Flying Miners (2014–…): Season 1, Episode 1 - Meet the FIFOs - full transcript
100,000 workers
currently hold a unique place
in Australia's mining industry
I love doing this.
The bigger, the better.
They commute
tens of thousands of kilometres a year,
and they're called 'FIFOs' -
fly-in fly-out miners.
- It's all about the money.
- Couldn't be happier.
This series examines a world
few people get to see,
with unprecedented access
to mines all over Australia.
Welcome to my office!
I guess you don't come out here
for the nightlife.
Over the next three weeks, we lift the
lid on a multi-billion-dollar industry
that's changed the face of our nation.
I hope that in 50 years' time
we look back and think,
'Well, that was a great way
to start the 21 st century.'
We discover the challenges
behind digging up
some of the richest deposits
of dirt in the world...
The extraordinary levels of growth
we have just can't continue forever.
...where the stakes are high.
You look at the risk
and you say, 'Is it worth it?
Is the risk versus reward worth it?'
We'll hear from the decision-makers
under pressure in the boardroom...
You never feel comfortable
in the mining industry.
You never rest on your laurels.
...and the miners in the pit.
We're trying to make strawberry jam
out of pig shit.
There's loneliness...
You're either working
or you're sleeping.
Hey, buddy.
- Hello!
- How are we?
Hi!
Not being there at the moment,
yeah, it sucks, to tell you the truth.
...as marriages are tested to the limit
But I've seen others,
that they just can't handle it,
and in no time at all
the relationship's gone bad.
We son of grew apart, you know.
She son of got used to
me not being there.
FIFOs are not always welcome.
Locals don't like FIFOs.
They think they're riffraff
and their social skills
leave a lot to be desired.
I think the work practice of FIFO
will become the cancer of the bush.
Daddy!
First night home is always a good one.
We're glad that you're home.
It's a tough life.
It's a Flying Miner's life.
When we think of the mining industry,
we think of Australia's richest
But what about the men and women
at the coalface?
We've got the world's largest identified
amounts of iron ore, gold, zinc,
lead, nickel and uranium, but it
would go nowhere without the FIFOs.
I think FIFOs should be
regarded as heroes.
It's a tough way to earn a living.
Nah, it's all good. Spot on.
You're effectively living
these two separate lives.
Its impact has been quite significant.
But both positive and negative.
I would argue that FIFO is here to stay.
First up, is iron ore miner
Shana Mooyman.
People still,
when they ask me what I do,
don't believe it
and literally laugh at me.
I guess it is a bit of a spin around.
I mean, you know, most of my friends
at home do have office jobs.
She used to show off her curves
modelling bikinis,
but with more money in mining, these
days it's all hard hats and high-vis.
Yes, I pretty much think about
money all the time.
I mean, it's pretty much why I'm there.
It's all about the money.
Eww, I so should have taken my
nail polish off. Old manicure.
Just try to imagine driving straight
for 12 hours a day.
I mean, that, you know,
it gets pretty draining
and, you know, your mind
will tend to wander.
You've always got to be alert,
looking out for everything.
You've got to really
keep your mind on the job
because at the end of the day, this
machine is what's making my money.
Going through high school,
I actually started beauty therapy
until one of my girlfriends,
well, she worked on a mine already
and pretty much
just got me the job through her.
And at the time, I said,
'Oh, I could do that for a year,
see how I go, get some money,
come back, work locally.'
And five years later
and I'm still in the mining lifestyle.
And on a wage of over $100,000 a year,
it's a lifestyle that's earned her two
investment properties at the age of 24.
Being in mining,
it does have its huge rewards.
Financially, you can do so much stuff.
Setting yourself up for the future.
I think FIFO workers earn every dollar.
I think FIFO workers
have very long hours.
It's sometimes very arduous,
sometimes tough conditions.
They're away from home, they're
away from everything that's familiar.
I think it's grossly exaggerated
that they are paid far too much.
If you ask people what a FIFO worker is,
they'll probably tell you it's
a young male, early 20s, rat's tail,
drives a ute and they hoon around.
They exist, but the average would be,
if you want to have an average,
would be a male about 40,
married with children.
And that pretty much sums up Matt Skeet.
While his family is 1,300 kays away
in Kalgoorlie,
he's working at
the same iron ore mine as Shana,
running his own drill rig business.
Our job here at BC Iron
is to provide BC Iron with information
on what grade
and what quantity of iron ore they have.
By drilling at different depths,
Matt's soil samples
give BC Iron an underground map
to help them work out
where to mine next.
- How are you doing?
- How are you going?
Yeah, good.
Punched that hole out already?
- Nah.
- Nah.
- No, we only just got out here.
- Oh, righto.
See this is drilling down here
at the moment.
So we're getting a sample
every half a metre,
so all this pretty much is
the nuts and bolts of what we do.
It's the same every job,
same every hole, same every day.
What you can see here
is the fruits of our labour pretty much.
This is what we are paid for and
this is what we deliver to the client.
Just recently I have been
looking at a second machine
and to expand the business
a little bit more.
Jo is very apprehensive
about that obviously
because of the increased workload
she sees that I will have to put in.
I am son of
of a different way of thinking
in that if I've got two machines
out in the field,
I would need to spend more time
back in an administrative role
and support role back in town.
So I'm thinking it's going to
lead to less time away.
But she thinks it's going to
be more time away.
Really puts a strain
on our relationship.
We never know when he's
coming home, so it's all over the shop.
It could be for a night,
it could be for a week.
We were home for ten days with Poppy
and he had to take off
and from that moment onwards
till Poppy was five months,
he was only home
for quite possibly only about 20 nights,
so being a new mum
it was definitely daunting,
and not having any other family
in the town.
Yeah. It's not everyone's cup of tea.
Unless you know other people
who live this lifestyle,
it is really isolating
because people just don't understand
the complexities and challenges,
and it's very much similar
to being, you know, a single parent.
Having to be mum and dad
and run the household
and cooking and cleaning and washing,
it all comes back on to you,
so that's the biggest challenge,
is just that daily grind
and not getting a break from that.
Hey, Pops.
You had enough of your mango.
And recently, the distance of FIFO life
has never been more painful.
Just going for a walk, as us mothers do,
and Poppy fell asleep in the car,
so I drove through
the drive-through coffee shop
to make it last longer, her sleep,
and I heard her making funny noises.
And I thought, 'Oh, she must be awake,'
so I drove home
and she was having what I believe to be
a seizure in the back seat of the car.
I was at work when
I found a text message to say from Jo
that Poppy's had a seizure.
Her arms were stiff.
Her gaze was gone
and she was non-responsive.
And when I pulled her
out of the car seat,
it looked like I'd snapped her neck off.
Terrible feeling being away
and getting news via a text message
and then not having any contact
or confirmation of what's happening.
I tried to ring Matt.
I couldn't get through to him.
He wasn't answering his phone.
And she's gone to the hospital
and freaking out,
so I'm trying to get hold of Jo
and couldn't get hold of Jo.
And it was quite clearly the
most awful thing I've ever experienced.
This was going on for a few hours
and several cigarettes
while I'm freaking out, just feeling
so helpless and couldn't do anything.
Couldn't do anything.
I guess having a husband
who wasn't in the FIFO industry,
it would be a lot easier because he
could've just come home and helped out.
Jodene wants Matt home more,
so increased workloads and greater debt
are not what she wants to hear.
As Matt makes the long journey home,
it's clear these issues
need addressing, and fast
Over in Perth,
another FIFO is also on the move.
Goldminer Bradley Hamence
is the king of the commute.
- Are you checking in a bag today?
- Yeah, this one here, yep.
Just place it on the belt for me.
For every two-week shift, his journey
involves travelling over 4,000 kays
on three separate planes,
across three different States.
It all adds up
to a staggering 24-hour commute.
I lose a day going over
and a day and a half coming back.
You always sleep on the plane,
but it's not quality sleep.
Nothing beats sleeping in your own bed.
Once off the plane,
Brad's straight into work,
so, not surprisingly,
he's exhausted before he even starts.
Oh, you have your moments, like any job,
where you think, 'Oh, jeez,
what am I out here doing this for?'
but you got to look at the big picture.
You're out here for a reason.
Some people are out here
because they love doing the job.
Other people have got a plan
to work to.
- Oh, good work, Jasper.
- I've put my wife through uni.
She's raising our children.
You know, I might do two years,
you know,
just to really get set up
and then be home after that
One thing he's learned is that
you need plenty of tucker in your belly
to get you through a 12-hour shift.
If you don't get it now,
you're hungry for the whole 11.5 hours
because you go straight to work.
So you've got to try and think
of what you're gonna want
in about eight hours' time.
Sometimes you just want something
a little bit different, so...
Might just have a vegemite sandwich,
peanut butter sandwich,
or something, just to break it up.
With the hours,
probably a little bit different
than a normal job back at home,
but with this job you don't have to
worry about any of the household chores
that you have to do when you get home
or cooking and cleaning,
which take up, you know,
another two hours a night,
or 2.5 hours a night.
Some days can feel extremely long,
especially when you're digging in
to a couple of pits over here,
because they're pretty hard digging.
It could be a good day.
It could be a bad day.
Everybody has 'em.
Hopefully today is not my bad day.
This stuff here is ore,
so it's got some gold in it.
We're not too sure how much.
So we're just digging out
this section of gold.
Gold goes into the back of the trucks,
as you can see,
and that goes up to the ROM,
and then we get our gold bars,
which keep us all in a job.
And the job of making those gold bars
all goes on inside
these tanks and conveyors.
Once Brad and his fellow FIFOs
have dug up the ore,
it's all crushed down
and mixed with cyanide.
It's absorbed onto carbon,
passed through an acid bath
and then the gold is electroplated
onto steel wool,
before being cooked in an oven.
Even though it looks like
you could scour your pans with it,
there's definitely gold in that wool.
Yeah, we've just pulled
the wool out of the oven.
Mixed that up on a bench and then
we've put that into the cement mixer.
Ground it up nice and fine.
Mixed that thoroughly
and then put it back on the bench.
And then we bucket that up
and load it into the furnace,
and it'll sit in the furnace
for probably three hours.
It's the job
of the process superintendent
to ensure none of the gold goes astray.
The biggest thing in this is trust,
I suppose.
Also, with security, we tend to...
whenever we're doing anything
like what you see now, there's always
at least two people in here.
With the furnace that we use,
it's a fairly manual operation.
After we think that it's probably
ready to be poured,
we'll physically stir it
and just get a feel for it.
