Rock Hound

Hi all So i arrived back in the uk on friday now i am just looking into my driving licence. My uk one expired in 2013 whilst i was in australia (i still have the card and paper but presume i cant renew it without a hefty fine) now i only have my WA one. I have just got the D1 form and it says i must be normally resident in the UK for more than 185. Having lived at the same address for over 23 years before moving to oz does this count or do i have to wait for 185 days? Cheers Paul

Hi all Just a quick question. I am in the process of trying to get a 190 visa and my job is on the schedule 2 list thingy for the state nomination meaning i need a 12 month contract for the visa application. Now my question is say i got the visa and started working the contract, what would happen if i was let go before the 12 months was up? Would this mean the visa could be cancelled? Cheers

As has been said the industry has cut back and laid a lot of experienced people off. The only real chance would be for you to be in an actual mining town such as Mt Isa, Kalgoorlie or broken hill etc. Even then it is more a case of who you know not what you know. Chances for a new guy are really slim at the moment.

The problem with a WHV i that i originally came over on one and used a little over 7 months and isn't there a cooling off period or something? Yes i am a geologist and although i have supervised an onsite lab it was basic and only ran 1 type of analytic test.

Thank you all for the support, i was sort of expecting it and in the end it is probably for the best as the last few months haven't been the best experience (i was already looking for a new job). 90 days makes it easier but the major coincidence is that it is the same day as when my rental agreement is up. I was looking to move but it does make me think if i will need a place in a few months.

Hi All Well i have just had the news through i am being made redundant from the beginning of next month. Now when i originally got the visa you had 28 days to find new work after my current contract was finished. However i have been in contact with an agent who says i have 90 days, is this now correct? They must have changed it and i was not informed. If my visa grant was before this change i take it that it was applied to old 457 visas as well? Cheers Paul

Yes i would never leave an animal to suffer. It is not a nice feeling though but at least it was quick. Just remember that you need to remove the carcase from the road as it attracts more animals. Try to go at least 10m off into the bush.

I recently went on holiday and used insure4less

I snotted my first one a couple of months ago (after being here for over 2 years working in bush it had to happen), it was early morning in a work ute. I let it come around but i had broke it's leg so you know...... Even though i have been hunting it really wasn't a nice feeling so i know were you are coming from.

As it is the industry is in decline with thousands of people being laid off in the past few months and more on the cards. If he is a certified boiler maker (welder) then he might get lucky but if he does make sure to buy a lotto ticket......

ok so pretty much confirmed my suspicions on the employer sponsored visa. Are there any other options? The problem is my 2 years would be the start of January-ish at which point I don't know if geo's will still be on the skills list.

Hi All So following some advice and before I go off and contact an agent I thought I would see what advice I could get here. Basically I am a Geologist and I came over in May 2011 on a WHV. I got a job with my current company pretty much straight away and worked for them for the full 6 months allowed on my WHV before getting my 457. Due to a mess up by my company in getting the 457 at the end of the 6 months I had to resign for about 3 weeks before being rehired when my 457 came through. What are my basic options? I have had a look at the immi website and I am slightly confused. I have been looking at the company sponsored residency visa I have to work for them for 2 years so would this mean the two years would be the time when I was rehired? Cheers Paul

Yeah i have started looking into it i probably should find an agent as i have some big questions that need answering after doing some research. I have just got to research agents i suppose. I have tried to find work out in africa but everything seems to need 5+ years experience and i only have a bit over 3 unless i am looking in the wrong places. I have only ever took a quick look at south america and found most places wanted spanish speakers. If you don't mind me asking i don't suppose you have any links/contacts? Please pm me is you do. Cheers

I have been telling people back in the UK not to come out at the moment and even then some aren't listening. I luckily still have a job at the moment thanks to making some prudent decisions by taking on a project very few in the company wanted to go to due to the remote site. I was in the exploration department for around 6 months after my old mine site shutdown and i could see it starting to head a bit south so i put in for this new shortish term (6 months or so) project as it was guaranteed work. It was only a month or so later that the gold price plummeted and then about 2 weeks after that they laid off over 3 quarters of the exploration department. Looking back that could have been me but i probably have work till December now then who knows. I have been looking since september for new work i have had a few sniffs but alas nothing has come through due to cut backs. As people have said it is very hard now finding someone to sponsor a 457 visa which is unheard of for people in my line of work (Geology). Going back to june last year i had recruiters contacting me every day with possible positions. I suppose I need to look into getting my residency visa....

