FIFO Boilermaker Jobs

Can you do FIFO as a boilermaker?

The ads were for three kinds of work: shutdowns, machine repairs, and fixed plant work and fabrication.

Shutdown crews

A shutdown is when a processing plant is switched off for days or weeks so the worn parts can be replaced, and much of that is boilermaking: chute liners, wear plates and cracked steelwork. In October 2026 Monadelphous was hiring boilermakers for "rolling shutdowns across FMG, Rio Tinto and BHP operations", and Linkforce had advertised "ongoing shutdown & project work across Australia's largest mine sites" in September.

Shutdown work is mostly casual or by contract, paid by the hour. A shut lasts days or weeks and the crew goes home when it ends, unless the contractor has another shut lined up.

Mobile equipment repair

MEM is the ads' name for fixing the trucks, diggers and loaders themselves. One ad listed the work as "buckets, trays, blades, booms, chassis and other structural components". Much of it is rebuilding and hardfacing, laying a tough layer of weld on the parts that wear.

The MEM jobs run on a set roster rather than shut by shut, and they want machine experience. Mader Group asked for two years of MEM work after the trade, on CAT, Hitachi, Komatsu and Liebherr gear.

Fixed plant and fabrication

The third kind of work is the steel that doesn't move: chutes, hoppers and crushing plant, kept in repair by a site's maintenance crew. Contractors were hiring fixed plant boilermakers on rosters in October 2026, some of them permanent, and a mobile crushing contractor wanted boilermakers to fabricate and hardface wear parts on its crushers.

A workshop fabricator with no mine time has a chance with some ads. Monadelphous's shutdown ad asked for the trade, a weld test and the safety tickets, not time on a mine, and Mader Group preferred FIFO experience but said a "solid workshop background" would be considered. In September, one fabricator wanted boilermakers for ongoing FIFO work split between its workshop and its sites.

How do you get a FIFO boilermaker job, step by step?

The mine owners' ads were for their own crews, such as Northern Star's underground boilermakers and Mineral Resources' full-time shutdown crew, and none of them gave a figure. The agencies and contractors often hire for a single shut or project, with a chance of more: Monadelphous's ad mentioned a "Potential transition to ongoing rostered project work".

With a boilermaking trade, in WA

1. Pick your line of work first: shutdowns, which run days or weeks at a time, mobile equipment repair, which runs to a roster, or fixed plant work.
2. Get your safety tickets for working at height and in confined spaces, and renew any more than a couple of years old (what the ads ask for). Every course asks for your USI (Unique Student Identifier), a free number you make online.
3. Have a police check done, and add an HR licence if you're after machine repair work (where to get it).
4. Live in WA if you can, because some ads hire only WA residents; a few contractors fly you from any capital (where they fly from).
5. Apply to several shutdown contractors, fleet repairers and agencies at once, and be ready for a weld test.
6. Once you're offered the job, the employer books the medical and drug test and the site inductions.
7. On your first shut, expect days and nights in leathers and a helmet, with a permit signed before any cutting (a typical day).
8. Then work toward leading hand or supervisor, or a job with the mine whose shuts you work most (where it leads).

Outside WA

Outside WA, some boilermaker ads flew from Mackay, Cairns or Adelaide. On a Queensland coal mine you also need Standard 11, the coal mine induction, and a coal board medical, which the employer pays for.

