FIFO Admin Jobs
If you've read my About page you know I'm hopeless with a hammer, and you'd think that would rule me out of a FIFO job. It turns out it doesn't. Every mine site has an office, and in it sits the person who keeps the crews moving, flying in and out with them. If that's the job you'd be better at than swinging a shovel, it's real, it's advertised, and nearly every ad wants you to have done it on a site before.
What a FIFO admin job is
A FIFO admin or administration job is a site administrator or clerk role on a mine, project or camp, worked on a roster and flown in like the crews. The work is the paperwork that moves people: flights, rooms, timesheets, site access, inductions and the gear register.
FIFO admin jobs: Where to start
- Office experience, never been on a siteStart here
- No office experience eitherStart here
- Site admin already, want the next contractStart here
- In QueenslandStart here
- Partner already works FIFOStart here
- Want the payStart here
Find FIFO admin jobs
In October 2026, SEEK listed 1,005 admin FIFO jobs across Australia, 351 of them in Perth. The ads are on SEEK (opens in a new tab), Indeed (opens in a new tab) and Jora (opens in a new tab). The titles vary, so search site administrator, site clerk, mobilisation officer (who books the crews' flights and rooms) and village administrator as well.
Before you apply, check where each ad's flights leave from, called the point of hire. Getting there is usually up to you.
FIFO admin jobs at a glance
| Pay | $45 to $55 an hour contract; $101,500 to $101,911 a year salaried, plus super |
|---|---|
| Rosters | Mostly 8:6 (eight days on, six off) and 2:1 (two weeks on, one off) |
| Flies from | Perth for the WA ads; Brisbane for the Queensland ones |
| You'll need | Manual driver's licence, White Card, police clearance, Excel and Outlook; INX or Pronto on many ads |
| Experience | One to two years on a site office on nearly every ad; the entry doors are head office and the camps |
| Who hires | Agencies and contractors; camp operators (Civeo, Compass Group, Sodexo); some mine owners direct |
Pay from the job ads of 12 October 2026. Listings checked October 2026, from searches across Australia.
Can you get a FIFO admin job with no experience?
Short answer
You can get a FIFO admin job with office experience and no site experience, but the ads are stacked against it. Nearly every one asks for site administration experience and the booking software. The way in is a contractor's head office, a camp admin job, or a utility job beside the admin desk.
The catch is that admin is a FIFO job a city person can picture themselves doing, so the ads draw plenty of applications, and the recruiter's first filter is the software. Many of the ads ask for INX, the system site offices use for flights and training records, and for Pronto or SAP, which handle the purchasing and timesheets. An ad that lists them as essential is saying it won't train you.
Office experience, no site experience
Medical reception, a hotel front desk, a transport company's dispatch desk and retail management all transfer, because the site job is bookings, rosters and difficult people, and the ads that say "experience in a fast-paced environment" are written for them. The usual first door is the head office. Byrnecut was advertising an entry-level training administration assistant in Perth in October 2026, and Mader a mobilisation administrator; both desks book the crews that fly, and a year on either is the site experience the FIFO ads want. The second door is the camp operators, whose village administrator jobs double as reception.
No office experience
Without office experience the admin ads won't read you, and the way round is the utility job. Remote Chef advertised a combined site admin and utility casual in October 2026: on a small camp, the two jobs can be one. Get the paperwork done, take the camp job, and ask for the admin cover.
Admin jobs for the partner of a FIFO worker
Site admin is one way a couple can work the same roster: one partner on the tools or the trucks, the other in the office. If you both qualify, apply together and say so in the first line. The couples page covers the rooms and the rosters.
How do you get a FIFO admin job?
Short answer
You get a FIFO admin job through the agencies and contractors that staff the sites, and through the camp operators, which advertise the salaried jobs. Apply with the licence, White Card and police check already done, name the software you've used, and apply to several at once. Mine owners that hire their own site office staff want site experience first.
Step by step, from an office job in WA
- Get a manual car licence, a White Card and a police check done before you apply (the full list). Every course asks for your USI (Unique Student Identifier), a free number you make online.
- Learn the software the ads name, Excel and Outlook at least, and put any booking or purchasing system you've used, such as INX, Pronto or SAP, at the top of your résumé (why the software matters).
- Base yourself in Perth, where the Pilbara and Goldfields flights leave from (admin jobs in WA).
- Get your site experience at a desk that books the crews, in a contractor's office in town or as a camp operator's village administrator (the first door).
- With no office experience, start in a camp utility job and ask to cover the admin desk (no office experience).
- Send applications to several agencies, contractors and camp operators in the same week, and never pay anyone to put you forward (the fee rule).
- Once you're offered the job, the employer books the medical and drug screen and the site inductions.
- On your first swing, expect to meet the charter with the arrivals list, then a day of timesheets, room swaps and flight changes (a typical day).
In Queensland
In Queensland, the same steps work from Brisbane, and a coal site adds Standard 11, the coal mine induction (admin jobs in Queensland).
