Mining For Gold

Thursday 9 November

This morning we said “goodbye” to eleven of our group, most of whom were continuing their travels to other parts of Australia, with only a couple of people returning home. As we weren’t scheduled to leave the hotel today until 09.30, we had plenty of time for all those last minute farewells and hugs. It was then time to board the coach for another fairly long day of driving, to Tennant Creek – about 400 kms.

The countryside outside Alice Springs is much the same as we have seen the last few days – scrubby grass, bushes and trees, for miles upon miles. We were still traveling on the Stuart Highway – the same route traveled by John McDouall Stuart, almost 150 years ago. The electricity wires and poles were still alongside the road, but in some areas, the odd solar panel feeds into the supply. After lunch the vegetation became more ‘lush’ in that the tufts of grass became longer and closer together, looking like a pale green swathe of corn, although still with lots of bushes and small trees protruding. There were also lots of termite hills, from small red cones to formations over two feet tall. They look like scattered rocks in the grassland. We saw a few kites gliding overhead, a few smaller birds, and a group of wild horses gathered under a tree for shade – where do they find water out here? But otherwise the wildlife you can see from the coach is sparse.

We hadn’t gone far this morning, when we reached the marker for the Tropic of Capricorn – a large globe at the end of a long pole, marking the approximate point where the sun reaches its furthest overhead point from the equator, before making its way back to the northern hemisphere – it will seem strange to have the longest day on 21 December (it will be the shortest day at home). We all trooped out of the coach into blazing hot sun – even before 10.00 the temperature was up to 30 degrees C + – and had another group photo taken to commemorate our crossing the line.

We stopped for lunch at another roadside café, this one famous for its chicken pies and aboriginal art exhibition. There was only one pie left, by the time we were served, so we shared that and a ham salad roll. Colin had woken up this morning with a headache, and he had felt very sleepy all day. Soon after we got back on the coach this afternoon, he begun to feel most unwell and shivery (in this heat?) and had a few very uncomfortable hours as we traveled towards Tennant Creek.

We stopped only once more – at Wycliffe Well – another overnight stopping place on the long road north - which was taken over in the 1980’s by Lew, and has since become the UFO Mecca of Australia. The bar inside sells over 300 different beers, some of which I recognized – like Old Peculiar, Boddingtons Fosters(!) amongst other bottles from all over the world. There are lots of “little green men” around the site and murals on the walls, depicting spaceships and aliens, and there is even a model of the huge green “incredible hulk” on the lawn. The ladies toilets are called “femaliens”. There have been many sightings of UFOs reported in this area, but many may have been induced by over indulgence in the bar!

Soon after this stop we passed through Wauchope (pronounced Wancombe!?!). This watering hole’s claim to fame (that’s how its described in the local visitors’ guide), is that in the 1960’s and 70’s, for one day a year, it used to put a barrier across the road to stop all the traffic. Everyone had to get out and either bowl an over (six balls) or bat an over in the Wauchope vs the Rest of the World cricket match.

Down the road from here our next stop was the Devils Marbles – a series of huge granite boulders precariously balanced on top of one another, scattered across a shallow valley. This formation is due to natural erosion, but some of the rocks seemed to balancing by a mere finger tip touch of the rock. The area provides shelter and food for the wild life which “survives” around here. Temperatures this afternoon on the coach reading said 48 degrees C and later in Tennant Creek, the manager told us it was up to 50 degrees! It certainly was hot, as we strolled around these boulders, taking “strong man” photos.

After half an hour it was time to make our way to our hotel for the night in – the Eldorado Motor Inn. Tennant Creek is a linear settlement eleven kilometres from the nearby Repeater Station, set up by the water hole. During the last Gold Rush in the 1930’s, the precious metal was found in the ironstone rocks of the area. As this was at the time of the Great Depression, hundreds of people flocked to the area from the larger towns and cities and anything from one gram per ton would be sufficient to set up a mine, although 25 grams per ton were found at the very richest veins. It is said that a man from Alice realized that all these prospectors would need supplies, so loaded his cart and made his way towards the Repeater Station at Tennant Creek (named after John Tennant, a benefactor of John McDouall Stuart who founded this highway). About 11 kms from the station, his cart broke down, and seeing all the supplies, the prospectors flocked to stock up, so he just set up his shop there and never moved and the settlement grew around the shop. It is more likely that this was as close to the Repeater Station as he could get, as the Government owned the land around the Station. But the township of Tennant Creek was born. Today Tennant Creek has several visitor attractions, worthy of a visit, the Repeater Station, Lake Mary Ann with a dam and lots of wild life, Bill Allen Lookout where you have a 360 degree panoramic view, and a golf course – played on red soft soil, instead of greens, a sand iron looks a useful club. Unfortunately we were not staying in Tennant Creek long enough to visit all the sights.

