In my last post FIFO Adventures - My first day I had just touched down on an airfield in the middle of the Australian Pilbara which is in the Northern part of Western Australia. I was greeted then escorted to a Landcruiser Prado parked not far from the airfield. In the back was a starter pack which was handed to me of PPE (Personal Protection Equipment) a 5L water bottle and some locks all nicely packed into a duffle bag.
We drove through the eastern side of the camp spiralling through the narrow bitumen roads until we arrived at my room where I was instructed to get changed into my work-wear and leave my personal belongings behind. My room was one of hundreds of identical semi permanent structures. Inside I had my own toilet, shower, bed and small closet; all fully air conditioned with only a small window.
After getting changed, I jumped back into the Prado to get a further tour of some of the site facilities. I was blown away by what I was revealed to me. A gym, a tennis court, golf driving range, a bowling green, dry mess ( where you eat ), wet mess ( where you drink beer ) and even a swimming pool. I could not believe it. This was so far from what I had imagined. No tents and no catching my own food.
From there I was driven to the workshop which was about a ten minute drive from the camp. On arrival, I could see the reason I came to work out here parked at the entrance of one of the three workshop bays - a CAT 994F loader. The biggest machine I had ever seen. A massive beast made of Iron and rubber iconically lazing in the scorching sun.
That was not all. To the left but maybe a hundred meters away I could see a line of CAT 793 trucks neatly parked up on the go-line ready for work. It must have been smoko. I was like a kid in a toy shop. I could not wait to get out there and to start working on these machines. But first, before I could get out there I would need to sit through some more inductions.
Up to this point I still had not thought to have a drink of water. In fact, I didn't really know where to find water. About an hour into the induction, I could feel a demobilizing pain starting to form behind my eyes. A clear sign of dehydration. I pushed on a further thirty minutes but the pain was amplifying to the point where my vision was now blurred.
I put my hand up and asked if we could take a break. "No worries" the trainer replied. She gave me some directions and I immediately made my way to the crib hut where using a disposable cup, I drank possibly two litres of water. I had underestimated how thirsty I was and also learnt quickly how fast one can dehydrate out there. I hadn't even worked outside yet. The headache only eased later that evening but I made it through the inductions.
It was late afternoon before we finished inductions. We were then taken over to the workshop to meet the maintenance team. After making the rounds I was taken over to the warehouse to collect my toolbox but by the time I had it all unpacked it was the end of the shift.
This time, I jumped into a bus. It was allocated to maintenance and this would become my mode of transport from workshop to camp for the next seven months. The trip back was awesome. My leading hand, a clear fan of music did not drive off until he had synced his iPhone to the stereo to put on some Metallica which he played as loud as the little six inch speakers would allow.
All I wanted to do at that point was sleep, but at the same time I was absolutely starving. After a refreshing shower, I made my way to the mess which was about a three hundred meter walk from my room. Entering the mess I was once again blown away. People and food everywhere. Buffet style, mass quantity designed to feed an army of mine workers. This was great, I thought - No cooking and no cleaning dishes.
It was dark by the time I left the mess and I was making my way down the dimly lit footpath toward my room when a figure before me stopped me in my tracks. About twenty meters ahead of me I saw the silhouette of an animal fixed to the pathway staring right through me. I stood dead still, my mind working overtime to work out what this was. The animal moved but only it's head lower to the ground as if to get a new perspective of me.
Now I was from Africa. We have a lot of big animals there that enjoy eating people. I grew up in the bush and I had experience with wild animals. At that stage I had worked out that what was blocking my path was in fact a dingo. This was my first time coming across one and from my experience what was happening here was a clear show of power.
Well, I wasn't backing down. I was going to show this dingo how we roll in Africa. So I started my steady approach toward him. He didn't move. I slowed my pace still proceeding forward. He didn't budge. Now I was not sure If knew what I'm doing but I still moved forward. He only lowerd his head further and maintained his fixation on my eyes. I was about five meters from this dingo, when of us decided to back down..........me.
I took a sharp evasive left probably less than two meters from this guy and as I passed around him, his head followed me around. A clear show of power. And guess who won? Certainly not me.
And that was the end to my first day of FIFO.
