Flying Miners (2014–…): Season 1, Episode 3 - Money Trap - 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.
Last week, the tough reality
of mining...
There wasn't anything else we could do
to turn it around.
It's a difficult place to be.
...as hundreds of jobs were lost.
You just got to readjust.
It'll be tough. Tough for anyone.
- Yeah, just time to come home, I think.
- Daddy!
Tonight, we look at the future
of mining in Australia.
Any industry that's going to grow by 30%
over an 18-month period
is actually in a pretty good state.
But the warning signs are there.
Mining is a very cyclical industry.
One of the concerns I have
about Australia as an economy
is we have become more dependent on it.
Dependent as a nation,
dependent as individuals.
People, they get hooked
on the money.
You can't walk away.
You can't walk away.
Going back to a nine-to-five job
would not be feasible for me.
It's great.
I've got the money,
but, er, some nights you sit there
and you think, you know,
'What the fuck am I doing here?'
Is there trouble ahead
for the flying miners?
So the golden handcuffs are on tight.
One man who's really
bought into the FIFO life,
with a six-figure salary,
is iron-ore miner Mark Lynch.
I was on great money at one stage,
but I was also the highest child support
payer in central Queensland.
Hasn't always been easy.
I bought my first house when I was 19.
Second place when I was 26.
When I was 27, I had a couple of
cardboard boxes and four plastic chairs.
I'll show you something.
Here's me plastic chairs.
I take 'em everywhere with me.
That's all I had left
after my first marriage.
And then to this.
I left school at 15 and I got a job
in an alumina refinery in Gladstone.
And the plan was stay there
for about 12 months
and 23 years later I moved on.
Son of went from mine to mine there
for a couple of years,
and now with the project
I'm in now with...
...I've been there nearly three years.
So, welcome to my office.
Mark's job at BC Iron
is Production Superintendent -
managing the whole iron-ore process,
from pit to port.
It's funny
when you talk about mining.
Everybody that's not working in the
mines wants to get a job in the mines.
Everyone who's working in the mines
wants to get out of the mines.
So we've got a new crusher
coming to site now.
This will be our... beneficiation plant.
So, where do you think
the jaw is going to go?
No, it will be further over this side.
Now we've got the guys here that are
setting up this beneficiation plant,
which is just a little crushing plant
to upgrade the low-grade ore.
This is the plant layout.
That represents that pile
that's of the low grade.
The big drawcard
with the mining industry is the money.
This is our jaw crusher,
which is not here yet.
That's on tracks.
So we've got a crushing circuit that's
all going to fit on this pad apparently.
You sit around at night wondering
how you can make those son of bucks
but be home every night.
And, er, that ain't going to happen.
The common one is,
'Oh, I'm just here for two years.'
Two years to pay off the mortgage.
After two years they've normally
got a bigger mortgage.
Does that workshop
stay on the trailer or it all comes off?
It's a trap, and I often wonder
howl get off this merry-go-round
and get back to a normal life
and earn normal money.
There is the golden handcuffs
where people perhaps start spending
at a higher level
than they have in the past.
They have a big mortgage
or they have big repayments.
They might not like FIFO.
In fact, they may hate it.
But they have no choice
but to continue doing it
because they've hocked themselves,
and so the golden handcuffs
are on tight.
Someone who's tried
to get rid of the handcuffs
is Chinova copper miner Nick Dametto,
but 120 grand a year
is too good to refuse.
A typical day on a mine site
as a mechanical fitter
is basically fixing anything
that could have broken down
and looking out for things
that could go wrong.
The thing I love about my job
is the sense of accomplishment and that
you get from working
on the machinery
going into a breakdown situation.
It's quite easy to go away to work,
you know, for me
because once you get there,
all you've got to think about is work.
And you don't have to worry about
the small trials and tribulations
that happen every day at home.
I worked here about five years ago.
I then went back to town
and did a couple of years' work.
I was doing an electrical refrigeration
apprenticeship.
Got to work at about 5:50.
Today I've scored a water leak
up near the admin building.
I was doing HR,
actually, for a little while,
where my job was to find blokes just
like myself jobs in the mining industry.