Just experience will tell us that it's
ready to pour or not ready to pour.
By the time we pour it, the consistency
would be of a runny honey.
With security extremely tight,
usually these are sights
the public never get to see.
And don't worry, it's not gold
spilling over into the tray.
That's just silica,
which isn't worth much.
The valuable stuff
is in the bottom of that mould.
It's taken 10,000 metric tonnes of dirt
to make this one gold bar.
That's enough earth to fill
three Olympic-sized swimming pools.
Let it settle for a little bit,
cool it down, clean it up...
...stamp it with a Silver Lake number,
weigh it.
It's about 370 ounces there
and about $520,000 worth.
But that's just a drop in the ocean.
Since we first caught gold fever
over 150 years ago,
it's grown into a $16 billion business,
with Australia now the second largest
producer of gold in the world,
behind China.
But while all the magic
goes on inside the gold rooms,
out in the pit,
it's the same old routine for Brad,
digging away for up to 12 hours a day.
Yeah, I will do
when I've finished on the dump, mate.
It's a pretty repetitive job,
so you've just got to
sort of put up with it.
We've had days where you're just like,
'Nah, I've had a gutsful of this.'
You get that with every job, I suppose,
and you've just got to deal with it.
The misconceptions of FIFO work
is that everyone has a really nice car,
holidays, drinking, you know,
swimming in bucketloads of money.
It's just not like that.
You get paid relatively well,
but you're also doing the hours.
You're putting in the hard yards.
It's a job.
It's hard for Brad because he misses out
on time with his friends and his family,
but, for me,
I just miss out on seeing him.
Oh, I think about the kids all the time.
You think about, 'I missed out on this,
I missed out on that'
I'm never going to make that time up.
You've got to make some sacrifices
in your life.
From gold in WA,
it's over to copper in Queensland.
And here at the Osborne Mine,
copper miner Rodney Buck, aka 'Bucky',
is just starting his day.
Since the recent light rains,
there has been an increase
of wildlife on the road verges.
Could drivers take care.
Bucky, down the workshop, mate,
helping out with a jumbo there.
That will be an all-dayer.
Alright, guys, have a safe one.
Thank you.
Bucky's job is old-school mining...
...working deep underground
in what is one of the most elite
and dangerous mining jobs
in the country
When you go underground,
you put your tag on.
Basically it's for
your own personal safety.
If there's any tags left on
at end of shift,
well, they know someone
is still down the hole.
Could be in the blast zone, you know,
and they don't even know,
so that's why it's very important
you've got a tag on.
Bucky's day starts with a 6km drive,
650m underground...
...where he won't see daylight
for another 12 hours.
Most people
think of underground mining
as in cave-ins, rock falls,
things like that.
And it does happen.
But you've got controls in place
to make it as safe as possible,
and the industry is good,
but there is still things that go wrong.
The head of Fortescue Metals Group,
Andrew Forrest,
has paid an emotional tribute
to a contractor who was crushed to death
at the company's Christmas Creek Mine.
When you hear on the news of accidents
that have happened in mines and...
Well, first of all,
you hear where the location is.
And then, you know, you kind of...
It sounds horrible, but you get
that whole... you get a sense of relief
when you know it's not where Brad is.
But then I think about...
It's someone else's family
out there, though.
That is exactly right, that it is.
There's somebody that's the same as me
and then that's... that's their Brad.
Mining is a bit more dangerous
underground than it is above ground,
and for that reason,
if you're in an underground team,
you've got to be a team member.
You can't turn up drunk on the job
or you can't be foolish or incapable,
otherwise you'll be
out of that team very quickly
and you will be out of
the mining company as well.
I enjoy it underground,
like, no flies, no sun.
It's good, so... But it does get hot.
Especially summer coming on now.
The humidity and everything.
Bucky operates the jumbo,
which drills holes for the blast crew
and provides structural support
for the tunnels.
Your boom function, these four levers
operates your boom itself.
Your up, down, left, right.
And then these three levers,
the actual... the drilling side,
which is your rotation and feed,
which pushes it in,
and your percussion, which actually...
that's what breaks the rocks.
No, at the moment, I'm just drilling
me lifters, they're the bottom holes.
At the end of it, when they fire last,
they lift the dirt.
And so I'll drill them
and I'll put some tube in,
poly pipe,
so you can charge them later on.
Because when other din
falls off the face, they get buried.
And then I'll just carry on
drilling the rest of this base.
And the charge crew,
they'll come in and charge it up
and we will fire at the end of shift.
So... like, it's pretty much the cycle
just goes round and round.
Once the drilling's done,
it's time for the blast crew to step in.
No, we just want to break it
and, yeah, just a couple of cracks in it
and then the digger will break it up.
In mines all over the country, there
are teams above and below ground
breaking down rock and blowing up ore
so that the diggers can come in
and start hauling it around.
The whole area is cordoned off
and no-one is allowed here
in the blasting zone.
So we go and hook up the shot
and put a remote control in place,
go to a safe area and blast a shot.
That's it.
- Switched on. That thing is live now.
That's the siren run,
so if someone is in the area,
get warned that there is a blasting on.
We've got eight tonne of explosives
going off today,
which is a bit of explosives.
Yeah, shot fire in position
and ready to fire today's shot.
Firing in ten.
When a hole goes off,
it's the bottom that goes first.
So it kicks out.
It's like a wave motion.
A lot of work in it and it's just gone
in a couple of seconds.
This is all in a day's work
for the boys who are having a blast.
- Whoo!
Once the blast crews have had their fun,
it's over to FIFOs like Shana
to cart the iron ore across the mine.
Ooh, it's dark.
It's 40 degrees outside, and she's
not seen anyone else all shift.
So today I'm in a 777 dump truck,
and we are caning iron ore from an area
that's been cut and pushed up.
And then it gets loaded into myself,
and then we go to the ROM,
where it goes through a crusher
and gets ready to be shipped away.
So he's now presenting
his bucket to us,
and we automatically need to know
where we're going to line up.
Once loaded, Shana carries
about 90 tonnes of dirt and iron ore.
With a top speed of 58 kays an hour,
it takes her ten minutes
to get to the drop-off point.
So this is the tip head,
the dump location.
And then the dozer
on top of the tip head,
he pushes all the material
over the edge,
and it goes into the crushing unit
on the other side.
Yeah, Shana.
Oh, thanks for that, Bradley.
A bit of positive reinforcement,
you know?
Just to know that
you're still doing the job alright.
And it's a job she'll repeat over 50
times during her 12 hours at the wheel.
Out here in the Pilbara, Shane's
working life is in a world of its own.
Miles from anywhere, it's an
isolating place for a 24-year-old woman
whose girlfriends all lead
active social lives back home in Perth.
With no phones allowed on shift
and limited reception,
it's clear she's missing out.
But it's a sacrifice
Shana is prepared to make.
This is my donga.
So I've got a nice little bar fridge.
People generally stock it with beer.
Mine has tuna and fruit.
We've got a bedroom telephone.
TV with a DVD player.
King single bed.
Not that great.
They provide you
with towels and fresh linen.
They clean your bedroom twice a week.
So you get a full clean
and a half clean.
So my donga's on the end,
which is good because that means
I've only got one neighbour.
So the walls are pretty thin and if he's
up and about doing whatever he's doing,
then I can generally hear it
so you've just got to really respect
who you are, you know, next to
and make sure you are quiet
if you stay up late
because someone like me,
I'm in bed by eight o'clock,
like, so I'm pretty much a nanna.
I haven't seen a lot of my girlfriends
for, like, four or five weeks now,
so, you know,
you want to stay in touch.
You don't want to drift apart
from anyone.
It's just one of the negatives
that you've got to deal with, I guess.
Like, if you want to live
the FIFO lifestyle,
then that's the price you pay.
I think there is
a lot of misunderstanding
about the benefits that FIFO workers get
from their huge salaries.
There's a huge cost that goes into that
and I think that if you haven't gone
through the process
of really clear thinking about the
ramifications on yourself, your family,
your social network,
you will last, like a lot of people do,
one or two swings
and realise it's not for you.
Self-made FIFO Matt Skeet
runs his own drill rig business
out in the iron ore mines
of the Pilbara.
But after a 14-hour
drive home to Kalgoorlie,
there's no rest for the wicked.
There's always a few jobs to do
once I get back
having been away for awhile,
but, you know, it's good, pretty
relaxing just to be beside the pool.
A pool job
is better than a drill rig job.
So, pretty happy to be back home.
When I do get home, the tension
from work is still left over.
It takes a few days
to get back into the routine
of just being home in the first place.
But then because I've always
got to have a fairly good feel
of what is happening on site
that, yeah, it's always there,
the tension is always there, so
it's hard for me to relax completely.
Our plan for the future
is constantly changing
because the industry is changing.
Drilling is a very volatile industry.
We find that when things are busy we're
really, really busy, making good money
and things are going really well,
but there's been extended periods
where we've had no work,
so, yeah, that can cause a little bit
of tension between myself and Jo.
Hello, mate. Just spoke to Marg and
she wants to put a few provisions in...
Matt's in discussions now
about having
a second piece of machinery and rig.
I am not for it.
Because at the moment
I don't feel comfortable,
I don't feel like the financial market
is in the right place.
The pool, have you sorted out
how to warm that up?
There are huge outlays
and we have huge monthly costs,
and when times are tough,
it's hard to balance the books.
It's something that between us
I think we both know
that we aren't really openly
talking about at the moment
because it does cause a bit of tension,
so I guess it's something that
we need to perhaps discuss a bit more,
but it's a bit of a hard one because
it just causes fights in the long run.
- Mm, it's good.
- Mm.
So if the opportunity arises,
what's your thoughts on expanding?
You working away is already hard
on the family unit
without alone
you having a second machine
that you're gonna put
your heart and your soul into
'cause you don't do anything by halves.
Especially at the moment,
the profit margin isn't as huge
as it once was back in 2007.
I can understand your reservations.
I know that you don't want
the financial pressure.
If the right scenario comes across,
would you consider it,
with my assurance
that I'm not gonna be away
as much as I have been in the past?
Yes, I'd consider anything,
but I definitely would be
advising us against it.
Yeah, Jo has got
a love-hate relationship with what I do
'cause she knows it's a necessity
and that it's a good source of income
for us,
but, yeah,
she just is a bit upset at times
that I'm never here
to experience things with her.
If you got a second rig,
it would mean that you would have to
show it as much love
as you show this first rig.
- Mm.