What the ads ask for

Most ads ask for:

• An Australian-recognised boilermaker or fabrication trade certificate
• Working at heights and confined space tickets, often done in the last two or three years
• A driver's licence, manual on one ad, and a heavy rigid (HR) licence on several
• A national police clearance; one ad wanted it "within 6 months"

After the offer, the employer arranges:

• A pre-employment medical and a drug and alcohol screen
• Site inductions, though some ads wanted you inducted already at Rio Tinto, BHP, FMG or Roy Hill
• An MSIC (Maritime Security Identification Card), the port security card, for port shutdowns: a September port shutdown ad said "MSIC REQUIRED"

Nice to have, and what each one gets you:

• EWP (elevating work platform, the cherry-picker ticket), forklift and telehandler tickets: the shutdown ads that list them, and a Port Hedland shutdown ad in September called all three "mandatory"
• Dogging and basic rigging, the tickets for slinging loads: fixed plant jobs that list them
• An HR licence: the field service and MEM jobs, which drive a service truck to the machine
• A gas test ticket and basic fire training: Monadelphous wanted both

The tickets page has where to do each one and what it costs.

Fly in fly out welder jobs without the trade

A welder without the boilermaker trade can still get on with the few ads that hire on a weld test. An Adelaide contractor's welder requirements asked for "complex and positional welding, including 6G pipe welding", 6G being the all-position pipe weld. A Pilbara shutdown campaign tested the people it picked on stick and flux-core welds in all positions before they flew in.

Where FIFO boilermaker jobs fly from

Monadelphous's ad offered "Point of hire from any Australian capital city", and in September another contractor said "Interstate candidates welcome". Other ads took only WA residents ("Must reside in Western Australia") or hired from Perth, so read that line before you apply from the east.

How much does a boilermaker make in FIFO?

The bottom and top ad of each kind, from 20 job ads of 12 October 2026; the middle hourly figure is $71.25 an hour. Only ads that stated a figure are in the table. Most don't.

To see what any of those rates comes to over a swing or a year after tax, put it into the FIFO pay calculator; the salary page has every trade side by side.

What the rate doesn't tell you

Read the night rate. Several shutdown ads paid more on nights, from a 15% loading to a separate night rate, and a shut runs days and nights, so a fortnight's pay is a mix.

Most hourly jobs were casual, with super on top and no paid leave. The two salaried jobs in October 2026 were with contractors, not mine owners, and a salary keeps paying through the swing off.

Boilermakers were paid much like fitters and below electricians: the middle ads were $72 an hour for mechanical fitters and $83.25 for electricians that month.

What does a FIFO boilermaker do all day?

A typical day for a FIFO boilermaker

The camp is the village of dongas, the portable rooms, with a mess and gym beside the site, and the day starts there with the bus before dawn. On a shut the plant is cold and the boilermakers go into it: a chute with its liners worn through, a screen deck to cut out and replace, a cracked hopper to cut back and weld. The hot work permit, the signed sheet that allows cutting and welding that day, comes first, and nothing is cut until it's signed.

On an MEM crew the day is in the workshop or beside a parked truck: a bucket with its teeth gone, a tray body cracked at a corner, a hard layer to weld on before it goes back out. Either way, the part that isn't in the ad is the gear. A boilermaker wears leathers over the hi-vis and a helmet in the heat, and spends a good part of the shift grinding back what was welded.

What is it really like being a FIFO boilermaker?

The ads tell most of it. They pay a night rate because the shuts run nights, and they ask for confined space tickets because the work is inside chutes and vessels. What they don't say is that a shutdown crew is on and off: a fortnight of twelve-hour shifts, then home until the next shut, which suits some people and not a mortgage.

The rostered jobs are the steadier year, with the same swing every month, and some of them are permanent with paid leave. If a swing turns bad, Lifeline is 13 11 14, any hour.

Where does a FIFO boilermaker job lead?

The ladder shows in the ads themselves: a September ad for a port shutdown listed "Mechanical Supervisors, Fitters, Boilermakers" in one line. For a mine owner's crew, working a few shuts on that site is one way to be known there.

Is a FIFO boilermaker job right for you?

Two honest questions

1. Shuts or a roster? Ask the people at home whether they'd rather have the gaps between shuts or the same dates every month. Decide which year you want before you pick an ad.
2. Can your body do it for years? Leathers, heat, grinders and tight spaces are the job, every shift. Think about where you want to be in ten years, on the tools or running the crew.