Then that was actually
a little bit tougher than I expected
because people son of are hard
to work with, if you know what I mean.
I'm gonna change positions.
My cousin got a job
up in the Pilbara in Port Hedland.
And he gave us a call
and the 3.5 grand a week
was a little bit hard to say no to.
So I was back on a plane
and back in the mining industry.
The money is why I believe
nine out often blokes get on that plane
and fly out to any mine site.
It's the reason to leave your family.
It's the pay-off.
Today it's about 42 degrees.
The flies have made their way back.
And the aircon seems to have broken down
in the cab today,
so it's windows open and getting
a little bit of fresh air in.
The reason you want to do this
is to move ahead in life,
to have a better life for yourself.
To have the money
to go on overseas holidays
and enjoy your life while you're young
and then put some away
for when you're a little bit older,
so maybe you won't have to work
to 50, 65 and beyond.
This water leak, we're not sure
where it's coming from,
but it definitely has the potential
to shut the production down.
Not enough water getting underground
to the drill rigs
or not enough drinking water
getting down to the underground,
we've got to pull the guys
out of the mines.
So, yeah, we've got to hook in and
find out where this water's coming from
and try and rectify it
as quickly as possible.
Nick's work is key
to keeping the copper mine going.
If production ground to a halt,
they'd lose $0.75 million
in revenue each day,
so he does all he canto ensure Chinova
makes 9,000 tonnes of copper concentrate
every month,
worth a cool 17 million bucks.
This is where the trucks
come and tip their ore.
They tip it into a vertical shaft.
It is roughly 370m long.
It's a 4m-diameter hole.
Down here, Jeff runs the show
in a copper industry that's worth over
$6 billion each year to our economy.
You can see these bars -
the grid that's sitting over the top
of the hole, that's called a 'grizzly'.
Alright, anything that can fit
through either one of those holes,
the crusher can take.
So this crusher is a toggle jaw crusher.
It's set to crush our din down here
to around 140-150mm
before we hoist it up.
Once on the surface,
the ore is crushed down even more,
floated in tanks,
thickened and filtered,
giving a valuable copper concentrate
that's then shipped overseas.
This is copper concentrate.
This is our final product.
This is what all the hard work's for.
And that hard work continues
back above ground,
where Nick is digging deep
in the 42-degree heat.
We're still no closer
to finding the source of this leak,
so we're just gonna have to keep digging
and see what we can find.
Hopefully we're not here all day.
People get caught
in the mining trap in two ways...
Hey, Scotty, if you can move that pump,
I'll just take that out.
..getting caught up in the
lifestyle of having that extra money
and being used to spending
that extra money,
and then needing to go back
week in, week out to the mining industry
so that they can afford
to sustain this lifestyle.
The guys you see
with the two- to five-year plan
are the guys that first started.
And that's everyone's initial plan.
'I'm going to get in,
make the big money and get out.'
But with the big money
comes bigger bills.
They decide, 'Maybe we could
stick this out for another five years
and have the money
to buy another house,' you know,
and put themselves
in an even better financial position
than they ever thought they could be.
And I guess that's where people
get hooked on the money.
This water leak's
got us a bit stumped at the moment.
We'll be here for a couple more hours,
that's for sure.
A lot of people
that aren't used to making money,
all of a sudden are making it
and just don't know how to deal with it.
It's like winning lotto. How many people
lose their lotto winnings?
I don't know anyone that's worked FIFO
for five years and left.
All of our friends who work FIFO
are all still working FIFO.
And you can't walk away.
You can't walk away.
Mining is a really unique industry
because it has a whole range
of perverse effects
both on individuals, on communities
and on the national economy.
And it, in a sense, becomes an industry
that divides the nation
between those who are benefiting
and those who are losers.
It's a clear case of winners and losers.
In the past, those who had much to lose
were the Indigenous communities
of Australia.
Opposition to the Jabiluka uranium mine
is intensifying.
Today, blockaders
at Kakadu National Park
dug in at the main access
to the Jabiluka site.
Stop the Luka mine.
