We flew up to Emerald from Brisbane - Emerald has to be the smallest airport ever!! Anna our new boss was already waiting to take us to Springsure - about 45 minutes away. She filled us in on the local town and what to expect from work. We were starting on the Friday which left Thursday free to wander and explore.

We are working at the Springsure Roadhouse and Caravan Park. We also live there too. The site offers powered sites for caravans, a small camping ground, single unit blocks (where we would be staying, room each) and cabins. All in it maybe has around 30 odd rooms and 15 powered sites?
A roadhouse is sort of like a petrol garage. You can get fuel and air, then inside the shop you can get all your snacks, juice, magazines, some toiletries and car immenities but there is also an all-day cafe. Springsure and Emerald are known for being a mining area so a lot of the companies pay for their staff to stay at the Roadhouse (or some companies have bought property in Springsure/Emerald for their staff to live) as most of the guys do 2 weeks on, 1 week off. Lots of faces to get used to as we see most of them every day. They come in for breakfast and dinner.
There are two shifts we can work - 4.30am-12.30pm or 12.30pm-8.30pm. So far i am still on earlies however, i think i am starting afternoon shifts on Friday. Although getting out bed at 4am is my idea of absolute HELL (as thats normally what time i roll in or asked to leave the pub....) i really enjoy the morning shifts. I have all afternoon to do whatever i like. So far i have been opening up; preparing the live-in guys lunches and giving them their breakfast (not cooking though theres a chef for that!); stocking up fridges/snacks/crisps etc; serving at the counter etc but i have also been trained now in the housekeeping side of things too. WHICH I LOVE! I love being all 'monica' haha plus you get to drive a golf buggy round the park which is AWESOME. It is proper good money - after the 1st week we have been paid $900!

Our rooms are pretty basic but double bed, TV and fridge - after living in hostels this is like LUXURY. So i am one happy wee woman :) plus i am next door to Kim!

Springsure itself doesn't have much - a post office, an electrical shop, a cafe, 2 pubs, a library, a bottle shop, a spar, a pharmacy and a hairdressers. We are a 10-15minute walk to where this main street is, which is not fun or safe walking after dark so we never go without each other.
One of the pubs - Dooleys irish pub - is such a beautiful bar with awesome food. It actually looks a bit odd being in Springsure its so modern and new! We had dinner the 1st full day we were here, had drinks that Saturday afternoon and then i met with one of the Ozintro girls, Jo on Saturday. We had dinner and drinks there; she is nannying in Emerald. Think i am going to head through there next weekend, get a social life going!
Other than that i have been trying to exercise (eating absolutely everything in sight! FATTY) and come down to the library sometimes to update this blog or just nosey on Facebook. All we tend to do at night is eat chocolate, watch Masterchef (the Oz one!) and try to sleep.... this week is my birthday so we are borrowing my bosses yute on Wednesday and going into Emerald then think we are just going to doss about with a picnic and booze on Thursday - my next day off :) and the day i turn 26 AAAAHHHHH.

We are going to stay here for just under 10 weeks. I done the calender math and we need to be on a farm by 23rd of September in order to have done 91days by 22nd of December. So no Stereosonic festival and no Thailand for me. So many people i ain't going to see again which made me sad, but it means Christmas and NY could be spent ANYWHERE in Oz and the start of 2014 will be when i do the rest of the East Coast. Not a bad way to start a New Year!