- So how much love is left over for us?
All of the love.
It's just different love.
We're neglected.
- Are you?
- Mm.
Oh. I am sorry that you feel that way.
You have to understand
that things will fall to pieces
if I just stay home all the time.
It's a hard scenario,
'cause if you go away all the time,
then things fall apart here.
And for how long
will you continue to work away for?
Depends on what happens
in the market.
We might have a record three
or four years, that's all we need to do,
but if we don't, we're not
going to be in a financial position
to stop doing what we're doing.
A black-and-white time frame
as far as my involvement
in this goes is too hard, bub.
I think, really,
realistically, as we stand now,
we have got another ten years
in the industry.
I don't really tell Jo that
too often, but...
If it continues how it is right now,
how many years?
- That I am working fly-in fly-out?
- Yep.
Five.
But my involvement with drilling
will be a lot longer.
So probably away more often
but for shorter time frame.
To have the earning capacity
that we have,
you have to have
some hardships involved in it.
But I'd just like you to be
a little bit more open to these ideas.
I'd be willing to discuss it, yes.
With Matt and Jodene in deadlock,
it's going to take drastic measures
for them to agree.
But Matt's got a plan.
There's a cap on the other side
that's missing on the outside,
on the left-hand beam.
650m underground,
copper miner Bucky is top dog
and earns the big bucks -
a whopping 200,000 of them a year.
Did they give you a couple of lights?
It's been good to me
over the years.
I've made a lot of friends and that
through the industry
It does pay well,
but you do work for it.
Yeah, just tell Matty to clean up
the other side when he gets a chance.
Down here,
Bucky sees his work
as not so much a job but a way of life.
As a kid growing up,
I suppose friends of me older brothers
and that and me parents,
they used to
talk about underground mining.
And, to me, as a kid growing up,
like, it son of all sounded
really exciting.
And then the opportunity come for me
to actually go underground.
I was only 17 at the time and you're
supposed to be 18, but I put me age up.
That was me probably start
in underground mining.
That was 1988 and followed on from there
and I've never son of
really looked back, so...
For flying miners,
it's all about the roster.
Bucky works two weeks on and two off,
unlike his fellow FIFOs,
who work eight days on and six off.
But it looks like all of that
is about to change.
So lots of rumours going
you fellas are all going to two and two.
- Yeah.
- Or is that just...?
It's not a rumour.
We got our rosters and everything.
It looks like there's going to be
a roster change for the fitters.
Some blokes wont be happy and they
will probably look elsewhere for work.
So if that's the case, so be it.
You know,
you've got to look after yourself.
14 days away, you know,
like, it's a long time, eh?
- Yeah.
- 14 days off is good.
It is. That's why I like the roster.
- I think I'll struggle.
- Yeah?
It's like going on a holiday and then
trying to come back, you know?
With the right roster
and the education around the lifestyle
and having goals
on how long you want to stay in FIFO,
then you've got a really good chance
of making it work.
We've had reports of male FIFO workers
getting into FIFO
because they get more time
with their family.
So if you can get an eight-day-on,
six-day-off roster, fantastic!
Great for the family,
you're not apart too long,
you get a good block at home.
Very, very achievable. Very easy to do.
With seven days off for goldminer Brad,
you'd think that would mean
plenty of time with his family.
But with such a big commute,
he only has five precious days at home.
Landed in Mildura now.
Just happy to be home.
Forget about it for a week.
And then start up again.
Brad intends to make this time count,
starting by picking up the boys
he misses so much.
- Look!
- Hey!
Dad, look!
What have you got? What is it?
- A necklace.
- A necklace.
- Yeah.
- Hey? Is that pasta?
- Hey?
- Hello, Milo.
To be back after doing two weeks
of work, come home and pick the kids up
and just to see how happy they are,
it makes you realise why you do it.
Whoa! Milo's turn now?
You miss out on a bit but you
make up for it when you get home.
- Hello!
- Oh, Mum!
- Mum!
- Hello, Mum!
- Hey, darl.
- How you going?
I'm good.
Now that Jasper's a bit older, he knows
that today's the day that Dad gets home,
so it's a little bit more,
yeah, it's more exciting for him
because it's like, you know,
'Dad's coming home today.'
And Jasper thinks that where does
Brad work, like, where does Dad work,
he thinks it's a plane.
He thinks Dad works on a plane,
so we have explained to him it's
the mine, but he thinks it's a plane,
so every time a plane goes over,
he thinks it's Dad's plane.
That is Daddy's aeroplane! Isn't it?
It's definitely better
when Dad's home.
We do more fun things, don't we?
It's a mental
and a physical shift
to go from a FIFO workplace
back to home.
It's a split life.
When I get home, like, yeah, I try
and do as much as I can with the kids
and give the wife a break, so
I probably get a better sleep at work,
but that's pan of being a family
and a dad, I suppose.
Look - a big ducky! Look!
Yeah, a big pelican.
Yeah, just spend as much time
as I can with them for the five days
and it's just doing
everyday routine stuff,
and just that
I don't do it for two weeks -
I just do it for a week solid.
Brad's enjoying
his downtime at home,
but with Milo's first birthday
rapidly approaching,
the reality sinks in that he wont be
home in time to share that special day.
Haven't been home for any of the
kids' birthdays or anything like that.
So I've missed out on their walking,
talking, all them first little things.
Pulling that weird face,
whatever it may be.
I've missed out on all that.
3,000 kays away
in the boardrooms of Perth,
Brad's bosses are making
multimillion-dollar decisions
that could affect his future.
Let's go and have a look at these plans.
So they drilled either side of...
Chris Banasik is the founding member
and director
of goldmining company
Silver Lake Resources,
and has probably got
the toughest job here,
as he's in charge
of finding the precious stuff.
Silver Lake Resources
is a small- to middle-sized company.
In 2007, a group of us,
the founding directors
who had known each other
from previous companies,
just decided to give it a shot.
That's what it's like.
You know, if you don't give it a go,
then you'll never know.
I think the perception
of the mining industry
is that it's full
of fabulously wealthy moguls
that are only interested
in their own bottom line.
But in reality there is something like
600 resources stocks on the ASX
that never makes it to the papers.
And one of those companies
under the radar is BC Iron,
but they're punching
above their weight.
Since they set up shop in 2006,
they've gone from virtually nothing
to producing over six million tonnes of
iron ore each year, worth $400 million.
Mike Young, our previous MD,
often tells the story
about how when he started up BC Iron
he was renting an office off a mate
for a carton of beer a week,
and that's the beauty of mining.
I suspect it's probably not
what we're looking at doing,
but you're not talking about
a big chunk of money there, either.
There's always been
a lot of iron ore up in the Pilbara.
Iron ore that previously people
mightn't have thought was economic
became economic,
and we were fortunate to be involved
in riding that Chinese boom.
You never feel comfortable
in the mining industry.
You never rest on your laurels.
We're always looking to do things
better and smarter and cheaper.
Exploration is a vital pan.
The thought of putting drill holes
down in a new area
where there haven't
been drill holes before
and waiting for those results,
that's a pretty interesting feeling.
The success rate can be challenging,
but we are always out there thinking
and trying to find the next big mine.
As I said to you before,
I am astounded
by the amount of prospector interest
we're getting around here.
So there is definitely
something there.
Exploration is full of risk.
It is possible that we could spend
a million dollars testing a theory
and it being an absolute failure.
If you're a giant like BHP or Rio,
you can afford
to make a fairly large mistake
because the rest of your stuff
is going OK.
When you're a small company,
you've just got to get it right
because the world would be
very unforgiving if you get it wrong.
Clearly, he's taken
a ton of readings through here.
That's a pretty interesting gold spot
and clearly the core of the dome
up there.
Mm. I think it's really important
that we try and get up there
with some of the guys.
Remap some of these areas and be sure
that we've got a handle on the rocks.
Mining has
a lot of art involved in it.
It's not just a technical pursuit.
You've got to have a feel for it.
You can't dial it in
and expect to be remote from it.
You've got to get out there.
But for Chris
it's a voyage into the unknown
as there are forces beyond his control
that could have huge implications
on the future of Silver Lake
and for his workers, like Brad.
Out in the Pilbara, night is setting in,
and for iron ore miner Shana Mooyman
there's an extra spring in her step.
Last night shift, so everyone's,
you know, getting closer to break
and seeing their loved ones.
Fly out day tomorrow.
Everyone will be on a high.
There shouldn't be
too much fatigue issues
because we're all excitement
and buzzing with joy,
so it's always a good sign.
I know I'm excited to get home.
So tonight for my last night shift,
I'll be in the water can,
which is great.
It's a bit of a cruisy gig.
At least you can get out
and stretch your legs every load.
You're not just sitting
in a machine for 12 hours.
Water can leaving crusher.
The water can is trying to suppress
the dust around the site.
To make sure that all the truck drivers,
loader operators, grader operators,
any other machine can see what they're
doing without making too much dust,
so everyone has got clear visibility
because if the dust gets too bad,
then all the fleets shut down
until you can get control of it.
Over the course of a 12-hour shift,
it gives Shana plenty of time to think.
We're just like little soldiers
and, you know, we are in
a completely different world up here.
We've got to follow set rules -
don't do this, don't do that.
You know, like you're not allowed
to eat after these certain hours.
And then we get set free for a week.
I guess I don't want to be
in mining forever.
You know, to say that I would want to
be doing mining in 20 years' time,
I mean, you know,
it is a difficult lifestyle
and, you know, they say shift workers
age a lot quickly as well.
It takes a toll, you know,
not only on your personal
life but on yourself, your body,
and I still want
to have a bit of a life.
I mean, I'm giving up a lot now,
so I wouldn't want to give up
my entire life to mining.
I wouldn't want to be working away
and having kids, like...
You know, there's so many people
that do it and that have family at home,
and I don't know how they do it
because I think that would be so hard.
You know, you only see them
every couple of weeks.
That would suck.
So, ideally, for me,
that's not how I would want to do it.
I would like to stay in mining for a few
more years, save as much coin as I can,
and, you know, get a few more
investments and go from there.
Now, the last we saw of copper miner
Bucky, he was strutting his stuff,
working hundreds of metres underground.
Well, now he's scrubbed up and enjoying
his downtime, in Charters Towers -
a home he shares with new wife Melita.
They were married last year
after dating for three,
but apparently it wasn't exactly
a whirlwind romance.
It took him over a year to ask me out.
You can't rush these things.
No, no, you can't rush these things.
