PomsInOz an unhappy hunting ground for mining jobs in Australia or Vancouver

The problem with discussion forums on the web is the sheer triviality of it all—unless you are the initiator of the conversation, when the topic is dead serious.  Below are extracts from PomsInOz (the English in Australia) and a discussion on mining ruining Vancouver.  I repeat the questions and comments without edit.  They provide a unique and “honest” perspective of working in a mine or living in a rich city–quite different from the official announcements at conferences in palm-fringed resorts. 

Andy starts out asking: 

hi.. my names andy and im from cornwall uk.
question… are there any miners on this forum that are actually working in the mines in wa. im an experienced underground tin miner (south crofty mine) and would like any advice you guys can give me on this please, companys.. areas..wages.. contacts. been thinking about leaving uk for oz for a while now. i am also a blockie/mason, another option i guess. any help would be great.

Pinhead replies:

If you work in WA and in mining you can earn a fortune. I saw a programme a couple of months ago that said they were desparate for people to work in the industry. So much so that they were paying $100K just to drive the mammoth diggers around!  The problem is that all the mines are in the middle of nowhere so not much of a life for families.

tin man does not agree with Pinhead:

the mine i worked in closed in 1998 but reopened a couple of years ago as the tin price has gone mad. problem is the company that own the mine now are micky mouse and pay low wages and never heard of health and safety… my mate broke his neck two weeks ago underground and the bosses are trying to get statements to say it was his own fault… lol… shocking. i quit yesterday morning.

And so on.  Good for tin man having the sense to quit; but sad nevertheless. 

Still you get the best of the worst on the forums.  Another funny/sad example is the set or responses to HK immigrant boy who writes in a piece headed Vancouver Overview from USA today:

Resource based industries such as mining, forestry, oil and gas have been the driving force behind the economy for much of its [Vancouver's] history and continue to play an important part in the prosperity of the city. The city’s clean environment, temperate climate and numerous cultural and leisure facilities, combine to offer its residents an excellent quality of life. In fact, in the 2003 Quality of Life Survey produced by consultants William M. Mercer, Vancouver is ranked 2nd out of over 200 cities from around the world.

The comments fly fast and furious.  The first from another of those Canadians who blame all things on the USA:

Freaken bogus survey….all bull sh it. Excellent quality of life. Yeah, right. Look at all the homeless who can’t find any accomodation. Tell them they have an excellent quality of life. How come New York and other countries in the world dont have this “excellent quality of life”?

BS weights in on wages—poor fellow being totally ignorant of the wages paid to miners in this city: 

The average wages in and around Vancouver cannot support long-term growth when compared to the cost of living…Is fifteen dollars an hour good? Twenty dollars an hour must be an overpaid individual! Right? How can someone even deserve to earn $20/hour? 
Got news for ya’ll… $20/hour in Van is one step away from poverty …And yet the COL goes up! And yet the wages stay down!   Sure, there’s plenty of jobs… McDonald’s is always hiring.

And so on.  I leave you to further explore these by-ways of the ignorant, uninformed, prejudiced, and uneducated.  If only they would learn to spell, and obey the basic rules of grammar, maybe they could get a job that pays enough to live in Vancouver or work in on a mine Western Australia.