FIFO Mechanical Fitter Jobs

Can you get a FIFO mechanical fitter job straight from a workshop?

Many of the ads that wanted experience meant mine sites: in October Torquejobs' shutdown pool wanted 12 months on them. Catalyst Metals' own ad was wider, taking fixed plant time from "a mining, processing, industrial or heavy industry environment".

Ways into a first FIFO fitter job

Shutdown pools are one way in. In October Monadelphous's pool asked for no years at all, only the trade, a driver's licence and five current tickets, gas testing and basic fire among them.

Entry-level jobs are another. In October Techforce wanted fitters for projects at Olympic Dam, FIFO from Adelaide on 2:1, two weeks on and one off, with no mining or FIFO experience required. Another agency advertised "Entry Level Mechanical Fitter" jobs at an iron ore mine on the Pilbara coast, at a site where everyone had to be clean-shaven to wear a respirator.

A fitter online named Mader, Warrikal and Linkforce as the easy door, though the first roster might not be steady. The agencies page has how the pools work.

Fitter or diesel fitter: which trade the ad means

A mechanical fitter works the plant itself, crushers to pumps, on an engineering certificate, while a diesel fitter works the trucks and diggers on a mobile plant or heavy vehicle certificate. On site the two sit in different departments, fixed plant maintenance and mobile maintenance, and the "HD fitter" ads for heavy diesel fitters are on the diesel mechanic page.

How do you get a FIFO mechanical fitter job, step by step?

With a fitting trade, in WA

1. Have your fitting trade papers ready, or a recognised overseas equivalent, and check the ad wants a fixed plant fitter, not a diesel one (which trade the ad means).
2. Get your heights and confined space tickets and a White Card, plus the gas test and fire tickets some shutdown pools want (what the ads ask for). Every course asks for your USI (Unique Student Identifier), a free number you make online.
3. Get a police check done not long before you apply.
4. Apply first to the shutdown pools and entry-level jobs, which don't ask for mine time (ways into a first job).
5. Base yourself in Perth if you can; Monadelphous and a few others fly fitters from any capital (where they fly from).
6. Once you're offered the job, the employer books the medical and drug test and the inductions, and checks you can use the site's gear.
7. On site, expect planned maintenance, a walk of the plant each day, and an isolation before every job (a typical day).
8. Then aim for leading hand, a job on the mine owner's crew, or a second trade (where it leads).

In Queensland

On a Queensland coal mine, a fitter also needs Standard 11, the coal mine induction, and a coal board medical, which the employer pays for.

How do FIFO mechanical fitter jobs work, and who hires?

What the ads ask for

Most ads ask for:

• The trade certificate, or an Australian-recognised equivalent
• Working at heights, confined space entry and the White Card
• A driver's licence, with a police clearance on some ads
• Time on a plant or on shutdowns; crushers, conveyors and pumps named on the maintenance ads

After the offer, the employer arranges:

• A pre-employment medical and drug screen
• Site inductions, and a VOC (verification of competency), a check that you can run the site's own gear

Nice to have, and what each one gets you:

• EWP (elevating work platform), forklift and telehandler tickets: one September shutdown ad made all three "mandatory", so they can decide which shutdowns you get
• Dogging and basic rigging, for slinging loads and directing a crane: Christmas Island Phosphates' October ad wanted both
• A hydraulic hose course: Catalyst Metals asked for fault-finding on hydraulic and pneumatic systems as well as mechanical ones

Fly in fly out fitter jobs from Perth and the other capitals

Most FIFO fitter jobs fly from Perth, but some ads reach further: Monadelphous's October ad offered "Point of hire from any Australian capital city", and a year-long Karratha project flew fitters from Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney. Queensland had ads of its own too, listed in Brisbane, Mackay and Townsville. A fitter in Melbourne or Hobart looks for the line about flights first, and the Melbourne and Tasmania pages have the rest.

Shutdowns or a roster: the two kinds of fly in fly out fitter jobs

A shutdown pool is a run of dated jobs with gaps between. One fitter online described it as a two-week shut, three or four days off, a four-day shut, then ten days off, and no roster to speak of. A rostered job repeats one pattern, such as 7:7, a week on and a week off, and the rosters page has what each one takes from the year.

How much do FIFO mechanical fitters get paid?

Only ads that stated a figure are in the table. Most don't.

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

Night rates, the top rate and the super question

"DS" and "NS" in an ad are the day and night rates. The top hourly ad in October was for commissioning, starting up new plant, on an oil and gas project at Karratha, and it wanted that experience: flange management, controlled bolting and pressure testing.

The line worth finding is "super on all hours": without it, super may be paid on ordinary hours only, not all twelve. Ask how the super is worked out before you sign, and get the answer in writing.

What does a FIFO mechanical fitter do all day?

A typical day for a FIFO mechanical fitter

A surface fitter with more than ten years in mining, who lived near his mine, described his day to a YouTuber in 2023. The plant is large and the job is footwork: an inspection sheet, a walk around the conveyors, mills, crushers and pump stations, and a note of what needs fixing now or at the next shutdown.

Most of the work is planned and booked ahead, from belt tracking to gland packing on the slurry pumps. Each shift starts with a prestart, the crew's meeting for the day's jobs, and every job starts with an isolation: the machine locked out and tagged before a spanner goes near it. He also drove cranes and forklifts, and at times a bobcat to level the ground for a crane.

Shutdowns: a hundred contractors and a mill reline

A shutdown stops the plant so everything can be fixed at once. At one surface fitter's mine it came every three or four months, more than a hundred contractors arrived, and he loved it: he got to run around with them, finding the work and scheduling the repairs. The contractors' fitters change the bearings, gearboxes, motors, pulleys and rollers in twelve-hour shifts, and the video's host added that some crews do one job, such as relining mills, flying in thirty or forty at a time.

What is it really like working as a FIFO mechanical fitter?

The thing nobody puts in an ad is how much of the shift is not fitting. The fitter who counted the hours wrote that the rest went on getting around the mine, meetings, being stuck behind loaders, and blockages. A fitter from a workshop, used to tools in hand all day, can find that restful or maddening.

Why fitters leave, and why some come back

The fitters who wrote about leaving didn't complain about the fitting. One had just left, earned far less and was much happier, and another, still in it, was missing important events and feared for his relationship. A third quit for a Monday to Friday job in town, found it wasn't for him, and went back to FIFO on even time, a fortnight on and a fortnight off. His line was that it comes down to the roster.

If a swing gets you down in a way the roster doesn't explain, Lifeline is on 13 11 14, any hour.

Where does a FIFO mechanical fitter job lead?

In September a leading hand ad wanted three years as a fitter first, and another paid a salary rather than an hourly rate. The other step is onto a mine owner's crew: Catalyst Metals' October ad was for a full-time job at its Plutonic gold mine on 8:6, with health insurance and a bonus, where most contractors paid by the hour. A second trade is one of the biggest steps up, and slow to get.

The trade that leaves site and still works

One fitter's advice online was to hold trades and tickets you can use off the mine: with his, he wrote, he could work as a fitter, a rigger or a scaffolder and be home every night. The is FIFO worth it page has the sum for deciding when to use yours elsewhere.

Is a FIFO mechanical fitter job right for you?

Two honest questions

1. Do you want a roster or a run of shutdowns? A shutdown pool can leave February empty whether you wanted it off or not. A rostered crew tells you where you will be in March.
2. Can you stand the waiting? If a workshop day with a spanner in your hand all day is what you love, the hours spent getting around a mine are a cost, not a detail.