decision to mine,
this will be an open pit.
Just going in to see Dave Price,
our chief geologist at the site.
Have you caught up with
what's been going on?
I have, indeed.
CHRIS: It's difficult
to make the decision
to put projects into the go mode
at a time when the gold price
is going to get lower,
but we've invested a lot of money.
We've invested
six years' worth of exploration.
But, yeah, it looks like they did
a really good job on the goodbye cuts.
It's all come away really clean.
Months and months of environmental
surveys, consultants' hours,
time spent with local Indigenous groups
and pastoralists.
And the same
with the watering gauze as well.
They're ready to go
when we want them to happen.
Yeah, righto.
None of this is a foregone conclusion
in any way, shape or form
but you've still got to
do the preparatory work
to make those decisions right.
CHRIS: You're always taking
some form of risk.
You look at the risk, you evaluate it
and you say, 'Is it worth it?
Is the risk versus reward worth it?'
It's a fairly unsettling time
in the industry.
Nickel and gold aren't very special
from a price perspective,
so there's a lot going on.
People are concerned.
'Jeez, Bano, am I going to
be working tomorrow?
What's the gold price going to be?'
All those issues.
When things are good, you've got to be
careful that you build up your coffers
because one thing's for sure
in the mining industry -
it's going to turn.
The upside to that
is that when it's bad,
you know it's going to turn as well.
When it's bad, you've just got to
cut back as much as you can
and just hang on.
Also working at Silver Lake's Murchison
Mine is goldminer Andrew Carstairs,
who's just starting his night shift.
When you've been doing it
for as long as I have,
late at night,
you see faces in the din.
Like, 'Is that Elvis?'
My name's Andrew Carstairs.
I've been mining for approximately ten
years and I'm a mobile plant operator.
Just, yeah, operating
different bits of machinery and stuff.
It's good. Enjoy it.
The mobile office, I call it.
You're in it for that long.
It's a Komatsu.
It's the latest one out, I dare say.
It's got all the mod cons and stuff,
so you look after it
and it looks after you.
You've got a button here.
The thing digs by itself, for example.
Auto dig. You know, I mean, what's next?
Christ, it won't even have a seat
and it'll be doing it by themselves.
I was here
when this place first started.
I watched them
build this place from scratch.
I've been here, oh, jeez,
it'd be close to 18 months now.
You know, in mining sometimes
that's a long time.
You know, a lot of people come and go.
Especially in the uncertainty, you know,
we don't know if we're,
just at the moment...
...everything's son of up in the air.
Mining, gold prices are down
and so you take what you can get.
I've actually got an opportunity
hopefully with another big company
closer to home, so fingers crossed.
It's a normal son of job,
I like to call it.
There's no fly-in fly-out.
Home every night.
See the wife, the kids.
No, that's something
I'm looking forward to
because I've missed out on it
for so long, you know.
I've got to get it yet.
I mean, I've passed a couple of stages,
so I think one more to go
and I should hopefully find out soon.
It's a time of uncertainty
that's familiar to Andrew,
having separated from his first wife
after ten years of marriage.
I got the opportunity.
It was like, 'Mining, yeah!'
And we both thought, 'Oh, you know,
we'll make heaps of money.
We'll do this. We'll do that.'
And, yeah, I just guess overtime
we just son of...
we son of grew apart, you know?
She son of got used to me
not being there,
and I son of, you know, came home
and son of just wanted to, you know,
see the boys and have a good time.
And I son of look back now
and think, 'I had a lot to do with it.'
I'm very clear in saying that FIFO is
not the cause of marriage breakdown
or family break-ups, but if you have
trust issues in your relationship,
if you're not communicating properly,
that's when you'll see
the cracks appear.
So it's not the cause,
but if you've got those underlying
issues, it's like turning the volume up.
It amplifies it.
But I've got a second chance now
and a small family
and I look at things different
and it's... and that's why I think
hopefully getting up to Gove,
you know, where my partner's working
is, yeah, like, the home every night
thing, we'll see how that goes.
She'll probably get sick of me
after the first two or three weeks
and she'll go, 'Why don't you bugger
off and go fly-in fly-out again?'
So, nah, it'll be good.
It'll be good to see how it works.
Most people in mining
that I've come across are doers.
It's about having an optimistic view.
Even when things look lost
and even when times are tough,
most people who have
been in mining for a long time
will say to you,
'Oh, well, we always have tough times,
but it'll get better and I'm going to
hang on until things get better.'
While the price of gold
might be up and down,
68-year-old copper miner Rob Dolan
is hoping his job is set in stone.
ROB: I've been working as fly-in fly-out
for 13.5 years.