Stop the Luka mine.
Indigenous land rights
have been central
to the controversy around mining.
I'm off the fence now.
I'm saying no.
No to this mine. One's enough.
The hunger for profit
versus the protection of heritage
is an ongoing struggle.
It represents the singly
most important environment issue
for all Australians to consider.
Whilst large sections of the community
have seen no benefit at all from mining,
some feel it's now better
to sleep with the enemy
rather than completely miss out
on the spoils of war.
When I was young, I organised protests
against the mining industry.
But back then, mining companies did not
negotiate with Aboriginal people.
Now they do, because our rights
have been recognised.
I'm not saying that everybody
has to work in mining.
I'm not saying that you have to agree
with everything the mining industry
has to say.
But the overall benefits
are evident and demonstrable.
If an Aboriginal group
does not negotiate
the conditions of a mining project,
then they will get nothing.
They wont have guaranteed jobs,
they won't have guaranteed
business opportunities,
they won't have any say
in environmental protection
and, most importantly,
cultural heritage protection.
If they do negotiate the conditions
under which mining takes place
they have a say in all of those matters
and they have some guaranteed rights
under a registered agreement,
such as jobs.
And one Indigenous man
who's just scored his first job
in mining is Michael Lynwood.
I'm an ore car technician.
Put new wheels on, new brake blocks.
Make sure there's no cracks,
no body damage.
It's something I haven't done before,
something I enjoy doing.
Me mother is of Aboriginal descent
and my father is English.
So I was called a 'half-caste',
so... I copped it from both sides.
Mining has helped
turn Michael's life around,
as only six months ago
he was at rock bottom.
Hey, big girl. You look buggered.
Yeah, I've been playing tips
all afternoon.
Back then, spending time
with kids Carter and Jordan
was a rare and precious treat.
Right now, well,
we are at my place in Grafton.
My little two-bedroom flat
right across the road from the jail.
So I've got a great view.
My little brother is three years old.
And... you can see
that he's a little bit annoying.
Well, had a rough patch
with the ex-missus,
and then finally, Anzac Day last year,
finally called it quits.
And I've been here ever since.
Not knowing when you're going to see
the kids again
to coming home to an empty house,
it was physically draining.
He didn't know who he was.
He didn't know what to do.
Um, he didn't know
what would happen to his kids.
And what made things worse,
I had knee surgery a month later,
so basically you're sitting around
all day at home.
Just get the kids out of the house.
It's good for me to get out too.
Then the depression set in.
He wasn't looking after himself well.
He had become very unhealthy.
Are you finished?
A little over a month
after that I lose my job.
No kids. No job.
No money.
Financially ruined.
So to me this place was like a...
bad omen.
Like, I just wanted to get away from it.
There was one specific time
that I can remember...
...like end of last year,
me daughter's birthday,
not even being able to afford
to buy her a present.
That was... that was a big
devastating point in my life.
And it hurt 'cause,
you know, being a father,
you want to buy your daughter a present.
You want to be able to give
whatever she wanted.
And I just couldn't.
I couldn't afford to.
Still hurts to this day
that I couldn't do it.
I think that that's the lowest point
in my life really.
It's hard to say. I was in a dark time.
As far as I could see, I had no way out.
He wasn't in a good space
at that time.
Thank God that all changed.
For many, FIFO
is a golden opportunity to get ahead.
But while some get cashed up,
Annie and Charles
have also got loved up.
They met, and now live together,
on their iron-ore mine in the Pilbara.
I'm ready to go back to bed.
Oh, when I wake up,
we chuck our uniforms on,
head up for brekkie.
See you later on, eh?
He'll have a big, heavy breakfast
and I'll have Weet-Bix.
Don't look at me like that.
And give him a little kiss for the day
before we go our separate ways.
- See you.
- See ya.
I'm in a truck hauling din.
And it'll either be high grade,
which we send on to the boats to China,
or it'll be waste,
which we'll tip off at the dumps.
I've just completed
the walk-around of the truck,
just to see if there's any damage
or anything like that out of place.
But it's all good.
I'm ready to rock'n'roll.
