Getting into Mining
Oct 27th 2006 | 11:30 am
#16
BE Enthusiast
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 332
From: Qld oz
Re: Getting into Mining
Originally Posted by OzzieDreamers
We'll be based in Brisbane, but as I understand it most mining work is fly in fly out (FIFO). Having travelled internationally or commuted in the UK for work for as long as I can remember the idea of shipping about doesn't bother me.
As for what area of mining, i'd like to use my existing skills if possible (IT and business project and programme management)- if not then I'll learn new ones, I'm not too proud (or old) to change.
Cheers
As for what area of mining, i'd like to use my existing skills if possible (IT and business project and programme management)- if not then I'll learn new ones, I'm not too proud (or old) to change.
Cheers
Oct 27th 2006 | 11:38 am
#17
BE Enthusiast
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 332
From: Qld oz
Re: Getting into Mining
If you are going to get into the mines and you are not single,please look at the whole picture.The money is good which gives you and your family choices but pick the right places for oh and kids to live.It can be really difficult.I know Iv'e just said the right place what I mean is to have alook at arreas we sort of moved to quick and I have found it difficult so has the 17 year old
Oct 27th 2006 | 12:46 pm
#18
BE Enthusiast
Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 530
From: Sutton Coldfield now beautiful Karalee
Re: Getting into Mining
Originally Posted by bobbyftm
Hi there Mr S,
hope you dont mind me being a tad nosey ? I too was/am a mechanical fitter for 13 years down the coal mines in north east England (Until 1991 when Maggie the witch decided we didn't need a surplus of coal due to enormous amounts of gas and oil and closed them all in our area ( ha ha ha )).What i was wondering is were you involved in the mines in England and therefor have relevant experience and have totally been ignored in your pursuit of these jobs?Also as i said i semi retired from fitting in 91 and have worked in factories as machine operator and such since then and was wondering what my chances would be of getting back into fitting speaking from any experience you may have?May i ask if your doing fitting now and is there much in the way of opportunities in Brisbane area.From experience which areas would you class as industrial areas out there for the likes of my work ? Sorry for all the questions but any single piece of information would be greatfully appreciated for the cause !!
cheers Bobby (aged 45 hopefully arriving Brisbane FEB 07)
please feel free to pm me if you like and good luck with YOUR QUEST !
hope you dont mind me being a tad nosey ? I too was/am a mechanical fitter for 13 years down the coal mines in north east England (Until 1991 when Maggie the witch decided we didn't need a surplus of coal due to enormous amounts of gas and oil and closed them all in our area ( ha ha ha )).What i was wondering is were you involved in the mines in England and therefor have relevant experience and have totally been ignored in your pursuit of these jobs?Also as i said i semi retired from fitting in 91 and have worked in factories as machine operator and such since then and was wondering what my chances would be of getting back into fitting speaking from any experience you may have?May i ask if your doing fitting now and is there much in the way of opportunities in Brisbane area.From experience which areas would you class as industrial areas out there for the likes of my work ? Sorry for all the questions but any single piece of information would be greatfully appreciated for the cause !!
cheers Bobby (aged 45 hopefully arriving Brisbane FEB 07)
please feel free to pm me if you like and good luck with YOUR QUEST !
I am doing fitting as unfortunately thats all I can do :scared:
I was offered a job the day I started looking. I am based in wacol which is a very industrial area, but I was however offered work in Cleveland and riversands on the bayside.
I would find where you want to live and look for work around that area as there really is plenty at the moment. Luckily licencing is not and issue for us and nobody has really been interested in my papers, just my experience.
I have never worked in the mines, all my experience was in the car industry so you may have a heads up on me.
I have a mate in Mackay who I worked with in Landrover and as soon as he landed he took the 2 day safety course and had 5 job offers in a week, 1 of which was a supervisory role in which he has no experience.
Oct 28th 2006 | 11:57 pm
#19
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 5,867
From: north east england to south east queensland(cleveland in fact )WE WON THE CUP
Re: Getting into Mining
Originally Posted by The S's
Yes you should have no probs getting back in if that is what you want to do. Lots of work here, whether perm or casual.