I've always been pretty active
and worked.
I was born in Atherton, on the Atherton
Tableland, but I was reared in Cairns.
I was always interested in sport
in one way or the other.
Most mornings I wake up about quarter
to four and go for a swim in the pool.
They've got a lovely pool out there.
And I'll get on me bike, ride to work.
It's about 4.5 kays.
NARRATOR: Fitter than men half his age,
this is how Rob has started his day
for the last 13 years.
ROB: I was always interested in boxing
when I was younger.
I used to be a bit of a wild kid,
I suppose.
I always seemed to be
getting into fights and stuff.
I've got a good lead
on the rest of the pack, I think.
Lance Armstrong, eat your heart out.
ROB: I had about 50 amateur fights.
Ended up winning
the Queensland Golden Gloves.
I've never been on the dole,
never, ever got the sack from a job.
Another day in paradise, eh?
Always left on me own terms
or got made redundant or shifted
because of, you know,
like, going to a better job.
NARRATOR: Officially he's
a Fixed Plant Trades Assistant,
but Rob's got another name for it.
I just call myself a general
shitkicker. Pretty interesting.
You're doing something different
every day just about.
All those sort of little jobs
that need doing.
ROB: Mining is a very up and down game.
You know, like, it all depends
on the price of the commodities
that you're producing.
Yeah, I got to check the...
dip the fuel tanks.
ROB: One day they could
be worth a lot of money
and overnight they could just drop.
A lot of mines could shut down
in a short time.
So if you went in to debt too much,
like well over your head,
you could end up losing everything,
you know.
That's me first job of the day
out of the road.
I'm 68 now so I could've
got the pension three years ago,
but I don't feel like retiring yet.
NARRATOR: But there's one big reason
why Rob is not retiring any time soon.
ROB: Oh, it's a long story.
I was in a... caught up with a mob
called Storm Financial.
They went bust
and give us a lot of bad advice.
You think you're doing the right thing,
but, as it turned out,
everything went down the drain.
So... just keep working.
Get back on track again, you know.
NARRATOR: While Rob is using
the boom to bolster his super,
there are two miners over
at Silver Lake's Murchison goldmine
who have travelled many a mile
to cash in on Australia's mining wealth.
We are from a small, little town
close to Cape Town
about an hour and a half drive.
Yeah, a small farming community.
I would love to go and farm,
but the money isn't that good.
Take some fruit.
Nah. Do you want the ice-cream?
MERWE: Wanted to come to Australia
so badly. Australia or Canada.
It was very hard to come in, yeah,
but eventually we got a sponsorship
through Silver Lake Resources,
on a 457 and, yeah, now we're here.
NARRATOR:
Merwe is a qualified geologist,
which means he spends hours on site,
keeping an eye
on what comes out of the ground.
MERWE: We're busy digging out the ore.
We've done a 3-D model,
and that model is sent to survey,
and then they come and they just
mark up where the ore boundaries is
and the digger basically
stays inside that mark-up.
I studied geology.
Well, I can't believe I studied
four years to count trucks.
Like, you can give that to a monkey.
You just... have to make a tick.
As soon as this truck drives away,
I'll just have a quick look.
Can we just have a quick look again?
MAN, ON RADIO: Yeah, mate, come in.
Nah, it's all good. Spot on.
While Merwe's flying out in the pit,
Zani's shying away from the 40-degree
heat in her role as a lab tech.
If somebody told me two years ago
that I'm going to be working in a lab
on a mine site
I would have probably just laughed
'cause I hated science
and chemical things at school
and I actually studied tourism.
I basically got the job
to be with my husband,
so I don't have to be alone in Perth.
But I quite like it.
We are going to do a survey
on the pebble crusher.
Get a lot of exercise, which is a bonus.
There's a wide variety.
It's not like I'm doing
all day the same thing.
Each day I learn something else.
We're doing new things every week.
So now, as you can see, each
sieve has its own... the right size,
and we just weigh it
and note everything, write it down.
Meanwhile,
on the other side of the site,
Merwe's taking a well-earned break.
It's been a hard day, dusty, it's hot.
We're just going to
cool down a bit over lunchtime
and then we're ready
for the next half-a-day shift.
And so we're just going to
one of the open pits,
which they aren't mining at the moment,
and it is far away
from all the mining operations.
We're just going to have a quick swim.
See you guys later.
MERWE: Now this is the life of a geo!
Merwe and Zani have setup home just
down the road from the Murchison Mine,
in the former goldmining town of Cue,
a place where the boom left long ago.
ZANI: We've got four bedrooms.