While Annie is in her aircon cabin,
Charles is out in the 40-degree heat.
I'm not saying it's a bad job,
but sitting in a truck or something,
just driving around in circles,
I can't see myself doing that
because I need to be active,
son of doing things
to keep lively son of thing.
So not this one. Because we're missing
a row. It'll be the next one.
Our department's geology,
and Charles works
on the development crew.
And he assists us
in helping us to take the samples.
So we have to actually take a 3-5kg bag
sample of the blast cones.
Well, it's certainly not waste but...
..it's not some
of our high grade either.
When we send them to the lab,
they'll put them through
the big X-ray screen
and tell us the zincs and irons
and the different levels,
so that gives a good representative
of what's in there.
OK, this is the last one here.
He's in the thick of it,
but he loves it.
He absolutely loves it.
Love working in the heat, mate.
Couldn't think of a better place.
She works in production
and I work in development,
so that sort of gives us
that little bit of freedom for 12 hours.
When I'm in my truck,
it's my time.
I just chill out with music. That's what
I need - my music and my aircon.
She's over there and I'm over here.
She's probably driving past somewhere.
Now and then, we drive past a
drill pattern that Charlie's working on.
And I just see if he's there,
and if I see him I just give him
a toot-toot and wave like the Queen
and say, 'Ha ha! In your face.'
I'm just getting loaded at the moment.
And I have my little Kindle that I have
a read of or have the gossip magazines,
things like that,
when I'm getting loaded.
I'm very sad that Miranda Kerr
and Orlando Bloom have broken up.
I like them.
Should be getting kicked out soon.
Toot-toot from the shovel op.
I like the long runs...
...where you just cruise along merrily.
It's perfect to drive.
Top speed is 40, so it's like driving
in a school zone all day for 12 hours.
It's a big change
when we go back to Geraldton
because there's obviously
no traffic lights
or roundabouts or anything like that.
Back home, in my little Toyota Corolla
I struggle to get to 60 kays
because I'm so used
to driving 40 all day.
The Indigenous mining workforce
in Australia today
is the largest private sector industrial
workforce of Indigenous people
Australia has ever seen.
Copy, truck 831.
The companies are finding
that they get a secure,
reliable workforce
because Indigenous people,
you know, aren't highly employable
because other industries don't employ
Indigenous people at such rates.
And so once they make the investment
in an Indigenous person,
the retention rates
are much, much higher
than for the rest of the workforce.
But not everyone is convinced
that the Indigenous opportunities
are as good as they could be.
Anecdotally, from the research
I've done, there is a lot of resentment
among those Aboriginal workers
about the lack of career progression -
that they're doing
all the low-level jobs
and the non-Indigenous workers
are coming in,
and after a short period of time
they are seeing those workers
promoted up through the ranks.
And it really is the case
that it's window-dressing.
Back on site, home for Annie and Charles
is their double donga,
but she doesn't exactly
call it domestic bliss.
I thought I was having Christmas
when I come here.
Got TV and everything.
I thought, 'Far out.'
Same as B2.
Yeah, you'd have to buy your own TV.
When we first got into the couples room,
it was... he'd just chuck his shoes
on the floor, his bag there
and I'd come along and trip over them.
And I was just... it got to the point
where I was like, 'Nuh,
I'm not doing it anymore.'
And then I think he picked up on it.
I get to watch a bit of cricket. 'Cause
my team's the old West Indies so...
Windies.
Yeah, I get to watch them
every so often.
- I love my Aussie Rules.
- Yeah.
Go the 'Pies.
Like, when he's in the shower,
that's when I run amok in here.
I'll put this over there,
put clothes out for the day
or I'll put them in the washing machine.
But that's howl am at home as well.
Like, I was packed two days
before we flew out, so...
I do take advantage of it a fair bit.
Yes, you do.
Bye.
Over at BC Iron,
the pressure is on Mark Lynch
to keep shipping out the iron ore
in as high a quality as possible
by keeping a close eye
on all the crushing units on site.
We're just heading down
to the benny plant
that we put in a couple of weeks ago,
just to see how it's all running.