I am doing fitting as unfortunately thats all I can do :scared:
I was offered a job the day I started looking. I am based in wacol which is a very industrial area, but I was however offered work in Cleveland and riversands on the bayside.
I would find where you want to live and look for work around that area as there really is plenty at the moment. Luckily licencing is not and issue for us and nobody has really been interested in my papers, just my experience.
I have never worked in the mines, all my experience was in the car industry so you may have a heads up on me.
I have a mate in Mackay who I worked with in Landrover and as soon as he landed he took the 2 day safety course and had 5 job offers in a week, 1 of which was a supervisory role in which he has no experience.
I am doing fitting as unfortunately thats all I can do :scared:
I was offered a job the day I started looking. I am based in wacol which is a very industrial area, but I was however offered work in Cleveland and riversands on the bayside.
I would find where you want to live and look for work around that area as there really is plenty at the moment. Luckily licencing is not and issue for us and nobody has really been interested in my papers, just my experience.
I have never worked in the mines, all my experience was in the car industry so you may have a heads up on me.
I have a mate in Mackay who I worked with in Landrover and as soon as he landed he took the 2 day safety course and had 5 job offers in a week, 1 of which was a supervisory role in which he has no experience.
regards bobby
Oct 29th 2006 | 6:03 am
#20
Forum Regular
Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 90
Re: Getting into Mining
Originally Posted by OzzieDreamers
We'll be based in Brisbane, but as I understand it most mining work is fly in fly out (FIFO). Having travelled internationally or commuted in the UK for work for as long as I can remember the idea of shipping about doesn't bother me.
As for what area of mining, i'd like to use my existing skills if possible (IT and business project and programme management)- if not then I'll learn new ones, I'm not too proud (or old) to change.
Cheers
As for what area of mining, i'd like to use my existing skills if possible (IT and business project and programme management)- if not then I'll learn new ones, I'm not too proud (or old) to change.
Cheers
I intend to be based in Sydney and would be interested in FIFO to Bowen Basin but not sure if that's feasible. Also wondering if last day of shift is travel/rest time or not. Looking on t'internet I can see 10 day on 4 day off with Hayes (for Cost Engineering etc.,) and that'd suit me fine....but I don't intend contacting anyone about definate jobs until I'm over there....as many others on here have said, it's a waste of time, nobody wants to kno until you're there and available.
Oct 29th 2006 | 7:29 am
#21
Canuck/Aussie
Joined: May 2006
Posts: 4,547
From: BC, Canada
Re: Getting into Mining
We've done a lot of research into the mining info because my husband is a mining engineer. Here's a few links I've found:
Map of all mines in Australia, so you can see the proximity to towns:
http://www.ga.gov.au/image_cache/GA6886.pdf
Download "Google Earth" and then follow the directions on this page to see a real representation of all the mines. If you click on the mines it should show you the company that runs them, and it will usually bring up their webpage too.
http://www.australianminesatlas.gov.au/doco/ge.jsp
Using these two sites, mainly google earth, we have discovered which areas are really remote and which areas you can drive to and from work each day.
Generally speaking Western Australia is fly in and fly out, usually an 8 on and 6 off roster. There is also usually a small mining town in the middle of nowhere where you can choose to live.
Queensland has some fly in and fly out, although it seems as though most people live in a small town nearby. Most of the mines are about 3 hours inland.
We have choosen to go to Hunter Valley, New South Wales. There are a lot of coal mines in the area, and all of them are within half an hour of a couple decent sized town. That area is also only about 1 to 1.5 hours from the coast depending on where you live. It would be slightly easier for my husband to get work there since he already has a few years of mining experience.
If you are new to the field then you may have to settle for somewhere a little more remote in order to get some experience. You may have a hard time finding a job in your field since they do tend to prefer people that have working in the mining field before. Also those jobs would be highly desireable right now because of the high salaries. You might need to learn how to do something else. Again... I haven't researched that area, so I'm just basing my thoughts on what I've seen in Canada.