It's a little bit embarrassing
but there's all of our clothes
that has been washed and not folded.
This is our kitchen
and our little dining area.
But, yeah, we don't use it that much.
It's not always easy living in Cue,
and it's very small.
- There's a pub.
- There's just a pub in Cue, one pub.
And one small shop
where you can't really find anything
and everything is so expensive
that you feel so bad buying it
because it's like
five times the price it is in Perth.
When we first came in here in 1956,
there was 13 on the staff.
There was 13 people on the staff here.
You had my father in the office,
plus an accountant,
plus a lady that used to run the till.
She used to sit up there on that till.
That till there was up there.
And all these runners
used to come in to her.
We get our food in the mornings
for lunch and everything in the camp,
so, lucky for me, I don't have to cook.
Lucky for me as well
that she doesn't have to cook.
Oh, I'm not a bad cook.
But if you're cooking in Cue,
it's different from
when you're any other place
because there's
only three types of vegetables.
ROSS: The town is quiet.
I mean, there would only be,
what, 350, 400 people here, I suppose.
That would include the miners
and everything.
Put your money and everything
in there and your docket
and just put that in there
and pull this down
like a giant shanghai
and then it would just go bang,
all the way across,
and then she'd change it
and come back again.
WOMAN: The town's quiet at the moment.
We've got the Silver Lake goldmine
happening out of town, which is great,
but because it's all fly-in fly-out,
a lot of people don't move to town.
If they didn't fly-in fly-out,
some of those families would
actually move to town, it would be good.
There'd be more kids at the school,
more infrastructure and stuff happening
and maybe some of the shops
that are empty could open.
We just need more people in town.
ROSS: The town's just...
I don't think it'll ever die.
I've just got that feeling it won't die.
I mean, you've got mining companies
coming up here and spending money
and, no, I don't think
they like wasting money.
But... so there's still more to come.
Unlike Cue, which is holding on
for a return to glories of the past,
Karratha is very much mining's future.
Located in the
resources-rich heart of the Pilbara,
it's grown into a hub of FIFO activity
Just ask local publican Kim Loxton.
- What are you gonna have?
- Oh, dunno...
Are you blokes right?
This is by far the biggest boom
that we've ever had.
There's been a massive
amount of development here
over the last 13-14 years and to the
extent that the town's doubled in size.
But back in the '90s,
Karratha just wasn't ready for the boom.
There wasn't a workforce
up here big enough,
a local workforce here big enough.
The infrastructure wasn't here to
accommodate a permanent workforce.
Karratha didn't have enough housing
in the '90s and the early 2000s
because everyone was negative
and there was hardly a house built.
When there was an upsurge
in economic activity
and you had contractors coming in
outside of the FIFOs
that were working
for Woodside and Rio Tinto
and they were having to lease houses,
and there weren't enough houses
to go around,
where rentals went from 800 a week to
2000 a week in the space of 18 months.
I think what's happened in this last
major resource boom, in particular,
is that things happened so quickly
and at such a scale that, in many
cases, we've been swamped, overwhelmed.
So many more people are engaged
in, you know, fly-in fly-out.
Either government or communities
have not been ready for that.
I think if we look back at history,
we should've seen the signs
that FIFO was going to be here
for a long time
and we could have planned for it
in a far more cohesive manner.
And where towns
are moving in that direction,
the changes are quite significant,
so the better that is planned, organised
and delivered,
the better off the community will be and
the better off the FIFO worker will be.
Karratha is now home to 20,000 locals
and plenty of FIFOs,
but they don't sit easily side by side.
Locals don't like FIFOs.
It's quite simple.
They don't think they contribute
to the community,
and they think they're a riffraff
and their social skills
leave a lot to be desired.
The biggest negative is they don't
really become community-minded,
and that's fair enough because their
families are down in Perth or elsewhere,
Melbourne, Sydney, and they come up
for a specific reason, that's to work,
so they don't really commit to the town.
You blokes right for a drink?
The government really has to
get the infrastructure in place
to try and encourage the FIFOs
to shift their families up here
and become pan of the community.
Politicians are aware of the issues,
especially after former federal
independent MP Tony Windsor
chaired a committee that looked into
FIFOs' effects on regional communities.
Many communities are concerned about
the negative impacts on their towns
and feel that although they may be
the site of resource activity,
they are not the major beneficiary.
Since retiring from politics,
Tony's gone back to farming,
and his place
is right next to a coalmine
in north-western New South Wales.
I think the work practice of FIFO,
if it's extended or becomes the norm
for inland Australia,
will become the cancer of the bush.
It doesn't have to.
It can be pan of the mix.
