Hi everyone, sorry for the delay getting this updated
We have been quite busy during our first two weeks in Emerald
We arrived on the Saturday afternoon, with Susan’s back still
Not good and probably being aggravated by having to
drive for two days towing the van, she did a great job.
BREAKING NEWS! We were successful with our applications for the positions at Mt Surprise in Nth QLD starting early May, very excited, can’t wait to get up there and learn all about the area. Les will be doing tour guide as part of the Savannah Guides group and Susan is working at the reception office and some cleaning. We anticipate being there till possibly late Sept. The Park we will be working from and staying at is the Bedrock Village Park, where the tours operate from. Check thier website below.
We will leave Emerald around end of April and take our time heading north.
We set up camp at the Emerald Cabin and Caravan Village
In Opal St in town.
We were to meet the new boss on Sunday morning
at 10.00 for a coffee and a chat about Les’s new job.
Unfortunately, Susan’s back was quite bad Sun morning, so we headed to Emergency at the hospital. They were very good and thankfully not too busy. The doctor gave Susan an anti-inflammatory injection to try and settle the spasms and some pain killers.
By this time, Les had to go and meet the boss, Murray, so left Susan at the hospital for a while to settle the back.
Les met with the boss as planned. Learnt all about the company, family owned, have some 26 drivers, Murray and Noela, the owners, with Kim, their daughter, the Manager of the business. Also the ops manager and the pay lady.
Murray gave a run down on the operation, the area in general and the mines in the area which they service. There are some 20 mine sites around the area which we service, including out to Blackwater, Middlemount and in between. We run a variety of services for the mining companies, and also for some contractors who do repair and maintenance work on various machinery such as the drag lines.
Susan immediately started work on looking for a job. There are numerous jobs around town, including Woolies who are constantly chasing people and more so because there is a new shopping centre opening on 15 March which has BigW and woollies and other stores.
Susan had already been for one interview at a local motel for a cleaning job. She has also been for an interview for a pharmacy job which is opening in the centre also. Susan then also had an interview with Big W to do night replenishment of the shelves. She then had a call for an interview with Mitre 10.
Since all this Susan has been offered the pharmacy assistant position and then also was offered the Big W job. The local Foodworks managers are staying in the area we are staying and had offered Susan and one of the other wives of one of the other drivers a job also.
Sooo, Susan starts with the pharmacy in the new shopping centre Mon 5 Mar on a full time basis. She then found some clashes with Big W in the first week already. Subsequently, Big W job is on hold for now.
Les started with Emerald Coaches on Monday 20th and was thrown into it from the start. Murray took him and another new driver out on the road in a 50 seater coach for some familiarisation. Talk about the deep end, Les had advised Murray he had only driven the 22-25 seaters previously, but that didn’t worry Murray, he just said, you'll be fine.
Murray drove out along one of farm roads and then threw John, the other newbie in the drivers seat for a while. He then stopped and said it was Les’s turn. After a short run, Murray directed us back towards the depot, but kept going into town to tackle some roundabouts, wasn’t that fun! Managed reasonably well getting used to the gears and the size of the coach were the biggest things.
Emerald Coaches has 26 buses in total with the majority being coaches. Murray has just received another two coaches also.
From there Les was rostered the next morning for a 4.00am start with John to learn one of the runs out to one of the mine sites, some 50 k’s away, then the return pick up is 12 hours later, so generally a split shift, but usually do other jobs during the day including the school runs they are contracted for.
Murray just said check with ops and jump in a different coach and go for a drive to get used to them. That also meant travelling to Blackwater to drive a 50 seater with a crash box back to Emerald, been a little while since
Les has driven crash boxes, so that was another experience again.
Work is usually work 6 days a week as they are very busy. They employ many travelling people such as ourselves and have some drivers come back more than once. Les was in Blackwater for three nights till Wed doing another mine run for day shift and night shift. This job is purely for a contractor who is responsible for the shut down maintenance of the drag line at Ensham mine.
This site is some 70 k’s from Blackwater back towards Emerald and has been running since approx. 1997. A couple of weeks ago, the rain caused some flooding around Emerald and also this mine site, particularly Nogoa River,
which runs through the area. To overcome this, the mining company set up a large flying fox over the creek when it was flooded so the workers could still get to and from the site, talk about money spent out here!
Sat 25th we moved from the caravan park in Emerald to an agricultural type depot 6 k’s out of town as it is $60 a week cheaper than in town and has more space to set up. Two of the other travelling drivers are also set up out there so we have company.
We have had storms and rain on and off, which has been a nightmare for Susan as Les is usually at work at night when they hit.
We have power and dam water on tap with rain water tanks for our drinking water. The toilets/showers aren’t great and a bit of a walk, but seems okay for now. We have had some issues with the power here, hopefully
sorted soon.
Photo below is one of the coaches parked up at Blackwater.
This one below is the mini bus I took out on the first "real" job.
This is a real “wide load”.
Plenty more and bigger where this came from.
Took up the whole of the bridge into town.
For those who haven't seen cotton growing and being harvested have a
look at these photos
Below is the harvester
Here the cotton is being poured into the press, it is compressed very tight
and then comes out in a "cube" and a the yellow tarp is placed
over it till it is taken to the "gin". The cotton gin is where the cotton is processed.
Well people that's all for now, more to come as we discover new
things around here. Cheers
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