What the ads ask for
Most ads ask for:
- A manual C-class driver's licence
- A White Card
- A national police clearance
- Excel, Word and Outlook, and a typing speed that keeps up with a timesheet pile
- The site's booking and purchasing software, on the experienced ads
After the offer, the employer arranges:
- A pre-employment medical and a drug and alcohol screen
- Site inductions; some ads prefer an administrator already inducted for Rio Tinto or Fortescue sites
Nice to have, and what each one gets you:
- An RSA (Responsible Service of Alcohol): the camp jobs that combine the desk with the wet mess or the shop
- First aid: the small sites where the administrator is also the first aider
- A current Tier 1 induction: the shutdown rotations, which can't wait a week for one
FIFO admin jobs in Queensland
Many of Queensland's admin jobs are in the Bowen Basin, on the coal sites and in the villages beside them, with flights from Brisbane. Compass Group advertised a site administrator for a BMA village at Blackwater in October 2026. The coal sites add Queensland's Standard 11 induction, and the Brisbane page has where the flights go.
FIFO admin jobs in Perth and WA
The WA admin ads fly out of Perth to the Pilbara and the Goldfields, and a few don't fly at all. In October 2026, Ramelius Resources advertised a health and safety administrator on an 8:6 roster (eight days at work and six days off), worked from its Perth office and home every night: the roster without the camp.
How much do FIFO admins make?
Short answer
FIFO site administrators were advertised at $45 to $55 an hour on contract in October 2026, and at $101,500 to $101,911 a year plus super on salary. The hourly rate is for eleven or twelve-hour days on an 8:6 or 2:1 roster, so the year's pay runs well past an office wage on the same rate. Nearly all the ads with a figure were in Western Australia.
| Role | Advertised pay | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Lowest hourly ad | $45 - $50 an hour | Jora, CGC Recruitment, October 2026 |
| Highest hourly ad | $51 - $55 p.h. | SEEK, Torquejobs, October 2026 |
| Lowest salaried ad | $101,500 + 12% superannuation | SEEK, Civeo, October 2026 |
| Highest salaried ad | Salary packages up to $101,911 plus 12% super | SEEK, Civeo, October 2026 |
The bottom and top ad of each kind, from 10 job ads of 12 October 2026; the middle hourly figure is $52.50 an hour. Only ads that stated a figure are in the table. Most don't.
To see what any of those comes to after tax, over a swing or a year, put it into the FIFO pay calculator.
The contract rate is the one to read carefully. It's a casual rate with no paid leave behind it, paid only for the days on site, and the agencies that advertise it are often filling a project or a shutdown that ends. The salaried camp jobs pay less per hour but come with paid leave and a roster that keeps going, which is why the two kinds of ad can both be fair.
What does a FIFO administrator do?
A typical day for a FIFO site administrator
The camp is the village of dongas, mess and gym beside the site, and the administrator's day starts with the charter. The arrivals list, the room allocations, the new starters' inductions and their site passes all have to be right before the bus leaves the airstrip. The administrator is often on the tarmac with the clipboard when the plane lands. Then the office: yesterday's timesheets into payroll, roster changes into the booking system, purchase orders, the visitor book, the supervisor who needs a room swapped and the crew leader who needs a flight moved.
The part that isn't in the ad is that the job is only partly at the desk. The administrator walks the camp with maintenance requests, meets the plane, finds the bloke who didn't sign in, and does it in the same heat and dust as everyone else between the air-conditioned bits.
What is it really like doing FIFO admin?
Short answer
A FIFO admin job means an air-conditioned office where everyone else is outside, for the whole swing, and the desk every angry person walks up to. The work isn't hard; the days are long and the office is small. The hard part is the people, not the paperwork.
The desk everyone walks up to
A delayed plane, a dead air-conditioner or two people for one room are never the administrator's fault, and all of them land on the administrator, usually delivered by someone who has been up since four. Site offices are small, and the people in them see each other at breakfast, at the desk and at dinner for two weeks straight. The administrators who last can take a serve from a tired supervisor without wearing it home to the donga.
The other side is mining money without the mining body, a network that reaches every crew and manager on site, and a week or six days at home that a city office never gives. If a swing turns bad, Lifeline 13 11 14 is open all hours.
Where does a FIFO admin job lead?
Short answer
A FIFO admin job leads to the safety, logistics and procurement roles on site, and to the head office jobs that run them. The administrator is the one person who sees every crew, flight and system. A year on site with a reference opens more doors in mining than the same year in a city office.
The common moves are into the safety team as an administrator and then an advisor, into logistics, into procurement, and back to the city as the head office administrator who knows what the site is asking for. In October 2026, Glencore was advertising a training administrator at its Murrin Murrin nickel operation, and MACA a maintenance administrator at its McPhee Creek iron ore project: the specialised desks a general site administrator steps up to. Those desks are usually salaried, with the paid leave a contract rate doesn't carry.
Is a FIFO admin job right for you?
Two honest questions
- Can you be shouted at for a late plane you didn't delay, and be civil to the same person at dinner? The job is logistics, and logistics fail in public.
- Can you keep what crosses your desk to yourself? The administrator sees the timesheets, the medicals and the reasons people flew home early. The ones trusted with the next contract never tell.
Ready to look?
Have the paperwork sorted and the software named on the first page of your resume, then apply to more than one agency.
- FIFO admin jobs on SEEK (opens in a new tab)
- FIFO administration jobs on Indeed (opens in a new tab)
- FIFO administration jobs on Jora (opens in a new tab)
- All job boards, contractors and agencies in one list
Fake ads turn up on real job boards too. An ad that asks you to pay a fee before you start is a warning sign: report it to Scamwatch (opens in a new tab).
The job is one question. Whether the life suits you is six more. Three minutes. Free.
Is FIFO right for me?