He's not happy that even though
there are lots of towns around here,
mining companies
are building FIFO villages.
TONY: So we've actually transferred
a remote Australia work practice
into quite settled areas of Australia,
and the implications of those things,
both to the workers,
their families, their communities,
I don't think we fully understand
the long-term ramifications of that,
and I think the mining companies
because of the boom
have son of looked at, 'We've got to
get workers, skilled people,
get them in there now
and we'll worry about all this later.'
Among the 21 recommendations
in the report,
it called for more training
for locals to fill mining jobs,
but that's at odds
with the current practice.
Well, about 3km towards Tamworth
from here
there's a proposal for a major camp.
One would have to ask the question,
'Why would you need to do that when
you've got a city the size of Tamworth,
about 60,000 people - why couldn't
you train the people locally?'
But the work practice in Australia
at the moment is that every mining job,
long-term, will probably be taken
by someone who wants to
fly in and fly out if given the choice.
'Cause a lot of people
say 'I don't want to live there.
I want to live
on the North Shore of Sydney
and just go to work occasionally and get
my money from somewhere else.'
What about the people who do live there?
What about the people
who actually suffer the implications
of the cost structure
of the mining sector,
but get very little
of the benefit of that activity?
Here it is on a Saturday afternoon,
the main street of Port Hedland,
not a soul around other than us.
Some of the residents of Port Hedland
no doubt agree
with Tony Windsor's findings.
While 2,000 ships
use the port every year,
each carrying $20 million worth
of iron ore, the locals see none of it.
RAY: As far as I'm concerned,
fly-in fly-out,
it does nothing for the community,
as far as the town itself.
You know, you go to the airport
and you can hardly move sometimes
'cause there's that many people around,
but you never see their face
down the main street - never.
You know, they all go into the camps,
they go from the camp to work,
back to the airport, go home.
They don't put much back into the town.
In fact, they take their money
with them and go.
And I know one bloke was saying he's
been flying in and out for five years
and he says he wouldn't
have spent $50 in this town.
CHRIS: To operate a fly-in fly-out site
is significantly expensive.
10% of our cost is associated
with flying people in and out.
The reality, however, is that no-one
wants to live in a small town anymore.
FIONA: I think FIFO is going to be an
enduring work pattern for many sectors,
especially in the mining industry.
It's become embedded, especially
in Australia, for tax reasons,
remoteness, and we've got very small
communities and large cities.
So many people now are urban-based,
but we are also well educated.
We are inured with
the expectations of an urban lifestyle,
and inevitably the FIFO worker,
be they male or female,
will have a partner that is not easily
lured to a small, remote mining town.
ZANI: It makes it a lot easier for us
living up in Cue
because we've got each other.
It's not like we're alone. Because if I
would've been alone, I will be crazy.
But... it's very small. There's not
a lot of people our age that lives here.
Most of the people just fly in, fly out
and I don't really have girlfriends.
And then another thing -
there's honestly not much to do.
FIONA: I very much doubt
that communities
will be created by mining companies.
In fact, I know that they won't.
And the technological advances
are very rapid,
the resources are dug out
and shipped off very quickly
and it's incredibly expensive.
Out at Cue Airport,
Merwe's fellow goldminer
Andrew Carstairs
is just finishing his latest shift.
Well, there's another two weeks, boys.
But this week off could have huge
consequences on the rest of his life,
as he hopes for a new job
close to home.
ANDREW:
The job that I'm looking at getting,
they've got an even time roster,
you do two days' work,
you have a break in the middle
and then you go and do two nights,
and then you have four days off.
That's ideal.
That's, you know,
a six-months-a-year roster.
That's quality
and that's what everybody aims to get
and that's what I'm looking for.
And, yeah, I get to go home
and, you know, be a dad
and a family man, I guess.
I try and be pretty organised.
I make most of their lunches
before I go to bed,
so that I don't have to worry
about the morning.
If I don't, I'm late.
Hey, hey, he)'-
Being a FIFO wife, what you learn
is there's no point whingeing,
because there's no-one here to hear it,
so you just have to get on with it
and get things done.
Jess, she's great.
She has a full-time job.
It's quite a demanding job.
She'll do a day's work and then
she's a mother at the drop of a hat,
all the whilst I'm away,
and how she does it,
I'm not sure really, I mean, honestly.
It's as hard for Mum at home
as it is for Dad to be away.
I suppose it's the little things
that he misses out on.
Like Charlie had a birthday party
last week for one of his little mates,
and, you know, those things
he doesn't get to see.
We've lived together
for six months permanently
or thereabouts
since we've been together.
So it'll be a huge adjustment
if he is home every night...
