Globaltickit.com ventures down a
Mine |
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| THE MINE TOUR at DELPRATS MINE BROKEN HILL, NSW, Australia |
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| GETTING PREPARED |
DOWN THE SHAFT |
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The conditions the miners had to work in were appalling. They had 2 breaks a day of 30 minutes and a 30 minute lunch break. |
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| This was the vehicle which was used to scrap up all the dust and dirt which came from inside the rock. This helped the miners considerably. Prior to this machine they had to shovel up the excess manually, back breaking work. |
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The crystal formations in the rocks were amazing. |
| EJ volunteered to be: "last man out". That means that he would wait until everyone else was out, and then follow at the rear. |
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Discipline was vitally important in the mines. If a sign said stay out danger, no-one entered. So many men died underground that apparently the camaraderie was unbeatable - everyone watching for the other. You had a buddy who worked with you ALL THE TIME. |
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The drill was demonstrated for us by the guide. |
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| I think he's enjoying it don't
you??? |
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Some of the passages were very small and we were shown to drop your shoulder rather than dip your head, because your cap light may get caught on the beam and cause you to wrench your neck back with a force. |
| When we all turned off our cap lights that was PURE BLACKNESS. The original miners had to work by candle light before the cap lamps were invented. |  |
| The tour was well worth it but 2 hours under the ground was enough for me. How these men could spend years of there life down the mines was too horrific for me to imagine. by Lisa
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| (Back or Forward) to March 2002... | |
| Copyright 1999-2003 Globaltickit.com - to reprint please contact us | |
The
mine goes down 21 levels into the earth. We were to go down to level
4, which was 425 meters in depth. We all squeezed into two cages
and with a complex bell system (shown beside) we were dropped down
to the right place.
These
drills are used and the noise the make is ridiculously loud. The
men may have had to listen to 20 plus of these machines going off
at one time. The drilling creates lots of water which then piles
up on the ground and makes an already dirty job even worse.