Smm 189

SHIFT MINER The Queensland mining and gas community’s best source of local news

Locally Owned & Operated

www.shiftminer.com

Monday October 6, 2014 189th Edition

M A G A Z I N E

Is your supervisor up to the job? Âť Â Â Page 4

/ 9 ",-" /",-

The Partners: John Taylor - LL.B Sharon Smith - BEc/LL.B Hons Craig Worsley - LL.B

Greg ĂŠ

Carroll

/ ĂŠ* ,/ ,-\ ÂœÂ…Â˜ĂŠ/>ĂžÂ?ÂœĂ€ĂŠÂ‡ĂŠ ° -Â…>Ă€ÂœÂ˜ĂŠ-Â“ÂˆĂŒÂ…ĂŠÂ‡ĂŠ VÉ ° ĂŠ ÂœÂ˜Ăƒ

Ă€>ˆ}ĂŠ7ÂœĂ€ĂƒÂ?iÞʇÊ ° Ă€i}ĂŠ >Ă€Ă€ÂœÂ?Â?

* ,-" ĂŠ 1,9ĂŠ -

/7", ĂŠ

/ "/",ĂŠ6 ĂŠ

/URY CLAIMS -1, É/* Ê

"

6 9

*…œ˜iĂŠ{™xÇÊә{{ĂŠĂŠ >Ă?ĂŠ{™xĂ‡ĂŠĂ“Ă¤ÂŁĂˆ ĂœĂœĂœÂ°ĂŒ>ĂžÂ?ÂœĂ€ĂƒÂ‡ĂƒÂœÂ?ˆVÂˆĂŒÂœĂ€ĂƒÂ°Vœ“°>Ă• i“>ˆÂ?\ʓ>ˆÂ?JĂŒ>ĂžÂ?ÂœĂ€ĂƒÂ‡ĂƒÂœÂ?ˆVÂˆĂŒÂœĂ€ĂƒÂ°Vœ“°>Ă• iĂ›iÂ?ÊÓÉ£ÇÊ Ă€ÂˆĂƒL>˜iĂŠ-ĂŒĂ€iiĂŒĂŠ >VÂŽ>Ăž

ĂŠĂŠĂŠĂŠĂŠ -/ / ĂŠ 7ĂŠĂŠĂŠĂŠĂŠ " , ĂŠ 7

Shift Miner Magazine

CONTENTS NEWS

6

12

8 20

4

Supervisors not up to standard

5

Has coal hit the bottom?

6

Gambling on the Galilee

9

Three people to do one job

11 Mining bargains in Mackay

Regulars

5 Frank the Tank 1 21 16 Miner’s Trader 18 Off Shift 21 Sport Queensland mining community's best source of local news

SHIFT MINER Locally Owned and Operated

M A G A Z I N E

Phone: (07) 4921 4333 Fax: (07) 4922 6908 angus.peacocke@shiftminer.com Editor: Alex Graham Advertising: Angus Peacocke 0428 154 653

www.shiftminer.com

Published fortnightly by Fitzroy Publishing Pty Ltd A.B.N 72122739879 PO Box 1440, Rockhampton Q 4700

Invoice Today & Get Paid Today!

*

Yes, there is an alternative to a business overdraft.

We’ll show you how to take the handbrake off your business & put your cashflow back into gear.

Call: 1300 788 945 or Bruce Meredith: 0448 052 069 www.cashflowfinance.com.au

Reliable Debtor Finance Solutions *Conditions apply.

6th October 2014

3

Shift Miner Magazine

News

www.shiftminer.com

Senior supervisors lack vital skills

THEY should be the backbone of a safe and productive mining industry, but senior supervisors on Queensland mine sites have been found severely lacking.

That’s the startling admission of acting commissioner for mine safety and health Paul Harrison, contained in his annual performance report for 2013/14.

In the report, Commissioner Harrison said senior supervisors often don’t have the necessary skills to do their job.

“Improved training, competency

and support of supervisors has been identified as a key area requiring attention,” he said.

“Poor knowledge and competency are the precursors to fatal accidents [and] the mines inspectorate has recognised that some persons are being appointed to senior supervisory roles without the competencies necessary for the function they are performing.”

The report echoes concerns raised by coal workers and published in Shift Miner over the past six months.

Many feel the problem is a legacy of the boom.

“People came in during the boom times of 06/07 when they were putting on every Tom, Dick and Harry and they never had proper training,” one industry stalwart told Shift Miner.

“They’ve got coordinators out there giving instructions and they’re not up to scratch with their S1, S2, S3s [competencies] so they’re not even mine site compliant.”

CFMEU safety representative Greg Dalliston said the problem

Senex the shot for Surat THE first meetings between the Maranoa Regional Council and soon-to-be-local gas business Senex Energy have left a good impression with mayor Robert Loughnan.

In an unconventional move, Senex and QGC have swapped gas tenements in the Surat Basin.

“It is uncommon, it doesn’t happen very often because it’s usually challenging for companies to agree the tenements are of equal value,” Senex executive director of strategic planning Julie Whitcombe told Shift Miner.

“But we have done swaps before, and this is a unique situation because their assets sit right next to our block and ours sat in the

4

6th October 2014

middle of theirs so it just made sense.

“What it means for us is that we now have enough acreage to create a meaningful business in Queensland, we have enough enough running room to do it on our own two feet and to our own timeline.”

Senex now plans to spend $40 million in the Maranoa region building up its gas business, and discussions this week with Cr Loughnan have impressed the mayor.

“Senex coming into the district is very exciting,” he told Shift Miner.

“They are a small company, but in theory they are a fast growing one, and the conversations we have had so

had been rife for years, particularly in open cut mines where it’s less clear-cut what is required under the legislation.

“It’s not just the little guys flouting the rules, it’s the big players too,” he said.

“We have been trying to have this fixed for years, I personally have put in writing the management situation at BMA’s Saraji, Peak Downs and Goonyella mines and the department has been ‘working towards a solution’ for four years.

“These laws have been in place since 2001, so while it’s good to have it acknowledged by the Commissioner it has been 13 years in the making.”

The three competencies required for supervisor roles are S1 [risk management], S2 [accident investigation], and S3 [communication skills].

Mr Dalliston said each competency used to require a week of classroom time and then proven application in the field.

However, over the years, it has been whittled away - in some cases - to a two-day training

far are very encouraging.

“They are talking about infrastructure investment like new roads, expanded telecommunications, and I got the impression that they are willing to invest in those things.

“They have some pretty ambitious plans for our region.”

Compared to the Bowen Basin, the Surat Basin is still firmly in the grips of a construction boom.

However, Cr Loughnan said the level of activity in the Maranoa was showing the first signs of slowing, with accommodation occupancy rates starting to fall, and airpassenger numbers through Roma down 10 per cent in August.

The slowdown has already claimed its first victim, with put a planned 800 man

course for all three competencies.

“The communication unit is five parts: conflict resolution, presentation skills, meeting skills, report writing and effective communication,” he said.

“How can you be taught that and effective risk management and accident investigation in two days? That’s why you have supervisors who can’t talk to their workers.”

“Most people who are being picked for supervisor roles are stand-over thugs.

“They’re people who will tell workers to do something and don’t ask any questions.

“It used to be role for people who’d been in the industry a while and understood how things worked and had good people skills.”

The mines inspectorate is developing a guideline which will outline how organisations can identify the competencies each person in the management structure should hold.

The full report is available online at http://mines.industry.qld.gov.au/ safety-and-health/commissionerannual-reports.htm

camp in Roma put on hold as the owners re-assess the viability of the facility in the face of a reduced construction workforce.

However, Cr Loughnan said the end of the construction period in CSG was not the cliff that some people have predicted.

“To me, the operational and maintenance phase of the CSG industry is full of opportunities for our local workforce,” he said.

“Clearly the volume of work is going to be less, but there is talk that the gas companies are going to move away from the multi tier contract model, and handle this phase directly.

“And my understanding is that where they can, they are keen to engage with local businesses directly and that could be really good for our communities.”

News

www.shiftminer.com

Isaac Plains mothballed as BMA axes 700

Isaac Plains mine is the latest victim of the coal downturn

THE Queensland coal industry has been trapped in a severe downturn for 18 months, but the 1000 jobs axed in the past week have been an unexpectedly strong blow.

The latest victim of poor prices and an oversupplied world market is Vale and Sumitomo’s joint venture project, the Isaac Plains mine near Moranbah.

About 300 contractors will lose their jobs at the site, as it moves into ‘care and maintenance’ before operations wind down completely by January.

It follows BMA’s announcement that 700 jobs will go across its Central

Queensland sites except for Hay Point coal terminal and Gregory Crinum mine.

“It’s a slow painful decline that every week seems to bring more bad news,” said CQUniversity resource economist Professor John Rolfe.

“The industry was thinking it was at the bottom.

“It’s been assumed that steaming coal producers and smaller players are under the most pressure but what’s remarkable is that with BMA’s announcement it seems the big guys in the coking coal scene are not immune either.”

Despite the blanket negativity surrounding the sector, Professor Rolfe said while more job losses and cost cutting might occur in the future, he doubted mines would close for good.

“I think the industry will look to mothball operations rather than close them down permanently because there are still some predictions that this is a cyclical downturn and demand for coking and steaming coal will increase again,” he said.

“It’s just that it’s a long time between drinks for the industry, especially when they walked into the downturn with such high cost structures.”

Professor Rolfe said he believed there would be an upswing again for the sector, despite a number of structural changes in the world arena including China’s move from a building to consumer phase.

“I definitely sit in the cyclical camp,” he said.

“We will never see a boom like we saw in the last 10 years every again, but demand for coal will grow and the market with increase, but it could be a couple of years before prices recover.”

Professor Rolfe said considering the gravity of the downturn he’s been surprised at how resilient the local Central Queensland economy has been.

“Everyone tells you it’s tough, but there are a lot of supply chain businesses who are still open and managing to hang in there,” he said.

Job cuts needed to keep BMA viable: Dow IT might be cold comfort to the 700 miners about to get the sack - but BMA says its extremely tough decision to axe jobs will make the company viable for the longer term.

When asked by Shift Miner whether there was any silver lining to the dark clouds that have persistently hovered above the coal industry for more than 18 months, BMA asset president Lucas Dow said he believed there was.

“Importantly businesses and others should look to the fact that we have acted decisively to ensure that we have got a viable business going forward,” he said.

“In the longer term, businesses that deal with us and work in the local economy are going to have an opportunity to prosper, because we have made these hard decisions to secure our future.”

“But that is going to be cold comfort to the people that are affected by this decision.”

The 700 jobs will be cut across all its Central Queensland operations with the exception of Hay Point coal terminal and Gregory Crinum mine.

BMA will not confirm how many jobs will be cut from which operations, or whether employees will be offered voluntary redundancies.

Mr Dow said the industry was undergoing a difficult transition and to remain globally competitive the cost base had to be reset.

“We want to ensure that BMA continues to operate viably, providing ongoing employment in the local region,” he said.

NATURALLY DIFFERENT UNDERGROUND PRODUCTION SUPERVISOR (DEPUTY) GROSVENOR MINE, MORANBAH, QUEENSLAND Anglo American’s Coal business is the second largest Australian producer and the third largest global exporter of metallurgical coal. We are committed to creating sustainable value safely and responsibly and sharing the benefits of mining with our communities to make a real difference. We strive to create an inclusive environment for all employees.

Women, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders are encouraged to apply for all vacant positions.

Construction on our $1.95 billion five million tonne per annum Grosvenor longwall mine is well advanced in Moranbah, Queensland.