We've got a product there
which was an under-spec grade.
We're trying to lift the grade a bit
so it's a bit more
of a saleable product.
So that's a lump of ore.
All the finer stuff in there
at the moment -
all the white stuff and all that-
that's all the impurities.
We'll remove a lot of those
so it'll give us just all of your iron.
So what we've got here
is our benny plant.
So basically we're crushing
this low-grade ore
just sitting in the pile behind here.
Goes through the crusher,
gets crushed down to -10mm.
We're actually screening it
to get rid of the waste.
So we're actually upgrading
the iron ore.
We're trying to make strawberry jam
out of pig shit.
So we're pumping out
over 20,000 tonne a day,
25,000 tonne a day,
depending on the day.
$120 a tonne -
you do the maths, you know?
Iron ore is the lifeblood
of Australia's mining industry
thanks to customers like China,
whose scale and pace of urbanisation
remains unprecedented.
They constantly need steel,
and for steel they need iron ore -
a lot of iron ore.
There's still so much going on
within iron ore,
and that's going to keep going on
for a long time.
I mean, any industry
that's going to grow
by 30% over an 18-month period
in terms of output
is actually in a pretty good state.
And I think that's what we've got
within our iron-ore sector here.
The value has risen 30%
in the last year alone,
and is now raking in over $70 billion,
making it Australia's greatest export.
But if the ore runs out one day,
what then?
Is Australia becoming caught
in a money trap too?
It's an industry
that I think Australia
really shouldn't be relying on
as much as we have been.
And, in fact, we should really be trying
to maintain that economic diversity
that we actually had before this boom.
And a bit like managing
an investment portfolio.
For example, the economists all tell us
that it's great that we're specialising
and this is our comparative advantage,
but none of those advisers, I think,
from the Treasury
would be putting, like, 60% of their
superannuation into mining stocks,
which is what we're doing as a country
for our export incomes,
and we've lost a lot
of that economic diversity
as a result of this mining boom.
So what we've got here
is the final product.
The ore we're putting in there
is running at about
anywhere between 50-55% iron ore.
Once it's been crushed and screened,
this stuff here will come in
at probably close to 57%,
which is what we're looking for.
At the start of this mining boom
we had 130 years of iron-ore production.
That's come down to 70 years
just in the space of a decade,
and we are now looking at
doubling our iron-ore production again
by the end of this decade.
So while they are trying to shore up
new deposits and expand into new mines,
it is the case that production
is going through the roof
and the resource is finite.
And so those life expectancies are
actually coming down quite dramatically.
The warning signs
are there for all to see,
but over in Queensland,
copper miner Nick Dametto
has more immediate concerns.
Having just fixed the water leak,
another danger
is just around the corner.
The problem with working
in a confined space,
you don't know what the atmosphere
in there's been like
before you've opened up the doors
to work in there.
So there's a lot of potential
for danger.
It could be harmful gas in there,
explosive gases.
There could be inert gases
that displace oxygen.
This machine here tests for all that.
Before we enter a confined space,
those tests need to be carried out.
The correct permits
need to be filled out.
And if the machine says
it's OK to go in,
you can then enter that confined space.
People have died in confined spaces.
The biggest problem is people
don't check the atmosphere
before they enter it.
What happens is one guy can go in.
He just collapses all of a sudden.
The second guy behind him,
they don't know exactly
what's gone wrong for him.
They end up going in the confined space
to help their mate -
it's just human nature - the next minute
you've got two casualties.
The lower explosive limit is zero,
so it means there's
no explosive gases in there.
The oxygen percentage is 20.9.
That's perfect for people to breathe.
And OOO on all the LELs.
Perfect.
A large part of Nick's job
is to prevent accidents happening,
something he's more than qualified to
talk about from first-hand experience.
Everybody wants to go home with
all their fingers and all their toes.
I didn't do that one day
and that's why I make sure
that everyone's doing the right thing,
make sure everyone's
doing the job safely
because no-one wants a workplace injury.
They tried to stitch it back on,
but after about three months, the bone
in the finger just didn't take properly.
