FIFO Jobs in Brisbane and Queensland

Is there FIFO work in Brisbane?

Trades, operators and the jobs with no experience

Qualified tradespeople and ticketed operators are hired for the coal and copper sites by the contractors and agencies, and the ads want the Queensland inductions as well as the trade. The entry-level ads are the village jobs, the driller's offsider traineeships and the trade assistant roles.

How do you get a FIFO job in Brisbane?

Standard 11 is the general induction for Queensland coal mines, and many coal ads list it or say "or willing to obtain". The BMA sites in the Bowen Basin add their own induction on top. A metalliferous mine, which is anything that isn't coal, asks for a generic induction instead. The tickets page has where to do Standard 11 in Brisbane and what it costs.

Step by step, from Brisbane

1. Get a manual licence, a White Card, first aid and a police check from the AFP online (what the ads ask for). Every course asks for your USI (Unique Student Identifier), a free number you make online.
2. For the coal mines, get Standard 11 done, or apply to the ads that will wait while you get it.
3. With no site experience, try the camp villages, a drilling traineeship or a trade assistant job (the ways in).
4. Never pay an agency or anyone else to put you forward for a job (the fee rule).
5. Put your Queensland address on every application, and check which airport each ad flies from (where you'd fly to).
6. If you can move, living in Mackay adds the drive-in coal jobs (the coal towns).
7. Once you're offered the job, the employer books and pays for your medical (the coal board's, for coal), plus the drug screen and inductions.
8. On your first swing, expect a short flight, a bus to the camp and long shifts (life in camp).

What the ads ask for

Most ads ask for:

• A manual driver's licence, and a heavy rigid licence for drilling and service crew
• A White Card
• Standard 11 for coal, or willingness to get it
• First aid
• A Queensland address, on many of them
• A national police check, which most people get from the AFP (Australian Federal Police) online in a few days

After the offer, the employer arranges:

• The coal board medical (the coal mine workers' health scheme) on coal sites; a pre-employment medical elsewhere
• A drug and alcohol screen
• Site inductions, including the BMA one

Nice to have, and what each one gets you:

• Working at heights and confined space: the shutdown and maintenance crews
• A forklift licence: the trade assistant and stores roles
• Camp or hospitality experience: a village job ahead of the queue

Every one of them, with links, is in the resource list, and how mining work is organised explains why the mine owner's name on the ad is rarely the company that pays you.

How much do FIFO jobs from Brisbane pay?

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.

Camp wages fill most of the table, because the camp contractors put a number in their ads. Drilling pay climbs once the traineeship is done, and many operator and trade ads say "competitive" and leave it there.

Where are the FIFO and mining jobs in Queensland (QLD), Australia?

A Bowen Basin crew change from Brisbane is a flight of an hour or two to a mine airstrip or a regional airport, then often a bus to site. The company pays the charter or the commercial seat; you get yourself to the terminal.

FIFO jobs from Cairns and Townsville

FIFO work from Cairns and Townsville is real, just on a smaller scale. The two northern airports feed the mines of the far north and north-west, and a contractor that flies from both says so in the ad. Programmed's civil operators fly "from Cairns or Brisbane", and ISS hires its cleaning supervisors "FIFO Brisbane or Townsville". If you live in the north, filter for the ads that name your airport, because a Brisbane-only roster from Cairns means paying for the Cairns to Brisbane leg yourself.

FIFO jobs from the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and Toowoomba

Neither coast has many FIFO ads of its own, so Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast workers make the drive to the airport, or catch the Airtrain on the Gold Coast line. Toowoomba workers come down the range. The ads treat all of them as Brisbane, and the airport long-term car park treats them as customers. Count that drive at both ends of every swing before you decide to stay on the coast.

Mackay, Rockhampton and the coal towns

A lot of Queensland coal work isn't FIFO at all. It's drive in drive out (DIDO): the crews live in Mackay, Rockhampton or the mining towns and drive in, or catch the company bus, on the same even-time rosters. The camp contractors write both into the ad: Compass Group's ad for cleaners in Moranbah wants a driver's licence and "reliable car OR willing to fly in and fly out of Brisbane". If you're free to live anywhere, a Mackay address opens the DIDO jobs on top of the Brisbane ones, and some contractors prefer locals for the coal sites.

Taking a WA job from Brisbane

A Brisbane search on SEEK also lists jobs that fly from Perth, like the driller's offsider ads with "FIFO from Perth" in the title. The company's flight to site starts in Perth, so getting there and back each swing comes out of your pay and your days off. If the WA job is the one you want, FIFO jobs in Perth covers working from there.

Where should a FIFO worker live in Brisbane?

Banyo, Nundah, Northgate, Wooloowin and Clayfield, in the inner north, are among the suburbs closest to the airport, with the Airtrain for anyone who'd rather not pay for parking. Further out, North Lakes and Mango Hill have newer houses and the Bruce Highway for the week off.

Single workers have the FIFO renter's problem: rent on a flat that sits empty two or three weeks a month. Some answer it with a share house of shift workers, a short-term room for the days off, or a fitted-out van that sits in the airport car park for the swing and heads up the coast between swings.

What is FIFO from Brisbane really like?

The roster is the upside

Even time, half the year at home, is the roster plenty of FIFO workers want, and many of the coal mines run it. Camp and contractor crews work longer swings, so the roster depends on who employs you more than where the site is.

Is FIFO from Brisbane right for you?

Two honest questions

1. Does the ad fly from your airport? A job that flies from another city puts that leg on you, every swing, both ways. Read the airport before the pay.
2. Could you live in Mackay? The coal jobs are a drive from Mackay and a flight from Brisbane, so the person willing to move gets both lists.