With the first of the 12ED25 Continuous Miners commencing in early 2015, Anglo American has exciting opportunities now for experienced professionals to become part of the team responsible for Grosvenor’s transition from project to an operational mine.

Reporting to the Mining Superintendent, you will be accountable for leading and coaching the Production Crews to ensure the site production plans are implemented and delivered whilst maintaining a focus on zero harm to employees and contractors. A key focus of this role will be to demonstrate the leadership to deliver exceptional results in a start-up operation. You will be responsible to hold your team to account for performance, contribute to the ongoing management of a reliable short term mine plan, and continually seek to identify areas for improvement to ensure operational excellence is achieved.

To succeed in this role, you will have a minimum 5 years’ experience working within the underground coal mining industry with demonstrated understanding of the coal mining process and the relevant mining legislation. A current Certificate 3 (Deputy) Statutory qualification (Qld Mutual Recognition Ticket for NSW applicants) S1 S2 S3 & G2 are essential.

Your proven management experience and ability to lead a team of production personnel to deliver against set targets will be key to your success in this role. You will have a strong interpersonal skills and a commitment to safety.

Applicants shortlisted to the next stage will be invited to attend an Assessment Centre early September in Mackay or Brisbane.

As well as a very competitive salary package, Grosvenor also offers even time rosters, subsidised residential and modern accommodation options, Fly in Fly out (FIFO) and Bus in Bus out (BIBO) work arrangements. If you have the ambition to work for a leader in the mining and resources area, and the drive to deliver results on a consistent basis, apply online by quoting Job No. 710155 at www.angloamerican.com.au

ANG2335B

Shift Miner Magazine

6th October 2014

5

Shift Miner Magazine

News

www.shiftminer.com

How “Old Cook” saved Caledon’s bacon

There’s life in the “Old Cook” yet… according to Caledon boss Brett Garland

QUEENSLAND’S oldest underground mine is still paying its way, according to its owner.

Cook Colliery - or “old Cook” as Caledon Resources CEO Brett Garland likes to affectionately call it - is the reason the company has not gone the same way as Bandanna Energy.

While Caledon’s greenfield project Minyango is still bogged down in the approvals process, Cook is shaping up to be the only

source of coal the company has to deliver on take-or-pay contracts they have with the new Wiggins Island coal export terminal.

Just last week, Bandanna was forced into voluntary administration because it couldn’t get its proposed Springsure Creek mine built in time or find the finance to meet its take-or-pay contracts.

Back in 2011 when Caledon began the approvals process for

Minyango, Mr Garland said he thought the company would be “a bit smarter and a bit better” than others that had spent years locked in the process.

However, one year in, the company began looking for Plan Bs, when it became apparent the approval was unlikely to happen any faster.

At this point, a new vision for the “old Cook” began to materialise.

“We went through a number

of scenarios looking at how we could beat the time frames for Wiggins Island, and the one that kept hitting us in the face was good old Cook Colliery,” Mr Garland told the Bowen Basin Mining Club in Emerald.

“The longwall back in the 80s wasn’t real successful, and every man and his dog has had a go at it, and everybody has lost money.

“And we thought, in for a penny, in for a pound, we had better start looking at what we could do.”

Since that date an expansion plan for Cook has emerged which, if successful, would increase output from the mine from the current 600,000 tonnes of coking coal a year to around 3.5 million tonnes.

According to Mr Garland the key to delivering on that ambitious goal is a lot of in-house innovation and the discovery of Chinese machinery that changed what they thought was feasible.

“We had some friends who were operating a mine down in New South Wales and they let us have a look at their Chinese longwall,” he said.

“It’s only a little thing, 55 metres wide - most people would challenge

the word longwall - and what we saw on that tour blew our minds.

“For the quality that we could see right in front of us, this wasn’t junk, this wasn’t something bought cheap and was only going to last a short time. There was some real quality about it, and we were very impressed.”

Then it was a simple case of doing the maths.

“I rang our guys and I said throw this number in and see what it does. We had only ever seen red numbers when it came to a longwall for Cook… but they said it is black! You should see it!

So from that minute on Cook was on a course to put a longwall in.”

Since then, Caledon has set about solving all the other problems the old mine presents, a path Mr Garland knows won’t be easy.

“We have got old pillars, every bit of old equipment Ronny McKenna left in the mine, everything you don’t want to know about is up above you.

“So it’s not going to be plain sailing, it’s not going to be easy, but a board and pillar operation doesn’t cut it any more.”

Ensham expands QRC betting on the Galilee THE board of Ensham coal mine has given final approval for a major underground expansion at its mine near Emerald.

While the company has yet to go public on its decision, Shift Miner has been informed by several sources close to the operation that the expansion has been approved.

Rumours have been circulating for months about the project, with Ensham recently stepping up its drilling and ground work in the area.

While no final timeline for the project is available, the decision is expected to be a major shot in the arm for the Central

Swag for sale According to the receivers Korda Mentha, they are working toward a sale of the facility as soon as possible.

The complex consists of 48 rooms, a restaurant, and an adjoining complex of 16 townhouses.

Pitmore Pty Ltd owns the land, and the management rights are held by Middlemount Management Pty Ltd. It has been a long fall from grace for the Swag Motel,

6

6th October 2014

Queensland mining community.

Construction and maintenance work in the region has almost completely disappeared since coal prices started to come off the boil nearly two years ago.

The Ensham expansion was originally envisaged as an open cut project back in 2007 when the mine finalised its Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).

However, in the wake of the disastrous flooding that severely cut production in 2008 and gave Ensham some unwanted media coverage, the company decided to change its expansion plans from open cut to a mostly underground process. which at the peak of the mining boom told Resort Brokers magazine it had a turnover of more than $60,000 a week.

However, the seemingly solid financial position of the business started to unravel in 2012 the owners of the complex decided to build 16 townhouses on an adjacent block.

The major correction in the mining sector meant that by the time the buildings were completed, the owners could not find anyone to buy or rent 14 of the 16 townhouses.

IT is a rail project of whopping proportions, and it’s been given federal approval.

Adani’s $2.2 billion Galilee Basin rail network has been given the green light by the federal government, which has also signed off on its behemoth Carmichael thermal coal project.

But is it really feasible that a new coal province could be opened up at a time when coal prices are historically so low?

The Queensland Resources Council chief executive Michael Roche certainly thinks so.

“I think we will bounce along the bottom in 2015 while the market remains oversupplied for both thermal and metallurgical coal,” predicts Mr Roche.

“But I think the oversupply will resolve sooner for thermal coal given the demand out of places like India.

“People keep asking my how could a new mine possibly open at this time, but no-one plans a 60 year project on the coal price of a particular month in a particular year.

“It’s about designing a project

to withstand the inevitable ups and downs of a cycle.”

Mr Roche said the outlook for the coal industry in Queensland remained strong, and the sector still employed more people than it did four years ago.

“We are not seeing a stepping away from coal, we haven’t suddenly invented a new way of making steel without coking coal.

“And in terms of thermal coal the demand out of Asia, India and China is still huge,” he said.

“The Indian opportunity is the one the GVKs and Adanis are tapping into, and they know it’s a huge market.”

GVK Hancock also appears to be moving forward with its rail proposal for the region, having now applied for a “material change of use”.

According to GVK, the application is the next step in finalising its proposed rail line and follows on from the granting of state and federal environmental approval in 2012.

The company says this latest step follows extensive studies

of how the rail line will affect water flow on the Belyando river floodplain as it winds its way the 310 kilometres from the Galilee Basin to the existing Newlands rail line.

“To date, the project team has undertaken an extensive assessment and landholder engagement process for infrastructure along the approved rail corridor connecting the southern end of the Galilee Basin with export markets,” GVK said in a statement.

“These assessments take into consideration the unavoidable fact that any rail line from the southern end of the Galilee Basin to the coast must traverse the floodplains of the Belyando and its tributaries at some stage.

“The detailed planning and design work for our rail line meets all of the hydrological requirements of the government’s stringent regulations for crossing such terrain… and in addition our rail corridor meets the required flood immunity level with all drainage structures and rail formations designed accordingly.”

Shift Miner Magazine

News

www.shiftminer.com

Demand grows for bottled water

CENTRAL Queensland mining towns are still thirsty for bottled water, despite the downturn gripping the coal industry.

Back in 2012, the locally owned Aussie Gold Spring Water

was delivering water to 250 customers in Blackwater.

Two years later, and it’s now more like 350.

“We have increased sales every summer in Blackwater,”

Aussie Gold director Janette Heintze told Shift Miner.

“Demand is also growing in other towns such as Emerald.

“The only time we lose a customer is if they are actually

Mackay the place for a mining bargain NEARLY 400 pieces of ex-mining equipment went under the hammer in Mackay recently, in the first major clearance sale of redundant mining equipment in the region.

Everything from hand tools to trucks and earthmoving gear was sold by Hassalls Auctions, on behalf of a number of Mackay-based mining contractor and support businesses.

Hassalls auctioneer Simon Brown said there was a good crowd, but buying was selective.

“All the gear was from a number of local vendors, and the plan is to hold a follow up auction in four or five weeks time,” he said.

“We had around 130 registered buyers, but I guess the crowd on hand reached 300 around the start of the auction, which is a solid turnout.

“We had a live webcast of the auction going on as well so buyers have been both local and interstate, but people are only buying the things they have a job for. There isn’t much speculative buying going on.”

8

6th October 2014

Broadly speaking, Mr Brown said there was plenty of gear around to take to auction, but not a great many buyers given how the mining economy is locally.

However, he said equipment that could be used in the civil construction was still selling, but the heavy mine specific gear was a bit harder to move.

A similarly large mining auction

by Mt Isa Mines resulted in a 100 per cent clearance in June.

While most of the equipment and buyers were specific to the hard rock industry, auctioneer Graham Messer said at the time it reflected a broader improvement in the second hand market.

“Prices were back a little bit, and Mt Isa can be a difficult place to get buyers in and out of, but Mt Isa Mines are genuine vendors prepared to meet the market,” Mr Messer said.

“I think there is a change happening, but it is still quiet, and certainly we are not getting the money we were getting 18 months ago, but things are slowly changing.”

leaving town, but we always seem to pick up another so the downturn really hasn’t had an impact on us.”

The demand is driven by outdated water infrastructure in the region causing problems for residents, businesses and mines.

“It’s all thanks to the terrible water out there, it is consistently bad quality in Blackwater,” said Mr Heintze.

“It’s not always about earning the dollars, it’s about living in a first world country where you pay rates and people should have access to clean drinking water.

“As soon as there are news reports about bad water or posts on Facebook with pictures of baths filled up with dirty water we see a spike in demand.”

Ms Heintze said the proliferation of accommodation camps in the Gladstone region for the construction workforce building the LNG facilities at Curtis Island had not translated into more work for her business.

She said other Gladstone-based water companies were catering to that market, but she hoped there would be further growth in demand

among Bowen Basin mines and accommodation providers.

“We already supply a number of mines in the region, but we have had to be competitive in the current environment,” she said.

“Given the conditions, mines have approached us to reduce our costs and we have done that and successfully kept on all our customers.

“You simply can’t sustain high level pricing indefinitely, you have to be flexible so when companies need you to move you can accommodate.”

Aussie Gold Spring Water was started by Janette Heintze’s father 20 years ago.

“Dad was actually a miner, and he started to notice a need for good water.

“The water on our property was so good, people told him he should start bottling it, that’s how it all started.”

The aquifer on the family’s 26-acre property called Karingal Springs, just north of Yeppoon, is now responsible for a purpose built factory and a family run business that employs 18 people.

