The countryside is just stunning…… I think I’m falling in love with outback NSW. The colours change with the sunrise, the granites cast purple glows and the sky is always changing. But today we had rolling mists, fog in the valleys…..and it was cold! Crisp and cold! Gawd….it’s just beautiful! We set up the drilling rig as the sun rose over the mists. The cows once again graced us with their presence – I swear the pressure of having them watch us constantly, I feel the need to break into a song and dance repeatedly. If I was a paranoid person I would think they were plotting to kill me…… We named this one Wilson……because he has a big head and well……he looks like a Wilson. I LOVE DRILLING!!!! Watching the dirt come out of the cyclone into the bag in all it’s different coloured horizons. How exciting is it to know that we are seeing what lies 20-30 metres below the ground! And to think of how it got there, the story it has to tell about floodplains, and droughts, and volcanic eruptions, and…..and…..! ….ok….so you may think I am overreacting and it’s just dirt……but look at the rich, […]

Today was…….frustrating……! Finally we were all set to drill. 7am – bright eyed and bushy tailed, we started out to the first drilling site – hole 1 of 10 holes, 30 metre depth per hole. So overall, the program plans to drill 300 metres. I was so eager and looking forward to learning how to do drill logs and describe the geology of drill samples. It was freezing when we arrived at the first drill site – the wind chill factor was enough to make my nose feel as though it belonged to someone else! The cows immediately began eating the safety cones and trying to mount the trailer! We really are the biggest source of entertainment these beasts have ever had! Watching the rig set up was really interesting, my main thoughts – “Cor it’s big!” and “I wonder if the driller will let us shoot paddy melons out the top of it!”. The rig is an air core which means the drill shoots air at a massive pressure into the ground, virtually pulverising the dirt and causing it to loosen. It is then sucked up into a cyclone where the dirt is collected. Our trusty fieldies grab the bag […]

Oh My Giddy Aunt! I have had the BEST DAY EVER!!!! This morning after packing the car, my Long Suffering Mentor surprised me with a visit to the Young Magnesite mine. It was so good to get out of the warehouse and see some landscape. Young, NSW is stunningly beautiful with it’s rolling hills, green pastures and beautiful gum trees. We saw a lot of kangaroos and wallabies, but no wild pigs, much to Jason’s relief! Donning our hot pink hard hats, we met up with Kevin, who has been running the mine forever! The magnesite mine consists of rock estimated to be up to 30 million years old and produces magnesite which is the highest grade in the Southern Hemisphere and the second highest grade in the whole world! Magnesite is used for many medicinal purposes and also can be used as food additives for animals. I have NEVER seen anything like what I saw today. There are lots of photos so I’ll go through step by step…. Magnesite in it’s raw form looks like a bulbous piece of white poo. But when you split it open it contains a pure white chalky powder that gives us superpowers when […]

Today I had the BEST day! Today we had to get rid of the huge bulka bags – the ones that were chocka block full of dirt! The process of doing this involved raising the bulka bag onto a forklift and moving it over a tipper truck. We then cut the bottom of the bag and emptied it into the tipper truck……sounds easy huh? It was dirty, nasty, dust up the nose, eyes streaming, dust in every crevice and orifice. It was also the most AWESOME job in the world. The colours of the different dirt was amazing – some vivid reds, some powder mustard yellows, some bright greens. Watching the stream of dirt falling from the bag was like a beautiful waterfall.                               Then we got to pick through the dirt to find different interesting rocks. Even the rent-a-fieldy started finding me great samples. The job ended up taking a lot longer than it should have with us digging through the tipper truck finding bits of cobalt, manganese and serpentinite.                           The dust […]

-7 degrees celsius….feels like -11.4 degrees celsius…… Are you KIDDING ME!!! It was so cold I couldn’t feel my face when I walked to the shed! There were frosticles everywhere! Even the locals looked slightly surprised! When I was moving rubbish around from outside the shed the front of my shirt was covered in ice – it looked like I was turning into a snowman! Another day at the warehouse and today it finally felt like we were getting somewhere. The shelves are organised, and although things are not in numerical order they are at least all in the same location. Just one more day and it should be all finished. The final job will be a little bit like tetris, moving things around to find the right fit, and to make room to fit another 9-10 pellets of sample bags which will be collected during this drilling program. To reward myself, I went off for lunch at the famous Wilder’s bakery in Young! I’m really missing my mum at the moment so I decided to have a creamed apple turnover as it is her very favourite thing. I can verify that the bakery is wonderful and the cakes are […]

