Kiwi FIFO worker on reality of 'glamourised' Aussie mining industry
TikTok is awash with videos about FIFO life in Australia's mining sector, but one worker warns of the 'golden handcuffs'.
At just 24, Siobhan makes more than double the median Australian salary. But she’s the first to admit, there’s no way she could have done it in her home country.
She is among a growing number of non Australians to make their way to our booming mining industry, taking on intense fly-in-fly-out (FIFO) work to set themselves up financially.
For the past five months she has been working in Western Australia servicing heavy diesel mining machinery, mostly dump trucks. After previously working in kitchens, she currently makes $145,000 per annum in her current job.
“I can’t even think of any roles in New Zealand where you’d earn that amount unless you’re a well over-worked doctor or lawyer,” she told Yahoo News Australia.
She may look like a fish out of water, but Siobhan was drawn to the mines by the high salaries on offer. “My biggest motivation and aim is to break the generational poverty I grew up in,” she said.
Most NZ citizens can visit, live and work in Australia without applying for a visa. Kiwis are the fourth largest migrant community in Australia with some 560,000 New Zealand-born people living here, according to the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics data in June 2021.
Australia notched record high net overseas migration by taking in more than half a million people in the past financial year and with many mining occupations on the Australian government’s Priority Migration Skilled Occupation List (PMSOL), it's no surprise the mining industry presents as an attractive proposition to many overseas workers.
The industry has long relied on workers outside Australia. A little over a year ago, Perth based Mineral Resources launched an advertising blitz aimed at luring Kiwis across the ditch for mining jobs worth as much as $300,000 a year.
In 2017, an Irish Times story boasted to a domestic audience of how then 29-year-old electrician Darren Kane saved a 40 per cent house deposit by working in the mines. “Working in mines in Oz, I saved enough for a home in Ireland,” the headline declared.
FIFO work glamourised on social media
In today’s TikTok generation, social media is full of both Australian and migrant workers detailing their FIFO experience. But Siobhan warns it’s not as glamorous as most videos make it out to be (her own employer has even asked her to take down videos of her at work).
“The FIFO life is glamourised quite a lot online … just be prepared, it’s not for everyone,” she said.
“The heat, the humidity and the flies have been the hardest thing to adapt to.”
Siobhan works two week on, two weeks off, with the first week consisting of day shifts while the second consists of night shifts. During her fortnight rostered off she is free to explore WA and further afield, often taking trips to Bali.
“Some companies will pay for your flights to New Zealand, most won’t,” she said.
Life is 'isolating' as a FIFO mine worker
For anyone contemplating taking a similar path, the 24-year-old is quick to warn about the isolating nature of the work and FIFO lifestyle – something which is compounded for her by the five hour time difference between Perth and NZ.
“My advice would be to make sure you’re in a decent enough head space so as the isolation and conditions don’t knock you off track,” she said.
“For me, the isolation comes from not having friends to look forward to seeing on my [off weeks] … FIFO can also either be great or a breaker for relationships but that’s a whole other story.”
For Siobhan, she plans to save her money as much as she can before moving on.
“Get in and get out” she said. “Don’t fall into the trap of the ‘golden handcuffs’.”
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