As a side note someone mentioned lifestyle. I agree that the mining industry is paying well right now but the life you have may be crap. Right now in Canada my husband work 8 days straight, and puts in 104 hours + 16 hours driving to and from work. Then he gets 4 days off and repeats the schedule on nights. So he's almost never home. On top of that we live in a crappy town in Northern Alberta so there's not much to do.
So if you have a family I would seriously consider if this is something the whole family wants. It's great to have lots of money, but as we've discovered there's not much point to it if you can't live in a decent place or have any time off to do something fun.
Good luck with your search. If you need anymore info from me feel free to post her or PM me.
Haley
Map of all mines in Australia, so you can see the proximity to towns:
http://www.ga.gov.au/image_cache/GA6886.pdf
Download "Google Earth" and then follow the directions on this page to see a real representation of all the mines. If you click on the mines it should show you the company that runs them, and it will usually bring up their webpage too.
http://www.australianminesatlas.gov.au/doco/ge.jsp
Using these two sites, mainly google earth, we have discovered which areas are really remote and which areas you can drive to and from work each day.
Generally speaking Western Australia is fly in and fly out, usually an 8 on and 6 off roster. There is also usually a small mining town in the middle of nowhere where you can choose to live.
Queensland has some fly in and fly out, although it seems as though most people live in a small town nearby. Most of the mines are about 3 hours inland.
We have choosen to go to Hunter Valley, New South Wales. There are a lot of coal mines in the area, and all of them are within half an hour of a couple decent sized town. That area is also only about 1 to 1.5 hours from the coast depending on where you live. It would be slightly easier for my husband to get work there since he already has a few years of mining experience.
If you are new to the field then you may have to settle for somewhere a little more remote in order to get some experience. You may have a hard time finding a job in your field since they do tend to prefer people that have working in the mining field before. Also those jobs would be highly desireable right now because of the high salaries. You might need to learn how to do something else. Again... I haven't researched that area, so I'm just basing my thoughts on what I've seen in Canada.
As a side note someone mentioned lifestyle. I agree that the mining industry is paying well right now but the life you have may be crap. Right now in Canada my husband work 8 days straight, and puts in 104 hours + 16 hours driving to and from work. Then he gets 4 days off and repeats the schedule on nights. So he's almost never home. On top of that we live in a crappy town in Northern Alberta so there's not much to do.
So if you have a family I would seriously consider if this is something the whole family wants. It's great to have lots of money, but as we've discovered there's not much point to it if you can't live in a decent place or have any time off to do something fun.
Good luck with your search. If you need anymore info from me feel free to post her or PM me.
Haley
Oct 29th 2006 | 7:34 am
#22
Forum Regular
Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 90
Re: Getting into Mining
Originally Posted by comet555
We've done a lot of research into the mining info because my husband is a mining engineer. Here's a few links I've found:
Map of all mines in Australia, so you can see the proximity to towns:
http://www.ga.gov.au/image_cache/GA6886.pdf
Download "Google Earth" and then follow the directions on this page to see a real representation of all the mines. If you click on the mines it should show you the company that runs them, and it will usually bring up their webpage too.
http://www.australianminesatlas.gov.au/doco/ge.jsp
Using these two sites, mainly google earth, we have discovered which areas are really remote and which areas you can drive to and from work each day.
Generally speaking Western Australia is fly in and fly out, usually an 8 on and 6 off roster. There is also usually a small mining town in the middle of nowhere where you can choose to live.
Queensland has some fly in and fly out, although it seems as though most people live in a small town nearby. Most of the mines are about 3 hours inland.
We have choosen to go to Hunter Valley, New South Wales. There are a lot of coal mines in the area, and all of them are within half an hour of a couple decent sized town. That area is also only about 1 to 1.5 hours from the coast depending on where you live. It would be slightly easier for my husband to get work there since he already has a few years of mining experience.
If you are new to the field then you may have to settle for somewhere a little more remote in order to get some experience. You may have a hard time finding a job in your field since they do tend to prefer people that have working in the mining field before. Also those jobs would be highly desireable right now because of the high salaries. You might need to learn how to do something else. Again... I haven't researched that area, so I'm just basing my thoughts on what I've seen in Canada.
