Do you get your own room in a FIFO camp?

Most FIFO workers get a room to themselves on site: 71% did in a 2018 Curtin University study of more than 3,000 workers. About one in eight shared a room but had their own bed. About one in ten were hot-bedding: one room and one bed, used by two workers on opposite shifts.

Does FIFO provide accommodation?

FIFO employers provide accommodation for the swing: the camp room, the meals and the bus are part of the job and cost nothing. Where you live between swings is yours to arrange and pay for.

What is the biggest mine camp in Australia?

Australia's mine camps have no official size ranking, so no camp can be called the biggest. Roy Hill's village in the Pilbara gives an idea of the scale: its builder, Multiplex, says it has almost 2,000 permanent rooms.

What is wet mess FIFO?

A wet mess is a FIFO camp's bar, and its drinks are limited. The Chamber of Minerals and Energy of WA's guideline asks for four drinks in 24 hours at its members' WA camps, with no shots or doubles. A dry camp has no bar at all.

FIFO Camps

A worker in hi-vis and socks carrying his boots along a covered donga walkway, a sign hanging on every door, a housekeeper with a trolley at the far end

A worker in a Queensland camp summed it up on video: you spend your weeks in a box, the food is plentiful and hit and miss, and the Wi-Fi drops out while you are calling home. He was not complaining. He was describing the deal, and the deal is fair: the camp is free, it feeds you, and it gives you a room with a door that locks. What it will not give you is your own bed, your own kitchen or quiet on demand. If you are flying to your first one, know that before you pack.

What a FIFO camp is

A FIFO camp, also called a FIFO village, is the accommodation a mine or project builds near the site for its fly in fly out workers. Meals, laundry, a gym and the bus to work are included, and the worker pays nothing.

FIFO camps: Where to start

Flying to your first campStart here
The food and what else you getStart here
Night shift, sleep and the rulesStart here

Want a job in a campStart here
Going as a coupleStart here
Need somewhere between swingsStart here

Find FIFO camps

You don't choose the camp: it comes with the job. Jobs in the camps themselves are on SEEK (opens in a new tab), Indeed (opens in a new tab) and Jora (opens in a new tab), under utility, cleaner, chef and village manager.

Before you apply, check where each ad's flights leave from, called the point of hire. Getting there is usually up to you.

FIFO camps at a glance

Your room	Usually your own, with an ensuite; some workers share a room or a bathroom
Food	Breakfast and dinner in the mess, crib packed at breakfast, all free, at set times
Alcohol	None on a dry camp; WA's industry guideline limits the wet mess to four drinks in 24 hours
Internet	Wi-Fi on most camps, though it can drop out; phone reception varies by site
Camp jobs	Utility, cleaning, kitchen and village manager jobs; $33 to $70 an hour in the October 2026 ads
Between swings	Not covered: home, a friend's spare room, a hotel deal or a share house

Pay and listings checked October 2026, from the pay snapshot and the three boards.

What is a FIFO camp room like?

Short answer

A FIFO camp room is a single room in a donga, a transportable block of rooms, with a bed, a desk, a small fridge, a TV and air conditioning. Most have their own bathroom; some older and exploration camps share them.

What is a FIFO donga?

A donga is a transportable building cut into rooms, and a camp is rows of them. An electrician filming a swing in central New South Wales walked through his: a little fridge he didn't use, a desk, a bed, a smart TV, a toilet, a shower and a sink, and soap provided. He slept in a t-shirt and shorts because "you don't know who's been on your bed", and the room had no insulation. A serviceman filmed the other end, a double bed, surround sound and a big smart TV, and said he'd never had a room like it on site.

The room is yours for the swing, and the camp cleans it. A worker in Queensland said some people bring pillows and doonas from home, and still never sleep as well as in their own bed.

New FIFO accommodation: the resort villages

The newest villages are a different thing. Mineral Resources' Mungala Resort (opens in a new tab), the main camp for its Onslow Iron project, gives every worker a 45 square metre room, which the company calls three times the size of a traditional FIFO room. It has a pool, a cinema, golf and racing simulators, sports courts and a football oval. Most camps are still the donga.

An aerial view of a mine camp: rows of donga blocks, a bus and a covered barbecue area on one side of a fence, two-storey resort blocks, a lap pool, a cinema and a running loop on the other, with the mine and its haul trucks on the horizon — Rows of dongas, the portable rooms most camps are built from, beside a new resort-style village with a pool. Most camps are still dongas.

What do you get in a FIFO camp: food, laundry and the gym?

Short answer

A FIFO camp gives you your meals in the dry mess, the dining hall, with lunch packed from it as crib. Most camps have a gym, Wi-Fi and washing machines too, and the larger villages add a pool, a tavern and sports courts.