We were introduced at a rodeo,
weren't we, Rodney?
And then a year and a half later
he texts me.
All style.
- Yeah, all style.
- I don't move too fast, so...
No.
Yeah, he had no skills in
picking up women, that's for sure.
Yeah, a bit shy
when it comes to the girls.
Yeah.
Pretty much all me life
I've always been single.
I've had girlfriends and things
like that, but nothing ever serious.
You know what I mean?
All good things come to those who wait.
Been married probably
nearly 18 months now.
So far, so good, yeah.
Everything is going well.
Like, we're pretty good mates, really,
so that's one of the main things
about our relationship.
I think it's how
we've son of made it work,
because we are really good friends.
We get on pretty well, don't we, Rodney?
- Yeah.
- When he does what he's told.
Terrible at making conversation, though.
Sometimes he'll start talking back, but
most days you just get grunts in return.
Well, unless it's mining or fishing,
I don't have much to talk about.
However, there is one other topic that
Bucky is more than happy to talk about,
as Melita knows only too well.
Oh, me rock collection.
Just stuff I've collected,
me father's collected over the years.
Different bits and pieces.
Western Australia, North Queensland.
This is one of the first nuggets I found
when I was working in Western Australia.
It was on a mate's lease.
'Cause I handed it in,
they said, 'Oh, well, you can keep it.'
This is another rock from...
this is from the cattle station
my father used to own
up in North Queensland.
You can see the gold through there.
It's only very fine,
but it's pretty rich.
Native copper.
That's from out, uh... near Mount Isa.
You get gold nuggets
that are just a lump of gold,
and then you get others that have
got a bit of character about them,
shape and that.
Things like that,
people will pay a bit more for 'em.
But thanks to FIFO,
there is one passion they do share.
These are just the plans
we're getting drawn up
at the moment for our new house.
We want to do this house
because we want to have kids.
We're trying to have kids,
so hopefully it'll happen
by the time it's built-
would be good
but, you know, we'll see.
- See how we go.
- Yeah.
Yeah, it's going to be
the next stage, I suppose, of our lives,
like son of out with the old,
in with the new.
- We wanted four bedrooms, so...
- Four bedrooms, so...
I don't think we'll fill
all the bedrooms.
We'll have a guest bedroom.
Hope for three,
and if we get two, we'll be happy.
- Get any, we'll be happy.
- Get one, we'll be happy.
Long as they're healthy, you don't care.
It's a long-term thing that we're
looking at staying in the Towers,
like Charters Towers and that.
So I reckon do it once, do it right.
Get everything done.
Sit back and enjoy it.
In the early years,
I probably thought to myself
if I ever have children
or have a family,
I would try and make the conscious
effort of being a residential job,
so I'm home with my family
and be there for the kids.
I would love it to work
if I could still do fly-in fly-out
because the money is better
and things like that,
but at the same time,
family is more important.
You know what I mean?
You can have all the money in the world,
but if you're not happy,
well, it's no good to you.
Times are clearly changing for a man
who's dedicated his life to mining.
Perhaps being a FIFO
will soon be a thing of the past.
While Bucky's thinking about
cutting down the FIFO life,
if Matt has his way,
he could be travelling more often.
He wants to expand the business,
but wife Jodene wants him at home.
So now it's crunch time.
He has one chance to win her over
by bringing her up to the Pilbara
to see the business for herself.
It's hot.
Well, we're on our way to BC Iron,
my first time ever in the Pilbara
to look at where Matt's been working
for the last couple of years.
So I've got my steel-toe shoes ready
and I've got my high-vis shin,
so it's all on.
Wow.
So we've got 185 kays to Nullagine.
Wow.
I know nothing of this area.
I know nothing about Matt's other life
that he's been living, really,
for the last eight years,
so this will be a true insight
into what he does.
And I think it'll be better,
so when we talk on the phone,
I can actually understand what he's
saying and what he's talking about
because at the moment I think my
imagination can run a little bit wild.
I imagine that there's wild parties,
wet mess open until all hours
and relaxing with videos,
while I'm at home
nursing our little baby,
so, yeah, it'll be interesting to see
what it actually is like, I'm sure.
I think she thinks,
yeah, it's just a big party up here.
I do think there's a bit of work.
Just a bit.
Just a little bit of work. No, I can
assure you that it's not a big party.
Quite often, we will have,
I suppose, a bit of a competition
of who's got it hardest at home
when she's stuck looking after Poppy
and she thinks I'm having a great time
away from Poppy,
and I just hope that she does
get to see that it isn't just a picnic.
On arrival at Nullagine Mine,
they can rest their heads
and check into their dongas
before the day of reckoning tomorrow.
- There you are.
- Very comfortable.
- Oh, yeah.
Make yourself at home.
TV? What do you want to watch?
When families find out
what the conditions are really like,
they actually feel sorry for them
because they think they're going to
Club Med, and they're not.
They're going to Club Horrible, often.
Not because the mining companies
haven't done the right thing
in what they provide,
it's just that it's stark and remote
and it's quite isolating.
What did you think about the dongas?
- Yeah, it was comfortable.
- A little home away from home.
They're nicer than I imagined.
Yeah, those ones are nice.
Yeah, Kerry does a good job.
No tea and coffee facilities, though.
No, it's not a hotel.
It's a donga.
And so the day of discovery is underway,
and Jodene has more than a few
questions to satisfy her curiosity.
Do we have to have our light
on our roof going?
- Yep.
- What's with the green flashing lights?
All trucks have got them.
So is this quite common, four trailers?
Yep.
What's the maximum speed on here?
80.
Are there many double, like,
overtaking lanes, or not up here at all?
Nope.
I know it looks like a public road.
So if I was to drive on here,
I wouldn't be allowed to.
You're not allowed to drive on here, no.
It's good that you're thinking, though.
At least it means you're interested.
Ultimately, this trip is Matt's chance
to win Jodene over
and convince her that an expansion
of the business is a good idea.
Now we're on the haul road, bub,
we're at the business end of it all.
This is getting in to the mining area,
so it's my turn to tell you what to do
instead of the other way around.
Ooh, you like being my boss for a day.
So you can see here
all the samples
that the boys have put on the ground -
the geos.
So they've tipped some out of the bag
and then put the remainder in there?
Yeah, they've used buckets
for tipping a waste sample underneath,
then all this material gets chipped
and logged.
So is this in, like, metres?
0.5, 1 m...
On this job here... Normally
we take a sample every metre,
but on this job we're taking a sample
every half a metre.
So it's nice, isn't it? Up on the hill.
Hot.
- Hot.
- Yeah.
Well, you imagine carting that shit
around.
Let's go see the rig.
Alright, let's go
and have a look at the rig.
I wish that
every FIFO wife got a chance
to actually go and see what was
happening in these mine sites.
What do you think?
I'm sweating just standing here.
Yeah, it's pretty hard work.
To be able to go up there
and see what they do
and to understand what they do is huge.
It is so hot out here.
There's no way I could do this.
I'd only last a matter of probably
half a day as an offsider in this heat,
before I'd be back on that plane.
New appreciation.
I've definitely always known
that Matt's been a hard worker,
but I think being able
to truly appreciate
the conditions that they work in,
they definitely deserve a few beers
at the end of the day
and I won't be knocking him for that.
I'm glad I'm a mum, I really am.
Dump truck 17 on the green.
Brad's now back at work
and into the same old routine.
It's days like these
when FIFO life is at its toughest
While he's clocking off and all alone,
thousands of kilometres away,
his family are all together
celebrating a very special day.
It's my son's first birthday so I'm just
going to do a video call to home.
So I'll be able to see him on his
birthday, I suppose you could say,
and bit of a cake and whatnot,
have the family there.
It's just immediate family.
- Hey, buddy.
- Hello!
- How are we?
- Hi!
- You having your birthday cake?
- And how are you?
- Good.
- Everyone's here.
PEOPLE; Hi, Brad!
Hi, guys.
G'day, buddy. What's happening?
JASPER; Yeah.
- Whose birthday is it?
- It is Milo.
It is, isn't it?
It's his first birthday.
Hey?
The people
who make a good decision,
who go through a very good induction
into the process of FIFO,
both themselves and their family,
actually live a pretty good life, but
they do have costs associated with it.
Alright, do you want to put Mum
back on, buddy?
And the costs include things
like missing important birthdays
and school events
and sometimes Christmas,
of separation and reunion.
There are all of these things,
which place stress on the family,
but they are making conscious decisions
and are generally living it quite well.
Are you going to have some cake?
Are you going to have some cake?
SARAH; What did Milo get?
What did Milo get?
What did he get for his birthday?
Um... tractor.
A tractor? Wow.
You see everyone there
enjoying themselves
and celebrating
my son's first birthday,
that's all immediate family, so it's
a lot of things you miss out on.
Son of makes it... you son of think,
'Oh, man, wish I was home right now,
wish I was there.'
But that's sort of something
you've got to try and get through.
Thanks for that.
No worries.
I'll talk to you in the morning.
Yeah, alright. Love you.
- Love you, too.
- See ya.
See ya, buddy.
Bye, bye, bye, Dad.
Bye-bye.
- Bye.
- Bye-bye.
Yeah, I suppose
everyone has moments.
I have moments
where you might be at work
and there might be a bit of downtime
or you've just got
a bit of time up your sleeve
where you think,
'Oh, why am I out here doing it? Why?
What's the reason?'
And you think, 'Oh, this is not a really
good lifestyle for a family person.'
But for me, personally,
I just look at the big picture.
Like any family or any parent,
they want the best for their children
so it's just a sacrifice
that I'm making at the moment
while my children are young
to give them a head start
for when they get older.
Next week, we look at
the highs and lows of the industry...
Fly-in fly-out,
it does nothing for the community.
...and the uncertainty
of the mining game...
You take what you can get.
...with millions of dollars
and thousands of jobs at stake.
We just need more people in town.
For some, mining has filled
their pockets with riches.
By far, the biggest boom
that we've ever had.
For others,
they're only filled with regret.
It'd be close to $700,000 that we lost.
Chris has huge decisions to make...
There wasn't anything else
we could do to turn it around.
...that threatens the livelihood
of Brad and his fellow FIFOs.
You've just got to readjust.
It'd be tough, be tough for anyone.
Is the mining boom now over?
The extraordinary levels of growth
we have just can't continue forever.
Is bust around the corner?
These are non-renewable resources.
They're going to be gone sooner
than what a lot of people think.
It's a fickle life.
It's a FIFO life.
- Yeah, just time to come home, I think.
