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Miners, farmers, surgeons and even politicians are among the occupations that put in Australia’s longest work hours.

Analysis of census data by this masthead has revealed assistant drillers, a common job on mine sites, have the nation’s longest average full-time hours at 70.3 hours a week. Next were the drillers they support (68 hours) with shot firers, who prepare and detonate explosives for mining, construction and demolition, third (67.4 hours).

Jobs with the biggest hours are mostly regional and often remote – the 20 occupations with the longest average full-time hours were primarily in mining and agriculture – although neurosurgeons (average 58.1 hours a week) and members of parliament (58.5 hours) also made that hard-working list.

How many hours a week do people in your occupation work on average? Type your job into the interactive tool below to find out.

Queenslander Skye Jackat worked for nine months at an iron ore mine in the Pilbara region of Western Australia doing the job that topped the list for longest hours.

Being a driller’s assistant is hard, dusty work; a typical day on the mine started at 4am and Jackat wouldn’t crawl into bed until 8.30pm.

“It was insane, like 40 to 50 degrees most days during summer, doing 12 hours a day,” she said. “It was a lot on the body.”

Skye Jackat worked for nine months as a driller’s assistant, which involved working 12-hour days for 14 days straight in 40-50 degree heat. Credit: Instagram/Supplied

Jackat, 31, estimates she lost 12 kilograms in the time she was working at the mine, helping prepare equipment and driving huge, rigid trucks for senior drillers, who take core earth samples for geologists to determine where to dig for one of Australia’s most lucrative exports.

“We do all the exploration work before they design the mine and then start mining,” she said.

In her nine months as a driller’s assistant, Jackat earned about $80,000.

Sophie Kelly, 25, has been working as a trainee driller for 2½ years, flying in for two-week swings then flying out for a week off.

Originally from New Zealand, Kelly had been living pay cheque to pay cheque and struggling to save.

Sophie Kelly, 25, is a drillers assistant on a mine site in WA.

She was tired of “not........

© Brisbane Times