Andy Wurfel enjoys one of his days off with his family at the pool, part of the well-resourced cultural precinct overseen by facilities and services manager Karyn Biggs.

Reinhardt Viljoen, smelter production manager, endures temperatures close to 60 degrees Celsius at the Olympic Dam mine.

Roxby resident, Shane “Pog” Toole with partner Meaghan Kiely and children Indy and Phoenix with his dream car, a black Cadillac.

While their husbands work at the mine, Bianca Doyle (L) and Katie Johnson (R) holding baby Sofie, giggle at baby Phoebe’s painted toenails. “There’s not much else to do here but paint poor baby’s toenails” Bianca says, laughing.

Country commuters. Andamooka residents Keisha and Braydyn Dryburgh wait patiently for the Roxby Downs school bus.

Ken “Lamby” Lamb prefers to relax at the good end of a rifle. “I call it attitude readjustment” he says dropping another feral cat. “if I didn’t have this I’d go crazy.” Lamby came to Roxby 21 years ago with one truck, now he owns a transport company with 85 staff.

Toby Grimm, 15, and his mates from Roxby’s motocross club often ride cross-country to Andamooka.

“See, this is why we mine” says Derek “Alvsie” Alves roaring around Lake Mary, south of Roxby in his mate’s $60,000 speedboat. The lake filled for the first time in more than a decade in 2007 and will hold water for a few years.

Roxby from the air

Fourteen-year-old Caitlin McKinnon perches on the Holden Kingswood she races at the Roxby Downs speedway under the watchful eye of her dad Don-an underground drill-rig operator and keen racer-with Jesse “skater” Roberts.

Olympic Dam uranium mine aerial view. One of Australia’s three uranium mines, the others being Beverley, 275km to the east and Ranger, 260km east of Darwin. Together they produce about 9000 tonnes of uranium (2006 figure) which is about a quarter of the world’s production. Visible are the tailings dams.