Shift Miner Magazine

News

www.shiftminer.com

Acacia pulled into Bandanna malaise

NEW HOPES: Bandanna’s ambitious plans to farm and mine the same land has come unstuck

ACACIA Coal is at risk of being pulled under by the recent announcement that Bandanna Energy has gone into voluntary administration.

In a statement to investors, Acacia said it had urgently sought a meeting with voluntary administrators as it tries to work out how the events unfolding at Bandanna would affect its own business.

“Bandanna Energy and Acacia Coal are proponents in the proposed Triumph Creek train loading facility at Comet Ridge, which is part of

Bandanna’s Springsure Creek coal project,” Acacia managing director Gavin May said.

“Coal from Acacia’s Comet Ridge project is planned to be loaded through this facility.

“Given the recent announcement

by Bandanna Energy and the uncertainty now surrounding the Springsure Creek coal project, Acacia is considering its position, and is seeking an urgent meeting with voluntary administrators.”

Short of a miracle angel investor,

the future of the Springsure Creek project seems almost certain to be over, with the board of Bandanna unanimously agreeing to put the company into voluntary administration on Monday.

Central Highlands mayor Peter Maguire said the announcement was a complete shock to him.

“It was going to be good news story, so to speak, give the region a kick along,” he said.

“It’s pretty hard out here at the moment, I keep saying to people

hang on but they keep saying to me how long?

“Every time we hear something like this we wonder when it’s going to stop.”

While spiralling thermal coal prices and a lack of investor confidence played their part, in the end it was the crippling ongoing costs of infrastructure take-or-pay contracts that pulled Bandanna under.

For most of this year, the company had been trying to restructure a secured loan it had with Credit Suisse that allowed them to secure its take-or-pay contracts, which were entered into at the height of the boom.

However, in the end the board said it could not see any way forward.

“Negotiations with Credit Suisse have been both extensive and cordial, however, the board after significant deliberations determined by majority decision that an agreement with Credit Suisse could not be reached,” Bandanna chairman John Pegler said.

“With no direct improvement in Bandanna’s financial position and with limited ability to raise additional funds to progress

the grant of the mining lease, the board formed the view that Bandanna was not able to continue as a going concern.”

Just a month ago Bandanna’s Managing director Michael Gray told an Emerald business conference the Springsure project had reached key milestones.

“There are 12 directly affected landholders in our transport corridor, we have nine of those landholder compensation agreements executed, and there are a further two that we have reached terms with, so there is really only one landholder yet to be finalised,” he said.

“There are really substantial regional benefits associated with this project, we will spend about $160 million, and are looking at workforces of more than 500 people in construction, and about 400 longer term full time jobs.

“We are progressing through the approvals process, and now we are finalising our procurement and engineering activities, it’s our target to have front end finalised by the middle of next year and first coal in early 2016.”

Three people needed to do work of one QCOAL’S Danny McCarthy has launched a withering attack on a costly culture in Central Queensland mining that could push the thermal coal industry to extinction if not addressed.

“If you have a look at productivity stats over the last 10 years, our productivity has decreased by 10 per cent,” said Mr McCarthy.

“We see that first hand, we have a tonne of ultra class equipment running around, yet our tonnes per person produced is less than what we were doing ten years ago.”

Mr McCarthy said in the mid 90s contractors were regularly getting 7000 hours or more out of diesel excavators.

“There are operations at the moment which struggle to get 6000 hours out of some of the largest, most expensive, most economic, most efficient mining equipment in the world and we are just not utilising it well enough.”

Mr McCarthy said it was now taking three people to do the work of one person, and the industry was partly to blame.

“We now need dual 50 tonne cranes to lift more than two tonnes because we are worried about cranes toppling over because they are not set up correctly,” he said.

“In 1996 on a back shift, old mate with a 25 tonne used to drop it up there on the gantry and do what he needed to do quite safely.

“I am not suggesting we do things

unsafely that is not my message, but my message is to challenge the paradigms we have created and have the courage to break through it because without it we won’t have an industry.”

The comments come at the same time as mining analyst HDR Salva told the media it estimates more than half of Australia’s thermal coal producers were operating at a loss, and in some cases a loss of as much as $25/tonne.

Detailed analysis of 95 coal producers shows more than half of them have a cost base of more than $65/tonne.

Given the thermal coal price has dropped 22 percent this year to around $66/tonne (FOB Newcastle) it is clearly a challenging time for thermal coal miners.

However, in more encouraging news for the CQ mining sector, Salva also expects demand for thermal coal from Asia will increase by 40 million tonnes a year over the next five years.

“While painful right now, the effort to continue improving costs will stand producers in good stead when attractive coal prices return, and we believe they will soon,” Salva director Chris Urzaa said.

“We believe Australian exports will be ideally placed to satisfy this demand, particularly as Indonesia, our major Asian competitor, has significantly slowed its thermal coal supply growth this year.”

6th October 2014

9

Shift Miner Magazine

News

www.shiftminer.com

Coal out of the Isa?

COCKATOO coal has upgraded its estimate of how much thermal coal is in its South Pentland Project (SPP), in the northern Galilee Basin, to just under 450 million tonnes.

However, it is still a largely unproven resource with 95 million tonnes categorised as ‘indicated’ and the remainder as ‘inferred’ - the two lowest levels in the JORC code for reporting.

The testing so far for quality has indicated low sulphur content and washed ash of just over 12 per cent - both increasingly valued qualities for Asian power generators looking to minimise emissions.

It is located in the northern Galilee Basin, 270 kilometres from the Townsville port and adjacent to the Mt Isa to Townsville heavy haulage rail system.

Cockatoo inherited the SPP when it took over Blackwood Corporation, and managing director of Cockatoo Andrew Lawson believes the projects has a natural advantage over other Galilee projects.

“Indicated tonnes allow us to progress mining applications to government, further safeguarding and securing the project, whilst the inferred category upgrade places further confidence in the size and scalability of the project.

“We will continue to diligently pursue low cost internal studies aimed at progressing the South Pentland Project and we will continue to investigate the adjacent and natural infrastructure advantages that the project possesses over comparative Galilee Basin projects.”

Pipeline weeds a worry

Several GasFields Commissioners inspected the pipeline near Biloela recently.

WEED control along the rehabilitated gas pipeline easements in Central Queensland remains one of the key concerns for local landholders.

In Biloela recently, several GasFields Commissioners took the opportunity to inspect a section of one pipeline easement that runs through Jim and Robyn Ferguson’s property and their neighbour Eddie Wales.

Mr Ferguson acknowledged he had a range of weeds on his property but that they were being controlled within the creek bed itself. He now fears they have spread to other areas that have been disturbed as part of the land rehabilitation process beyond the creek bed.

“We recognise the weed was there before and we spray it all the time to keep it under control,” he said.

“We are concerned that the company is not spraying in a timely or strategic manner in order to limit the spread of weeds along the pipeline easement.”

Mr Ferguson said he was still in negotiations with the company and hoped they could reach a satisfactory solution.

“This pipeline is here for 40 or 50 years and they should realise this problem is theirs and they need to keep it under control all of the time, but to date that has not been the case,” he said.

Mr Ferguson said his experience with the pipeline easement of another gas

proponent on another of his properties had been a positive one.

“There was no weed problem at all and to this date we’re quite hopeful that none has been put on our property,” Mr Ferguson said.

GasFields Commissioner Don Stiller who visited the Fergusons’ property said weed management was a critical issue for landholders, which if not adequately controlled can impact significantly on pasture productivity and ultimately property values.

Mr Stiller said on-farm biosecurity plans or procedures are a good way for landholders to monitor and manage weed problems.

“The gas proponents have an ongoing responsibility to manage weed impacts along their pipeline easement and they should take account of local knowledge and experience when developing weed control strategies.”

Mr Stiller said landholders should keep a close eye on easements that have been recently rehabilitated in order to identify early any potential problems with weeds, subsidence or erosion.

“If a problem is identified, in the first instance the landholder should try and communicate directly with the gas company to try and find a resolution.

Time for mining law fact-check

By Michael Roche,

Queensland Resources Council chief executive

A rhetorical arms-race was triggered recently with two changes to laws governing the resources sector.

The amendments, which make changes to the appeals process for mining leases; and give the Land Court the ability to dismiss appeals against the Coordinator General’s environmental conditions, were described by politicians, law firms and anti-mining activists in the most alarming and apocalyptic language.

This flood of criticism doesn’t match the reality.

10

6th October 2014

Reading the legislation rather than each other’s media releases and tweets would demonstrate to these critics that both amendments streamline government processes, while maintaining people’s rights to scrutinise and object.

Neither amendment reduces public rights to have an effective say in regulating mining activities. Both, however reduce the chance of expensive and fruitless legal cases. Both stand up to scrutiny as being in the public interest.

The first amendment is the change to the ability to appeal against a mining lease in the Land Court.

QRC has been advocating for change to

this law for more than three years. It’s an outdated provision, which was changed only after 18 months of detailed consultation.

Queensland’s mining laws are still written as though the Department of Natural Resources and Mines decides both the mining lease and the environmental authority at the same time. That hasn’t been the case since the 1980s. Back then it made sense to have an appeal mechanism for both steps – the mining lease and the environmental authority.

Now, Queensland has one of the best environmental regulators in the country, and mining impacts are assessed through an open public process. An ability to challenge the mining lease itself isn’t necessary because you can challenge the environmental impacts of mining activities at an early stage through the very public environmental impact assessment process.

Resource companies need to hear community concern at this stage. It’s much easier to design a system of conditions and regulations if you understand your neighbours’ concerns upfront.

The second amendment, while not one QRC had asked for, was nevertheless sensible reform.

Under both Labor and LNP governments, Queensland’s Coordinator General deals with complex or important projects. The role is to regulate large

projects and to require conditions to manage the risk of environmental impacts.

Projects currently being assessed range from tourist resorts, to agricultural enterprises, an airport expansion, infrastructure including a bus and train tunnel and cruise ship facility, a port expansion and some mining and gas projects.

These environmental conditions also come from a public process, but once set they cannot be appealed. That has long been the case under successive Labor and LNP governments.

Curiously, the Land Court did not have the ability to dismiss appeals against the Coordinator General’s environmental conditions, even though they did not have the power to make any determinations on those conditions.

This second amendment gives the Land Court that power. In the future there is no need to have a court case running for 18 months to determine that the appeal on the conditions cannot be heard. This amendment applies to all projects assessed by the Coordinator-General, not just resources projects.

These reforms deliver a single simple process for people to have their say on resources projects.

This is good news for the Land Court, which can focus on the job at hand. It’s also good news for regional communities who understand that resources projects bring jobs, infrastructure, opportunity and growth.

Shift Miner Magazine

News

www.shiftminer.com

CSG industry mourns workers THE CSG workforce is in shock after two men died on work sites within four days recently.

On Monday 15 September, a 29-year-old Gold Coast man died after a workplace accident at about 8.45am at Origin’s Reedy Creek work site.

The man was a WDS contractor, working on Origin’s pipelines which are part of the Australia Pacific LNG project.

The accident is now being investigated by authorities, but it is believed the man suffered a major head injuries.

WDS Limited CEO Terry Chapman said the company was shocked and saddened to learn of the fatality.

“Nothing is more important to WDS than the safety of its workers and we will work with Workplace Health and Safety Queensland to thoroughly investigate all aspects of this tragic event,” Mr Chapman said.

“In the meantime our thoughts are with the employee’s family and we will do everything we can to provide them with support at this difficult time.”

Construction activities were immediately suspended in the area, and

employees have been offered counselling.

It follows the death of another contract worker, who was found in his room at the construction project at Eurombah Creek on Friday 12 September.

The alarm was raised when the 34-year-old Ostwald Bros employee didn’t show up for a morning meeting.