...working out how he fits in
to the permanent family routine.
I'm looking forward to having him around
and building those friendships here
and relationships
with other families and couples
and, son of, you know, not feeling
like a single mum half the time
when you're out.
It's good. Yeah, looking forward to it.
So there's a hell of a lot
riding on Andrew getting this new job.
Just fill in all the highlighted areas.
- Easy done.
- Easy done.
Thank you, ma'am.
Today he's having the medical, but first
he has to get through the paperwork.
- Do I have to do all this?
WOMAN: Yes, you do.
Here we go.
'Have you ever had any mental issues?'
Ooh. No.
'Ever been to a psychologist?'
They should have a tick in here
where it says 'should go'.
Insomnia, no.
Other nervous problems.
Am I breastfeeding?
Oh.
Industrial lung disease.
Do you think I'd be sitting here
if I had half of these complaints?
What's an average drink?
'Cause some of my drinks
aren't very average.
Oh, that's them, that's not yellow.
Ooh, hey, we're finished.
- OK.
- Let's go.
Let's go.
An hour later, the testis done,
and Andrew's a free man.
- I think I'm an athlete.
- I'm sure you are.
Yep.
And it's all good. You can go.
Lovely. Thank you very much
for your time.
See you next time.
For now, it's back
to the airport for a flight home,
and a nervous wait for the results.
Over in Townsville, copper miner
Rob Dolan is also heading home.
The FIFO capital of Queensland,
Townsville,
is second only to Perth
as the biggest source of FIFO workers
in Australia's mining industry
And it's been home to Rob
and wife Erna for the last 20 years.
Just go home, have a couple of beers,
she'll have something cooked for me.
Sometimes it gets very lonely
by yourself.
I go to the airport and pick him up,
he gives me a call-
'I'm here, love, come and get me.'
Hello, love, I'm here.
Probably have a quiet night tonight,
but on the weekend we've got
some grandchildren coming up.
There's a big bull ride on,
international bull ride.
So we'll have riders from
all over the world probably here.
Erna's going to
look after five grandchildren.
She son of gets stuck with
the grandchildren all the time,
but she thinks
that's part of being a nanna.
But they love her and she loves them, so
they'll have a good time together too.
There's my lovely wife. There she is.
Hey, Pixie.
Did you come for a ride too?
Did you come for a ride too, did you?
Hey?
Give us a kiss.
ROB: With the fly-in and fly-out,
if you've got the right woman,
it works out really good.
Of course you've got to have
a good woman at home, haven't you?
But you've got to have a good man
to bring home the bacon, haven't ya?
ROB: The right woman I think is one
who's pretty independent herself.
I was lucky.
I think I got the right one.
Rob and I met about 1963.
And I was out with my girlfriend and
we were supposed to be at the movies.
And I had a very, very strict mum.
Anyway, I ended up going to the party
with my girlfriend and met Rob.
He was with my girlfriend
most of the night.
You wouldn't believe it
that we're still friends,
me taking her boyfriend off her.
(Laughs)
She wasn't me girlfriend.
Well, they were canoodling together.
Oh, that was with my eyes half-shut
anyhow.
- (Laughs) That's what he tells me.
- Yeah.
Two sides to every story, alright.
I reckon she seen me and reckoned,
'What a good-looking fella that is.
I'll have to get his attention somehow.'
So she said, 'Oi!'
and hit me in the moosh with this cake.
I went upstairs looking about
who threw this cake at me,
and who do I see is this blonde chick
there with a big smirk on her face.
She looks alright.
That was it.
That was 48 years ago, I think.
- We're still going together.
- (Erna laughs)
Three beautiful children,
eight grandchildren.
Yeah, all good kids, too,
the whole lot of them.
I don't think we made a mistake.
Yeah, I've got a few photos
of the family here.
The... they all met at the mines,
actually.
They were all working
at Cannington Mine.
Yeah, we've had some pretty hard times.
We've been through
some pretty good times too,
but when we were first married,
we done it pretty hard.
This is my son Clint
and his lovely wife, Veronica.
They both met at Cannington Mine.
I used to shoot pigeons off the roof
sometimes
to make the money spin out
to have a feed.
And this one here
is our youngest daughter, Bonnie,
and her husband, Davin.
When Cherie was a baby, we'd only have
enough money to buy her a tin of milk
at the end of the week
and we'd go hungry for the last day
or two until the next payday.
We sure did.
But nothing could prepare them
for the hardships to come -
a financial disaster which tested
their relationship to the limit
Must be using a lot of towels
this week, love.
The storm clouds are gathering
for Silver Lake too,
with the Murchison site at Cue
under threat.