- Daddy!
Captions by CSI Australia
currently hold a unique place
in Australia's mining industry
I love doing this.
The bigger, the better.
They commute
tens of thousands of kilometres a year,
and they're called 'FIFOs' -
fly-in fly-out miners.
- It's all about the money.
- Couldn't be happier.
This series examines a world
few people get to see,
with unprecedented access
to mines all over Australia.
Welcome to my office!
I guess you don't come out here
for the nightlife.
Over the next three weeks, we lift the
lid on a multi-billion-dollar industry
that's changed the face of our nation.
I hope that in 50 years' time
we look back and think,
'Well, that was a great way
to start the 21 st century.'
We discover the challenges
behind digging up
some of the richest deposits
of dirt in the world...
The extraordinary levels of growth
we have just can't continue forever.
...where the stakes are high.
You look at the risk
and you say, 'Is it worth it?
Is the risk versus reward worth it?'
We'll hear from the decision-makers
under pressure in the boardroom...
You never feel comfortable
in the mining industry.
You never rest on your laurels.
...and the miners in the pit.
We're trying to make strawberry jam
out of pig shit.
There's loneliness...
You're either working
or you're sleeping.
Hey, buddy.
- Hello!
- How are we?
Hi!
Not being there at the moment,
yeah, it sucks, to tell you the truth.
...as marriages are tested to the limit
But I've seen others,
that they just can't handle it,
and in no time at all
the relationship's gone bad.
We son of grew apart, you know.
She son of got used to
me not being there.
FIFOs are not always welcome.
Locals don't like FIFOs.
They think they're riffraff
and their social skills
leave a lot to be desired.
I think the work practice of FIFO
will become the cancer of the bush.
Daddy!
First night home is always a good one.
We're glad that you're home.
It's a tough life.
It's a Flying Miner's life.
When we think of the mining industry,
we think of Australia's richest
But what about the men and women
at the coalface?
We've got the world's largest identified
amounts of iron ore, gold, zinc,
lead, nickel and uranium, but it
would go nowhere without the FIFOs.
I think FIFOs should be
regarded as heroes.
It's a tough way to earn a living.
Nah, it's all good. Spot on.
You're effectively living
these two separate lives.
Its impact has been quite significant.
But both positive and negative.
I would argue that FIFO is here to stay.
First up, is iron ore miner
Shana Mooyman.
People still,
when they ask me what I do,
don't believe it
and literally laugh at me.
I guess it is a bit of a spin around.
I mean, you know, most of my friends
at home do have office jobs.
She used to show off her curves
modelling bikinis,
but with more money in mining, these
days it's all hard hats and high-vis.
Yes, I pretty much think about
money all the time.
I mean, it's pretty much why I'm there.
It's all about the money.
Eww, I so should have taken my
nail polish off. Old manicure.
Just try to imagine driving straight
for 12 hours a day.
I mean, that, you know,
it gets pretty draining
and, you know, your mind
will tend to wander.
You've always got to be alert,
looking out for everything.
You've got to really
keep your mind on the job
because at the end of the day, this
machine is what's making my money.
Going through high school,
I actually started beauty therapy
until one of my girlfriends,
well, she worked on a mine already
and pretty much
just got me the job through her.
And at the time, I said,
'Oh, I could do that for a year,
see how I go, get some money,
come back, work locally.'
And five years later
and I'm still in the mining lifestyle.
And on a wage of over $100,000 a year,
it's a lifestyle that's earned her two
investment properties at the age of 24.
Being in mining,
it does have its huge rewards.
Financially, you can do so much stuff.
Setting yourself up for the future.
I think FIFO workers earn every dollar.
I think FIFO workers
have very long hours.
It's sometimes very arduous,
sometimes tough conditions.
They're away from home, they're
away from everything that's familiar.
I think it's grossly exaggerated
that they are paid far too much.
If you ask people what a FIFO worker is,
they'll probably tell you it's
a young male, early 20s, rat's tail,
drives a ute and they hoon around.
They exist, but the average would be,
if you want to have an average,
would be a male about 40,
married with children.
And that pretty much sums up Matt Skeet.
While his family is 1,300 kays away
in Kalgoorlie,
he's working at
the same iron ore mine as Shana,
running his own drill rig business.
Our job here at BC Iron
is to provide BC Iron with information
on what grade
and what quantity of iron ore they have.
By drilling at different depths,
Matt's soil samples
give BC Iron an underground map
to help them work out
where to mine next.
- How are you doing?
- How are you going?
Yeah, good.
Punched that hole out already?
- Nah.
- Nah.
- No, we only just got out here.
- Oh, righto.
See this is drilling down here
at the moment.
So we're getting a sample
every half a metre,
so all this pretty much is
the nuts and bolts of what we do.
It's the same every job,
same every hole, same every day.
What you can see here
is the fruits of our labour pretty much.
This is what we are paid for and
this is what we deliver to the client.
Just recently I have been
looking at a second machine
and to expand the business
a little bit more.
Jo is very apprehensive
about that obviously
because of the increased workload
she sees that I will have to put in.
I am son of
of a different way of thinking
in that if I've got two machines
out in the field,
I would need to spend more time
back in an administrative role
and support role back in town.
So I'm thinking it's going to
lead to less time away.
But she thinks it's going to
be more time away.
Really puts a strain
on our relationship.
We never know when he's
coming home, so it's all over the shop.
It could be for a night,
it could be for a week.
We were home for ten days with Poppy
and he had to take off
and from that moment onwards
till Poppy was five months,
he was only home
for quite possibly only about 20 nights,
so being a new mum
it was definitely daunting,
and not having any other family
in the town.
Yeah. It's not everyone's cup of tea.
Unless you know other people
who live this lifestyle,
it is really isolating
because people just don't understand
the complexities and challenges,
and it's very much similar
to being, you know, a single parent.
Having to be mum and dad
and run the household
and cooking and cleaning and washing,
it all comes back on to you,
so that's the biggest challenge,
is just that daily grind
and not getting a break from that.
Hey, Pops.
You had enough of your mango.
And recently, the distance of FIFO life
has never been more painful.
Just going for a walk, as us mothers do,
and Poppy fell asleep in the car,
so I drove through
the drive-through coffee shop
to make it last longer, her sleep,
and I heard her making funny noises.
And I thought, 'Oh, she must be awake,'
so I drove home
and she was having what I believe to be
a seizure in the back seat of the car.
I was at work when
I found a text message to say from Jo
that Poppy's had a seizure.
Her arms were stiff.
Her gaze was gone
and she was non-responsive.
And when I pulled her
out of the car seat,
it looked like I'd snapped her neck off.
Terrible feeling being away
and getting news via a text message
and then not having any contact
or confirmation of what's happening.
I tried to ring Matt.
I couldn't get through to him.
He wasn't answering his phone.
And she's gone to the hospital
and freaking out,
so I'm trying to get hold of Jo
and couldn't get hold of Jo.
And it was quite clearly the
most awful thing I've ever experienced.
This was going on for a few hours
and several cigarettes
while I'm freaking out, just feeling
so helpless and couldn't do anything.
Couldn't do anything.
I guess having a husband
who wasn't in the FIFO industry,
it would be a lot easier because he
could've just come home and helped out.
Jodene wants Matt home more,
so increased workloads and greater debt
are not what she wants to hear.
As Matt makes the long journey home,
it's clear these issues
need addressing, and fast
Over in Perth,
another FIFO is also on the move.
Goldminer Bradley Hamence
is the king of the commute.
- Are you checking in a bag today?
- Yeah, this one here, yep.
Just place it on the belt for me.
For every two-week shift, his journey
involves travelling over 4,000 kays
on three separate planes,
across three different States.
It all adds up
to a staggering 24-hour commute.
I lose a day going over
and a day and a half coming back.
You always sleep on the plane,
but it's not quality sleep.
Nothing beats sleeping in your own bed.
Once off the plane,
Brad's straight into work,
so, not surprisingly,
he's exhausted before he even starts.
Oh, you have your moments, like any job,
where you think, 'Oh, jeez,
what am I out here doing this for?'
but you got to look at the big picture.
You're out here for a reason.
Some people are out here
because they love doing the job.
Other people have got a plan
to work to.
- Oh, good work, Jasper.
- I've put my wife through uni.
She's raising our children.
You know, I might do two years,
you know,
just to really get set up
and then be home after that
One thing he's learned is that
you need plenty of tucker in your belly
to get you through a 12-hour shift.
If you don't get it now,
you're hungry for the whole 11.5 hours
because you go straight to work.
So you've got to try and think
of what you're gonna want
in about eight hours' time.
Sometimes you just want something
a little bit different, so...
Might just have a vegemite sandwich,
peanut butter sandwich,
or something, just to break it up.
With the hours,
probably a little bit different
than a normal job back at home,
but with this job you don't have to
worry about any of the household chores
that you have to do when you get home
or cooking and cleaning,
which take up, you know,
another two hours a night,
or 2.5 hours a night.
Some days can feel extremely long,
especially when you're digging in
to a couple of pits over here,
because they're pretty hard digging.
It could be a good day.
It could be a bad day.
Everybody has 'em.
Hopefully today is not my bad day.
This stuff here is ore,
so it's got some gold in it.
We're not too sure how much.
So we're just digging out
this section of gold.
Gold goes into the back of the trucks,
as you can see,
and that goes up to the ROM,
and then we get our gold bars,
which keep us all in a job.
And the job of making those gold bars
all goes on inside
these tanks and conveyors.
Once Brad and his fellow FIFOs
have dug up the ore,
it's all crushed down
and mixed with cyanide.
It's absorbed onto carbon,
passed through an acid bath
and then the gold is electroplated
onto steel wool,
before being cooked in an oven.
Even though it looks like
you could scour your pans with it,
there's definitely gold in that wool.
Yeah, we've just pulled
the wool out of the oven.
Mixed that up on a bench and then
we've put that into the cement mixer.
Ground it up nice and fine.
Mixed that thoroughly
and then put it back on the bench.
And then we bucket that up
and load it into the furnace,
and it'll sit in the furnace
for probably three hours.
It's the job
of the process superintendent
to ensure none of the gold goes astray.
The biggest thing in this is trust,
I suppose.
Also, with security, we tend to...
whenever we're doing anything
like what you see now, there's always
at least two people in here.
With the furnace that we use,
it's a fairly manual operation.
After we think that it's probably
ready to be poured,
we'll physically stir it
and just get a feel for it.
Just experience will tell us that it's
ready to pour or not ready to pour.
