Mine Workers Respond to Flood

BY DI SNEDDON

When Bulga Coal operations manager Dave Foster explained the massive flood clean up facing neighbouring villages to the mine site, more than half the 100 workers listening to his words quickly raised their hand to help.

Floodwaters ravaged properties from Broke to Bulga, Fordwich and Milbrodale on Tuesday, July 5, and by Friday morning it was clear residents would need as much assistance as possible.

Since then some 10 to 15 people across the local Glencore sites have been lending a helping hand each day.

“Initially, we had people on the ground providing the manual labour, clearing out houses of damaged furniture, removing carpet,” Dave said.

The mine brought in pumping infrastructure to remove water from backyards and utilised their civil contractors to reinstate driveways that had washed away.

After going without power for a week, Ausgrid advised property owners to have their power assessed before switching back on and again, Glencore utilised their electrical contractors to help facilitate this process.

Other workers assisted at the Recovery Centre, helping to coordinate the long list of jobs with those able to assist.

“It was quite an intense first week getting the bulk of that work done and there is still plenty to do and we will help where we can,” Dave said.

“These people are our neighbours, we have staff living in the villages, so we genuinely wanted to help.”