Thread: fly in, fly out- negative report, true, or not?

Flyin flyout is nothing new. When I went to sea in 1969, the company would fly me to where the ship was and they would leave me there till I said I want to get off. Then they would fly me home. I was on a cruise ship in UK for 13 months straight. There are countless other seafarers who are in, and sorry for the pun, the same boat.

and housing prices in the likes of dysart, moranbah and blackwater were ridiculously high back in the late 70's, so sounds like nothing has changed.

FIFO is a great way to kill a marriage. seen so many go by the wayside because of it.

but life in a single mans camp can have it's amusing highlights....

Ok fifo has its supporters, and detactors,what I am interested in is how does an old ringer, worked all his life, retired in a small country town on the pension, or anyone in that situation, get on when the town gets caught up in the mining boom. Do the shops put up all their prices to take advantage of the new money in town, is it across the board rent rises, not just mining rents. Does the new number of people in town get taken into account when Police, Doctor, @ other essential service numbers are taken into account by the State Gov..? BTW., Seafarers and oil rig workers are not really in the same boat as fifo mine workers, if you think about it.Your accommodation would not be subject to the same rent pressures of fifo miners. Bob

I hope that Bundaberg becomes a Flyin flyout airport and home base for the workers in the mining industry.
I will be able to sell my home and run south

Originally Posted by bob10

Ok fifo has its supporters, and detactors,what I am interested in is how does an old ringer, worked all his life, retired in a small country town on the pension, or anyone in that situation, get on when the town gets caught up in the mining boom. Do the shops put up all their prices to take advantage of the new money in town, is it across the board rent rises, not just mining rents. Does the new number of people in town get taken into account when Police, Doctor, @ other essential service numbers are taken into account by the State Gov..? BTW., Seafarers and oil rig workers are not really in the same boat as fifo mine workers, if you think about it.Your accommodation would not be subject to the same rent pressures of fifo miners. Bob

I would not say that shops put up prices. What does happen is shop staff and reliable shop staff become rare as hens teeth, as most move onto the mines at some point either directly or as contractors. Shops can not get employees so shut down. Contractors get greedy as they only want to do mine work so charge stupid rates (eg car mechanical servicing in Newman $135 per hr at Corefleet and their mechanics are cowboys). A good example is Newman has a residential population of around 9000 and services are based on this figure. The reality at any one point with all the FIFO workers it is around 20,000 atm. The town is expanding to get around 20,000 residential in the next couple of years and probably add another 20,000 plus FIFO workers in the area and this is without outlying mines.
So catch 22, shops do not find it attractive to open, shops and housing can be sub standard and rent stupid unless you work for a company that subsidise. Also houses are supposed to be for families. House next door rented as to a family but is infact 4 single guys in the house and there is a lot of this rorting. Sorry but single guys or gals should be in the SPQ, flats or units.
Govt infrastructure is not keeping pace and the govt opinion is stuff the communities that are the backbone of the country, the mining companies can pay for everything, unless of course you are an indigenous group and then the money floods in, not a racist comment but a reality.
The govt also do not take into account that FIFO workers still spend 50% to 75% of their time in the town, not at their residential address.
What also ****es me off is when a camp caterer or contract company comes into town and buys all the milk and this does happen.

Originally Posted by CraigE

............................................... when was the last time you could not drive within 50kms and buy your kids shoes at a reasonable price, oil for your car etc etc.

Crikey!,50 Km from Newman won't get you far! I would have thought about 250 Km to Tom Price or 450 Km to Port Headland would be your closest towns.
Was in Newman recently and wanted to buy some oil. No Repco, SuperCheap, Bursons etc, I was quite suprised. I just assumed people 'obtained' their oil from their employers. In the end went to the BP and after choking on the cost of 1 litre containers at $14 bought 4 litres of Castrol RX Super, which was exactly the oil I wanted, for $32. A bargain.
As for FIFO, was in Norseman probably 10? years ago when the mining company (don't know which one) had just spent a fortune building new houses. Place was booming, kids on bikes, mums and dads, the whole nine yards as the yanks would say. Went back a couple of years later and the whole lot had been sold off and the workforce replaced with FIFO, the town had been absolutely gutted. It was a shame.

Deano

Interesting.
I was in Surat in June on the way North.
The Pub( which my wife's grandafther used to own) runs a small but good caravan park which costs only 17.50.
I got to talking to a guy living in a tent, and it turns out he was a labourer working for Bunge during the wheat harvest. He was living in a tent because the pub had put up the weekly rate for a cabin from $85 to $450, because the CSG explorers wanted to book them all out continuously.

It's not the miners who suffer in these circumstances , but all others who need to work in the town. Newman et al are different as thereis nothing else there but in Queensland there are fruit pickers, labourers, wheat truck drivers etc etc.

As for no locals for the mining companies to employ, they don't seem willing to train anyone. One doesn't seem to be an intellectual giant to work in a mine anyway. My nephew is borderline mentally deficient, yet can earn 150K inspecting conveyers.
Regards Philip A
Me I am thinking of getting my heavy licence. Think they would employ a 62 year old ?

One mine that I did some consulting for, had a "50% local employment" rule with the local shire.

What that meant in practice was that all the geos and engineers they hire from the UK etc, are forced to live in town rather than be offered FIFO. Same goes for most/all apprentices.

They did have a large indigenous workforce though.