A Boy Miner: Tales from the Australian Underground

A Boy Miner is the true story of an eighteen-year-old boy thrown into the man’s world of FIFO underground mining from 1996 to 2000, taking him to the Western Australian outback mine of Bronzewing, then the Silver Swan nickel mine near Kalgoorlie, and finally The Granites gold mine in the Northern Territory’s Tanami Desert. A Boy Miner explores the trials of negotiating the meaning of masculinity, of mateship, and the effects that absence and isolation can have on FIFO workers and their families. At times humorous, profound, and melancholic, A Boy Miner reflects the swinging moods of the boy and the wider mining community, living by the cycle of a FIFO roster.