UPDATED
PERSONAL PROFILE

Nigel Atkinson
As at March 2008

Name/ Nickname
Nigel Atkinson/ Big Nige

Age
59

Family? (Marital status?)
Married with two sons who have long since left home and married.

Current job/Role ?
Senior Surveyor with Anglo Coal at their German Creek Mines complex.

What’s the best advice your Parents ever gave to you?
Treat everybody, regardless of status, with respect.

What’s your claim to fame? (most famous person you’ve met /most famous thing you’ve done?)
Survived over 20 years in the coal industry and still enjoy coming to work.

What’s your personal motto?
Treat others as you would have them treat you.

What makes you happy?
Having time to do things that I like with people that I love.

What makes you angry?
People who “Lord” it over others.

Describe your ideal woman and what makes a woman beautiful?
A woman who understands me. The more you know a woman the more beautiful she becomes.

What's the most romantic thing you've done?
Got married.

Career History

Career to date?
Too much detail.

Career Influences?
People who care about, and love surveying. Surveyors who care more about the people they work with than furthering their own goals.

Career highlight (biggest achievement)?
The traveling around the world that I was able to do when I was younger.

Career shocker?
None so far.

Career goals?
To further the cause of mine surveying to the stage that we are respected by other surveying and mining professionals.

Survey Work / People

What is the best piece of survey equipment/technology/software that you have used & why?
HP 97 calculator. Allowed me to dump my brains onto a small programmable card and print out the results.

What is the oldest piece of survey equipment that you have used?
Facit mechanical calculator.

Who's the strangest/funniest/unorthodox survey character that you've met so far (and why) ?
Lea Capon: I loved the way that he would explain/calculate complex things and make them appear to be easy.

What's the most contentious survey issue in your workplace at the moment?
(eg. Hours of work, $$, career path, poor planning/scheduling, technology/equipment improvements, field experience, housing, training …???)
Career path.

If you were the boss for a day - list 3 things you would change?
Hours of work, money, reporting line.

APART from $$, what factor attracts you to work in the mining industry as opposed to other survey disciplines?
I go home every night to my family.

Would you recommend a career in surveying to a grade 12 school kid? If not, what career would you recommend?
If they were suitable then I would recommend surveying to them.

Sports/Hobbies

How do you relax?
Spending time with my wife and friends.

What sports do you play/ watch?
I watch rugby union and rugby league.

What are your other hobbies outside work?
Travelling, local church, collecting and restoring old wood working tools such as axes, brush hooks etc

Where would be your ideal retirement location?
Hinterland behind the Sunshine Coast.

Favourite food/drink?
Seafood, bread, cheese, olives, imported beer.

Favourite movie?
Lawrence of Arabia.

Finally, if you were down to your last $10 what would you spend it on?
Food.