As a side note someone mentioned lifestyle. I agree that the mining industry is paying well right now but the life you have may be crap. Right now in Canada my husband work 8 days straight, and puts in 104 hours + 16 hours driving to and from work. Then he gets 4 days off and repeats the schedule on nights. So he's almost never home. On top of that we live in a crappy town in Northern Alberta so there's not much to do.
So if you have a family I would seriously consider if this is something the whole family wants. It's great to have lots of money, but as we've discovered there's not much point to it if you can't live in a decent place or have any time off to do something fun.
Good luck with your search. If you need anymore info from me feel free to post her or PM me.
Haley
Map of all mines in Australia, so you can see the proximity to towns:
http://www.ga.gov.au/image_cache/GA6886.pdf
Download "Google Earth" and then follow the directions on this page to see a real representation of all the mines. If you click on the mines it should show you the company that runs them, and it will usually bring up their webpage too.
http://www.australianminesatlas.gov.au/doco/ge.jsp
Using these two sites, mainly google earth, we have discovered which areas are really remote and which areas you can drive to and from work each day.
Generally speaking Western Australia is fly in and fly out, usually an 8 on and 6 off roster. There is also usually a small mining town in the middle of nowhere where you can choose to live.
Queensland has some fly in and fly out, although it seems as though most people live in a small town nearby. Most of the mines are about 3 hours inland.
We have choosen to go to Hunter Valley, New South Wales. There are a lot of coal mines in the area, and all of them are within half an hour of a couple decent sized town. That area is also only about 1 to 1.5 hours from the coast depending on where you live. It would be slightly easier for my husband to get work there since he already has a few years of mining experience.
If you are new to the field then you may have to settle for somewhere a little more remote in order to get some experience. You may have a hard time finding a job in your field since they do tend to prefer people that have working in the mining field before. Also those jobs would be highly desireable right now because of the high salaries. You might need to learn how to do something else. Again... I haven't researched that area, so I'm just basing my thoughts on what I've seen in Canada.
As a side note someone mentioned lifestyle. I agree that the mining industry is paying well right now but the life you have may be crap. Right now in Canada my husband work 8 days straight, and puts in 104 hours + 16 hours driving to and from work. Then he gets 4 days off and repeats the schedule on nights. So he's almost never home. On top of that we live in a crappy town in Northern Alberta so there's not much to do.
So if you have a family I would seriously consider if this is something the whole family wants. It's great to have lots of money, but as we've discovered there's not much point to it if you can't live in a decent place or have any time off to do something fun.
Good luck with your search. If you need anymore info from me feel free to post her or PM me.
Haley
Thanks
Oct 29th 2006 | 9:09 am
#23
Canuck/Aussie
Joined: May 2006
Posts: 4,547
From: BC, Canada
Re: Getting into Mining
Originally Posted by RubyPearl
Wow..thanks for the info. Really useful. I work in heavy engineering now and have done work away from home but usually still only away through the week and home each weekend. Still something I'd consider for OZ and have found this whole string really useful.
Thanks
Thanks
There's also Newcastle which is about 2 hours north of Sydney, there are a bunch of underground mines there as well. You can live in Lake Macquarie and drive to work.
We chose the Hunter Valley mines between Singleton and Musswellbrook because they are all open pit, which is where my husband has experience. We are hoping to live in Singleton which is only 1 hour or 1 hour 15 minutes from Newcastle (which is right next to the ocean). Of course all this depends on him getting a job in that area.
Depending on your area of expertience (not sure what heavy engineering is) you might be able to work out of the corporate offices which are based in the main cities like Perth, Brisbane, Syndey, etc.
If anyone is desperate to get into mining then you could try the Pilbara area which is in nort western Australia. I think you can do fly in fly out, or live in an extremely remote town. That area seems to be recruiting heavily as they can never find anyone who wants to work there. I've never been there of course but I wouldn't recommend it if you want any sort of life.
Haley