We announced at our
annual general meeting in November
that the Murchison operations
were under review.
And from that time on,
we've been looking at
how the Murchison has performed,
what we can do
to increase its profitability.
From a tonnage perspective,
to make an ounce of gold,
you need to mine about 20 tonnes of ore.
This is an ounce of gold.
Just for scale,
this is what a 5-cent piece looks like.
You would probably fill
a four-bedroom house
with around about
700 tonnes of material.
So 700 tonnes would
give you three-and-a-half of these.
Undoubtedly, the easy deposits
have been found.
But the challenge is
we've got to use better techniques,
be smarter and probably be faster
at finding the new ones.
PAUL: One of the really stark indicators
of the way we're getting
to the bottom of the quarry
is the way we mine gold.
So we no longer find nuggets of gold,
we actually just dig up
an enormous crater of earth
and process it using a
leaching technique that involves cyanide
and massive amounts of water
to extract the gold.
It's a very expensive,
energy-intensive process,
so it is the case that we are
getting in to the very low-quality ore,
and these are the son of techniques
we're having to apply
to extract the minerals.
It all comes down to simple maths.
Is the cost of mining the gold
more than what the gold is worth?
About 370 ounces there
and about $520,000 worth.
So with the Murchison operation
in the balance,
the pressure is on Chris and his board
to either carry on mining at Cue,
or close it.
Blissfully unaware of his boss's
concerns in the boardroom,
goldminer Brad is busy
enjoying some time at home,
where wife Sarah
has a surprise in store.
What's Mum got going on? Huh?
What's Mum got going on?
ALL: Surprise!
Surprise.
G'day, guys.
When I first started mining,
like, the plan was to get married.
I don't think Sarah knew about it.
I asked her to get engaged and whatnot.
That was one of my main reasons.
Probably only see these people
once or twice throughout the year.
These are people
I don't normally get to catch up with
because of work, so this is something
I didn't know was happening.
(Laughs)
So we've got family members,
cousins, friends.
Things have changed a little bit.
We've got a family now and you've
always wanted to become a nurse.
That's son of my plan.
Trying to, yeah,
get Sarah through nursing.
I'm not too concerned about myself.
So what's been happening?
Sometimes it's a bit hard
to tell if Brad is surprised.
He's not an overly visual,
emotional person,
but I knew that he was very happy
and...
It doesn't pay to show your emotions.
...and that it means a lot to him
that everyone's here.
Nah, it's good.
SARAH: Mining's given us the opportunity
to have our boys and for me to study
and do what I want to do.
Which I want for Brad as well.
I want him to do what he wants to do.
Hello.
It's all good?
Science is OK,
but I really like maths and English.
Oh, a little bit.
So this is the gentleman here
that said to me, 'Oh, come out to site,
you might get a job'
five years ago.
And, well, yeah,
I've been doing it ever since.
- He's only just retired from doing...
- Retired.
...from doing mining, yeah.
MAN: Yep, I've just decided
to come back to town.
Missed the kids too much.
So I've come home to spend
a bit more time and help the wife out.
Finally.
He's going to do the away thing now,
I'd say, for a little bit longer,
but I've definitely... for me that's it.
I have had enough for a little while.
But he's doing quite well.
It takes its toll on you.
Not only on you,
on your family and everything.
It does. It takes its toll on everybody.
We've got everything set up.
We've got a house.
We've got everything
going on the right track.
And if I was just to say, 'No,
that's it, I've had enough of doing it,'
we'd have to sell up and start...
go back to, you know,
start from square one again.
The plan is another maybe 2-3 years
and I'm home
and back to a normal routine
of possibly a normal job.
Hopefully.
While Brad dreams
of a perfect workflife balance,
Andrew is one step closer
to making this a reality
In preparation for landing,
please ensure your tray tables and
seat backs are in the upright position.
He's waiting to hear about a new job
that will bring him back home for good.
Daddy!
He's learned from mistakes of the past
and is finally pulling his family first.
- How are you?
- Good.
My last relationship,
I can always remember my wife
saying, you know,
'We got married for a reason.'
And I look back now and I think,
'Yeah, that was to be together.'
Hey, sweetie. How are you?
ANDREW: And I've learned from that.
I want cuddles!
ANDREW:
I've learned a heck of a lesson...
How are you doing?
ANDREW: ..and that is you need
to give yourself to them
because they're the ones behind the
scenes doing all the hard stuff, so...
NARRATOR: The welcoming party
consists of partner Jess, son Charlie
and baby boy Daniel.
ANDREW: And what are we going to do
when we get home?
- Are you going down to Saxon's house?
CHARLIE: Yep.