By the time we pour it, the consistency
would be of a runny honey.
With security extremely tight,
usually these are sights
the public never get to see.
And don't worry, it's not gold
spilling over into the tray.
That's just silica,
which isn't worth much.
The valuable stuff
is in the bottom of that mould.
It's taken 10,000 metric tonnes of dirt
to make this one gold bar.
That's enough earth to fill
three Olympic-sized swimming pools.
Let it settle for a little bit,
cool it down, clean it up...
...stamp it with a Silver Lake number,
weigh it.
It's about 370 ounces there
and about $520,000 worth.
But that's just a drop in the ocean.
Since we first caught gold fever
over 150 years ago,
it's grown into a $16 billion business,
with Australia now the second largest
producer of gold in the world,
behind China.
But while all the magic
goes on inside the gold rooms,
out in the pit,
it's the same old routine for Brad,
digging away for up to 12 hours a day.
Yeah, I will do
when I've finished on the dump, mate.
It's a pretty repetitive job,
so you've just got to
sort of put up with it.
We've had days where you're just like,
'Nah, I've had a gutsful of this.'
You get that with every job, I suppose,
and you've just got to deal with it.
The misconceptions of FIFO work
is that everyone has a really nice car,
holidays, drinking, you know,
swimming in bucketloads of money.
It's just not like that.
You get paid relatively well,
but you're also doing the hours.
You're putting in the hard yards.
It's a job.
It's hard for Brad because he misses out
on time with his friends and his family,
but, for me,
I just miss out on seeing him.
Oh, I think about the kids all the time.
You think about, 'I missed out on this,
I missed out on that'
I'm never going to make that time up.
You've got to make some sacrifices
in your life.
From gold in WA,
it's over to copper in Queensland.
And here at the Osborne Mine,
copper miner Rodney Buck, aka 'Bucky',
is just starting his day.
Since the recent light rains,
there has been an increase
of wildlife on the road verges.
Could drivers take care.
Bucky, down the workshop, mate,
helping out with a jumbo there.
That will be an all-dayer.
Alright, guys, have a safe one.
Thank you.
Bucky's job is old-school mining...
...working deep underground
in what is one of the most elite
and dangerous mining jobs
in the country
When you go underground,
you put your tag on.
Basically it's for
your own personal safety.
If there's any tags left on
at end of shift,
well, they know someone
is still down the hole.
Could be in the blast zone, you know,
and they don't even know,
so that's why it's very important
you've got a tag on.
Bucky's day starts with a 6km drive,
650m underground...
...where he won't see daylight
for another 12 hours.
Most people
think of underground mining
as in cave-ins, rock falls,
things like that.
And it does happen.
But you've got controls in place
to make it as safe as possible,
and the industry is good,
but there is still things that go wrong.
The head of Fortescue Metals Group,
Andrew Forrest,
has paid an emotional tribute
to a contractor who was crushed to death
at the company's Christmas Creek Mine.
When you hear on the news of accidents
that have happened in mines and...
Well, first of all,
you hear where the location is.
And then, you know, you kind of...
It sounds horrible, but you get
that whole... you get a sense of relief
when you know it's not where Brad is.
But then I think about...
It's someone else's family
out there, though.
That is exactly right, that it is.
There's somebody that's the same as me
and then that's... that's their Brad.
Mining is a bit more dangerous
underground than it is above ground,
and for that reason,
if you're in an underground team,
you've got to be a team member.
You can't turn up drunk on the job
or you can't be foolish or incapable,
otherwise you'll be
out of that team very quickly
and you will be out of
the mining company as well.
I enjoy it underground,
like, no flies, no sun.
It's good, so... But it does get hot.
Especially summer coming on now.
The humidity and everything.
Bucky operates the jumbo,
which drills holes for the blast crew
and provides structural support
for the tunnels.
Your boom function, these four levers
operates your boom itself.
Your up, down, left, right.
And then these three levers,
the actual... the drilling side,
which is your rotation and feed,
which pushes it in,
and your percussion, which actually...
that's what breaks the rocks.
No, at the moment, I'm just drilling
me lifters, they're the bottom holes.
At the end of it, when they fire last,
they lift the dirt.
And so I'll drill them
and I'll put some tube in,
poly pipe,
so you can charge them later on.
Because when other din
falls off the face, they get buried.
And then I'll just carry on
drilling the rest of this base.
And the charge crew,
they'll come in and charge it up
and we will fire at the end of shift.
So... like, it's pretty much the cycle
just goes round and round.
Once the drilling's done,
it's time for the blast crew to step in.
No, we just want to break it
and, yeah, just a couple of cracks in it
and then the digger will break it up.
In mines all over the country, there
are teams above and below ground
breaking down rock and blowing up ore
so that the diggers can come in
and start hauling it around.
The whole area is cordoned off
and no-one is allowed here
in the blasting zone.
So we go and hook up the shot
and put a remote control in place,
go to a safe area and blast a shot.
That's it.
- Switched on. That thing is live now.
That's the siren run,
so if someone is in the area,
get warned that there is a blasting on.
We've got eight tonne of explosives
going off today,
which is a bit of explosives.
Yeah, shot fire in position
and ready to fire today's shot.
Firing in ten.
When a hole goes off,
it's the bottom that goes first.
So it kicks out.
It's like a wave motion.
A lot of work in it and it's just gone
in a couple of seconds.
This is all in a day's work
for the boys who are having a blast.
- Whoo!
Once the blast crews have had their fun,
it's over to FIFOs like Shana
to cart the iron ore across the mine.
Ooh, it's dark.
It's 40 degrees outside, and she's
not seen anyone else all shift.
So today I'm in a 777 dump truck,
and we are caning iron ore from an area
that's been cut and pushed up.
And then it gets loaded into myself,
and then we go to the ROM,
where it goes through a crusher
and gets ready to be shipped away.
So he's now presenting
his bucket to us,
and we automatically need to know
where we're going to line up.
Once loaded, Shana carries
about 90 tonnes of dirt and iron ore.
With a top speed of 58 kays an hour,
it takes her ten minutes
to get to the drop-off point.
So this is the tip head,
the dump location.
And then the dozer
on top of the tip head,
he pushes all the material
over the edge,
and it goes into the crushing unit
on the other side.
Yeah, Shana.
Oh, thanks for that, Bradley.
A bit of positive reinforcement,
you know?
Just to know that
you're still doing the job alright.
And it's a job she'll repeat over 50
times during her 12 hours at the wheel.
Out here in the Pilbara, Shane's
working life is in a world of its own.
Miles from anywhere, it's an
isolating place for a 24-year-old woman
whose girlfriends all lead
active social lives back home in Perth.
With no phones allowed on shift
and limited reception,
it's clear she's missing out.
But it's a sacrifice
Shana is prepared to make.
This is my donga.
So I've got a nice little bar fridge.
People generally stock it with beer.
Mine has tuna and fruit.
We've got a bedroom telephone.
TV with a DVD player.
King single bed.
Not that great.
They provide you
with towels and fresh linen.
They clean your bedroom twice a week.
So you get a full clean
and a half clean.
So my donga's on the end,
which is good because that means
I've only got one neighbour.
So the walls are pretty thin and if he's
up and about doing whatever he's doing,
then I can generally hear it
so you've just got to really respect
who you are, you know, next to
and make sure you are quiet
if you stay up late
because someone like me,
I'm in bed by eight o'clock,
like, so I'm pretty much a nanna.
I haven't seen a lot of my girlfriends
for, like, four or five weeks now,
so, you know,
you want to stay in touch.
You don't want to drift apart
from anyone.
It's just one of the negatives
that you've got to deal with, I guess.
Like, if you want to live
the FIFO lifestyle,
then that's the price you pay.
I think there is
a lot of misunderstanding
about the benefits that FIFO workers get
from their huge salaries.
There's a huge cost that goes into that
and I think that if you haven't gone
through the process
of really clear thinking about the
ramifications on yourself, your family,
your social network,
you will last, like a lot of people do,
one or two swings
and realise it's not for you.
Self-made FIFO Matt Skeet
runs his own drill rig business
out in the iron ore mines
of the Pilbara.
But after a 14-hour
drive home to Kalgoorlie,
there's no rest for the wicked.
There's always a few jobs to do
once I get back
having been away for awhile,
but, you know, it's good, pretty
relaxing just to be beside the pool.
A pool job
is better than a drill rig job.
So, pretty happy to be back home.
When I do get home, the tension
from work is still left over.
It takes a few days
to get back into the routine
of just being home in the first place.
But then because I've always
got to have a fairly good feel
of what is happening on site
that, yeah, it's always there,
the tension is always there, so
it's hard for me to relax completely.
Our plan for the future
is constantly changing
because the industry is changing.
Drilling is a very volatile industry.
We find that when things are busy we're
really, really busy, making good money
and things are going really well,
but there's been extended periods
where we've had no work,
so, yeah, that can cause a little bit
of tension between myself and Jo.
Hello, mate. Just spoke to Marg and
she wants to put a few provisions in...
Matt's in discussions now
about having
a second piece of machinery and rig.
I am not for it.
Because at the moment
I don't feel comfortable,
I don't feel like the financial market
is in the right place.
The pool, have you sorted out
how to warm that up?
There are huge outlays
and we have huge monthly costs,
and when times are tough,
it's hard to balance the books.
It's something that between us
I think we both know
that we aren't really openly
talking about at the moment
because it does cause a bit of tension,
so I guess it's something that
we need to perhaps discuss a bit more,
but it's a bit of a hard one because
it just causes fights in the long run.
- Mm, it's good.
- Mm.
So if the opportunity arises,
what's your thoughts on expanding?
You working away is already hard
on the family unit
without alone
you having a second machine
that you're gonna put
your heart and your soul into
'cause you don't do anything by halves.
Especially at the moment,
the profit margin isn't as huge
as it once was back in 2007.
I can understand your reservations.
I know that you don't want
the financial pressure.
If the right scenario comes across,
would you consider it,
with my assurance
that I'm not gonna be away
as much as I have been in the past?
Yes, I'd consider anything,
but I definitely would be
advising us against it.
Yeah, Jo has got
a love-hate relationship with what I do
'cause she knows it's a necessity
and that it's a good source of income
for us,
but, yeah,
she just is a bit upset at times
that I'm never here
to experience things with her.
If you got a second rig,
it would mean that you would have to
show it as much love
as you show this first rig.
- Mm.
- So how much love is left over for us?
All of the love.
It's just different love.