FIFO mining camp food: the dry mess and the crib

The dry mess opens at set times: miss the window and you wait for the next meal. Lunch is crib, which you pack yourself, often into your own tubs.

The quality is the camp's, not the industry's. The Queensland worker said there was plenty of food but the chicken was "very gristly and chewy", and he spent his own money on snacks and bottled water. The serviceman was trying to lose weight because "the food's so bloody good".

Laundry, the gym, the pool and the tavern

The laundry block has washers and dryers, and the electrician's gave free detergent. A gym is common, and the bigger villages add courts, cricket nets, a cinema room and a tavern, which the electrician said "pretty much has the pub feel to it". A small exploration or construction camp may stop at the washing machines and a gym.

What are the rules in a fly in fly out camp?

Short answer

The rules in a fly in fly out camp are mostly about alcohol and sleep: drinking is banned or limited, and night shift sleeps by day. Some camps put a self-test breathalyser in the laundry so you can check yourself before a shift.

A worker in hi-vis using a wall-mounted breathalyser in the camp laundry, the display reading 0.00, a rack of mouthpieces beside it and a washing machine behind — Some camps put a self-test breathalyser in the laundry, so you can check yourself before a shift.

Night shift and noise

Night shift noise kept the Queensland worker awake: doors closing, people walking past and vehicles moving. He said a lot of workers rely on earplugs and blackout eye masks, and both are on the packing list.

Who runs FIFO mining accommodation, and what do camp jobs pay?

Short answer

FIFO mining accommodation in Australia is usually run by a camp company, such as Compass Group's ESS, Sodexo or Civeo, under contract to the mine owner. Camp jobs advertised $33 to $70 an hour in October 2026, or $68,968 to $115,000 a year salaried.

The jobs are the utility, who does everything from the mess to the rooms, the cleaner, the chef and the village manager. They're a common first FIFO job for someone with no mine site experience, on the same roster and in the same camp as the crews they feed. Compass Group and Sodexo placed 23 of the 45 camp job ads in the October 2026 pay snapshot, so they're the first names to look for.

Salaried ads are full time with the roster built in; hourly ads are casual, paid for the hours of the swing. The pay calculator turns either into a year on your roster. Village manager ads aren't in the pay snapshot.

What is FIFO camp life really like?

Short answer

FIFO camp life is a small room, a set mealtime and hundreds of neighbours, and it takes time to sleep well there. Phone and Wi-Fi can drop out, and the people around you are workmates rather than friends.

Sleep took the Queensland worker about a week to settle into.

The internet mattered most: "your connection to home, your partner, your kids, your family all depend on it", and when the call kept cutting out "that can feel pretty isolating". His line on the people is the one to remember: "You're surrounded by hundreds of people. But you can still feel very alone because these aren't really close friendships."

The 2018 study of FIFO mental health found the same at scale: loneliness on site affected mental health, and workers whose recreation had a social side, such as barbecues and social sport, were doing better. The electrician's answer was a Bible verse morning and night: "you need to have some sort of sanity". Find yours in the first swing. If it gets dark out there, Lifeline is 13 11 14, and the FIFO mental health page has the rest of the help.

What FIFO accommodation is there off the camp, between swings?

Short answer

Most FIFO workers go home between swings; the camp is for the swing only. Workers without a home near the airport use a mate's place, a hotel on a FIFO rate or a shared house, and a few go overseas.

Fly in fly out accommodation in the hub city

Some ads want you living in the state already, and the flights leave early from a hub such as Perth or Brisbane, so anyone from interstate or overseas needs somewhere near the airport. In one online thread, workers listed how they manage: a different mate's place each break, camping, a cheap motel, and Bali now and then. Perth also has Facebook groups for FIFO share houses, and several Perth hotels and apartment blocks advertise FIFO rates for the nights around a flight. The Perth page has the suburbs near the airport.

A shared house suits someone starting out; a hotel rate suits someone whose home is elsewhere and who is on site more than off. Either way it's a cost the camp doesn't cover, and so is getting to the airport: the electrician's ride to his flight was out of his own pocket. Put both in the sum before you take the job.

Is a FIFO camp right for you?

Three honest questions

Can you sleep anywhere? Thin walls, a strange bed and a camp that is awake while you are not. If sleep is fragile at home, nights in a camp will test it.
Can you eat what is served, when it is served? The mess is good or average by camp, and the window is fixed. If food is how you look after yourself, your own crib tubs and snacks are your tools.
Can you be alone in a crowd? Hundreds of people, few friends, and a phone signal that may drop. Decide how you will keep in touch with home before the first swing, not during it.

Ready to look?

The camp is part of whatever job you take, so the search is for the job. If the camp is the job you want, these are the searches.

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).

Packed the earplugs? The other question is whether the life fits. Six questions, three minutes, free.

Is FIFO right for me?