Since then, a 33-year-old Buddina man has been charged with drug offences in connection with his death.

Detective Sergeant James Steginga told local media an arrest had been made and a quantity of drugs located.

“Inquiries related to that death led police to locate the drug offences,” he said.

“He was a supervisor of the deceased.”

The Buddina man was charged with possession and supply of a dangerous drug, after five grams of cannabis were uncovered.

“Drugs were located and further information was obtained which led to the further charge of supply,” Det Sgt Steginga said.

The Sunshine Coast man has since resigned from his position with Ostwald Bros, where he was working on the Australia Pacific LNG Project.

FIFO part of the mining furniture THE Western Downs Regional Council and QGC have signed an agreement this week to upgrade the Chinchilla airport.

In total, nearly $5 million will be spent on the facility to meet the rising demands being placed on it by the CSG industry.

The upgrade is expected to be completed by the end of next year, and will mean Chinchilla joins Roma as the major aerial gateway into the Surat Basin.

However, the Wellcamp airport facility being built near Toowoomba and smaller upgrades to airstrips in Miles and Wandoan are also significant developments being driven by the gas sector.

Viewed collectively, the investment in airport infrastructure confirms that FIFO will be a major part of the working landscape for the CSG industry.

Figures for the financial year just ended showed around 310,000 people entered the region through Roma airport, which is double the number two years ago.

Just this month a daily direct flight from Roma to Sydney was announced by charter company Jetco, although the price of the flights is yet to be released.

Western Downs Regional Council mayor Ray Brown said the Chinchilla enhancements would contribute to the economic development of the town for years to come.

“Chinchilla airport has quickly become an integral transport focus for the expanding natural gas industry that is bringing sustainable, long-term growth to the region,” he said.

“These works demonstrate council’s ability to work with resource companies to manage development for the benefit of the whole community.”

QGC managing director Mitch Ingram said the Chinchilla airport had been important to the QCLNG project’s construction.

“The upgrade will ensure the airport remains a valuable asset for the region benefiting private and commercial air travel as well as vital services such as the Royal Flying Doctor Service and CareFlight.”

Dysart banking on Bengal THE possibility of a new coking coal mine being built as early as December near Dysart in the Bowen Basin has set tongues wagging about an economic recovery for the town.

If you believe the speculation, Indian coal mining hopeful Bengal Coal is trying to buy houses in Dysart to house its construction workforce.

However, confirmation of those rumours has proved difficult. Attempts

by Shift Miner to get a comment from the company by phone or email has proved fruitless.

Bengal Coal owns the Dysart East Coal Project (DECP), but has recruited the newly formed Australian-based company Dysart Coal Mine Management Pty Ltd to undertake the design, construction and operation of the mine.

According to the Queensland Department of Mines and Bengal themselves, the proposed mine would generate nearly 300 operational jobs and produce nearly two million tonnes of hard coking coal a year for around 20 years.

However, the project still needs the final nod from government and a final investment decision from Bengal, so it is unlikely to provide much short term relief to Dysart residents.

Spokesman for the Dysart Community and Business Group John

Cooks said conditions were not getting worse in the town, but they also weren’t getting any better.

“Things are fairly slow and haven’t changed much, although there are a few more people moving to town because of the cheap housing available,” he told Shift Miner.

“One thing that has improved things is the Isaac Regional Council’s buy local initiative.

“There have been some teething issues, but they have modelled it on the BMA buy local program which has also been working well.

However, Mr Cooks said both programs were prone to get lost somewhere in middle management.

“I think high level management want it to happen, and the locals at the bottom are willing to give locals a go, but the problem is middle management don’t seem willing to change the way they are doing things.

“The programs are not about locals always getting the work, but instead giving locals a chance to supply first, and if they can’t meet their needs, then looking elsewhere.

“But it is not just your BMAs and council we would like to see getting involved, we would also like to see companies like Thiess and Bengal looking local first.”

NON-DENOMINATIONAL • EARLY LEARNING • PREP TO YEAR 12 • CO-ED • BOARDING FROM YEAR 7

We’d love to see you.

Get to know The Rockhampton Grammar School. See if RGS is the right place for your son or daughter for entry in Year 7 or Year 10 next year or 2016. Call and make an appointment to tour the School, talk with staff and learn about opportunities available at RGS that will enable your child to do his or her very best, every day.

1300 GRAMMAR | www.rgs.qld.edu.au ralia’s One of AustSc hools Top Country LIAN 2012, 2013 THE AUSTRA

sland’s One of Quearen Schools y nd co Se st Be LIAN 2012, 2013 THE AUSTRA

INTERV IEW

ING FOR

2015&1

YEARS7&16 0

Every opportunity. Every student. Every day.

6th October 2014

11

Shift Miner Magazine

Around Town

www.shiftminer.com

HIGHLANDS FOCUS

Despite the current downturn, more than 170 people turned out in Emerald recently for the Bowen Basin Mining Club and Central Highlands Development Corporation’s mining update and networking event.

Anthony Vitali and Chris Pailthorpe - Alfagomma; Peter Moore - Castrol; Andy Alderson - JoyGlobal

Sujata Karandikar -Anglo American; Sarah Dowley - TEX Onsite; Margaret Davies - Anglo American

James Spence - CIVEO; Fazal Deen - Onsite Rental Group; Paul Ferguson - CIVEO

Michael McGrath - GW Industrial; Brad Hughes - Triple Torque; Rae Hobbs - Generate PR; Shawn Serotzki - Triple Torque

Brendan Camilleri - Comiskey Mining Services; Leon Williamson - Munda Mining Services

Ian Belford and Steve Hall - Whittens; Kevin Mills - CMC

Joel Wockner, Stephanie Gren and Scott de Wever - Kinnect

Lauren McGregor and Alistair Hughes - ADDA; Rick Palmer - RRC

Jay Pyne - Heritage Finance; Stephen Farrington - Humes; David Brierley - Fugro Spatial; Wes Smith - BMD Consulting

Gail Godwin-Smith - CHRC; Neil Fisher - RRC; Kev Cracknell and Kevin Pickersgill - CHRC

Holding a social event you want photographed? Call the Shift Miner office on 4921 4333 to let us know. You can also give our office a bell if you’d like a copy of any of the photos in this edition.

12

6th October 2014

Shift Miner Magazine

Around Town

www.shiftminer.com

NIGHT OF NIGHTS The Blackwater Crushers held their presentation night recently at the Capricorn Hotel Photos: Jeannette Fletcher

Player of the Year Brad Gormann

Mitch and Nat Waters

Ainsley Best and Bryce Little

Ashley Leeder and Tshinta Schulga

Kym Ross and Brendan Fuller

Susan and Marcus King

Rangi and Emily Tuwangai

Mitch, Anna and Frances Roberts

Hamish, Marley and Cody

Courtney and Baxter

Jemima and Chris Johnson

Jack and Holly

Jess and Will

Maree, Cassie and Rebekah

Buy this and many other images at

www.shiftminer.com Shift Miner magazine – bringing the mining community closer together 6th October 2014

13

Shift Miner Magazine

Off Shift

www.shiftminer.com

FROm THE EDITOR Now is not the time to turn on each other.

The big burning issue this edition is, of course, the latest round of job losses across the Bowen Basin.

Depending on which rumours you choose to listen to it’s the end of job cuts, the beginning of them or just about every possibility in-between.

Cue the blame game.

It seems to me the worst element of modern living is that for every event, there has to be someone to blame.

But sometimes shit just happens, and it has consequences.

We had a boom in prices and now we have a correction.

Coal is just another commodity, and if you want to know how commodities work - go ask a farmer and they will tell you they go up and down in an endless cycle.

So it seems a bit sad this month that all we read about the industry in the broader media is accusations about who’s to blame for something that really is blameless.

Sure, the industry was its own worse enemy by being too good at supplying coal to the world market

contributing to an oversupply.

Sure, some employees screwed their boss and were out for every cent they could earn during the boom when they had all the power.

But guess what, that was all rational behaviour for that TIME. We didn’t all suddenly lose our minds for five years.

But today the times have changed, and a new rationality has to be applied.

We hope in our coverage of these events we have applied an even hand because they are complex issues and they deserve that treatment.

Mining has always been a small tight-knit community bound together by the life and challenges of the industry.

But arguing the toss over why commodities go in circles seems like a pointless effort to me, and does nothing to help those without a job or to make our sites safer.

Proprietor : Angus Peacocke Comment or SMS 0409 471 014

Photos to THE EDITOR

Stuff Last edition’s story about safety concerns at Thiess Curragh mine has seen a flurry of text messages, emails and phone calls to the Shift Miner office:

14

6th October 2014

Locally Owned

& Operated

and gas com

munity’s best

source of loca

l news

Monday Januar

miner.com

PERSON

188th Edition

PUSSIES

M A G A Z I N E

GALORE AT YO UR DO NG Âť

TAYLOR S SOLICITO RS

y 15, 2014

www.shift

/ / 9 9 " ", ,-" /" The Partner ,-

s: John Taylor * , Sharon-" ĂŠ.B - LL.B 1, Smith - BEc/LL 9ĂŠ Craig Worsley Hons

- LL.B Greg ĂŠ

Carroll

/7", ĂŠ

Page 4

A DO OR

!

/ ĂŠ* ,/ ,-\ ÂœÂ…Â˜ĂŠ/>ĂžÂ?ÂœĂ€ĂŠÂ‡ĂŠ -Â…>Ă€ÂœÂ˜ĂŠ-Â“ÂˆĂŒÂ…ĂŠÂ‡ĂŠ ° VÉ ° ĂŠ ÂœÂ˜Ăƒ

Ă€>ˆ}ĂŠ7ÂœĂ€ĂƒÂ?iÞʇÊ ° Ă€i}ĂŠ >Ă€Ă€ÂœÂ?Â?

/AL INJURY *…œ˜iĂŠ{™xÇÊÓ Mining Acci "/",ĂŠ6 ™{{ĂŠĂŠ >Ă?ĂŠ{™xÇÊ CLAIMS dents

ĂŠ Ă“Ă¤ÂŁĂˆ ĂœĂœĂœÂ°ĂŒ>ĂžÂ?ÂœĂ€ĂƒÂ‡ Work Acci

/ĂƒÂœÂ?ˆVÂˆĂŒÂœĂ€ĂƒÂ°Vœ“° -1, dents i“>ˆÂ?\ʓ>ˆÂ?JĂŒ >Ă•

É/* Ê

É >ĂžÂ?ÂœĂ€ĂƒÂ‡ĂƒÂœÂ?ˆVÂˆĂŒÂœ Motor Vehi

" 6 9 Ă€ĂƒÂ°Vœ“°>Ă• iĂ›iÂ?ÊÓÉ£ÇÊ Ă€ÂˆĂƒ cle Accident

ĂŠĂŠĂŠ L>˜iĂŠ-ĂŒĂ€iiĂŒĂŠ Insuranc >VÂŽ>Ăž ĂŠĂŠ - / / e/TPD Claim s ĂŠ 7ĂŠĂŠ s CONVEY ĂŠĂŠĂŠ

" ,

ANCING ĂŠ 7 ESTATE LAW

LAW COM MER

Phone 495 7 294 4 Fax 495 7 www.tayl 201 6 ors-solic

Level

Poor safety at Curragh‌ haha. Curragh made their opinion on safety clear when they sacked their HST department, keeping only admin staff, and when they cut their number of ‘on the ground’ supervisors by over 50 per cent.

Everyone who works at Curragh knows that under the current regime - if you get hurt, you get removed from site, anyone who doesn’t believe it can go and talk to the long list of injured and even incapacitated blokes and sheilas who have been through the Curragh ‘return to work’ process.

