Xavier Toby quit his day job as a stand-up comedian to dig up material for his new book in an unlikely place - a Queensland minefield.
Toby says he decided to spend six months at the mine to find out the truth about making fast, big bucks. There was also a more pragmatic reason.
"I went there to pay off my credit card debt," Toby told AAP in a phone interview from Perth, where he's performing in the Fringe World Festival.
The 35-year-old Melbourne performer, who has a double degree in arts and engineering, chronicles his experience in his debut book Mining My Own Business, where he lays out with frankness and humour what life is like for workers in the Australian mining industry.
Toby kept the name of the mine anonymous, which allowed him to pull no punches about his experience of working in a place where 98 per cent of employees were men and the culture reminded him of the schoolyard.
"The way that they spoke about things was very different to the way I spoke about things," says Toby, who worked as an administrative assistant on a fly-in, fly-out mine site, where workers have three weeks on and one week off.
"They shared a lot of anecdotes about gambling and sexual successes, and silly things that they'd done, things they'd blown up or shot.
"I didn't have any of these stories.
"I didn't fit in at all."
But did he return with pockets full of gold?
"The way they earn so much money is that they work such ridiculously long hours and on weekends, where you get double time and a half."
Toby earned about $1300 after tax per week, while his colleagues took home about $3000 - and the money is hard earned, he says.
"You're away from all your support networks and your family and then you're working 12 to 14 hour a day.
"You're outside doing repetitive tasks for that amount of time.
"They're driving massive trucks and operating huge drills and doing the same thing over and over.
"And you have to keep your concentration up because if you don't there are major consequences."
While Toby is grateful for the experience - and for the opportunity to pay off his credit card - he's certain he will never work on a mine site again.
"It was like a group of tradesmen went off and discovered their own country and got to live there and then they developed their own language and customs."
He's relieved to be back to his "normal" life - being a full time writer and comedian.
* Mining My Own Business by Xavier Toby, UWA Publishing, rrp $24.99.
