A funny memoir set among the drillers, dust, dingoes and divas at an ore mine site in Western Australia. Ilse Oxenburgh came to Australia on a temporary visa to work as a geologist at an ore mine and ended up staying at the Incredula site for years. Ilse thought the worst she’d be up against would be the flies and the dust. What she didn’t expect was the bizarre cast of personalities – the fly-in fly-outers, mostly male; the alternate universe of rules, rules and more rules, and last but not least, the ever replacing Mine Princess (AKA Head of Admin), forever best, always right and never sorry.
Ilse’s story is hilarious, self-deprecatory – and even romantic. From summer though winter, year after year Ilse’s exploratory team battle thunder, rain and sand storms, and she gets to know the best of her quirky Australian colleagues: Josh and Dylan spend their summer pumping iron in the gym, Dylan to lose weight for the internet-girlfriend he is longing to meet, and Josh to keep fit for his active sex life. He sleeps with girls on the mine site while holding out for his true love: Jennifer Aniston. Steven is the Perth-based exploration manager who visits occasionally, according to Josh and Dylan to gawk at Ilse, and according to Ilse to talk geology with her. Steven asserts to her: ‘You’re not a woman, you’re a geologist.’ There’s also a geologist who looks for UFOs instead of orebodies, a core yard technician who believes he releases Aboriginal spirits by cutting rocks, and a field assistant who tortures Steven by trying to chat up Ilse.
But Ilse’s main challenge is the Mine Princess. From Precious, Shiekierra and Lucy, each administrator makes Ilse’s life hell with no-can-dos, obsolete procedure and even evictions from her room and her pay-packet – but she lives to tell the tale, and you’ll die laughing.
