After!

We got into the Toyota Landcruiser - purpose-built for underground mining and stripped of any comfort, and took the bumpy ride down a steady decline to the coal seam approximately 200 metres underground. We had to walk a few hundred metres to get to the most important room – the ‘crib’ room, where everyone has their break. I find it interesting that in Australia these rooms are called ‘crib’ rooms and you eat crib, whereas in England it is called ‘snap’, i.e. “Have you made my snap for tomorrow?” One theory is that they are called snap/crib because these were the card games commonly played whilst the miners were on their breaks. We then went through to where they are cutting the coal, walking in the dark with just our lamps shining the way, through mud – at some points a foot deep! We passed the pump station and then got to the longwall where the beast which is the shearer can be found, its two huge rotating drums with picks on the end cutting the coal. We walked along some of the chocks (there are 150 of these holding the roof up while the coal is cut) and dad got to operate one! There was a bit of a hold up due to a piece of coal the size of a car that had fallen and blocked the conveyor belt. Andy showed us loads of things that he works on during his shifts and explained what everything did as we walked along. We got back into the land cruiser, stopped to look at a transformer on the way out, and then saw daylight again as we emerged from the dark and dusty world of coal mining.