"Greg G." wrote in message
...
J. Clarke said:

Holy crap did _I_ ever go into the wrong field.

That's what I was thinking... Do they hire old farts over 50?
I've wanted to live in Oz for decades - just for a change of pace.




Yes they do. Standard entry path without prior skills is as a haulpak
operator. (Dumptruck weighing anywhere between 100 and 240 tons empty and
185 and 480 tons loaded.)
Need to be fit and healthy. Need to be able to cope with working a week of
12 hour days followed by a week of 12 hour nights. Need to be able to do as
you are told. It gets *really, really* mind numbingly boring. Lots of people
try it and can't hack it for a variety of reasons.

Not easy for older people without prior mining experience to get in when
things are static, but the whole industry, gold, nickel and iron ore along
with huge new natural gas developments is gathering pace for what they are
saying is an even bigger boom than the last. We don't have the people to
cope with that, so we'll train new ones. One of the main qualifications when
there are huge labour shortages is having a heartbeat. : )
One of our more common sources of operators has traditionally been Kiwi's,
but the *******s are already all over here now. (I hope the last one to
leave NZ remembered to turn the lights out : )

diggerop