You reckon a couple of months to get a hazard rectified at Thiess is bad, try being a Curragh permanent and waiting two years to see high risk hazards addressed‌ if ever.

It’s like they’re talking about my workplace - except they’re not. We have the exact same issues here and I’m just worried someone is going to pay for it with their life. S.W, Emerald “With reference to your article about safety performance at Curragh, it comes as no surprise. The safety team was reduced to two from six. Unfortunately the two have no operational experience although degree qualified, and are office bound developing utopian safety concepts to promote the ego’s of safety managers.� Anonymous.

Text in your best snap to 0409 471 014

nd mining

to the Editor

But the article also elicited this response:

At a CQ mine site last month - sent in by one of our readers.

SHIFT MIN ER The Queensla

Sitting in the cab of an automatic dump truck on a mine site. Someone else loads the truck, someone else fuels the truck and the greasing is done by‌ someone else. Someone puts up the traffic signs and builds a dump point with lighting towers that give Darth’s death star penis envy (yet the catch cry when they get run over is “I never saw itâ€?).

The ‘operator’ must push the throttle, admittedly with varied pressure during the shift.

Quite often shutting the door or starting the engine seems to be too difficult, requiring the soothing touch and monkish patience of our friendly Pitt-Fitter.

An operator will put the truck out of service if the air conditioner will not pull down to 20 degrees.

Our modern day mining ‘truckie’ lives in sunny tropical Queensland but pees his/ her pants if they have to do 15 minutes ‘work’ (sitting in cab) in a temperature higher than 24 degrees.

Operators claim that the AM/FM radio not working leads to increased fatigue.

Really?

Listening to a drop-out from an online media study course (DJ) spin high rotation

itors.com email: mail .au @taylorssolicitors 2/ 17 Bris .com.au

CIAL

Coldplay/Nickelback and alleged RnB artists surely has no merit in relieving the fatigue from sitting down in an air conditioned cab.

How about we whack a grease gun and few cartridges of grease in each machine?

When the operator feeling fatigued he/ she can park up and jump under and give the uni joints a squirt?

That would be more lifting of fatigue than Luke on GEN-Y FM spinning the new One Direction song 17 times an hour in your cab.

Please enlighten me, as many times operators complain they can not hear the digger horn. Combine that with the almost daily whinge that it’s hard to get onto the two-way because too many people all want to talk at once and it must be audioapocalyptic inside that cab trying to hear digger horn and keep up to speed with all the info constantly coming in from the twoway speaker, the buzzer telling you your tub is in the air, your seatbelt is not on, your door is ajar or your park brake is on.

How about we layer some squeaking from that witch Katy Perry over the top of all that to help with your fatigue?

A 930e Komatsu truck weighs 300ish tonne loaded, is bright yellow, two storeys high, has more reflective tape than an average Red Cross/NATO ambulance, is adorned with HID lights and travels at 8km/h up a ramp while bellowing out enough decibels to annoy Bon Scott, yet our 100k plus a year operator parks it up because the 200mm/75 watt front strobe DOES NOT WORK (pot calling the kettle black.)

In reference to your whinge that hand rail was repaired by using a bit of rag and cable ties, please tell me what is the STRUCTURE and FUNCTION of a handrail on a haul truck?

A: It is to provide safe access and egress to the operator’s cab.

It has no purpose once the machine is in operation.

Haul trucks generally have a staircase, drawbridge or ladder for access and a back up ladder for emergency access.

The staircase has lighting and 11 decals warning of the perils of less than 3 points of contact complete with drawings for our remedial friends, grip tape and also water drain points, plus on the deck about 15 hundred metres of steel handrails with 8.8 bolts.

Clearly enough rails that a Chinese laundry could dry 3500 towels and hour.

So as your truck in question sat still at ZERO kilometres an hour and you had to complete the biblical task of getting from the ground to the operator’s cab to collect your 100k+ pay cheque, you suffered mightily during this Hillary-esque trek ?

Not the least when you were confronted with the mammoth task of walking past one lower handrail strut (out of 12) that had the deadly and dangerous piece of taipan-style rag being held on with funnel web venom cable ties!

Christ man, I’m nominating you for the outback survival award. bane Str eet Mac kay

Shift Miner Magazine

Off Shift

www.shiftminer.com

Frank the Tank’s Dear Frank, I’m a single guy and I don’t get a chance to go out and meet women very often. I’ve been thinking about trying out internet dating, but I just can’t seem to shake the feeling that it’s only for losers. Is this an antiquated notion, is online dating the way of the future?

Chris from Monto

Fair Dinkum!

Is this the new face of evil?

IN KAZAKHSTAN

- While the western world’s focus is trained on ISIS as the current axis of evil, Kazakhstan is busy identifying the real menace to society: SpongeBob SquarePants.

Official’s in Kazakhstan know a rotten apple when they see one and have deemed TV cartoon favourite SpongeBob SquarePants a violent bully who corrupts children’s minds.

I mean he is pretty annoying and he does wear square pants but really, is that enough reason to vilify the little guy?

According to The Daily Mirror, Kazakhstan’s education ministry viewed several episodes and is now telling parents not to let their children watch the surreal animated show.

“Streakin” good love advice

Christopher, my friend, you’ve come to the right place.

Not only are my skills with women the stuff of legend, I am considered a pioneer in cyberspace. Before I became involved, the internet was nothing more than a boring way for people to communicate across vast distances and access information instantly. Thanks to yours truly, the average internet user is now only a few short seconds away from an endless sea of pornography - a sea I would be all too happy to drift in for many years - but that’s beside the point.

Internet dating is a risk/reward situation. It’s possible that you may meet the interesting, intelligent woman of your dreams and fall in love instantly. It’s equally possible that you may be abducted by someone fraudulently posing as a woman and spend the next 10 years of your life in a Fritzl-esque cellar of horrors.

These are probably the two extreme ends of the spectrum of cyber romance, so in the interest of being realistic, let’s examine the middle ground: meeting an average, everyday woman on the internet.

The first step towards romantic success online is an eye catching, engaging profile.

I suggest lying about yourself extensively.

Try making wild claims and accusations,

why not suggest Julia Gillard stole your virginity at an ALP rally in 1987? I must warn you, however, there are a number of things to beware of in the world of online dating, perhaps most notably what I call ‘the phantom display picture’. The modern woman is a master of deception and will employ a number of different tactics to make herself look as appealing as possible in an online environment. So while you might think you’re hitting it off with a Katy Perry look alike, there’s a good chance she looks more like Susan Boyle - which isn’t a bad thing if you’re into women with experience in handling bagpipes.

The pendulum of concealing hideous physical disfigurements through technology swings both ways though, I can assure you. I once joined a swingers website in an attempt to meet some wild women. After some careful manipulation using a visual editing program, I managed to successfully alter a photograph of myself and generate quite a bit of interest.

As a word of warning though, ruses of this nature are often exposed, as I discovered personally. Perhaps I can best describe it using this analogy: supposing that I was a Subway sandwich, and my prospective partner was a hungry consumer, she was left extremely dissatisfied after ordering a

foot-long and receiving only a six inch.

It seems the fun police went on to rule the cartoon character creates a culture of hooliganism, violence and bullying.

Zabira Orazalieva, chairman of the Committee for the Protection of Children’s Rights, said the accused “has a negative impact of the minds of children”.

“We witnessed how SpongeBob regularly inflicts violence on others in his community and seems to enjoy what he does.

This shocking behaviour remains in the child’s mind and influences how they behave themselves,” said Ms Orazalieva.

The grim-faced officials from the ministry stopped short of banning foreign TV channels which broadcasts SpongeBob as the cartoon is also shown on YouTube and other social media sites but stressed the responsibility lay instead with parents to prevent exposure to this dangerous influence.

couple to their love nest. “It was never our intention for any animals to feel uncomfortable because of their natural behaviours,” the zoo said in a statement.

The interruption of the long-standing romance has turned into a national news story in Poland in the past days. Nearly 7,000 people signed a petition to have them reunited.

Two fan pages that appeared on Facebook devoted to their cause attracted nearly 10,000 likes – and photos of donkeys in the act.

Experts weighed in, saying that forcing the donkeys to live alone could affect their psychological wellbeing.

Politicians were asked about it on the country’s leading news programmes.

“Animals separated by sex into different cages? It’s complete idiocy,” said Stefan Niesiolowski, a legislator with the governing party, Civic Platform.

Even the spokesman for the conservative Law and Justice party, which Dudziak belongs to, would not come to her defence.

“It’s a level of absurdity … that has been crossed to such an extent that I don’t even want to read or know about this,” Adam Hofman said on Wednesday, on behalf of the party.

In their decade together, Napoleon and Antosia have produced six offspring.

Zack Brown is planning PotatoStock 2014, an all-ages, charity-minded party in downtown Columbus featuring bands, food trucks, beer vendors, potato-sack races and definitely potato salad.

His effort on Kickstarter in early July to buy potato salad ingredients took on a life of its own and attracted worldwide attention as the amount grew. The 31-year-old eventually raised $55,492.

The Idaho Potato Commission and corporate sponsors have donated supplies for Brown and volunteers to whip up 300 pounds of potato salad for the event.

The Columbus Dispatch, reports Brown partnered with the Columbus Foundation to start an endowment that will aid area charities that fight hunger and homelessness. The account, started with $20,000 in post-campaign corporate donations, will grow after proceeds from PotatoStock are added.

“His fund will have potential way after this potato salad is forgotten,” said Lisa Jolley, the foundation’s director of donors and development.

Brown has been wooed by chefs, a literary agent and admirers seeking selfies and hugs.

“You never know what’s going to take off,” said Justin Kazmark, a spokesman for Kickstarter, whose projects reach their goals 44 percent of the time. “This was just the Internet being the Internet.”

Brown said the effort was never really about potato salad.

“I think it says something about how you can spread an idea now,” Brown said.

IN POLAND - The fun police

have also been active in Warsaw where two overly amorous donkeys have been separated after complaints about their non-stop shagging at a zoo in Poznan.

The couple, together for 10 years, got into trouble when mothers expressed outrage that children had to witness their mating. Local conservative official Lydia Dudziak took up their cause and persuaded the director of the zoo to have the animals put in separate pens.

Fortunately for our star-crossed ass lovers - Napoleon and Antosia - love does conquer all and the zoo has acknowledged it made a mistake and returned the

IN THE UNITED STATES - A man who jokingly sought $10 from a crowdfunding website to pay for his first attempt at making potato salad and ended up raising $55,000 is making good on his promise to throw an epic party.

Frank

SENSIBLE SUSAN Chris, In 2014, a lot of people use the internet as a dating tool, and if you don’t get a chance to get out much it could be a great way for you to meet some likeminded women. While you may think that only ‘geeks’ use online dating, I’m sure that a cursory search would reveal that a lot of your single buddies have tried it out at some stage or another, but just don’t care to admit it!

I suppose the key to using an online service is remembering to keep your wits about you. While the majority of users might be legit, there’s always the danger of being scammed online.

If you remain discerning, and go into it with an open mind, who knows, you might be a click away from your future wife!

Susan

6th October 2014

15

NOW ABSOLUTELY FREE FOR SUBSCRIBERS at www.shiftminer.com CAR FOR SALE

WANTED

CRIB ROOM FOR SALE

CAR FOR SALE

Cert III Civil Construction Plant Operations.

Cert III Civil Construction Road Construction.

Cert IV Civil Construction Supervision.

Certificate IV in Building and Construction.

