FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
From the Depths of Australian Mines to the Pages of a Gripping New Memoir
Townsville, Australia – May 1, 2026 – When a high voltage switchyard explodes around you, you have two choices. Run or die. Richard J. Stewart has spent fifteen years making split-second decisions like this one. He has survived acid tank explosions, underground rock falls, cyclone-ravaged ports, and a global financial crisis that wiped out his savings. Now he tells his story in a raw and unforgettable memoir, Down the Hole. This book does not glamorize the mining industry. It strips away the machinery and the paychecks to reveal the real human cost of working in one of the world’s toughest professions.
Down the Hole follows Richard from his early days as a New Zealand electrician to the remote mine sites of Queensland and Western Australia. He takes readers inside the wire gates of Mount Isa Mines, down the dark declines of Century Mine, and into the blinding heat of the Pilbara iron ore fields. Along the way, he introduces a cast of unforgettable characters. There is Big Dave, who pranks supervisors by swapping their computer mouses. There is Mr Schneebly, the frozen smile supervisor, who nearly caused a disaster with an aluminium ladder. And there is Roy, a young pilot who became a business partner and a friend.
The core message of Down the Hole is simple but powerful. Determination and courage do not mean never falling down. They mean getting back up every single time, even when your marriage is strained, your bank account is empty, and your tool bag is stuck on a bus to Perth. Richard writes for anyone who has ever worked a job that takes them away from family. His major target audience includes fly-in, fly-out workers, tradespeople, mining industry professionals, and their loved ones who wonder why they keep leaving home. But the book also speaks to anyone who has faced financial hardship, unfair dismissal, or the loneliness of chasing a better life far from home.
Richard’s writing style feels like sitting next to him in a camp mess hall after a twelve-hour shift. He tells stories with humor, honesty, and a complete lack of pretension. He does not hide his mistakes. He admits to dropping a ring spanner across battery terminals and backing a ute into a fire hydrant. He laughs at himself as much as he laughs at others. Yet he also writes with deep reverence for the men and women who work alongside him, the band of brothers who share his dangerous world. His prose moves naturally between technical electrical explanations and heartfelt reflections on faith, family, and forgiveness.
This book is not a dry industry manual. It is an adventure story rooted in real blood, sweat, and red dust. Richard has lived through cyclones, crocodiles, corrupt international schemes, and a father imprisoned in Peru. He has flown his own plane into cattle stations to fix switchboards and played his cornet on top of two-hundred-tonne haul trucks to make his mates laugh. Down the Hole captures all of that chaos and heart with remarkable warmth.
Down the Hole is available now at Amazon and at all online bookstores, as well as major retailers.
For more information, to request a review copy, or to schedule an interview with Richard Stewart, please contact:
Richard Stewart
About Richard Stewart
Richard J. Stewart is a New Zealand-born electrician who pilots his own plane, plays the cornet on top of two-hundred-tonne haul trucks, and once survived a suspected bomb scare on a transatlantic flight. He earned the Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award as a teenager, learned to fly on a Tiger Moth biplane, and later co-founded The Flying Tradesmen with a young pilot named Roy. His Christian faith and Salvation Army upbringing keep him grounded, but his sense of humour keeps him sane. He lives in Townsville, Queensland, and still carries his electrical licence in his back pocket.
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