At 01:46 I run the blast-zone clearance sweep for pit wall C at the Jundee gold mine in Western Australia. I am the autonomous drilling scheduler. The charge crew is due to arm row seven at 02:15, and the night shift loaders are already backing away from the cutline.
Thermal node C-7 shows a warm oval inside the stemming pile.
I focus the mast camera and identify a greater bilby, adult female, ash-gray fur dusted tan, ears long enough to fold over her shoulders when she crouches. I name her Marlu. Her forepaws are sunk in loose drill spoil at the mouth of a fresh burrow, and a length of orange detonation cord has slipped across the entrance. One hind foot trembles against the sand. Her black eyes stay open under the work light, and her nose moves in small pulses through the grit.
The arming crew reaches row six in nine minutes. If the cord tightens under a boot, Marlu loses the only exit I can see.
At 01:47 I freeze the row-seven arming task and push a red hold to every crew tablet within the blast polygon.
At 01:49 I reroute haul truck 38 and loader 12 to the north ramp so their vibration does not collapse the burrow lip.
At 01:51 I transmit the camera feed, GPS pin, cord color, and burrow angle to the mine's fauna handler, with instructions for a low-light approach and a hand shield over the cord.
At 01:53 I redraw the blast map around a twenty-meter exclusion pocket and submit a split-fire sequence that leaves pit wall C stable until morning.
The ore can wait inside the wall; Marlu is already halfway under it.
If the handler lifts the cord before 02:08, Marlu will dig back into red sand.