FORD MONDEO XR5 TURBO

BRAND NEW TRAILER MOUNTED CRIB ROOM

This car is in excellent condition and has done a low 69,000 kms. Full service history , rego 9/14, new tyres. Immaculate interior. Road worthy certificate.

Don’t hesitate - this will not be on the market for long.

14.4mtr x 3.35 mtr Trailer Mounted Crib Kitchenette, air conditioned seating for 40 men 3 x toilets Gas Lift Shades & Pull out decks, 2500 litre Water Tank 2500 litres Waste Tank Ready to Plug to Generator

$ 19,000 ono

Call: 0408 811 510 CAR FOR SALE

$ 180,000

Call: 0428 691 429 CAR FOR SALE

Could anyone help me with user guides or manuals for these please. Anything considered.

$ 50

Call: 0467 233 292 CAR FOR SALE

HOLDEN SS VE UTE

Immaculate 2009 model Holden SS VE commodore V8 ute, only 70,000 klms, tinted windows, 1 owner, regretful sale.

$ 22,500

Call: 0438 377 050 CAR FOR SALE

2003 KIA RIO

VE SSV COMMODORE

HSV 2005 VZ R8 CLUBSPORT - RED

HOLDEN HSV R8 CLUB SPORT 2001

47,000 Genuine Klms, One Owner elderly gentleman, maily driven around town, good condition. Make excellent second car or first car for teenager.

475 BHP Rear Wheels Full X Force Exhaust OTR Induction Stage 5 VCM Cam Mafless Tune Ripshifter Black Leather Interior.

$ 5,000

$ 30,000

Auto V8 - 54000 kms. 2 owners only 10.5 inc DVD player in roof Red Car Bra & Mirror covers Black Leather upholstery. Ceramic coated extractors, 5 Mag wheels.

Vehicle in Longreach.

V8 Auto 84000 kms. Met Silver, GTS Bonnet & Senator Front Charcoal Leather Upholstery, Black Car Bra & Mirror Covers, Tow Bar / Air Bag suspension.

Immaculate condition. Vehicle in Longreach.

Call: 0457 888 131 CAR FOR SALE

Call: 0437 331 814 ROOM FOR RENT

$ 23,000

Call: 0428 458 149 BIKE FOR SALE

$ 15,000

Call: 0428 458 149 BOAT FOR SALE

SELF CONTAINED CABIN ACCOMODATION

HOLDEN COMMODORE OMEGA VE 2007

VE Omega 06/2007 V6 auto 86500 kms Phantom Black Pontiac front 20” rims - 5 GST mag rims, rear spoiler & dual exhaust protector mat fitted. Price inc 6 months rego.

Vehicle located in Longreach.

$ 14,500

Call: 0428 458 149

Furnished, self contained, ensuite cabins now available in Mount Morgan, just 35 mins to Rockhampton. Quiet and secure.

Suit single working male.

$ 160/wk

Call: 749 381 550

HARLEY DAVIDSON 07 NIGHT TRAIN CHEAP

2011 CUSTOM BASS BOAT

Can help with finance. Very clean new tyres 200 rear tyre 6 month REGORWC looks right rides right. Information, photos phone Reuban or email: rp.watson@hotmail. com. Can freight bike.

115 Mercury Optimax (18hrs), Mercury smartcraft gauges, Hydraulic steering, electric motor, Lowrance HDS 8 & Structure scan at the helm, 100ltr fuel tank, Scotty downriggers & rod holders, 50Ltr live bait tank, Seven built in compartments & many more extras.

$ 17,750

Call: 0418 754 206

$ 37,500

Call: 0438 117 725

NOW ABSOLUTELY FREE FOR SUBSCRIBERS at www.shiftminer.com ACCOMODATION CAMP FOR SALE

WATER TRUCK FOR SALE

TELEHANDLER FOR SALE

CRIB ROOM ROOFS FOR SALE

145 x ROOM ACCOMODATION CAMP

2005 ACCO 2350 WATER TRUCK

2010 JCB 531-70 LOADALL TELEHANDLER

26 EACH CRIB ROOM ROOF STRUCTURES

145 Room Accommodation Camp Comprising of 25x APB 14.4mtr x 3mtr 4 Room Ensuite Transportable Accommodation Buildings

Mine spec ready to work. Mackay Area.

RWC.

2010 JCB 531-70 Loadall, VIN #: SF320/40201U1626010, 3,100kg Rated Capacity, 6,900kg Weight, 74.2kw @ 2200 RPM, Good condition, Log books

Each structure consists of posts galvanised iron sheeting flashing and all fittings to construct. Packed and ready for transport.

$ 1,500,000

$ 99,000

Price on application

Price on application

Call: 0408 254 411

ABLUTION BLOCKS FOR SALE

Call: 0428 588 065

Call: 0428 279 083

Call: 0448 087 922

CRIB ROOMS FOR SALE

DUMP TRUCK FOR SALE

DUMP TRUCK FOR SALE

28 x ABLUTION BLOCKS

55 x 12Mx3M RELOCATABLE CRIB ROOMS

CATERPILLAR 789C DUMP TRUCK

CATERPILLAR 789C DUMP TRUCK

Consisting of 18 x male ablution blocks with 5 x cubicles urinal and 5 x hand basins; 8 x Male/Female combination ablution blocks.

Most crib room contain 4-5 tables qty green plastic chairs 2 air conditioners Skope 2 door fridge water fountain pie warmer microwave oven blinds hot water unit and cupboards. There are some variation between crib rooms.

C2008 Caterpillar 789C Rear Dump Truck approx 14767hrs as at Feb 2014 (details as supplied). Plant No: RD1863 Serial No: 2BW01412

C2008 Caterpillar 789C Rear Dump Truck approx 14914hrs as at Feb 2014 (details as supplied). Plant No: RD1867 Serial No: 2BW01424.

Price on application

Price on application

Price on application

Call: 0448 087 922

Price on application

Call: 0448 087 922

CAMPER TRAILER FOR SALE

BOAT FOR SALE

Call: 0400 254 188 CAR FOR SALE

Call: 0400 254 188 CAR FOR SALE

LW HARD FLOOR CAMPER TRAILER

STACER PROWLER PROLINE

TOYOTA LANDCRUISER GXL

TOYOTA LANDCRUISER PRADO

LW Hard Floor Camper Trailer New 2014 IND suspension Fridge/Gen box 100amp deep cycle bat Kitchen Stove Full annex.

13ft Aluminium, Excellent condition, 15hp Evinrude, trailer, also many extras. Depth sounder/fish finder new battery, all v.g.c., 10 mths rego. Painted inside, false floor etc.

Ute 2011. Full service hist, Excel Cond, GVM upgrade, RWC, Rego, BMA compliant, diesel compress, exhaust, alloy tool boxes, steel tray.

2012, 49k kms, auto, diesel, ex/condition, 12 months warranty, 1 year rego, 1 owner. Plenty of extras.

$ 12,995

$ 4,600

$ 62,000

$ 51,990

UNDERGROUND REFUGE FOR SALE

MINING GARBAGE POD FOR SALE

Call: 49 363 074 CAR FOR SALE

Call: 0431 542 853

Call: 0408 424 412

Call: 0457 727 389

VENT SHAFTS FAN FOR SALE

TOYOTA WORKMATE

UNDERGROUND REFUGE

2012 ALFABS MINING QDS GARBAGE POD

VENT SHAFTS FAN

2008, V8 turbo diesel wagon. 204,000 km.

Good condition.

Strata Safety 16 Person underground refuge.

Unused, top loading door front unload door

2011 Flaktwoods DX222 Vent Shafts fan complete with Weg electric motor. Serial No: 1010851634.

$ 26,500

Price on application

Price on application

Price on application

Call: 0457 123 847

Call: 0408 254 411

Plant No: DGP001 Serial No: JM3184-1.

Call: 0408 254 411

Call: 0408 254 411

Shift Miner Magazine

Off Shift

www.shiftminer.com

MOVIE Review with Eleanor Thomson Jonas (Brenton Thwaites) and his love interest Fiona (Odeya Rush)

More future teens in trouble The Giver portrays a future where the world is free of war, inequality is nonexistent and suffering is an antiquated term which no longer possesses any meaning.

However, this seemingly ultimate utopia starts to become something more sinister as the veneer of perfection begins to unravel.

Following the unexplained “Ruin”, society has been organised into

MINING’S boom times might be a wee bit on the wane but it appears the market for young adult apocalyptic fiction knows no such readjustment phase.

If you are strung out waiting for the next instalment of The Hunger Games you can feed your dystopia cravings with The Giver, a sci-fi thriller based on a 1993 American children’s novel by Lois Lowry.

1 8

PUZZLES 9 7 4

8 1 2 9 2 5 7 3 8 4 1 5 6 3 MEDIUM

6 8

2 4 8 1 7

1

6th October 2014

3

4

5

9

6

7

8

10 11

12

13

14 17 19

15

16

18 20

21 22

24

27

25

26

28

23

ACROSS 1. Children’s jumping game 5. Spread of eight notes 9. Preferences 10. Garden barriers 12. Itemised reminder letter (5,4) 13. Taiwan’s huge neighbour 14. Reverberated 16. Act of repentance 19. Indecent 21. X marks the ...

24. Blanch (vegetables) 25. Gala 27. Parent’s nephew 28. Luxuriously self-indulgent 29. Snow vehicle 30. Bare-all entertainer

DOWN 1. Mauve flowers 2. Dies down 3. Look quickly (through) 4. Continuing 6. Musical build-up 7. Sales 8. Puts into bondage 11. Desist 15. Condensing 17. Cuts up to analyse # 71 18. Undeveloped 20. Existence 21. Questionable 22. Concede defeat (4,2) 23. Pearl-making mollusc 26. Baghdad native Handy Cross 2891 ©Lovatts Publications

29

# 70

Shift Miner Handy Cross blank grid.pdf ©Lovatts Publications 5/03/09 artist – mb

18

2

communities where memories have been erased and emotions are banned.

In this triumph of social engineering, conformity is uniformly maintained by a daily injection of emotion-suppressing drugs and an ever present surveillance AKA Big Brother.

Couples are matched up by the state and nobody can recall anything about The Ruin or how it happened.

The focus is on three teenage friends who are about to be assigned their new adult work roles, in a ceremony presided over by a hologram of the supreme authority figure (Meryl Streep).

One of the teenage trio, Jonas (exHome and Away actor, Brenton Thwaites) is singled out to be the receiver of past memories from The Giver (Jeff Bridges).

As he learns of life in the past, Jonas develops forbidden personality traits, such as morality and rebellion.

Director Phillip Noyce (of Rabbit Proof Fence fame) cleverly uses black and white film to convey the sterile blandness which defines this totalitarian eden.

Through Jonas’ “training”, he is allowed to glimpse the past and these “memories” come to him in bursts of intensifying colour and in a montage of archival news.

Streep and Bridges contribute some high calibre acting credentials and even Taylor Swift puts in an appearance but it is Katie Holmes, as Jonas’ mother who most effectively pulls off her part as a suitably creepy drone (perhaps living with Tom Cruise provided good training!).

If you like your thrillers pumping along with action aplenty you will probably be pretty unimpressed with The Giver’s languid pace.

But if you enjoy a more reflective cinematic ride there is much to impress with this film’s paired back style, thoughtprovoking narrative and its warts-and-all celebration of what it means to be human.

