Published in the March 2014 International Coal News Magazine
He has a 45-year career, which started with 16 years at the Wath Main Colliery, to ponder as he pursues his greatest passion – fishing.
What is your earliest mining memory?
I lived in a mining area in Mexborough in South Yorkshire. There was a coal mine around every corner, While none of my close family were coal miners, my dad worked on a coal preparation plant at Wath Main Colliery.
What made you choose mining as a career?
Before leaving school we had careers talks and mining was part of this. Although I wanted to be a plumber, my dad arranged for me an interview for an electrical apprenticeship at Wath Main Colliery and along I went. I also had an interview for a plumbing apprenticeship and was fortunate to be offered both. I am the oldest of nine kids and the first to start work, so the decision was based on the wage. The plumbing was £3.50 and the electrical was £6.50 so I went for the cash and left school at Easter 1969. I was fifteen-and-a-half when I started.
When was your first underground visit?
My first underground visit was at Manvers coal mine underground training seam during my 20 days underground close personal supervision. This was also my wife’s first and only underground visit as she worked in the typing pool at Manvers head offices.
What was your favourite job in a coal mine?
I enjoyed being a longwall face electrician.
What was your least favourite job?
Weekend plant maintenance checking the fans in the development headings. All the headings where single entry and you had to stop the fans every weekend to check the gap between the blades and the fan casing.
Who, or what, has most influenced your mining career?
My mining career has taken several turns during my life and many people have made me think along the way. I thought I would work at Wath Main colliery all my life until 1984, when the 13-month mining strike intervened and changed the life of thousands of people. Personally, I grew up during the strike and realised it was up to me and not Arthur Scargill to look after my family.
I took a voluntary redundancy in October 1985, six months after the mining strike. I finished on a Friday from the mine and started on the following Monday with Anderson Longwall in Sheffield building AB16 Shearers and worked in their workshop for three years. This is what I remember as the most enjoyable time of my working life.
I then accepted a position as a service engineer with Anderson and this was another life-changing experience. The coal industry was falling away in Great Britain so Anderson concentrated on the overseas market. After long stints in China and America as a service engineer, they sent me to Australia to assist with automation on an AM500 Shearer at Westcliff colliery near Wollongong.
That is when I thought Australia was the place for me and my family, and after long talks with my wife we decided to apply for immigration to Australia. A position for a service engineer came up during this time with Anderson based in Queensland so I applied for it and was successful. That was another key milestone in our lives and was influenced by my boss at the time, Terry Coggles, to whom I am eternally grateful for giving us the opportunity.
The problem was we moved from the hustle and bustle of a very large mining area to Tieri, a very small mining town in Central Queensland. That was with my wife, Chris, and three daughters Lianne, Donna and Lauren who have now blessed us with three great son-in-laws and eight beautiful grand children. This was a bit of a culture shock to the family, whose perception of Australia was gained from the TV and my influence from Wollongong. However, we got through it and realise how fortunate we are to be living in the best country in the world.
What do you consider your best mining achievement?
Probably installing the first Anderson Shearer in Queensland at Oaky No.1 mine and being the only person from the company based in Queensland.
What do you see as being the greatest mining development during your career?
From a longwall perspective, data communication between equipment allowing operators less time in the dust and away from moving equipment such as roof supports. It is opening up more opportunities for improvement to make mining safer.
Do you hold any mining records?
Singing karaoke at a Yepoon longwall conference: These Boots Were Made For Walking.
Do you have any unfulfilled ambitions?
In mining, no. In my passion for fishing, yes.
What was your most embarrassing moment in a coal mine?
Tough one to remember, there has been that many.
What was your scariest time in a coal mine?
There was reportedly a ghost seen in some old workings at the mine I was working. Wath Main was more than 100 years old and I used to get some weekend overtime checking the pumps in the old workings on my own. I was doing a repair on a cable when I caught this light out of the corner of my eye and I froze not daring to look up knowing I was the only person on the district. Every time I move my head slightly I saw the light, eventually I plucked up the courage to look. It was a reflective sign and when I moved my head slightly, the light caught it.
What is your worst memory of coal mining?
We were moving roof supports on a longwall when I worked at Wath Main and as they were spinning a roof support down the face, I was pinned between the tip of the canopy and a steel leg. I thought it had busted me open but luckily the fluid running down my leg was not blood. I was carried out of the mine and taken to hospital but it was only bruising.
Do you think that the day of the fully automated remotely operated face is near?
In my latest position working with Eickhoff it has been a question that is discussed many times over. To me, the goal should not be a fully automated longwall as I believe there will always have to be personnel to some degree on a longwall. The goal should be to reduce the exposure of the operators to the hazards of longwall mining. It is that old cliche of how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.
