FIFO Jobs for Couples
A trainer told a story online about a couple who held off on FIFO until they could get onto the same project. A mining company took him on to be trained on a loader, gave her part-time admin and part-time operating, and was flying them out at the end of the month on one roster, to one site. It worked because the company knew what each of them could do and found them jobs to suit. That is the shape of FIFO for couples: possible, slower, and built one job at a time. If that's you, the first question is which of you goes first.
What a FIFO couples job is
A FIFO couples job is two jobs at one site on one roster, not one ad for two people. Mine site ads hire one person per job, so each partner applies for one, and the couple asks the employer, or both employers, for the same roster.
FIFO jobs for couples: Where to start
- Both new to FIFOStart here
- One of you has a trade or site timeStart here
- Want a room togetherStart here
- On working holiday visasStart here
- One works, one stays homeStart here
- Want the pay firstStart here
Find FIFO jobs for couples
It is possible, and the way it usually works is one partner first. The "couple" searches on SEEK (opens in a new tab), Indeed (opens in a new tab) and Jora (opens in a new tab) show mostly FIFO jobs for one person, with caravan parks and resorts mixed in. Search the job as well: "FIFO utility", "FIFO housekeeping", "FIFO kitchen hand". Then tell the recruiter you come as a pair.
Before you apply, check where each ad's flights leave from, called the point of hire. Getting there is usually up to you.
FIFO jobs for couples at a glance
| Possible? | Yes, as two jobs on one site; no mine ad hires two people at once |
|---|---|
| Which jobs | Two camp jobs; one camp job and one mine job; or two mine jobs, like scaffolding and site admin |
| Who is open to it | The camp companies, such as Sodexo and Compass, which hire newcomers in numbers; and Mineral Resources, whose Onslow Iron camp has rooms for couples |
| The catch | Different rosters or opposite shifts mean you share a site, not a life; a room together depends on the site |
Pay from the job ads of 12 October 2026; listings checked October 2026.
Can you do FIFO as a couple?
Short answer
You can do FIFO as a couple when you both land jobs at the same site, in the camp, on the mine or one of each. None of them comes from an ad for a couple. Each one comes from two applications and a recruiter who knows you're a pair.
Both new to FIFO: the camp companies first
The camp is the village of rooms, mess hall and gym beside a mine, and the companies that run it hire many people for jobs that need no site experience. Sodexo's October 2026 ad for utility staff, the all-rounders who clean, serve and help in the kitchen, said "No FIFO experience required!" IronMerge's casual pool, the list of casual workers it sends to a client's sites, would consider people new to FIFO with two years of hospitality behind them. Compass was hiring hospitality all-rounders out of Brisbane on 14:7, fourteen days on and seven off, with flights, rooms and meals included.
Two applications to the same company is the simplest version. A camp company can usually put two of its own workers on the same swing, the same run of days on site, when they ask. The shift is the part an ad can't promise. IronMerge's casual pool asked for "nightshift flexibility", the kitchen starts before dawn and the bar runs at night, so a couple can share a swing and still only meet at dinner.
One of you has a trade or site time: that one goes first
A FIFO job coach talked online about two clients, a scaffolder and his partner, who had done admin work in nursing. The scaffolder was shortlisted within days, because scaffolders are wanted on the big construction sites; the admin job took a couple of weeks of follow-up calls, because site admin ads want experience on their own software. They ended up at one site with different employers, which "was good enough for them".
The coach's rule was "don't be picky". Get the partner whose job lands fastest up there first, and the other follows, because "once you've got your foot in the door you can move wherever you want". The partner who follows takes whatever the site has, utility or admin or driving the bus, and moves sideways later.
On working holiday visas
The camp companies hire people on working holiday visas for the same jobs they'd give a local couple. The mine owners' own jobs are harder to get on one, so a couple with working holiday visas usually ends up in two camp jobs. The page for workers from overseas has the visa rules and which employers take them.
How do you get FIFO jobs as a couple, and who hires?
Short answer
You get FIFO jobs as a couple by getting one of you in first, whichever job is easier to land. The other then applies to that site, through the same company or its camp contractor. Tell the recruiter from the first call that you need matching rosters.
Some employers say they want couples, and some would rather not. When Mineral Resources opened its camp at the Onslow Iron mine in the Pilbara in June 2025, a news report (opens in a new tab) gave the company's count of 23 couples living there. A coach who helps people into FIFO said online that "some companies don't love having couples on site because of the issues that can arise, jealousy, fights on site, and if one leaves then they both leave". The recruiter's answer when you say there are two of you tells you which kind of company you've rung.
Step by step, as a couple
- Work out which of you lands a job fastest, usually the one with a trade or site time, and put that one first (who goes first).
- Each get a licence, a police clearance from the last six months and proof of your work rights (what the ads ask for).
- If you're both new, apply to the same camp company, and add a food safety or bar course to suit the kitchen or the bar (the camp companies first). Every course asks for your USI (Unique Student Identifier), a free number you make online.
- Say you're a pair the first time you speak to a recruiter, and ask for the same swing and the same shift (rosters and shifts).
- Before you accept, find out whether the camp gives couples a room together (rooms).
- Never pay an agency or anyone else to put you forward for a job (the fee rule).
- Once you're offered the jobs, each employer books its own medical and drug test.
- On your first swing, expect the same charter, dinner together in the mess, and long days apart (a typical swing).
