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

I fly in fly out but on a Gov position , and currently up Halls Creek way , but travel extensively thru the state of WA.

When in places like Karratha , Newman yeah you can see it happening and speaking with those who do live there they are getting muscled out.
The coppers are in subsidized housing up here as are the nurses and ambo's .

They do worry because the amount of people who fly in and fly out spend up their coin in Perth not in the small towns .
I know our expenses have risen 200% in the last 12 months mostly accom and meals .

Originally Posted by bob10

Some typical rents- Dysart, single level, 3 bedrooms, aircon., new kitchen, $1800 per week. Moranbah, 3 bedrooms, aircon., $ 1800 per week. "

Crikey! I wish I'd bought a rental property up there instead of Coffs Harbour!

Government workers get government subsidised housing. I live in Dalby and rent my own house but if I lived just down the road in Roma I'd get a govt house for about 1/7 of what I currently pay.
The house I rent is 1 billion times better than the govt one though.

Absolutely to some extent. The problem is even if you wanted to you could not accommodate all the FIFO workers as residential. It would be impossible. Yes we lack services. Half the problem is govt only recognize people counted as residential so only services to accommodate are provided. Does not matter that the actual population maybe 500% more or even more and these people still use services in the town. Does need some major review. A lot of the problem is our Special govt think the mining companies should pay for everything and that is horse ****. And before all the dickheads come out of the wood work and start chirping if you earn the good money, you should put up with it, 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.

The problem with the whole flyin in fly out debate is that the most vocal opponents are usually the biggest problem.

What I mean by that is that the group of housewives that get together to protest are often the ones who go out of their way to make new commers feel like outsiders. When a new family does somehow find a way to get a house they are not always made to feel welcome, the wife will be ignored at the school or shopping centre and will pretty soon be miserable and wanting to leave.

If you somehow do manage to fit in though then a fantastic lifestyle is possible. Despite what the newspapers want you to believe these towns are not full of drugs and violence. The reality is that most of these guys work bloody hard and are too tired to get up to mischief and those that do live in the camps finish their shift, eat, shower and go to sleep.

It's not a perfect life but due to poor government services (all levels) and poor town planning it is just not possible to move the entire workforce into houses within the towns and so many more are needed.

We've found Newman to be the exact opposite,we've never had so many friends or have been involved in so many sports/social events.The biggest issue I've found being an ambo is the blokes who dont live don't care and act like dickheads,lots of fighting etc. Pat

Originally Posted by p38arover

Crikey! I wish I'd bought a rental property up there instead of Coffs Harbour!

Originally Posted by bob10

Courier Mail, Thursday, 22 Sept. :Small towns are battling major social and health problems as hundreds of workers fly in @ out for the lure of a job, leaving medical services and utility networks crippled as real estate markets lock out the locals.Small mining towns are crying out about the pressures of supporting the fifo workforce, with concerns about homelessness raised in Gladstone because of low rental vacancies. Some typical rents- Dysart, single level, 3 bedrooms, aircon., new kitchen, $1800 per week. Moranbah, 3 bedrooms, aircon., $ 1800 per week. " I suppose the question is, does the mining company pay the rent? How does the local policeman, nurse , doctor, get on ? Bob

Sure miners make good coin, for a figure lets pick $150k/year
Approx 5700/fortnight about $3900 after tax.
you work a week have a week off, lets say a realistic rent of $1300/week
thats $2600 per fortnight, leaving you $1300 or $650 per week for food , fuel and other expenses.
Im pretty sure you can do better than that in brisbane / sydney / perth etc and still be home every night, not missing your family for weeks at a time.
so tell me again why everyone would want to live in dysart or moranbah.
also in 20- 30 years when the coal runs out, what are you kids/family going to do then?

Lloyd, the bulk of the homes in places like dysart, moron(an)bah, etc where the rent is stratospheric is because so few houses are privately owned, the bulk are owned by the mining companies, and the few private rentals are usually HEAVILY subsidised by the contractors just to ghet management types to live locally

what it boils down to is this:
Work for a mining company directly and have subsidised housing or camp accomodation
Work for a contractor and live in a camp, or if you're high enough up the tree, your employer will subsidise a house for you and your family to live in

Dont work for a mine? tough, you either need to be related to and living with a miner, or be living in a share house with 3-4 other people, its the reason I cant afford to live in the town where I work, and of the people at the company I work for, heres the breakdown of staff:
4 live with mine workers
1 lives on a farm, house provided by her husbands employer
3 commute with 115-160km round trips each day
3 live with thier parents
1 lives with thier partner in a house theyve owned since the early 80's
2 have employer subsidised housing
2 share a house
3 more share a house (family)

in short, NOBODY can afford to rent on thier own in anything except in tiny towns around here.....

FIFO should be outlawed IMO, and mining companies and contractors, as well as the workers taxed MASSIVELY while there are locals who want the jobs. Brining in people from all over the place destroys the communities out here, all the ring-ins want to do is do a few years, make a quick buck, whinge and bitch about being "forced" to live out here, then they **** off back to suburbia.