Mines recruit women drivers on big money

A great-grandmother and hairdresser are behind the wheel of 300-tonne haul trucks

AT the coalface of Australia's resurgent resources boom, experience is not necessarily what counts when its comes to making the big dollars.

Down in the dirt and dust, amid the rumble of heavy machinery, they're recasting what used to the man's world of mining.

That means preference is given to women drivers. Ex-teachers and public servants are recruits of choice and a 68-year-old great-grandmother is as likely as anyone to pull down a six-figure salary.

As the resource sector gears up for round two of the China-led boom, especially in central Queensland's coal belt and the iron ore heartland of Western Australia, the mines are hiring again with a vengeance.

And they are looking for something extra on the resume, beyond a tick in the box for "experience".

At Rio Tinto's new Clermont mine, 400km west of Mackay in the central Queensland highlands, 40 per cent of the 306-strong workforce did not have a background in mining.

Construction phase manager Dave Lamb has unapologetically put hairdressers behind the wheels of 300-tonne haul trucks, and has signed on ex-teachers and nurses' aides.

The only requirements were a driver's licence, being physically up to the job and "enthusiasm", Mr Lamb said.

"We actively go out to recruit people with no previous (mining) experience because it helps establish the culture we want to develop . . . we're looking for people we can align to how we want them to work."

Mackay-based mines recruiter David "Crockie" Saunders said "greenies" -- people with no prior experience in the mines -- were in demand.

"A shift in a mine now is likely to be made up of as much as a third with women operators, former teachers, police, nurses, sales clerks or farmers," Mr Saunders said.

"Because of the nature of the training that is available, the attractive pay rates offered and the much-improved working conditions provided, the mines now attract a workforce representing a very broad range of former occupations."

Paul Skene, 39, threw in his job as a bank officer two years ago and now is at Saraji open cut coal mine, near Dysart, inland from Mackay.

"I operate the big 785 trucks and work four days on and then have four off," Mr Skene said. "My home is actually on the Sunshine Coast, which is an 11-hour drive for me, but it is all worth it."

Great-grandmother Lynn Heinemann, 68, is "back on the trucks" at Saraji after being retrenched last June from the Goonyella mine when the world economic crisis hit. She qualified for her first semi-trailer licence at age 18.

She married a grazier from Charleville in southwest Queensland, owned a rigid-tipper truck for years and did road construction work, but is now back in the mines "where I love it".

"This is a wonderful job and I wouldn't do anything else," Mrs Heinemann said.

Kristy Elliott turns 21 later this year, but four months ago she left her job as a qualified hairdresser in a Mackay salon and followed other family members and her partner into the mines at Saraji where she learned to be a big-truck operator.

She said there were six women on her 30-person crew and the hardest thing she found was getting used to the 12 1/2-hour shifts.

Mr Saunders said a beginner truck driver would earn between $85,000 and $110,000 a year.