ILN:What is your earliest mining memory?
SW: As a 17 year old, fresh out of high school, my interview with the mine manager, Mr Harry (Swampy) Marsh at Corrimal Colliery in December 1975. Wearing a light blue shirt and a pair of tidy jeans and being told, quote “ you won’t be needing to wear that s--t tomorrow, son….”
ILN: What made you choose mining as a career?
SW: It sounded like an exciting thing to do for a career. My old man was a schoolmaster; I definitely didn’t want to do that!
ILN: When was your first underground visit?
SW: Same day as above 1975.
ILN: What was your favourite job in a coal mine?
SW: Being longwall coordinator at Metropolitan Colliery 2005, prior to that working in pillar extraction then shortwall panels at Corrimal Colliery
ILN: What was your least favourite job?
SW: Being longwall coordinator at West Cliff Colliery in 2003.
ILN: Who, or what, has most influenced your mining career?
SW: Working as LW Coordinator, closely with Andy Hubscher (UMIC) and Bob Kennedy (EEIC) and Ronny Kruger (LW Eng) at Cordeaux Colliery from 1985 – 2000.
ILN: What do you consider your best mining achievement?
SW: Being part of the above team and achieving LW continuity for around 29 consecutive blocks, including 3 million tonnes per year from a 600tph coal clearance system.
ILN: What do you see as being the greatest mining development during your career?
SW: Cavity filling of voids and PUR injection on LW faces. Huesker mesh on recovery faces.
ILN: Do you hold any mining records?
SW: Probably the one for the maximum number of times a miner’s head has hit the roof or other unseen obstruction in any given period! (being too tall - 195cm + the hat).
ILN: Do you have any unfulfilled ambitions?
SW: None that I could tell my wife about.
I would like to ride my BMW from London to Vladivostok and also from Anchorage to Patagonia before I’m too old.
To have a L/W team 24/7 go a year LTI free
ILN: What was your most embarrassing moment in a coal mine?
SW: Spilling raw soluble oil on the surface at Elouera Colliery whilst doing too many things at once during a changeout. The resulting environmental incident was not pretty.
ILN: What was your scariest time in a coal mine?
SW: As a new starter in the industry in 1976, going up onto fresh falls, setting tom props then and bolting with the Little Monster (a ‘Falcon’ jackhammer with the air leg mounted on the side of the drill motor), starting the first drill for the first bolt was always a heart in mouth situation.
Building shuttering around a greater than 20m high, 30 chocks long, dribbling cavity at West Cliff in 2002, prior to cavity filling.
Attending the Appin Disaster in 1979 as a freshly graduated Mines Rescue team member
ILN: What is your worst memory of coal mining?
SW: Having a workmate killed by a roof fall in the same pillar extraction panel I was working in at Corrimal Colliery in 1979
ILN: Do you think that the day of the fully automated remotely operated face is near?
SW: In a pit with a regular seam horizon, good roof, no structures on the face, perfect tailgate conditions, 100% reliable face electronics and a receptive workforce it is possible now. The trouble is that the mine I just defined is a “1%er”. For the rest of us, full remote automation will remain a pipe dream. There’s still no substitute for conscientious, experienced operators, who are receptive to implementing practical improvement technology.
ILN: What major improvements would you like to see on longwall operations?
SW: Reliable, simple electronics that you don’t need a rocket scientist to fault find, K.I.S.S. (Keep it Simple, Stupid….) – don’t just stick whistles and bells on things ‘because we can’…..
I want to see face crews utilising leg pressure monitoring data on a shift to shift trending basis to foresee and react to possible roof problems before they occur.
A quantum leap in airborne dust control technology.
Safer methods of shuttering for cavity filling and installation of PUR injection hardware.