We're neglected.
- Are you?
- Mm.
Oh. I am sorry that you feel that way.
You have to understand
that things will fall to pieces
if I just stay home all the time.
It's a hard scenario,
'cause if you go away all the time,
then things fall apart here.
And for how long
will you continue to work away for?
Depends on what happens
in the market.
We might have a record three
or four years, that's all we need to do,
but if we don't, we're not
going to be in a financial position
to stop doing what we're doing.
A black-and-white time frame
as far as my involvement
in this goes is too hard, bub.
I think, really,
realistically, as we stand now,
we have got another ten years
in the industry.
I don't really tell Jo that
too often, but...
If it continues how it is right now,
how many years?
- That I am working fly-in fly-out?
- Yep.
Five.
But my involvement with drilling
will be a lot longer.
So probably away more often
but for shorter time frame.
To have the earning capacity
that we have,
you have to have
some hardships involved in it.
But I'd just like you to be
a little bit more open to these ideas.
I'd be willing to discuss it, yes.
With Matt and Jodene in deadlock,
it's going to take drastic measures
for them to agree.
But Matt's got a plan.
There's a cap on the other side
that's missing on the outside,
on the left-hand beam.
650m underground,
copper miner Bucky is top dog
and earns the big bucks -
a whopping 200,000 of them a year.
Did they give you a couple of lights?
It's been good to me
over the years.
I've made a lot of friends and that
through the industry
It does pay well,
but you do work for it.
Yeah, just tell Matty to clean up
the other side when he gets a chance.
Down here,
Bucky sees his work
as not so much a job but a way of life.
As a kid growing up,
I suppose friends of me older brothers
and that and me parents,
they used to
talk about underground mining.
And, to me, as a kid growing up,
like, it son of all sounded
really exciting.
And then the opportunity come for me
to actually go underground.
I was only 17 at the time and you're
supposed to be 18, but I put me age up.
That was me probably start
in underground mining.
That was 1988 and followed on from there
and I've never son of
really looked back, so...
For flying miners,
it's all about the roster.
Bucky works two weeks on and two off,
unlike his fellow FIFOs,
who work eight days on and six off.
But it looks like all of that
is about to change.
So lots of rumours going
you fellas are all going to two and two.
- Yeah.
- Or is that just...?
It's not a rumour.
We got our rosters and everything.
It looks like there's going to be
a roster change for the fitters.
Some blokes wont be happy and they
will probably look elsewhere for work.
So if that's the case, so be it.
You know,
you've got to look after yourself.
14 days away, you know,
like, it's a long time, eh?
- Yeah.
- 14 days off is good.
It is. That's why I like the roster.
- I think I'll struggle.
- Yeah?
It's like going on a holiday and then
trying to come back, you know?
With the right roster
and the education around the lifestyle
and having goals
on how long you want to stay in FIFO,
then you've got a really good chance
of making it work.
We've had reports of male FIFO workers
getting into FIFO
because they get more time
with their family.
So if you can get an eight-day-on,
six-day-off roster, fantastic!
Great for the family,
you're not apart too long,
you get a good block at home.
Very, very achievable. Very easy to do.
With seven days off for goldminer Brad,
you'd think that would mean
plenty of time with his family.
But with such a big commute,
he only has five precious days at home.
Landed in Mildura now.
Just happy to be home.
Forget about it for a week.
And then start up again.
Brad intends to make this time count,
starting by picking up the boys
he misses so much.
- Look!
- Hey!
Dad, look!
What have you got? What is it?
- A necklace.
- A necklace.
- Yeah.
- Hey? Is that pasta?
- Hey?
- Hello, Milo.
To be back after doing two weeks
of work, come home and pick the kids up
and just to see how happy they are,
it makes you realise why you do it.
Whoa! Milo's turn now?
You miss out on a bit but you
make up for it when you get home.
- Hello!
- Oh, Mum!
- Mum!
- Hello, Mum!
- Hey, darl.
- How you going?
I'm good.
Now that Jasper's a bit older, he knows
that today's the day that Dad gets home,
so it's a little bit more,
yeah, it's more exciting for him
because it's like, you know,
'Dad's coming home today.'
And Jasper thinks that where does
Brad work, like, where does Dad work,
he thinks it's a plane.
He thinks Dad works on a plane,
so we have explained to him it's
the mine, but he thinks it's a plane,
so every time a plane goes over,
he thinks it's Dad's plane.
That is Daddy's aeroplane! Isn't it?
It's definitely better
when Dad's home.
We do more fun things, don't we?
It's a mental
and a physical shift
to go from a FIFO workplace
back to home.
It's a split life.
When I get home, like, yeah, I try
and do as much as I can with the kids
and give the wife a break, so
I probably get a better sleep at work,
but that's pan of being a family
and a dad, I suppose.
Look - a big ducky! Look!
Yeah, a big pelican.
Yeah, just spend as much time
as I can with them for the five days
and it's just doing
everyday routine stuff,
and just that
I don't do it for two weeks -
I just do it for a week solid.
Brad's enjoying
his downtime at home,
but with Milo's first birthday
rapidly approaching,
the reality sinks in that he wont be
home in time to share that special day.
Haven't been home for any of the
kids' birthdays or anything like that.
So I've missed out on their walking,
talking, all them first little things.
Pulling that weird face,
whatever it may be.
I've missed out on all that.
3,000 kays away
in the boardrooms of Perth,
Brad's bosses are making
multimillion-dollar decisions
that could affect his future.
Let's go and have a look at these plans.
So they drilled either side of...
Chris Banasik is the founding member
and director
of goldmining company
Silver Lake Resources,
and has probably got
the toughest job here,
as he's in charge
of finding the precious stuff.
Silver Lake Resources
is a small- to middle-sized company.
In 2007, a group of us,
the founding directors
who had known each other
from previous companies,
just decided to give it a shot.
That's what it's like.
You know, if you don't give it a go,
then you'll never know.
I think the perception
of the mining industry
is that it's full
of fabulously wealthy moguls
that are only interested
in their own bottom line.
But in reality there is something like
600 resources stocks on the ASX
that never makes it to the papers.
And one of those companies
under the radar is BC Iron,
but they're punching
above their weight.
Since they set up shop in 2006,
they've gone from virtually nothing
to producing over six million tonnes of
iron ore each year, worth $400 million.
Mike Young, our previous MD,
often tells the story
about how when he started up BC Iron
he was renting an office off a mate
for a carton of beer a week,
and that's the beauty of mining.
I suspect it's probably not
what we're looking at doing,
but you're not talking about
a big chunk of money there, either.
There's always been
a lot of iron ore up in the Pilbara.
Iron ore that previously people
mightn't have thought was economic
became economic,
and we were fortunate to be involved
in riding that Chinese boom.
You never feel comfortable
in the mining industry.
You never rest on your laurels.
We're always looking to do things
better and smarter and cheaper.
Exploration is a vital pan.
The thought of putting drill holes
down in a new area
where there haven't
been drill holes before
and waiting for those results,
that's a pretty interesting feeling.
The success rate can be challenging,
but we are always out there thinking
and trying to find the next big mine.
As I said to you before,
I am astounded
by the amount of prospector interest
we're getting around here.
So there is definitely
something there.
Exploration is full of risk.
It is possible that we could spend
a million dollars testing a theory
and it being an absolute failure.
If you're a giant like BHP or Rio,
you can afford
to make a fairly large mistake
because the rest of your stuff
is going OK.
When you're a small company,
you've just got to get it right
because the world would be
very unforgiving if you get it wrong.
Clearly, he's taken
a ton of readings through here.
That's a pretty interesting gold spot
and clearly the core of the dome
up there.
Mm. I think it's really important
that we try and get up there
with some of the guys.
Remap some of these areas and be sure
that we've got a handle on the rocks.
Mining has
a lot of art involved in it.
It's not just a technical pursuit.
You've got to have a feel for it.
You can't dial it in
and expect to be remote from it.
You've got to get out there.
But for Chris
it's a voyage into the unknown
as there are forces beyond his control
that could have huge implications
on the future of Silver Lake
and for his workers, like Brad.
Out in the Pilbara, night is setting in,
and for iron ore miner Shana Mooyman
there's an extra spring in her step.
Last night shift, so everyone's,
you know, getting closer to break
and seeing their loved ones.
Fly out day tomorrow.
Everyone will be on a high.
There shouldn't be
too much fatigue issues
because we're all excitement
and buzzing with joy,
so it's always a good sign.
I know I'm excited to get home.
So tonight for my last night shift,
I'll be in the water can,
which is great.
It's a bit of a cruisy gig.
At least you can get out
and stretch your legs every load.
You're not just sitting
in a machine for 12 hours.
Water can leaving crusher.
The water can is trying to suppress
the dust around the site.
To make sure that all the truck drivers,
loader operators, grader operators,
any other machine can see what they're
doing without making too much dust,
so everyone has got clear visibility
because if the dust gets too bad,
then all the fleets shut down
until you can get control of it.
Over the course of a 12-hour shift,
it gives Shana plenty of time to think.
We're just like little soldiers
and, you know, we are in
a completely different world up here.
We've got to follow set rules -
don't do this, don't do that.
You know, like you're not allowed
to eat after these certain hours.
And then we get set free for a week.
I guess I don't want to be
in mining forever.
You know, to say that I would want to
be doing mining in 20 years' time,
I mean, you know,
it is a difficult lifestyle
and, you know, they say shift workers
age a lot quickly as well.
It takes a toll, you know,
not only on your personal
life but on yourself, your body,
and I still want
to have a bit of a life.
I mean, I'm giving up a lot now,
so I wouldn't want to give up
my entire life to mining.
I wouldn't want to be working away
and having kids, like...
You know, there's so many people
that do it and that have family at home,
and I don't know how they do it
because I think that would be so hard.
You know, you only see them
every couple of weeks.
That would suck.
So, ideally, for me,
that's not how I would want to do it.
I would like to stay in mining for a few
more years, save as much coin as I can,
and, you know, get a few more
investments and go from there.
Now, the last we saw of copper miner
Bucky, he was strutting his stuff,
working hundreds of metres underground.
Well, now he's scrubbed up and enjoying
his downtime, in Charters Towers -
a home he shares with new wife Melita.
They were married last year
after dating for three,
but apparently it wasn't exactly
a whirlwind romance.
It took him over a year to ask me out.
You can't rush these things.
No, no, you can't rush these things.
We were introduced at a rodeo,
weren't we, Rodney?
And then a year and a half later
he texts me.