Looks like he went to the uni. of plymouth so my best guess he is an enviromentalist :wink: or has blagged a geo job from their phys geog and geology course but he doesn't look or the sound the type to be a rock god :laugh: On another note people should lock down their facebook profile a bit more...

Ok just going to play a bit of devils advocate here but..... You are only going for a meeting not living there. Chances are you will very rarely go outside and the air inside will be going through the air conditioning units and as such will be filtered. If you are going to be there for a week or more and spending prolonged hours outside (more than say 10) wear a dust mask. Here is a link i found from a quick google search. http://www.myhealthbeijing.com/2009/12/how-good-are-masks-for-pollution/

When it comes to the internet over here best thing to do is to think what it was like in the uk about 10 years ago. Until the NBN gets rolled out (which is taking a while) you had best be very close to the nearest exchange to get decent speeds. As for the package you are after i doubt you will get anything close to that here at the moment.

I am 25 and flew out here a bit over a year ago now. I have my own place and it has to be said i do find it very hard to meet people. I do fly in fly out on a small mine site and it has to be said i know more people/have more friends in the small town near site than i do in perth. I do try and make it out when ever asked but invitations can be a bit far between. It has started to drag a bit lately but i am seriously looking for new jobs (the market has slowed a bit for people in my line of work) and i hope a larger site will enable me to meet new people.

Yeah just read it again myself. I am at work so wrote the blurb in a rush so sorry for the grammar :err: but the basic stuff is there :biglaugh:

Yeah normally the engineers design the stope blasts here and charge up does the development with no real plan. I have a msc in mine geology which has some engineering in there so i already have the foundations for some of it, i don't know if i could go back to a uni again and study lol. Basically the current rough genetic model for this place is that the Main lode occupies a shear zone, which has dislocated and brecciated sulphidic interflow sediments. Then a gold rich Potassic alteration fluid came through the zone causing intense biotite and chlorite alteration recrystallising the Ultramafic rock. The Gold emplacement possibly took place due to rheological contrast around harder metasediment fragments and/or chemical reaction with iron rich sulphidic metasediments. This is up for some debate as we are A-typical of the deposits around here and from what i can tell everywhere else. We do have CSIRO working on it to find out what has happened.

No underground i use the word hard rock loosely but yeah the orebody is in ultramafics. From what i know iron ore still needs drilling and blasting but i have seen in the mine mags someone using more of a surface continuous miner style equipment. However i agree it is more of a model it and then let the pit run type of situation. I also would really like to do drill and blast it seems really interesting but i have been told that you need an engineering background. Is it true? I know at the moment from my previous work i have more drill and blast experience than the grad engineer who thinks charging 2 development faces is enough experience to be able to design blasts.

Sounds fun well apart from the surveyor. Coal still sounds more interesting the iron ore lol. Still i am currently on a gold mine were the gold is not associated with quartz, in fact it is generally quite the opposite.

Hi All I really could do with getting my car (80 series landcruiser) serviced plus the fuel gauge needs looking at (it is stuck on half a tank). Can anybody recommend a decent garage to take it to in perth? Cheers Paul

I know i couldn't think of another word to describe them :biggrin: well maybe defenders???

Please don't take offence but i would say that your view is very much out of date. On the surface all the vehicles will have air-conditioning in and will be pretty much sound proofed including the drill rigs. Underground most of our drilling is done by drill rigs which are all hydraulic so there is very little manual handling (bar throwing rock bolts and mesh). Even the underground trucks have aircon and the boggers plus again are sound proofed as much as possible. Plus everyone even has to wear hearing protection with the drillers normally wearing plus as well as muffs. Very few places still use jacklegs, which are the hand held machines. I would say it is totally different these days