I’m sure most of you have heard about Ballarat’s gold rush history but how many of you know that Ballarat is still producing gold? Not many of you? Don’t feel bad; most of my fellow students that study mining engineering don’t know that there is an operating gold mine right under their noses. The reason I bring it up is that I recently worked in the Ballarat Gold Mine to gain experience in my future profession. When I tell people that I’ve been working in Ballarat Mine, I usually get asked a number of questions so I thought I’d make a list of FAQs.
Question 1: “Oh, Ballarat mine? Do you mean Sovereign Hill?”
Answer: No I don’t mean Sovereign Hill! The Ballarat gold project is hidden away just off Geelong road and not far from the theme park but we don’t dress up in 1800s inspired clothes for obvious safety reasons.
Question 2: “How deep is it?”
Answer: The mine is over 650m below the surface of Ballarat and runs below Bakery Hill McDonalds. That might seem really deep but compared to most underground mines across the world, it’s actually pretty shallow.
Question 3: “Sooooo…….do you dig with a pickaxe?
Answer: No. As much as I would love to recreate a couple of scenes from Zoolander, it’s much easier to use explosives to break up the rock. I know, pretty cool right?
Question 4: “What hours do you work?” (people don’t ask this question but I bring it up anyway to get sympathy)
Answer: 12 hours a day for seven days. One week on and then one week off switching between day shift and night shift. Nothing makes 8:30 lectures look better than spending half your day underground.
Question 5: “Is it scary?”
Answer: Nah. I’m really tough. But seriously, mining is definitely not for everyone. If you’re claustrophobic or scared of the dark, you’re going to have a bad time.
Even then, some people are completely fine with going underground up until the point that they actually go underground and then subsequently freak out.
The thing that I find most interesting is that even after more than 150 years, the industry that put Ballarat on the map and started FedUni (which was originally the School of Mines Ballarat), is still going strong.
-Pat
Thanks for the info Pat! Its great you were able to get some experience so locally.
Can you tell the readers how you found out about the position, and what you learnt about your career whilst you were in this position. I am assuming you did this as a part of your placement requirements for engineering?
Thanks heaps for the extra info.
Deb
Thanks for your comment, Deb.
You’re right in assuming that I was at the mine for my engineering placement requirements. I originally found out about the position in 2013 through the careerhub website. Ballarat mine was advertising a vacation work opportunity through the careerhub so I applied and got an interview but unfortunately just missed out. A year later I decided to send them an email inquiring about any possible work available instead of waiting for them to advertise the position and I was lucky enough to be offered some work.
Working in the mine improved my understanding of some of the things I’d been shown at uni and gave me an idea of how an underground mine really operates.
Thanks,
Pat