HOLY GUACAMOLE!!! It’s cold – it is so fricking cold that even the frost flakes are cold! A start of -2.7 degrees Celcius (it would stick a dog to a tree or so my Dear Old Dad would say!) meant that I wore every single layer that I bought with me to the shed this morning, walking through Young looking like a Michelin Man with the locals looking at me with brief disdain! My brain must have frozen a bit because I couldn’t think straight until after my fourth cup of tea. There was frost on EVERYTHING! On the ground, the car, the clothesline, my bags of dirt!                                                                         So today was spent sorting big, big bulka bags of dirt, trying to make space, checking and rechecking codes against the magical list of dirt to keep and dirt to throw away, and creating more of a semblance of organisation from anarchy. We kinda feel like we are making a bit of progress – if I had more […]

Part of the trip to Young involves the cleaning out of the company storage shed. When you think storage shed you picture old filing cabinets and fax machines……but no! This storage shed is floor to ceiling dirt! Bags and bags and bags of bags of dirt inside bags! Dirt in all colours…..red, cream, green…..sparkly dirt, powdery dirt, clingy dirt! It was like dirt heaven! …..until we had to start moving it. Then it wasn’t so nice to be around. Each bulka bag contained up to 30 plastic sample bags of dirt, each sample bag weighing up to 20kg. Which means the bulka bags weigh a HUGE amount! And there are hundreds of these bulka bags, all needing to be catalogued, moved and inventoried. Now I am a highly organised person, who actually enjoys creating and maintaining a well organised and respectable existence! But even my anal retentive side began to shrivel somewhat at the magnitude of this inventory! Still, there’s no rest for the wicked, so today began a day of itemising and cataloguing. Having dragged along my handy field hands (aka. my son and his best friend) it came in mighty handy to have a fieldy with a fork […]

After a long break from field work due to a broken foot sustained by falling into a hole (oh the irony!) – the hole being dug by a certain Golden Retriever that I swear was laughing while watching me fall down said hole……anyways…….after a FOUR MONTH break from fieldwork, this Girl In Love With Rocks was very excited to be invited along as an Assistant Geologist for a drilling program in Young, NSW. Don’t we look excited?! Yes the dynamic duo of the Long Suffering Mentor and myself began our trek to Young at the crack of dawn! A long drive of excited chatting, educational inserts and lots of laughter……it made an eight hour drive go by remarkably fast! I must say, we live in a truly beautiful country, and travelling along the Hume Highway delivered magical scenery of rolling hills, the Great Dividing Range, and valleys of such lush green paddocks – it all seemed like something out of a picture book! To think millions of years ago this area was under water and being carved by huge amounts of moving rivers. It’s just extreme! It always gives me a buzz crossing the mighty Murray River which is the […]

Our flight to Melbourne was set at a very civilised time so we were able to get to the airport and wander around rather easily! I was somewhat concerned at the weight of our return luggage, having dispersed rocks between myself and my Long-Suffering Husbands check-in luggage. I think the limit was 20kg and I was sweating as to whether we would be under or over. In the end we were just under 18kg (phew!) and the rocks were safe for now….until we get to Australia and have to explain to customs why we have bags full of rocks. But that’s something to worry about later…..for now I have to manage the flight back to Australia without breaking my on-board vomit record of three vomit bags. My Long-Suffering mentor, having witnessed and experienced the carnage of my in-flight sickness, had done her research and managed to find a medication which, so the New Zealand Pharmacist assured her, would prevent any form of motion sickness in most humans. Being a scientist, I was more than willing to put this hypothesis to the test. So, an hour before the flight was scheduled to board I began popping pills left, right and centre……. As a […]

Thank goodness! Her voice returned! Yay for all those highly medicated, very stinky throat lozenges! She might not be able to fully feel her tongue, but my Long Suffering Mentor has got enough of a voice that she can do her presentation. Hallelujah! Dr Sanja Van Huet is a smart lady. She is a Taphonomist, a fancy word for a person who studies the sediment surrounding bone or teeth or any other interesting trace element from ages past. She’s the dirt lady of the dinosaur world – just kidding! She would hate me saying that! Anyways, her presentation of the overview of Late Quaternary fossil sites from the Nepean Peninsula, Victoria was very successful, despite, at times, sounding like a croaky teenage pre-pubescent boy (tee hee hee!) Having thoroughly enjoying the morning sessions of Tephras and Volcanism (Oh….My….GAWD!) and an open science session, lunch was a welcome time of catching up for the last time with people I have met, and talking about how much of a hangover they have from the wine the previous night (everyone did look slightly seedy!). Then I quietly slipped away to join my Long Suffering Husband, who I truly love, and is so supportive […]