Russell In The Hut

I wrote the title for this post about six months ago when I had a flashback, but never did any more on the post. Recent events have inspired me to write it up.

Russell In The Hut is a memory from the old days of the Superpit. That's when I lived in Kalgoorlie from 1995-1998. I finished university in 1994 and moved to Southern Cross. A town about two hours drive out of Kal, on the way back to Perth. It was a depressing place and a shit job, so when I made my first trip to Kal on a weekend and stuck my nose over the edge at the Superpit Tourist Lookout, I said to myself, this is where I want to work!!!

Check out that photo. You can see why it excited a young mining engineer! So I went back to SX and wrote to KCGM (Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines), expressing interest in a job. As it happens, they were looking for new engineers, but had not advertised at that point, and the boss was keen on my initiative, so they gave me an interview, and then a job. Production Engineer, Fimiston Open Pits, was my title. That's what we called it - Fimiston - a more historic name, as most people who worked there thought Superpit sounded a bit pretentious. But it really is a super pit, and the largest mine I have ever worked in by a long shot.

One of the things about KCGM was the Wenco system. It was quite cutting-edge in those days, and was a GPS-based computer monitoring system of all the heavy mining equipment. It helped us to better understand productivity and efficiency, and was monitored by an operator who sat in a hut on the edge of the pit. A lot of the time that was an old foreman by the name of Russell - also known as the screaming skull, as boy oh boy could he crap on and talk shit. But on the 2-way, people would often call "copy Russell in the hut", and thus for many of us, that was how we addressed him.

The reason I am inspired to write this now is that very recently, while looking for someone to assist me in putting together some mining costs for my new job, I came across a name I had not heard in many a year - Joe Hurst. Joe was the Maintenance Super for Roche Bros, the mining contractor, during my time at KCGM. So I had not seen him since 1998, 20 long years ago!

Far out I am getting old. At the end of this year I will have been a mining engineer for 25 years. Boy oh boy.

Anyway, I couldn't finish without describing one more aspect of the job. The social side. Back then mining was very much a work hard, party hard kind of industry. I guess it still is to a degree, but nothing like in those days. And Kalgoorlie was party central! We had a slightly acrimonious relationship with Roche, as they weren't making enough money, and thus there was a lot of pressure on all sides. But partially because I was junior to the major decision-making and partly because I'm me I guess, I got on really well with all the Roche guys, and remember this Christmas Party, and these two fellows below, really well.

So yeah, I was still a chubs in those days! Haha, Martin had obviously told a dirty joke, and Frank and I were pissing ourselves! I still keep in touch with Martin, and have seen him many a time over the years, although I must admit, not in the last few. Will have to rectify that.

Lastly, I couldn't finish this post without one more photo. One of the man who's namesake this post is about. The screaming skull himself. He's the one Martin appears to be trying to seduce...