Bernie Kersh prefers having nothing to do.
She’s the on-location nurse for the production and
apart from standing on the sidelines keeping a
vigilant eye on the action, she hopes not to be
called on. So far, she’s only had to attend to minor
cuts as people hit their heads on the tunnels,
un-used to how low they are... and she’s
administering decongestants as people find it hard
to breathe due to the amount of dust in the air.
Fortunately all the serious wounds on set are fake,
courtesy of the make up team.
Beneath Hill 60 is Bernie’s first experience of
being an on-set nurse. But she is used to dramatic
real-life situations - as a nurse at Townsville
General Hospital she’s looked after premature babies
in the Intensive Care Unit and she’s also had
extensive experience in the mines around the city,
dealing with industrial accidents in high-risk
situations.
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‘It was a bit of a
dare going into that world’ says Bernie. ‘I just
answered an ad in the paper ..I thought the work I
had done in Africa had prepared me for pretty much
anything, Traveling in Kenya, I had worked in a
remote, very poor orphanage and set up a mobile
wound clinic to deal with things like flesh eating
bug infections, machete slashes, child abuse burns
and ulcers due to poor nutrition .’
She found herself as one of the small group of women
working among four to five hundred blokes at the
Gunpowder mine four hours west of Mount Isa. ‘They
always rib you at first and check out ‘the new meat’
, as they call you. But I grew up with seven
brothers so I could handle it. I wore an engagement
ring at first, which was a tip I got from Connor
(one of her brothers, who is also an investor in the
film). It made everyone feel safer.’
Bernie learned to use full breathing apparatus so
she could go down into the mines in case she needed
to. ‘ I like it down there!’ she says. ‘There’s a
great sense of fellowship.’
She dealt with severe crushing injuries, heart
attacks and death with her usual down-to- earth calm
and compassion.
‘I was born with club feet and I think having had
surgery at a very early age has made me better able
to empathise with people, whether it’s the patient,
or, in the case of tiny babies, their parents, who
are suffering just as much,’ says Bernie, who would
like to extend her experience in ICU into combining
her skills wit
h education to work with underprivileged kids or
NGOs like Medecins sans Frontieres.
When she’s not on duty, Bernie’s favourite way to
relax is ‘hanging out at my mum’s place (not far
from the location for the Waddell homestead) with
the horses, friends and family around a camp fire
with a guitar - or ten pin bowling, at which I’m
hopeless but it’s a great laugh!’
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