ANDREW: Oh, alright,
you can go and play if you want,
now you've seen Dad for ten minutes.
This is what we do when
we're not living the good life fishing
and doing what we do.
I do the chores.
Quite handy around the house.
With Andrew only home every two weeks,
he's still getting used to the locals.
Yeah, you get cane toads at night
and the rain
and, oh, there's flies,
there's everything.
So you just sort of... and I'm not
the biggest fan of anything
with more arms and legs than me,
I'm not that keen on them, so...
As you can see,
I'm probably not the most
domesticated bloke you've ever seen.
It's a sheet. It can't be that hard.
Oh, this is my second swing home.
Jess has been here probably,
oh, just over a month or something,
so, oh, we're just getting used to it.
They moved to the Gove Peninsula
to further Jess's career,
but it's a big risk for Andrew.
The thing about mining at the moment,
I mean, everything's shutting down,
whether it be iron ore, gold,
it doesn't matter what it is.
A lot of places are struggling,
doing it hard.
So, I mean, I've moved up here
hopefully for bigger and better things.
And there's today's tasks completed.
What a day.
Oh.
I'll have to have
a sit down now I think.
After all this hard yakka,
it's straight to the beach
for some quality family time.
ANDREW: Oh, lovely.
JESS: On your marks, get set, go!
(Andrew and Jess laugh)
JESS: Go get him!
It's priceless. It's beautiful.
A bit more of this would be good,
though.
Less of the fly out,
more of the time spent flying in.
I tell you what,
it is paradise, isn't it?
You could just look at this, yeah.
JESS: Don't go in the deep, babe.
- How far are we from home?
What, two minutes?
It's just a shame you can't swim in it.
- I'm gonna jump over the waves.
JESS: Alright, just don't go in deep.
ANDREW: It's crocodiles.
Like the sign says.
I mean, I've never seen one,
but I dare say they're out there.
Watch that crocodile. Look.
Agh!
(Laughs)
Hopefully the Rio job will come through
and, yeah, we get to come home
every day and live a normal life,
and that's one thing
I really look forward to doing.
If I was lucky,
I could have you home every single day.
Lucky that is, hey?
Luck.
What time's that plane take off?
While Jess and Andrew are
hoping to start a new life together...
ANNOUNCER: Here we go!
...Rob is looking
to put the past behind him.
ROB: Yeah, we like to get out
as a family on a night like this.
Anyone who reckons
this is not good entertainment,
there's something wrong with them,
I reckon.
Yeah.
NARRATOR: Rob's flanked by his daughters
to see son Clint
judge in the local rodeo.
ANNOUNCER:
From sunny Queensland, Jason Marr!
Come on, man!
ROB: I never done anything like this.
I was just a few little
old bushy rodeos, you know,
like, I wouldn't last one second
on these fellas.
Family means everything to Rob,
after they saw him through a traumatic
event that changed his life forever.
ROB: We got a bit of bad
financial advice a few years back.
We went to this seminar - we thought,
'Oh, well, this is the way to go.
We'll invest with these people.'
Within 12 months, we'd lost everything.
Bought all these shares and things
that we didn't quite really understand.
We had what they call a margin loan,
and then the financial collapse came
and we not only lost our house,
we lost nearly all my super.
We never, ever son of
went into debt much,
we used to save up, buy a new
washing machine or buy a table.
We never paid anything off,
we just... we saved up to buy it.
Yeah.
I think all up, in a figure,
it'd probably be close to $600,000
or $700,000 that we lost.
My wife Erna,
she was... really took it really hard.
She was on antidepressants, you know,
on doctor's medication for a long time.
Our children helped us
as much as they could
'cause they could see
that we were doing it hard.
Clint was working with Ergon
and he helped us with our light bill
and all that son of thing,
so we battled through it as a family.
I'd be at work and I'd just
try and son of put it out of my mind,
and I was just thankful
that I had the job to keep going.
If I didn't have a job in the mines,
I probably would be
out on the street now, you know?
No matter what sort of job,
you've got to make sacrifices,
no matter where you work, what you do.
Life is about sacrifice.
And my dad, I suppose I have
always just known him
to be just a really hard worker.
Even now, you know, he just doesn't
stop, and I just really admire that.
The weekend papers for the boys.
ROB: We're back to where we own
everything here and now.
Haven't got a real lot on my super,
but I'm building it up slowly.
That should be it.
Testicles, spectacles, wallet and watch.
We're right to go.
ROB: We just put all that behind us.
That's good experience.
Maybe not good experience for us, but
good experience for our kids and that
to see how the world does really work.
The RAs been going alright?