We just had time to put our cases in our rooms, before we were off again to visit a mine. By this time Colin was feeling very poorly, and decided not to go on the tour. Which was a shame, as the tour was very entertaining. We were introduced to our guide, Lee, a woman, probably in her sixties, who could have passed for Henny Penny, with her pointed nose, round face, tufty hair and jovial character. We were fitted out with hard hats and ear mufflers before being shown through to the mine which was in fact a purpose-built museum. It represented the mines as they were in 1956 (only fifty years ago!), although Lee described the conditions from the first mines in 1930’s in vivid detail. We all had to play the parts of different miners

We went into the side of a hill, composed of sandstone (which is very soft rock) and ironstone (which is the very hard granite-like stone which contains the gold). She showed us a model of a real nearby mine, explaining about the different levels of excavation. We continued through rock corridors, to see models of how the miners extracted the ore with picks and hammers, winched it to the surface in large buckets, operated by a man (Bob) on the surface – working in temperatures always around 40 degrees C. He would then “tamp” the rock and test for gold – which is usually found as dust within iron ore – by panning with a large dish. The men in the mine below were working in temperatures over 50 degrees C, as ironstone is a conductor of heat. Another man was responsible for transporting the rock to the surface for testing, by filling up buckets holding a bit less than a ton from the primary excavations (Daniel). Those chiseling out the rock for testing (Norman), were known as “rat holers” and worked by laying on their stomachs, with their chins resting on a bucket (their shoulders couldn’t hold their heads up for more than a short period of time, and they were on twelve hour shifts) and their arms out straight in front on them, tapping away at the rock. The tunnel they were working in was only just big enough round for a person to crawl into, so these were usually skinny people. They had a light, but this produced heat, so it was only used to see where to hammer at the start of the shift, and to check the amount of ore cut out. If the excavations were good, and some traces of gold were found, the tunnel would be dynamited by the “powder monkey”, (the part I played), who set explosive in holes in ring patterns, to blast away the rock, to make a bigger surface area, and then blasting again, again and again, (eight rings was usually the maximum) until a large cavern was created. When the “powder monkey” had set the fuse line and all the miners had to congregate in the “Crib Room”, for safety away from the blast (if any of the explosions didn’t go off, the “powder monkey” had to go back and reset the blast! – very dangerous!)

The blasted ore was then put in skips and “carried” by two men to the “ore shute”, a shaft connecting all the levels in the mine, that would have been prepared when setting up the mine, and would probably go down to a depth of several hundred feet. It had a series of heavy chains like a curtain with iron bars (it would take two or three men to lift each link – never mind a whole chain) which was operated back and forth to open and close the chute – it had to be strong enough to stop the falling boulders on their journey down to the bottom level. As the ore was thrown down this chute, it would bang on the sides of the shaft, and crash on other rocks at the bottom, so breaking the boulders into smaller pieces. These were then winched up in large containers, through a separate shaft, next to where the men accessed the mine, and sent for breaking and grinding into dust, before panning for the gold dust. Mechanisation came to the mines around the mid fifties, and most of the mines worked until the late 1980’s. but there are still a few in the area working today. With the installation of water, electricity, and mechanical tools and even trucks like “grabbers” (which looked like small diggers of today) and picked up the rock in a ‘shovel’ at the front and tipped it overhead into skips., conditions became easier, and even women worked in the mines. They were responsible for better toilet facilities (more private) and even showers being installed underground. There was very little Health and Safety considerations and many accidents and deaths occurred down in the mines – the dining table in the Crib Room, also served as the first aid bench! A pneumatic drill was introduced, that had a compressed air line running through the centre, and kept the diamond headed drills dust free. But after several years, it was noticed that many of these men died within a few years of operating this drill, from silicosis (from breathing in the silica dust in the rock). A water line replaced the air line and the incidence of sickness improved considerably.

We had been underground for almost two hours, but time had flown by as this was such an interesting tour. Several of the party did not come, as they are not happy at being underground or in confined spaces, but Lee made the tour so entertaining, it was well worth the trip. When we emerged back into the fresh air, just as the sun was in the last throes of setting and the sky was a mixture of crimson, mauve, purple and navy blue. A beautiful view. I had not taken the stills camera with me, as it is really not working well at all, so I am hoping that someone will email me the pictures of the mine, to add to our collection. We will definitely be buying a new camera when we reach civilization again.

At the café attached to the mine, a local lady and her two daughters had prepared a “feast” of crudities and dips, burgers, sausages and chicken skewers, with a large variety of salads, and fruit salad and ice cream. It was hard to believe we were out in the desert, several hundred kilometers from the nearest large town. Ruben and Paul had purchased a case of beers, and there was still red and white wine and orange juice left from our sunset viewings at Ayers Rock and the Olgas. Poppies for Remembrance Day were on ale here for A$1 each – they were not the paper type we have at home, but silk petals and cotton twisted stamens, which looked very delicate and pretty, especially when all bunched together in a pot.

Back at the hotel, Colin was not doing at all well, having been very sick and now was very achy all over, but his shivers seemed to have stopped. I just hope he manages to get a good night’s sleep and feels better in the morning, as we have another long day in the coach, starting at 07.30.