Steven Hope has lived and breathed coal mining for the last 40 years. He’s worked in open cut and underground, completed a Civil Engineering Degree from the University of Southern Queensland while working full time, and right now is working at the Bengalla mine in Muswellbrook in Tech Services.
Like many mining kids who grew up in the 80s, Steven got to go to work with his cousin who worked at Lemington Underground mine as a senior surveyor to see if it was something he might be interested in.
“Going underground was awesome. It felt like an adventure! But you could tell it was hard work in a very humid environment. I instantly noticed the teamwork and everyone supporting each other.”
The survey work grabbed Steven’s attention, completing a four-year traineeship, spending one day a week at the TAFE in Kurri Kurri and the other four days working in a survey team underground.
“The application to work with the survey team had to be handwritten. I remember writing it three times to make sure it was neat! My first place of employment was part of the traineeship with BHP Steel’s Pacific Colliery at Lake Macquarie.
“I completed the certificate course with top marks receiving an award. From memory I think there were 12 students from around NSW who did the course, all predominantly from the Hunter Valley. I graduated in 1989.
“I remember my first experience underground was when I started at Pacific Colliery at Teralba. It was an incredible feeling, I just remember working hard, having a huge appetite and sleeping well. I assisted a surveyor underground every day and the statutory surveyor was generally in the office doing plan work, calculations and producing ventilation plans.
“I didn’t know where I’d end up, but by early 1992 I had worked in five underground coal mines,” he said.
That’s when things changed for Steve, he was retrenched in 1992, the same year he received his statutory surveyor’s qualification. At the time there was only casual work available underground in NSW so the following year he headed for the sunshine state, got his QLD Statutory Surveyor’s Qualification and then started his Civil Engineering Degree through the University of Southern Queensland.
“Heading to Queensland I worked in open cut mining. I worked with the largest dragline at the time in the Southern Hemisphere, Marion 8750, and spent three years at Curragh mine.
“I made so many great friends, got into some new hobbies like scuba diving which became a big part of my life. I did a few trips around the Great Barrier Reef and overseas in the Solomon Islands and Micronesia diving wrecks.
“It was incredible,” Steve recounted.
A hobby away from work was a must for Steve.
“Queensland mines are so remote, very large and flat terrain, and huge distances to travel around while you’re at the operation let alone between home and site. Living in a camp meant there was a lot of movement of people. Blackwater became a ghost town most weekends as a lot of us travelled to the coast or north to Mackay.”
We asked Steve about some of his favourite memories from over the years and also some of the scary moments. With a career spanning four decades he has certainly seen and experienced a lot.
“I remember when the Newcastle earthquake hit in 1989. I was underground at Lambton Colliery and it felt like a goaf fall; an emergency was called and everyone was evacuated.
“There was another time underground at Lambton Colliery, I was putting survey sites in at an intersection when the assistant surveyor flashed his cap lamp at me as though something was wrong. There was weight coming onto the intersection from above and clay was dribbling from the sides of the roadway. We quickly notified all workers at the face and everyone got out just in time by a few minutes before the whole intersection caved in. The continuous miner was buried at the face.
“Another moment engrained in my memory is from well before light vehicle and heavy equipment were kept a part by 30/50 metre rules and safe park up areas. A dozer parked nose-to-nose to my brand new landcruiser, the operator got out and we had a chat. He got back in his dozer and started up, raised his blade and trammed forward for about 50 metres! My landcruiser was a write-off, luckily I had walked off to start my survey – I felt so sorry for the operator.
“All these events is why I have such a huge focus on safety and was one of my main drivers for getting my Manager of Engineering & Mining qualification,” Steve said.
There are plenty of things that are memories for a good reason too.
“Coming back home from Queensland in 1996 and getting a role at as the Statutory Mine Surveyor at Camberwell Open Cut near Singleton and also being part time OCE was one of my favourite roles. Working solo as a one-man team was the fittest I have ever been!
“Toyota Tsusho and Mitsubishi were the shareholders at the time and I’m still friends with my Japanese colleagues who I have had the pleasure of visiting in Japan.
“There have been incredible advances in technology too. In 1993 we had six surveyors and a Chief Surveyor at Curragh, nowadays with drones, lasers/scanners you would only need three for the same job. Survey work in the pit has been reduced by 75 per cent.”
Steve is working with New Hope Group at Bengalla these days in Technical Services. His speciality is life of mine (LOM) planning and mine closure.
He’s not ready to retire yet but when he does he has big plans to spend more time travelling, scuba diving, visiting friends all over the world, supporting his kids and definitely writing a book about his four decades in coal dust.