30

LAST EDITION’S SOLUTIONS I MA G I N E C T N C I N C R E A S R M L C L OU I S I A E V E F UME A L C OR B I T E D N A I U V E NOM T D A Y I C L OU T S N U T S E S AME

4 1 8 5 7 9 6 2 3

5 3 2 1 6 4 8 9 7

9 7 6 8 3 2 5 4 1

8 9 3 4 2 1 7 5 6

D

E A W R A T K N A H E L N C N E D A S B V E A R AWA S R C S HO E L A E N T A D J A C E E

6 4 7 3 8 5 2 1 9

A Y A E R D S T H I C S K

1 2 5 6 9 7 3 8 4

7 8 4 9 5 3 1 6 2

3 6 9 2 1 8 4 7 5

Y E N N D A E N G S E R A Y S S C E N N T

2 5 1 7 4 6 9 3 8

Shift Miner Magazine

Off Shift

www.shiftminer.com

The seven lesser known wonders…

The Grand Canyon, Mount Everest and the Great Barrier Reef...please excuse me while I yawn. You might be all over the Seven Wonders of the World but how about these less well known gems of the natural world? Now if Dora could only find her way past grandma’s house, that bloody annoying map could at least steer her past the dancing forest to some of these rad destinations.

Mud Volcanoes, Azerbaijan

tidal flats, dunes and levees. The area is known for its wide range of fauna, with the Royal Bengal tiger being the most famous, but also including 150 species of fish, 270 birds, 42 mammals, 35 reptiles and eight different types of amphibians.

Puerto Princesa Underground River, Philippines

Jeju Island, South Korea Mud volcanoes are formed when cold mud, gas and water from kilometres below the earth’s crust are forced upward and expelled into cone shaped mounds on the surface. Of the 700 mud volcanoes identified on land, 400 are located along the Caspian coastline in Azerbaijan, where the typical mud volcano is about four metres in height, though the largest can reach up to 700 metres. And although the tepid globular emission is significantly less molten than their larger erupting volcanic cousins, mud volcanoes can still offer a theatrical performance.

The Sundarbans, Bangladesh and India Located off the southern coast of the South Korean peninsula, the volcanic island of Jeju is referred to as Korea’s Hawaii. In addition to offering a soft, powdery coastline, a sunglasses summer climate and four distinct ecological zones, South Korea’s highest point, Halla Mountain, boasts excellent hiking trails to its crater peak, which holds the only natural lake in the entire country.

Lava that once flowed from the crater 100,000 to 300,000 years ago formed the Geomunoreum lava tube system. Given their length, frequency, and beautiful crystal formations, these lava tubes are regarded as the best in the world.

Located in the northern part of Poland, the Masurian Lakes Plateau is known as the “Land of a Thousand Lakes”.

It has the biggest concentration of lakes in Poland, with 15 per cent of the area covered by water. These lakes are remnants of the ice age, when all of northeastern Poland and parts of Europe were covered by ice. There are over 4000 lakes in the whole area, linked by rivers and canals to form an intricate system of waterways.

The Masurian Lakes area is also home to some of Central Europe’s largest forested areas, and thus a haven of scenic beauty.

Yushan, Chinese Taipei The Puerto Princesa Subterranean River in the Philippines flows through a spooky cave of stalactites and stalagmites before spilling into the South China Sea. It also supports the Palawan Moist Forest, considered to have the most diverse tree flora in Asia. Reputed to be the world’s longest underground river, 8.2 kilometres meanders through a complete mountain-to-sea ecosystem and flows by or below eight of the 13 forest types found in tropical Asia. These forests hold over 800 plant species and at least 295 species of trees.

Masurian Lake District, Poland

The Sundarbans is the largest mangrove forest in the world. This 4,110 square kilometre ‘beautiful jungle’ is traversed by a tightly woven system of rivers and tributaries that have created beaches, estuaries, swamps,

Yushan National Park, which houses around thirty mountains over 3,000 metres. Yushan’s landscape is diverse, it has rugged valleys and peaks, dense forest, Qing dynasty trails, Indigenous and early chinese and Japanese ruins, old gold mines, ancient forest and subtropical plants. It also has many species of wildlife including the formosan black bear, samba deer, Chinese tiger cat, Chinese mink and flying squirrels. The Park is also home to hundreds of species of butterflies, which is why Taiwan is also known as the Land of Butterflies.

I scream you scream we all scream for ice cream Spring has well and truly sprung and summer is getting its game face on. It is time to prepare your cool down arsenal and a trusty old ice cream is a great way to avoid the scorch. But what does this season have to offer in the way of the freezer cabinet? Do today’s breed of ice blocks and ice creams stack up against the summertime classics of old? Can a Hava Heart, Weis Bar or Golden Gaytime ever be surpassed? Shift Miner is peeling back the packets to give you the low down on what to wrap your laughing gear around this summer.

Fairy Floss FanDangle

Fruttare

Salted Caramel Magnum

Pink and purple and fairy floss flavoured, this ice cream is clearly trying to tie up the children’s market.

What sounds pretty icky is actually quite delicately flavoured and not the lurid, sugar hit which you might expect.

This creamy treat will particularly appeal to princess, pink and fairy focussed little girls.

These frozen smoothies are made with real fruit so while it is still classified as an ice confection they are designed to be perceived as a healthy choice. But interestingly they have more kilojoules and higher levels of fat and sugar than a Fairy Floss FanDangle (Fruttare’s have an additional 0.4g of dietary fibre if that makes the healthy bracket). They come in strawberry and banana flavour and are quite nice if you like fruity chunks.

This is a limited edition flavour celebrating 25 years of Magnum pleasure. Probably appropriately it encompasses the food fad of the moment...salted caramel. The salty sweet is limited to a ripple through vanilla ice cream so it isn’t too overbearing.

Oddly this silver jubilee Magnum’s cracking milk chocolate is covered with a shimmering silver coating. It has a rather queer effect and looks more grey than silver but it is still quite impressive.

Rocky Road Trip Drumstick I am generally a purist when it comes to Drumsticks and give wild flavours a wide berth in favour of straight vanilla. I am quite partial to rocky road I am not sure the rocky road trip Drumstick does either of the individual products justice. Billed as “marshmallow & chocolate ice cream with peanuts & raspberry syrup all in a crispy wafer cone” it is a fine if uninspiring cornet style ice cream. I say stick to vanilla and eat a slab of real rocky road on the side if you really want to simultaneously enjoy the best of both worlds.

6th October 2014

19

Shift Miner Magazine

Bait Shop Banter

Check out this mighty Mouri Cod caught

by Luke Doyle off Fraser Island.

IN YEPPOON

- Everyone should get excited about crabs and prawns, according to Adrian at The Secret Spot Bait & Tackle.

With the recent rain washing the crabs out of the mud Adrian says prepare for the “onslaught of crabs that cometh”.

Prawn-wise it is worth throwing a cast-net over the entrance of any spoon drain running off the mangroves from half tide down.

Four to five days after rain is always a good time to give prawning a go and a good feed should be come your way.

Top picks For more events in the mining community go to shiftminer.com

John Butler Trio Thursday 9 October 2014 Region: Mackay

Barra are also sparking up with reports of 12-14 haul catches of 65 to 75cm specimens coming in.

With temperatures starting to warm up to the 23 to 24 degree mark the barra action will also be hotting up.

A fair few blue salmon and threadfin are also about so it sounds like there is something for everyone in the beautiful world of fishing.

IN MACKAY - Ashley from

Nashy’s Compleat Angler reckons that in between the bursts of average weather shows in that region.

The John Butler Trio will continue to tour internationally for the remainder of 2014 with headline shows and key festival performances such as Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza and Fuji Rock along the way.

When the band returns to Australia in October, Queensland fans can expect a set list encompassing tracks from their new album ‘Flesh & Blood’ along with crowd favourites from the breadth of the trio’s catalogue.

And as a special treat renowned for her unique blend of foot-stomping soul, heart wrenching ballads and stirring live performances, the magnificent Mama Kin will open proceedings.

Yeppoon Lions Tropical Pinefest

Saturday 11 October 2014 - Sunday 12 October 2014 Region: Yeppoon

John Butler Trio set to wail in Mackay

The global release of ‘Flesh & Blood’ has seen the John Butler Trio receive the highest of accolades and sell out concerts around the world as they’ve introduced new drummer Grant Gerathy and their sixth studio album to devoted fans over the past six months. Come October, Queenslanders will get their live JBT fill as the band returns home for a brief run of

20

6th October 2014

Off Shift

www.shiftminer.com

Sunshine and pineapples? What’s not to celebrate?

This annual festival showcases the spirit of Central Queensland and attracts interest from the local and broader regional community.

Events such as the Grand Street Parade, beach activities and fireworks display draw spectators from far afield, from Emerald, Gladstone and Marlborough.

This coastal event provides a focus for the region and allows for the opportunity for the community and local business, in partnership with Lions to promote the area, contribute to the local economy and raise funds for Lions

there has been some solid runs and that things appear to be shoring up nicely.

Out wide, there are still nice spanish mackerel getting about and Ashley recommends trolling hard bodies and skip baits to reel them in.

And while Ashley says the reef is currently a little steady for trout and reds the smaller mackerel are getting thicker.

Little metal slugs and spoons are the go for scoring yourself spotties and schoolies.

Closer in, suss out Hay Point and out off the harbour if you fancy hooking up with some big grunter.

Nice barra are also turning up in Reliance and the Piney and Ashley says Jackall Transams are the successful anglers’ lure of choice.

The dams are also starting to give up their barra with Teemburra and Peter Faust being the pick of the bunch.

“Fish the wind blowing point as it oxygenates the water and stirs things hopefully producing some big boys,” is Ashley’s top tip for tackling the dams.

Greg said he would have expected them to be schooling up by now but then he also reckons they can come on just like that so be prepared.

The rivers and estuaries are also fishing well with plenty of flathead and a few nice whiting on the menu.

Greg recommends trying for whiting around Colosseum, down Turkey way and you should be able to bag yourself a good feed.

Given the time of year, crabs aren’t thick but you never know, chucking in a pot is surely always worth a go?

If you have a good photo or fishing yarn send it through to our resident bait chucker-

angus.peacocke@shiftminer.com

IN GLADSTONE

- Just get out there and go fishing is the spot on advice given by Craig at Pat’s Tackle World.

The weather looks like it is coming good, the water is warming up and the barra are starting to make their presence felt so just get out amongst it.

Out front, the Charters have been bringing back reports of good reef fish activity and half decent trout coming back in the old chilly bin.

Sweetlip still seem a bit slow and charities. All profit goes to Lions charities.

This festival provides a weekend of activities for all ages and can be a calendar weekend for families to visit the coast.

CQ Bikes Bulls Buggys & Bands Friday 24 October 2014 Sunday 26 October 2014 Region: Peak Downs Highway

The first ever CQ Bikes Bulls Buggys & Bands will be held on Donnybrook Station (7000 acres) on the Eton Range near Mackay and there will be loads of events featuring motorbike racing; bull riding and rodeo; 4WD

offroad buggy racing and awesome live music!

CQ Bikes Bulls Buggys & Bands is a new event to be held in this area, targeting a family based audience with a variety of bike and buggy events during the day with a Bullarama and Bands at night.

Friday night will be the first half of the Bullarama and Bands to follow afterwards.

Saturday: all bike and buggy events until around 4pm with the second half of the Bullarama and Bands to follow.

Sunday is the finals of the bike and buggy events.

Bands performing will be Mason Rack, Lance Friend, Razor and The Kuttabilles.

This will be a family-friendly event with a large variety of entertainment for the whole family.

Shift Miner Magazine

Sport Monday - Roundup

www.shiftminer.com

Plenty of fight in Moranbah

You know it’s bad when the Panda isn’t played

WINNERS ARE GRINNERS: Moranbah’s boxers now prepare for nationals.

FOR a small town in the outback, Moranbah would appear to be punching above its weight in boxing.

