Beats Working for a Living: My Life as a Geologist

If, as he left his native Kenya to study forestry at Oxford, you had told Rob Ryan that five years later he would be settling in Alice Springs as the Australian Government's minerals geologist, he would have questioned your sanity. He had not even heard of Geology! But that is what happened, and this is the story of how it happened. It is also the story of his lifelong supporter - his Kenyan high school girlfriend and wife, Judy - and their families, and of the vicissitudes of a geologist's life in outback Australia: the characters, the challenges, and the long separations that a geologist's family may have to endure. It is also a story of the unrelenting search for minerals to replace those that the human race consumes at a huge rate in order to survive and without which the planet could not sustain the population that it does. This search has taken the author from the rainforests of Borneo to the deserts of Egypt; and from the luxury home of a Minister in the government of the Shah of Iran in Teheran to a ceremonial welcome in Fiji.

Table of Contents:
Contents In appreciation 1 Prologue 2 Kenya 9 England 70 London to Jordan in a 'Jag' 108 Australia 123 'The Alice' 132 Tennant Creek 197 The West 225 The Top End 255 The West - Again 315 Learning the Ropes 323 North Queensland 350 Epilogue 389

About the Author :
Rob Ryan was born in Kenya, growing up on a sawmill. After his secondary schooling in Nairobi, he studied Geology at Oxford University, graduating with Honours. His career began with a 3-year contract with the Australian Government, commencing late in 1955. His first assignment was to compile a report on a mining field in Central Australia, and that exposure to the minerals industry bred an attraction for the mining industry that has taken him to many parts of the world in pursuit of mineral deposits, including uranium, blue asbestos, gold, base metals, and industrial minerals. A return to Kenya proved unworkable following that country's independence, and so he remained in Australia. 'Beats Working for a Living' covers his early life in Kenya, his educational years in England and mineral exploration in Australia and many parts of the world. He describes the technical and professional satisfaction of finding and developing mineral deposits. Life as a geologist can be hard on partners and children. Married to his high school sweetheart, Rob describes the heartache that goes with separation, sometimes for months; the uncomfortable accommodation in remote mining towns; his partner Judy's efforts to create a life for herself while also a wife and mother; and the agony of discovering that she had an incurable inherited medical disorder that eventually took her life. Rob is now retired and lives in north Queensland, still maintaining his interest in the minerals industry.