Post by John on Nov 8, 2014 15:14:14 GMT -5
I recall Clifton had loads of mice, you had to leave your snap bags out of their reach, they came in with the pony's feed and hay.
I recall after the two week shutdown, the mice population was always reduced!
A tale another apprentice related, he took a wide topped milk bottle underground, I know, and so did he, if he got caught he'd have been fined. But he did it last shift before shutdown, buried it right to the top of the bottle neck, threw some bait into it, and there it stayed for two weeks undisturbed.
On return to work he found one large fat mouse and several mouse skeletons in the bottom.
We also had nuts flies and small moths.
I don't recall mice or rats at Cotgrave, can't recall nuts flies either, but it was a pretty cool pit.
BG's Marblaegis Mine had rats, we used to use the old workings as our toilet, so had to be on the watch when squatting, damned things are aggressive!!
When I worked in Oz, at Wongawilli Colliery just south of Wollongong, the mine portal was half way up the escarpment, probably seven hundred feet above the coastal plain and in a rain forest setting. There used to be a Lyre bird that hung around the portal waiting for snakes to catch, it never entered the mine though, but snakes did!! You had to watch yourself at all times for the first 100 yards or so.
Inbye were both rats and mice, we used to catch rats tie some string to their tails and hang them from a roof bolt above the belt, once a load of coal reached them they had some running to do...
We often crushed one with the personnel carriers, stupid things would run along the tracks but they couldn't run as fast as the P/Carriers...
There were also glow worms on the pillars for around a couple of hundred yards inbye of the portals on the intake roads, no doubt a bat or two, although never saw any.
At Angus Place, it was just mice, used to hook a 1000 volt megger to their tails, and use the metal top meal tables and hit the button and slowly lower them onto the table, they did all sorts of gyrations. They'd get into the garbage bins if the lids were left off them, how they managed it I have no idea.
We also had mobs of feral pigs on the perimeter of the pit yard where it met the bush, now those critters are dangerous!!
When I was on surface duties on nights, one of our duties was to restart the vent fan if power went off, it was a walk of a few hundred yards into the bush to the upcast shaft, very scary!!
We had a scrap area on the edge of the property and the bush, I went up there in the early hours of a morning looking for something, heard movement and squealing, I didn't hang around very long, and I'm sure I beat the one minute mile world record back to safety.
I recall after the two week shutdown, the mice population was always reduced!
A tale another apprentice related, he took a wide topped milk bottle underground, I know, and so did he, if he got caught he'd have been fined. But he did it last shift before shutdown, buried it right to the top of the bottle neck, threw some bait into it, and there it stayed for two weeks undisturbed.
On return to work he found one large fat mouse and several mouse skeletons in the bottom.
We also had nuts flies and small moths.
I don't recall mice or rats at Cotgrave, can't recall nuts flies either, but it was a pretty cool pit.
BG's Marblaegis Mine had rats, we used to use the old workings as our toilet, so had to be on the watch when squatting, damned things are aggressive!!
When I worked in Oz, at Wongawilli Colliery just south of Wollongong, the mine portal was half way up the escarpment, probably seven hundred feet above the coastal plain and in a rain forest setting. There used to be a Lyre bird that hung around the portal waiting for snakes to catch, it never entered the mine though, but snakes did!! You had to watch yourself at all times for the first 100 yards or so.
Inbye were both rats and mice, we used to catch rats tie some string to their tails and hang them from a roof bolt above the belt, once a load of coal reached them they had some running to do...
We often crushed one with the personnel carriers, stupid things would run along the tracks but they couldn't run as fast as the P/Carriers...
There were also glow worms on the pillars for around a couple of hundred yards inbye of the portals on the intake roads, no doubt a bat or two, although never saw any.
At Angus Place, it was just mice, used to hook a 1000 volt megger to their tails, and use the metal top meal tables and hit the button and slowly lower them onto the table, they did all sorts of gyrations. They'd get into the garbage bins if the lids were left off them, how they managed it I have no idea.
We also had mobs of feral pigs on the perimeter of the pit yard where it met the bush, now those critters are dangerous!!
When I was on surface duties on nights, one of our duties was to restart the vent fan if power went off, it was a walk of a few hundred yards into the bush to the upcast shaft, very scary!!
We had a scrap area on the edge of the property and the bush, I went up there in the early hours of a morning looking for something, heard movement and squealing, I didn't hang around very long, and I'm sure I beat the one minute mile world record back to safety.
