Post by simmo123 on Dec 8, 2010 15:37:07 GMT
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Hi All,Ole Simmo's just been having a look through some early pics of the early years when we arrived in W Aussie in 1968,my first job was at a iron ore open cut mine in the Pilbara region of WA it is situated about 1000 odd miles north west of Perth & about 800 miles inland,after driving Milk Floats & small cars back in the old country it came as a bit of a culture shock to have to nurse one of these Dump trucks around the red dirt tracks of the Mount Newman mine site,i believe from memory they used to load about 100 plus tonnes of Iron ore at a time,to get a job there meant signing a 6 month contract in which the deal was that after 3 months on site your subsidised air fare up was cancelled out you then had to stay the full 6 months to enable you to get a free flight back to Perth,in those days they were flying us in the old Dakota twin prop planes that would shake you to pieces.the money earned was more than double the amount you could earn back in Perth & you also had all meals & campsite conditions supplied free. the downside of course was that you never saw the opposite sex for many weeks at a time & mail came in once a week.I had to leave the family in my case Patricia + two young ones back in Perth to keep things going,it was tough for her what with only being in a strange new country for about three weeks but hey she's was one tough bird & kept everything together ok.The Mount Newman mining Co is now one of the biggest producers of Iron Ore & employs thousands of people,at the time i was up there they had only just started to build the minesite etc.On returning back home i found that it gave me the urge to continue driving anything that came along,the other pic is on the salt beds where i also spent several months this was at a place in Shark Bay called of places"Useless Loop"once again it was camp conditions but the food was good.Following those two jobs i took a number of whatever i could find jobs including driving a low loader truck for an earthmoving contractor,once again this entailed a lot of country work but only away for a couple of months at a time,the big mines now employ what is called "fly-in fly-out workers usually one or two weeks on & then the same time at home,they are really pampered on site usually having a single room with all of the mod cons in them,i have two neighbours who do this & the conditions & money are fantastic.The other pic is of my last 25 years in which i started up a little lawnmowing business just doing small home jobs etc but for the last 15 years before retiring i got into the more commercial side of things,council parks schools ,factories & some rural work as well,they were good years because i could work from home with Patricia coming out to assist as well as our boy's if i needed them.I could spend another couple of hours telling you all the other in between jobs i have done but maybe another time.Well i'm not sure if the pics will come out as firstly they are a bit worn & old & also i'm not sure if i have put them on properly.Hope i didn't bore all the members with all this work stuff but they tell me its good to keep the old mind active...Still full on with the gigs ...Simmo just going to have a cuppa...its 10.30 pm
img571.imageshack.us/img571/8394/scan0006q.jpg
img571.imageshack.us/img571/2879/scan0007p0.jpg
Hi All,Ole Simmo's just been having a look through some early pics of the early years when we arrived in W Aussie in 1968,my first job was at a iron ore open cut mine in the Pilbara region of WA it is situated about 1000 odd miles north west of Perth & about 800 miles inland,after driving Milk Floats & small cars back in the old country it came as a bit of a culture shock to have to nurse one of these Dump trucks around the red dirt tracks of the Mount Newman mine site,i believe from memory they used to load about 100 plus tonnes of Iron ore at a time,to get a job there meant signing a 6 month contract in which the deal was that after 3 months on site your subsidised air fare up was cancelled out you then had to stay the full 6 months to enable you to get a free flight back to Perth,in those days they were flying us in the old Dakota twin prop planes that would shake you to pieces.the money earned was more than double the amount you could earn back in Perth & you also had all meals & campsite conditions supplied free. the downside of course was that you never saw the opposite sex for many weeks at a time & mail came in once a week.I had to leave the family in my case Patricia + two young ones back in Perth to keep things going,it was tough for her what with only being in a strange new country for about three weeks but hey she's was one tough bird & kept everything together ok.The Mount Newman mining Co is now one of the biggest producers of Iron Ore & employs thousands of people,at the time i was up there they had only just started to build the minesite etc.On returning back home i found that it gave me the urge to continue driving anything that came along,the other pic is on the salt beds where i also spent several months this was at a place in Shark Bay called of places"Useless Loop"once again it was camp conditions but the food was good.Following those two jobs i took a number of whatever i could find jobs including driving a low loader truck for an earthmoving contractor,once again this entailed a lot of country work but only away for a couple of months at a time,the big mines now employ what is called "fly-in fly-out workers usually one or two weeks on & then the same time at home,they are really pampered on site usually having a single room with all of the mod cons in them,i have two neighbours who do this & the conditions & money are fantastic.The other pic is of my last 25 years in which i started up a little lawnmowing business just doing small home jobs etc but for the last 15 years before retiring i got into the more commercial side of things,council parks schools ,factories & some rural work as well,they were good years because i could work from home with Patricia coming out to assist as well as our boy's if i needed them.I could spend another couple of hours telling you all the other in between jobs i have done but maybe another time.Well i'm not sure if the pics will come out as firstly they are a bit worn & old & also i'm not sure if i have put them on properly.Hope i didn't bore all the members with all this work stuff but they tell me its good to keep the old mind active...Still full on with the gigs ...Simmo just going to have a cuppa...its 10.30 pm
OK,OK so Ole Simmo's a bit dill 
i was pressing the wrong buttons but i got there in the end...Doh!!!!