AUSSIE ANGLES
T9NO
Story and photos by Howard Shanks
COMPROMISES
There is a fine art in specifying an extreme heavy-duty truck robust enough to endure the off-highway punishment of mine site corrugated haul roads and rough bush-exploration tracks, yet light enough to deliver a viable payload.
K
algoorlie’s industrial hub operates in full swing 24 hours a day, seven days a week. In the small hours of the morning, fitters’ rattle guns echo through the streets while a constant parade of quad side tippers rumble through town as drivers come and go rotating on their rolling shifts. Over the east coast of the country, most folks are still snuggly tucked up in their beds. But not here in Kalgoorlie. In the predawn greyness, the mercury in the thermometer is about to creep into the 30s. “He’ll be down on the wash bay,” the receptionist says with a smile when I mention that I have an appointment
with Gammon Haulage owner, Craig Gammon. Craig Gammon, or ‘Gammo’, as most folks in the Goldfields know him, is passionate about keeping his truck looking new, which is no small feat given that most of the time, this T909 operates on the red dirt tracks in the remote goldfields region of Western Australia. Sure enough, Craig’s T909 sat parked on the wash bay. Meantime, the man himself was busily spraying it with a homemade cocktail of truckwash detergent and kerosene. “You found the place all right then,” Craig says with a smile, glancing in my direction as he continues waving the spray wand in an
up-and-down motion. “This won’t take long.” He explains how he sprays his detergent mix over the Kenworth, and then lets it soak for a few minutes to remove the bitumen and road grime. He uses this method during the week when the truck is busy on double shifts, like today. But he assures us that he gives it a thorough sponge wash on weekends. Half an hour later, we were well on our way to the old abandoned Bonnie Vale townsite, roughly 14km north of Coolgardie, to load sand for the nickel smelter back in Kalgoorlie. As Craig guides the T909 into the sandpit, it is hard to imagine that back in 1897, out here in this barren wasteland, the town of Bonnie Vale was gazetted. It was apparently named after a prospector called Bonnie, who picked up a 7oz (220g) nugget back in May 1894, which at today’s
gold prices would be about $17,500. Today, there are few remains of the township of Bonnie Vale, other than it serves as the railway station for nearby Coolgardie on the Perth to Kalgoorlie passenger service, aptly called The Prospector. The sand in this pit is 98% silica, highly sought after in the nickel-smelting process and predominantly used as furnace flux. Today, nickel smelting often occurs with flash smelting, when electricity and oxygen combine to quickly reach the high temperature needed to melt the nickel ore. That is an incredible 1453°C. The nickel ore melts until it becomes a product known as liquid matte, which is usually about 45% nickel and 55% slag and other metals. After the nickel smelting is complete and cooled, it gets used for many different