All style.
- Yeah, all style.
- I don't move too fast, so...
No.
Yeah, he had no skills in
picking up women, that's for sure.
Yeah, a bit shy
when it comes to the girls.
Yeah.
Pretty much all me life
I've always been single.
I've had girlfriends and things
like that, but nothing ever serious.
You know what I mean?
All good things come to those who wait.
Been married probably
nearly 18 months now.
So far, so good, yeah.
Everything is going well.
Like, we're pretty good mates, really,
so that's one of the main things
about our relationship.
I think it's how
we've son of made it work,
because we are really good friends.
We get on pretty well, don't we, Rodney?
- Yeah.
- When he does what he's told.
Terrible at making conversation, though.
Sometimes he'll start talking back, but
most days you just get grunts in return.
Well, unless it's mining or fishing,
I don't have much to talk about.
However, there is one other topic that
Bucky is more than happy to talk about,
as Melita knows only too well.
Oh, me rock collection.
Just stuff I've collected,
me father's collected over the years.
Different bits and pieces.
Western Australia, North Queensland.
This is one of the first nuggets I found
when I was working in Western Australia.
It was on a mate's lease.
'Cause I handed it in,
they said, 'Oh, well, you can keep it.'
This is another rock from...
this is from the cattle station
my father used to own
up in North Queensland.
You can see the gold through there.
It's only very fine,
but it's pretty rich.
Native copper.
That's from out, uh... near Mount Isa.
You get gold nuggets
that are just a lump of gold,
and then you get others that have
got a bit of character about them,
shape and that.
Things like that,
people will pay a bit more for 'em.
But thanks to FIFO,
there is one passion they do share.
These are just the plans
we're getting drawn up
at the moment for our new house.
We want to do this house
because we want to have kids.
We're trying to have kids,
so hopefully it'll happen
by the time it's built-
would be good
but, you know, we'll see.
- See how we go.
- Yeah.
Yeah, it's going to be
the next stage, I suppose, of our lives,
like son of out with the old,
in with the new.
- We wanted four bedrooms, so...
- Four bedrooms, so...
I don't think we'll fill
all the bedrooms.
We'll have a guest bedroom.
Hope for three,
and if we get two, we'll be happy.
- Get any, we'll be happy.
- Get one, we'll be happy.
Long as they're healthy, you don't care.
It's a long-term thing that we're
looking at staying in the Towers,
like Charters Towers and that.
So I reckon do it once, do it right.
Get everything done.
Sit back and enjoy it.
In the early years,
I probably thought to myself
if I ever have children
or have a family,
I would try and make the conscious
effort of being a residential job,
so I'm home with my family
and be there for the kids.
I would love it to work
if I could still do fly-in fly-out
because the money is better
and things like that,
but at the same time,
family is more important.
You know what I mean?
You can have all the money in the world,
but if you're not happy,
well, it's no good to you.
Times are clearly changing for a man
who's dedicated his life to mining.
Perhaps being a FIFO
will soon be a thing of the past.
While Bucky's thinking about
cutting down the FIFO life,
if Matt has his way,
he could be travelling more often.
He wants to expand the business,
but wife Jodene wants him at home.
So now it's crunch time.
He has one chance to win her over
by bringing her up to the Pilbara
to see the business for herself.
It's hot.
Well, we're on our way to BC Iron,
my first time ever in the Pilbara
to look at where Matt's been working
for the last couple of years.
So I've got my steel-toe shoes ready
and I've got my high-vis shin,
so it's all on.
Wow.
So we've got 185 kays to Nullagine.
Wow.
I know nothing of this area.
I know nothing about Matt's other life
that he's been living, really,
for the last eight years,
so this will be a true insight
into what he does.
And I think it'll be better,
so when we talk on the phone,
I can actually understand what he's
saying and what he's talking about
because at the moment I think my
imagination can run a little bit wild.
I imagine that there's wild parties,
wet mess open until all hours
and relaxing with videos,
while I'm at home
nursing our little baby,
so, yeah, it'll be interesting to see
what it actually is like, I'm sure.
I think she thinks,
yeah, it's just a big party up here.
I do think there's a bit of work.
Just a bit.
Just a little bit of work. No, I can
assure you that it's not a big party.
Quite often, we will have,
I suppose, a bit of a competition
of who's got it hardest at home
when she's stuck looking after Poppy
and she thinks I'm having a great time
away from Poppy,
and I just hope that she does
get to see that it isn't just a picnic.
On arrival at Nullagine Mine,
they can rest their heads
and check into their dongas
before the day of reckoning tomorrow.
- There you are.
- Very comfortable.
- Oh, yeah.
Make yourself at home.
TV? What do you want to watch?
When families find out
what the conditions are really like,
they actually feel sorry for them
because they think they're going to
Club Med, and they're not.
They're going to Club Horrible, often.
Not because the mining companies
haven't done the right thing
in what they provide,
it's just that it's stark and remote
and it's quite isolating.
What did you think about the dongas?
- Yeah, it was comfortable.
- A little home away from home.
They're nicer than I imagined.
Yeah, those ones are nice.
Yeah, Kerry does a good job.
No tea and coffee facilities, though.
No, it's not a hotel.
It's a donga.
And so the day of discovery is underway,
and Jodene has more than a few
questions to satisfy her curiosity.
Do we have to have our light
on our roof going?
- Yep.
- What's with the green flashing lights?
All trucks have got them.
So is this quite common, four trailers?
Yep.
What's the maximum speed on here?
80.
Are there many double, like,
overtaking lanes, or not up here at all?
Nope.
I know it looks like a public road.
So if I was to drive on here,
I wouldn't be allowed to.
You're not allowed to drive on here, no.
It's good that you're thinking, though.
At least it means you're interested.
Ultimately, this trip is Matt's chance
to win Jodene over
and convince her that an expansion
of the business is a good idea.
Now we're on the haul road, bub,
we're at the business end of it all.
This is getting in to the mining area,
so it's my turn to tell you what to do
instead of the other way around.
Ooh, you like being my boss for a day.
So you can see here
all the samples
that the boys have put on the ground -
the geos.
So they've tipped some out of the bag
and then put the remainder in there?
Yeah, they've used buckets
for tipping a waste sample underneath,
then all this material gets chipped
and logged.
So is this in, like, metres?
0.5, 1 m...
On this job here... Normally
we take a sample every metre,
but on this job we're taking a sample
every half a metre.
So it's nice, isn't it? Up on the hill.
Hot.
- Hot.
- Yeah.
Well, you imagine carting that shit
around.
Let's go see the rig.
Alright, let's go
and have a look at the rig.
I wish that
every FIFO wife got a chance
to actually go and see what was
happening in these mine sites.
What do you think?
I'm sweating just standing here.
Yeah, it's pretty hard work.
To be able to go up there
and see what they do
and to understand what they do is huge.
It is so hot out here.
There's no way I could do this.
I'd only last a matter of probably
half a day as an offsider in this heat,
before I'd be back on that plane.
New appreciation.
I've definitely always known
that Matt's been a hard worker,
but I think being able
to truly appreciate
the conditions that they work in,
they definitely deserve a few beers
at the end of the day
and I won't be knocking him for that.
I'm glad I'm a mum, I really am.
Dump truck 17 on the green.
Brad's now back at work
and into the same old routine.
It's days like these
when FIFO life is at its toughest
While he's clocking off and all alone,
thousands of kilometres away,
his family are all together
celebrating a very special day.
It's my son's first birthday so I'm just
going to do a video call to home.
So I'll be able to see him on his
birthday, I suppose you could say,
and bit of a cake and whatnot,
have the family there.
It's just immediate family.
- Hey, buddy.
- Hello!
- How are we?
- Hi!
- You having your birthday cake?
- And how are you?
- Good.
- Everyone's here.
PEOPLE; Hi, Brad!
Hi, guys.
G'day, buddy. What's happening?
JASPER; Yeah.
- Whose birthday is it?
- It is Milo.
It is, isn't it?
It's his first birthday.
Hey?
The people
who make a good decision,
who go through a very good induction
into the process of FIFO,
both themselves and their family,
actually live a pretty good life, but
they do have costs associated with it.
Alright, do you want to put Mum
back on, buddy?
And the costs include things
like missing important birthdays
and school events
and sometimes Christmas,
of separation and reunion.
There are all of these things,
which place stress on the family,
but they are making conscious decisions
and are generally living it quite well.
Are you going to have some cake?
Are you going to have some cake?
SARAH; What did Milo get?
What did Milo get?
What did he get for his birthday?
Um... tractor.
A tractor? Wow.
You see everyone there
enjoying themselves
and celebrating
my son's first birthday,
that's all immediate family, so it's
a lot of things you miss out on.
Son of makes it... you son of think,
'Oh, man, wish I was home right now,
wish I was there.'
But that's sort of something
you've got to try and get through.
Thanks for that.
No worries.
I'll talk to you in the morning.
Yeah, alright. Love you.
- Love you, too.
- See ya.
See ya, buddy.
Bye, bye, bye, Dad.
Bye-bye.
- Bye.
- Bye-bye.
Yeah, I suppose
everyone has moments.
I have moments
where you might be at work
and there might be a bit of downtime
or you've just got
a bit of time up your sleeve
where you think,
'Oh, why am I out here doing it? Why?
What's the reason?'
And you think, 'Oh, this is not a really
good lifestyle for a family person.'
But for me, personally,
I just look at the big picture.
Like any family or any parent,
they want the best for their children
so it's just a sacrifice
that I'm making at the moment
while my children are young
to give them a head start
for when they get older.
Next week, we look at
the highs and lows of the industry...
Fly-in fly-out,
it does nothing for the community.
...and the uncertainty
of the mining game...
You take what you can get.
...with millions of dollars
and thousands of jobs at stake.
We just need more people in town.
For some, mining has filled
their pockets with riches.
By far, the biggest boom
that we've ever had.
For others,
they're only filled with regret.
It'd be close to $700,000 that we lost.
Chris has huge decisions to make...
There wasn't anything else
we could do to turn it around.
...that threatens the livelihood
of Brad and his fellow FIFOs.
You've just got to readjust.
It'd be tough, be tough for anyone.
Is the mining boom now over?
The extraordinary levels of growth
we have just can't continue forever.
Is bust around the corner?
These are non-renewable resources.
They're going to be gone sooner
than what a lot of people think.
It's a fickle life.
It's a FIFO life.
- Yeah, just time to come home, I think.
- Daddy!
Captions by CSI Australia