MAN: Yeah, been running well, eh?
ROB: My plan for the future
is probably, hopefully,
if I can keep working
for another year or two
and get a little bit more behind us
and then hook up the caravan
and do a bit of travelling around
and have a good look at Australia.
If I get sick of travelling,
I can pull up
and hopefully get a little bit
of work here, a little bit of work there
or wait for the next pension cheque
to come along.
I suppose we'll be getting
a pension by then.
When we were first married, they said,
'Oh, that's a marriage
that's not going to last,' you know,
and we've more or less
been together for 50 years now,
and another couple of years and we'll
have our golden wedding anniversary,
so it's going to be wonderful.
I suppose you would walk a long mile
to meet a better man than my dad.
I'm very proud of him.
I love him to death.
- (Rob chuckles)
- I do.
Yeah.
Yes, I do.
NARRATOR: His job
may have saved Rob Dolan,
but it seems no-one can save
the Murchison Mine at Cue.
With no upturn in the price of gold,
Silver Lake have made
a momentous decision
that will affect hundreds of lives.
CHRIS: We announced to the ASX
and to our shareholders in November
that the Murchison was under review.
We gathered all the information
on a monthly basis,
and at every monthly board meeting
we reviewed the progress.
It was a decision that was worked up to
over a period of time.
And then, as a board, we had to take
all that information and consider it
and then make the final decision
that we were going to put the Murchison
operations on care and maintenance.
We tried to give the operation
all that it possibly could
and give it the longest possible chance
to turn around.
But ultimately we saw
that there wasn't anything else
we could do to turn it around.
This is our first issue
where we've had to shut something.
Yes, personally,
it's a very difficult decision.
It's been a big investment to start -
investment in people, in infrastructure
and all these things,
so the decision to close an operation
is not a trivial one,
it's not a decision made lightly.
We have to consider
all of the implications,
and the implications are far-reaching.
People, contractors, businesses,
travel organisations.
There are very large consequences.
Many of the people that have
been affected I personally employed.
It's a difficult place to be.
NARRATOR: For the 200 workers on site,
this news has come as a shock.
So as Brad makes his long way
back to work one final time,
his future is full of uncertainty
BRAD: Life after mining.
To go home to a, say, nine-to-five job,
will probably be hard for me,
I suppose, in a way.
You've just got to readjust
to that way of life.
It'd be tough, be tough for anyone.
It could take a week,
it could take a month,
it could take a year to readjust
to the lifestyle.
I've got a few things that I want
to try and probably do after mining.
I don't know if they'll take off or not.
I'll just play it by ear,
and I'm just gonna have to go home
and become a family again.
Your seatbelt must be worn at any time
the fasten seatbelt sign is illuminated.
NARRATOR: For Brad's fellow
Silver Lake worker Andrew Carstairs,
this is a double blow.
Not only has Andrew
lost his current job,
but his plans to join Rio Tinto,
down the road from his family,
are in tatters too.
It's been revealed
the Rio Tinto Gove alumina refinery
will be closed by July.
The company estimates 50% of the workers
will finish their roles
as early as April.
ANDREW: Mining, it's a fickle game.
That's the only downside
to mining, I find.
The uncertainty,
and, I mean, it's through
nobody son of close to us,
it's not their fault or anything.
It's just the way it is.
It's just... it's fickle, I guess.
I kick myself
and I think, 'Jeez, if I had
my time again, what would I have done?'
And, yeah, I would have got a trade
and stuff. But something will happen.
It always does.
I've been lucky like that, I guess.
Something will turn up.
There's always something to do,
and I'm wanting to give anything a go,
so I think I've got that on my side.
Hopefully I can live the life
I've always wanted
and that's, you know, the good job,
the good income, the family.
Time to, yeah, just time to come home,
I think, and enjoy life a bit more.
Next week, what is the future
of mining in Australia?
Any industry that's going to grow
by 30% over an 18-month period
is actually in a pretty good state.
But the warning signs are there.
Mining is a very cyclical industry.
One of the concerns I have
about Australia as an economy
is we have become more dependent on it.
Dependent as a nation,
dependent as individuals.
MAN: People get hooked on the money.
You can't walk away.
You can't walk away.
Is mining filled with opportunity?
There are at least 3,000
Indigenous people in the workforce
in the Pilbara alone.
I love working in the heat, mate.
Couldn't pick a better place.
Or is it a trap?
Going back to a nine-to-five job
would not be feasible for me.
I often wonder
how I'll get off this merry-go-round
and get back to a normal life.
There's trouble ahead
for the flying miners.
So, the golden handcuffs are on tight.
Captions by CSI Australia