What the ads ask for
The ads asked for, from each of you:
- A C class driver's licence; IronMerge's ad wanted a WA one
- A national police clearance; Cater Care's utility ad on Indeed wanted one under six months old
- Australian work rights, which Civeo's housekeeping supervisor ads on Jora asked for
After the offer, the employer arranges:
- A pre-employment medical and a drug and alcohol test; Compass's ad said passing both was "required"
- Uniforms and safety gear, which Sodexo's ad listed as provided
Nice to have, and what each one gets you:
- An RSA, the responsible service of alcohol certificate: the wet mess, the camp bar, which is the night job
- A food safety certificate: the kitchen, which is the early job
- A couple of years in hospitality: the casual pools that take newcomers
Rooms: will you get one together?
The site decides whether a couple gets a room together. Mineral Resources says the rooms at its Onslow Iron camp suit singles or couples, with a queen bed, a lounge, a kitchenette and a laundry in each, at three times the size of a standard FIFO room. A worker in a television report on them said "it's good being on the same site, same roster, same swing". A standard donga is a room for one, and a couple on a crowded site can be given one each, next door if the camp can manage it.
Ask before you accept, not after you land. The camp provider, the company that runs the village, allocates the rooms, so ask the recruiter which camp the job uses and whether couples can share a room there.
Rosters and shifts: the part that decides it
Same site is not the same as same life. One partner on 2:1, two weeks on and one off, and the other on 8:6, eight days on and six off, share about fifty days off a year. Those days come a few at a time, against about 120 a year for a couple on one roster.
On one roster but opposite shifts, one on days and one on nights, you see each other at the shift change and sleep at different times. The question for the recruiter is not "same site" but "same swing, same shift", and the answer decides whether to take the job.
How much do FIFO couples earn?
Short answer
FIFO couples earn two separate wages, and camp utility was advertised at a middle of $39.75 an hour casual, or $88,122 a year salaried, in October 2026. The room, meals and flights are paid for on site, so neither wage goes on living costs during the swing. A trade, or a job as a driller's offsider (the driller's helper), pays more than the camp job beside it.
| Role | Advertised pay | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Camp utility, salaried, no FIFO experience needed | $90,000 – $95,000 per year | SEEK, Sodexo, Oct 2026 |
| Camp utility, casual pool | $38.97 hr + applicable loadings | SEEK, IronMerge, Oct 2026 |
| Housekeeper, salaried, Queensland | $73,428 - $73,723 Base Salary + Super | SEEK, Compass Group, Oct 2026 |
| Driller's offsider, entry level | 130k++ | SEEK, Itch Recruitment, Oct 2026 |
Only ads that stated a figure are in the table. Most don't.
To see what two of those come to over a swing or a year after tax, put each one into the FIFO pay calculator; the salary page has every job side by side.
The money in a couple's FIFO is not the rate, which is ordinary, but the costs that stop for both of you at the same time. The rent or mortgage at home still has to be paid while you're both away. The casual rows pay more an hour and nothing on days off; the salaried rows pay less an hour and keep paying through the weeks at home. With one of each, a couple has one steady wage and one that rises and falls with the hours.
What is FIFO as a couple like day to day?
A typical swing together
The swing starts at the airport, two bags on the same charter flight, and the camp bus at the other end. In the camp the day splits at the first shift: the kitchen hand is up at four, the housekeeper starts the rooms when the crews leave for site, and the bar opens when they get back. If you're both in utility jobs you can work the same hours; if one of you works for the mine, the day runs to the mine's clock, twelve hours, and you meet in the mess.
The evening is the part a single FIFO worker doesn't get. You have dinner together, go to the gym or for a walk, and go back to a donga with someone in it. The part that isn't in the ad is that it is the same evening, in the same room, fourteen nights running, with no door to close on each other. Couples who are good at that do well on site; couples who need an hour alone a day find out fast.
What is it really like doing FIFO as a couple?
Short answer
FIFO as a couple is ten to twelve-hour shifts, dinner in the mess together, and a donga with no door of your own, for a fortnight at a time. It works for the couples who wanted the same thing from it, and it is hard on the ones who didn't.
Someone on a Perth online forum wrote that "if you have a good relationship, a great team and both the same goals, then give it a crack". Having the same goals is the part to take seriously. Go up with a number and a date you both agreed, and treat the site as a place to earn it, not a place to live. A couple that went up for one partner's reasons ends with the other one counting days.
The camp is small and it talks. A couple on site is watched, and an argument at breakfast is all over the camp by lunch. The couples who last keep work at work and the donga door shut on the rest. If a swing turns bad for either of you, Lifeline is 13 11 14, any hour.
Where does FIFO as a couple lead?
Short answer
FIFO as a couple leads where you planned it: a deposit or a mortgage paid down in a few years, or one of you moving to a mine job. The couples who leave on time set the date before they start.
The common move is one partner crossing to the mine. Six months to a year in a camp job is the site experience that entry-level mine ads ask for, and a trainee job pays while it trains you. An operator's or a trade assistant's wage is bigger than a camp wage. The other partner can stay in the camp, and if the new job keeps you both on one roster, the household earns more without anything else changing.
The other move is home. Two wages with the living costs paid on site is a fast way to save, and the point of it is to stop. Set the number and the date at the kitchen table before the first swing. When one of you wants to go home before the other, the couples and family page covers the version where one keeps flying.
Are FIFO jobs for couples right for you?
Two honest questions
- Same swing or nothing? Decide before the first offer. If one of you would take a job on a different roster to get started, say so now, because that is the offer that will come first.
- Can you do a fortnight in one room? On a 2:1 roster that is fourteen long shifts and one donga, then a week at home. If a week apart sounds like the easier version, FIFO couples and family is the page for one flying and one at home.
Ready to look?
If you've read this far and still want in, get both sets of paperwork sorted and pick which of you applies first.
- FIFO couple jobs on SEEK (opens in a new tab)
- FIFO couple jobs on Indeed (opens in a new tab)
- FIFO couple 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 both is six more. Three minutes. Free.
Is FIFO right for me?