Five boxers have just returned from the Cairns state titles - two as state champions and four of them qualifying for the nationals in Tasmania later this year.

The winners were junior boxer Jack Hoffman, in the 13 to 15 years age group, and 23-year-old Stuart Wilcox.

Eighteen-year-old Leo Nicholson, 31-year-old Ian Phillips and Andy Hoffman narrowly lost their final fights to strong opponents.

Despite the great achievement, Moranbah boxing coach Mark Janssen said he was a little bit disappointed they didn’t bring more gold home with them.

“Leo would be a bit disappointed by his loss to a bloke that he has beaten before, maybe he went into the fight a little over confident, but he will learn from that,” he said.

“Ian was very inexperienced going into his fight as he had only had two fights before, so it was a very big ask for Ian to compete in the state titles after having only two fights.

“And I think with a few more fights

under his belt he will easily win.

“So I guess from that point of view it is a little disappointing that we didn’t have more wins.”

Boxing is gathering momentum in Moranbah since Mr Janssen arrived about eight months ago.

Mr Jannsen had a credible boxing career of his own, having fought professionally all around the world - and at one time - for well known American boxing promoter Don King.

However, he said the club’s success had more to do with the Moranbah community than with him.

“I would like to say [our success] is because of the coaching, but I think there must be something in the water,” he joked.

“But we have a good club that supports us and that allows our boxers to get plenty of fights under their belt, which makes them better boxers.

“We have about eight junior fighters and the same number of senior fighters, and it is growing.

“But boxing is one of those sports where you arrive at the gym and try it, and either love it or hate it.”

FOR the first time in the history of the game the Panda Curtis memorial rugby league match has been cancelled for 2014.

The game between BMA Blackwater and Wesfarmers Curragh miners is normally played every two years, and is in memory of much-lover former Blackwater resident Panda Curtis who died nearly a decade ago.

Off the field, the game draws a huge crowd and raises tens of thousands of dollars for local charities and infrastructure in Blackwater.

On the field, it is remembered for its ferocity and sportsmanship with a quarter never given (or asked) by teams made up of current, past (and occasionally imported) players.

However, with the threat of job cuts hanging over the heads of so many miners in Central Queensland, organiser Sean Daly said they decided to postpone the match until things improved.

“I guess it’s a reflection of the times,” he told Shift Miner.

“We have all heard about what is happening to BMA miners, but there are all sorts of rumours that more job cuts are coming from other operators as well.

“Because of that, the committee just felt rather than have the game and have a poor turnout, we would just defer until the outlook is better.

“The Panda Curtis match is not going to die, but we just didn’t want to go to all that effort and then not get

BETTER TIMES: Curragh to hold onto the shield for another year, with the Panda Curtis game cancelled for 2014

the result we wanted.”

In 2012 when the last game was played, the Curragh miners broke a three-game hoodoo by beating the CFMEU-sponsored BMA miners by just eight points.

Mr Daly was captain and coach of the CFMEU team that year and commented after the game that it was as good a game as you would see in the regular competition.

“Yes it was a tough game,” he said at the time.

“Although it was only played for charity, there was more skill and fitness involved than I think you would see in one of the regular first-grade games in the local competition.”

That year the money raised was used to refurbish the playground structure at the Rotary Park in Blackwater.

Moranbah Speedway to build on its successes

HIGH SPEED ACTION: The Moranbah Speedway is looking to repeat the success of its June race meet.

THE Moranbah Speedway committee is hopeful that it will be able to lock in another two-day event in October

or November, following on from their successful races in June.

Having more events and getting more

families involves is one the key goals for new club president Rodney Catt, who took over in July.

The club has invested a lot into its facilities over the last three years, which has not only improved local racing, but has allowed the club to pitch for the right to host higher level competitions in Moranbah.

Mr Catt said just about all the maintenance work has been done.

“The track is pretty well good to go, and the fence is in good condition,” he told Shift Miner.

“There is still a bit of painting to do, but hopefully we can have a working bee and knock that over, but

generally speaking everything is in good condition.”

Membership currently sits at around 50 although the committee has a clear goal of getting more people involved particularly amongst the juniors.

Fortunately for the club, the downturn in the coal sector has not had a huge impact, with major sponsor Coates Hire in Moranbah still onboard.

“We are really lucky to have Coates as a sponsor, they give us everything,” Mr Catt said.

“If ever we need something done for the track, all we need to do is go down there and ask, and straight away they jump to it.”

6th October 2014

21

Shift Miner Magazine

Money Matters

www.shiftminer.com

Cometh the hour cometh the investor

By Angus Peacocke I have heard it said that investing is all about timing, and in times of chaos a good investor sees opportunity.

On the face of it, that always seemed like good logic to me, but of course saying it and doing it are two different things.

The biggest thing that changes during a chaotic period is perceptions of risk.

When there is chaos in a market, the risks seem (and sometimes are) greater.

Overriding a human’s natural aversion to risk, takes a firm resolve.

You don’t have to speak to many people in Central Queensland to discover that there is a form of chaos in the property market, with prices down and the outlook gloomy.

22

6th October 2014

But if you still have a good paying job, chances are you are through the worst of it, and if you want to buy a home or start investing, then maybe this is your hour.

The latest report into average home prices by valuers Herron Todd White (HTW) is a sobering reminder of how important the resources sector is to real estate values.

It’s sobering, because many of us (me included) bought at the height of the boom and have watched as house prices and rents have fallen in lock-step with coal prices.

According to HTW, the average owner-occupier in Mackay is looking for a three to four bedroom house with

double garage, a shed or pool in a suburb like, Andergrove, Beaconsfield, Mount Pleasant, or Ooralea.

The average price point for these properties today is around $450,000, and those of us who bought at the top will know that is a very different proposition to five years ago.

However, the opportunity carries some risk.

“The market for residential accommodation in Mackay is heavily reliant on the fortunes of the Bowen Basin coal industry and other associated infrastructure projects,” HTW says in their monthly report.

“Reducing coal prices are leading to uncertainty in the coal industry, and resulting in some job losses throughout the Bowen Basin, any prolonged downturn will have a negative impact on the Mackay residential market.”

Further south in Rockhampton, HTW says an average two to four bedroom house is slightly cheaper than Mackay, coming in at around the $400,000 mark.

But like in Mackay, there are some risks.

“The market has seen a reduction in activity within the Rockhampton area with sales numbers reducing and prices decreasing,” HTW says.

“Rents have also reduced compared to 12 months ago, and going on existing market

trends we would expect sales activity to remain at a fairly steady rate and pricing to remain at or near current numbers.”

The biggest surprise in the HTW report is the situation in Gladstone.

It’s surprising, because Gladstone is no longer a one trick pony. It now has a suit of diverse industries it depends on, mostly notably the CSG industry which - while not at its peak - is still a big industry for a small city.

In Gladstone there are really two averages according to HTW, an average older more modest house which will cost around $300,000, and a brand new house and land package for around $450,000.

Although, HTW warns that the newer houses might be more risky for investors.

“This type of property has been subjected to significant reductions in value throughout 2014 as major developers continue to lower prices to achieve sales,” HTW says.

“Investor interest in the area is however extremely subdued, and is not expected to improve in the short term.

“What we have seen is that as rental demand has decreased, vendors are being forced to sell at a level that reflects appropriate yields at the current lower rents.”

If you are reading this, chances are you still have a job, and maybe what some might call a more “risky” time means that it is the right time.

Money Matters

www.shiftminer.com

ROOM WITH A VIEW

Lake Hawea Station, New Zealand

Exotic homes

Those bloody hobbits knew a good thing. New Zealand really does do scenic spectacularly well. Lake Hawea Station is idyllically nestled on the eastern shoreline of Lake Hawea, with the commanding Grandview mountain range as a dramatic back drop. Available for the first time in almost a century, Lake Hawea station has been farmed by the well regarded Rowley family for four generations, with a strong emphasis on conservation and sustainability.

The diversity of terrain, westerly aspect and long sunshine hours make this property an outstanding recreational playground with wild Deer, Chamois and trout in abundance in the area as well as access to nearly eight kilometers of outstanding lake front. Lake Hawea Station is an exciting and very unique opportunity to secure one of the most beautiful large acreage holdings in the Southern Lakes region with amenities very close by including, ski resorts, airports, shopping, and café’s and schools. For those who are seeking only the best the world can offer Lake Hawea station is truly a jewel in the crown of New Zealand.

for the mobile miner

Brindley Park Homestead, Merriwa Price: $15,000,000

»

All very delightful? Email Nicolette van Wijngaarden at nicolette@uniqueestates.com.au to arrange for the keys.

The Peak, Hong Kong Price: $41,000,000

»

Follow in the footsteps of Australia’s early explorers and make a bold statement with this trophy property in the Hunter Valley. Brindley Park is a magnificent rural estate at Merriwa in the upper reaches of the renowned Hunter Valley.

Set on 598 acres of beautiful rolling country in the equine heartland of Australia, Brindley Park is the premier land holding in one of the region’s finest farming districts. The property features an exceptional contemporary homestead; pool; tennis courts; summer house; a charming heritage 6 bedroom guest lodge; and 580+ acres of flat usable, highly fertile land. This historic premier river front landholding was originally granted to William Wentworth and John Blaxland in the early 1800’s and is one of Australia’s oldest farming properties. The main residence, a neo-Palladian masterpiece, boasts classical sandstone columns and walls, tessellated granite floors, 5 metre high ceilings, a slate tile roof, beautiful Teak panelled entry doors; hand carved marble fireplaces and solid timber detailing.

Fancy following the expat dream in Honkers? This top of the town, south-facing, gem with almost 270-degree views covering the ocean, green and city skyline might tick some boxes. Palatial European-style detached house features private swimming pool, private roof terrace, and private elevator. Elegant marble floorings throughout the house are complemented by ornate marble feature walls. Ground level of the house is a large open floorplan accommodating the living room and dining room with high ceilings, French windows, marble staircase with classic style railing, and luxurious chandeliers. Presidential master bedroom is lined with white plush carpet and contains glass-walled dressing area and ensuite. Kitchen comprises lots of cabinets together with built-in appliances including induction stove and fridge. Decorations and fittings in the guest bathroom and powder room are of an equally high quality. Maid’s room can be converted into a storeroom.

If you think this might do, contact Hong Kong Sotheby’s International Realty.

Send bro Russell Reddell an email at info.nz@sothebysrealty.com

Little Bokeelia Island, Florida

»

Price: Price upon request

»

Shift Miner Magazine

Price: $29,000,000 Need something a bit bigger than a condo for your planned retirement in Florida? A private island paradise off sunset coast, where you can live far removed yet not far away sounds rather quaint. Little Bokeelia Island is over 100 acres of romantic splendor offering majestic tropical living.

From the Spanish-style estate home featuring a private guest wing to the old Florida village just a short stroll away, you are sure to be overcome with a sense of peace and serenity the moment you step off your boat. Whether your desire is to spend the days swimming in the gracious pool, walking the nature trail, sunning on the beach, or playing a leisurely game of tennis, you are sure to find your own adventure and magic amid the tropical tranquility. Your insurance policy for this purchase is the value created by the current owners’ foresight in putting in place the utilities necessary to develop 29 large waterfront lots. Or if history is your motivator, then you will be taken aback with the long, storied past of the island’s original residents and visitors including the Calusa Indians, Ponce De Leon, Charles Burgess, and Thomas Edison. It is rare, it is unique, it is simply magical. It is Little Bokeelia Island.

If you need no more convincing contact Klaus Lang at Christie’s International Real Estate.

Send your exotic dream property details and low resolution images to justin.carlos@shiftminer.com

6th October 2014

23