Nine-year-old boy banned from operating Cat 980

I am indebted to our cousins 'down under' for providing the most bizarre news story of the year in the form of a report in the IQ Australia magazine 'Quarry' which describes how a quarry owner is appealing against an order imposed by Queensland's Chief Inspector of Mines which banned his 9 year old grandson from operating a 30 tonne front end loader.

The story goes that Dick Karreman of Karreman Quarries near Brisbane has lodged an appeal with the Queensland Industrial Court against the order on the basis that his grandson, Dane, only worked in the quarry occasionally on weekends or school holidays and was assigned simple tasks in a cordoned off area. Mr Karreman also argued that 'it was a father and grandfather's right to train up their own kids' pointing out that seven or eight year old kids drive tractors, baling hay, which was really no different to driving a loading shovel.

Stewart Bell, Queensland's Commissioner for Mine Safety and Health, took a different view, however, stating that the safety of all persons at mining and quarrying sites was paramount.