"The main thing was this challenge. You had to beat the other crew. It didn't make any difference what you did, but you had to beat that other crew. You had to get more footage. 'We got two more feet than you did!' This was the whole conversation. It didn't make any difference. Those miners would run into that tunnel, drill all these holes, and run back out again so they could shoot, just to beat the other crew."43 Marion Allen "That was the nipper's job: to hand these fellows [drilling] steel under the wheels, under the jumbo there. It was a good safe place too. If something caved in, it might get the ones above you, but not you. The nipper had to work under there and hand them the steel that laid on the ground. It paid $5. I was always trying to get on one of those machines. They paid $5.60. That 60 cents was important money."44 - Marion Allen The use of jumbo drills inside the tunnels moved the diversion tunnels forward, for multiple steel bits in different lengths bored into the sloping rock face at the same time. Then the jumbo was moved to a new area, and the process began again. The jumbo drills required the efforts of more men than the drillers. Some men spent their days sharpening the steel bits (above), while others known as "nippers" assisted the drillers from below the jumbo.