It was getting in the way,
so I asked the doctor to chop it off.
My life's changed a lot
in the last, say, five years.
First, when I was single and that
and doing the FIFO work,
you'd spend the whole time partying
and having a good time
and out on the town nearly every night,
flying over to Bali
and all sons of things like that.
And now, well, I think it's easier
doing the family thing.
Life's a lot...
it's a little bit more laid-back,
a little bit more relaxed
and a lot less hangovers.
To ensure there are no hangovers while
on site, the mines run a tight ship.
For a start, before each shift
everyone has to be breath-tested.
Must blow zeros.
If you blow numbers,
then we wait half an hour. Try it again.
If you still blow numbers,
you go back to the village.
You go back to the village,
you stay in the village for the day
and you get a written warning.
You get three written warnings,
you get a window seat.
Let's keep moving.
You have to have
rules and regulations up on site.
You're there to do a job.
And you can go have a couple of beers
and that's fine, but don't run amok.
Don't not turn up the next day
because you had a big night on the piss.
You're there to work.
Work hard, make your dollars.
I mean, you earn every cent.
Everyone says, 'Oh, miners
are on big money.' You fucking earn it.
Say you're working locally, you might go
for after-work drinks in the city.
You know, like, you can't just...
you can't do that on a mine site.
Like, you can have a couple of beers
down at the wet nurse, you know,
but then everyone has to get up,
like, a ridiculous hour in the
morning, so it's a little bit different.
I try not to drink
when I'm at work.
I used to drink at shift change
and throughout the week.
But, nah, not no more.
I found for me personally that it was
just taking too much of a toll,
just because of the fact
that you stayed up too late,
had one too many drinks or something.
So I just, 'Nah, bugger it.'
It's not worth it.
Out here for a reason -
to get in front.
But that's not always the case
when FIFOs clock off.
With spare time and spare cash,
for some flying miners the money's
not a trap, but a temptation.
Sometimes people with lots of money
don't necessarily spend it very wisely.
And so you have
antisocial issues arise
where there is drink, drugs
or prostitution
in areas where there's lots of people
with too much money.
I was on a plane coming back
from Port Hedland last week
and I saw the bad of FIFO
where there were three young guys
who had obviously between
their last shift and catching the plane,
there were several hours to drink
and they were quite obnoxious.
So you see the worst as well.
But the other 40 guys on the plane
who were FIFO workers
were embarrassed by them.
I think the FIFO industry
has had a bad rap.
They work hard. They're not necessarily
cashed-up bogans.
They're not necessarily
drug and alcohol fiends.
There are rules,
and mining companies are very keen
not to have the responsibility
for very young FIFO workers,
so I think the average age
of the younger FIFO worker
is considerably higher
than it was perhaps ten years ago.
You need people who are good
at what they do and are focused.
If they're not, they're not going to be
on your staff for very long.
Have a safe one, guys.
Six months ago, Michael was trapped
by too much debt
rather than too much money.
Having lost his job
and broken up with his partner,
he moved back home
to ponder his next step.
I shot through
to the Gold Coast.
Went up there and stayed with the mother
and the sister for a little bit.
And that was... it was helpful,
it really was, being around family.
I knew what he was going through,
but I couldn't help him.
He was so depressed at the time,
he could have swung either way
because there was some highs and lows
in the end throughout that process.
The only thing that kept us
all together was basically his kids
and knowing that we were doing
the right thing for him and his family.
Mum did help
'cause she give me someone to talk to,
someone to express my feelings to.
And she's always there
when I've needed her.
- Well, drive safely.
- Bring the kids up.
Yeah, OK. See you then.
So it was a very emotional time for me
as a mother,
knowing full well that he had to hit
that rock bottom first, and he did.
He did.
Just watch that tree behind you.
I always want
good things for my kids,
and they've always been
my motivation for everything.
So I was always trying to get a job,
but there was just no work
on the East Coast.
I was putting in for everything, sol
started looking over the West Coast.
I think he put in
something like 30 resumes
to different organisations every week,
and unfortunately
didn't hear anything back
from those 30 different resumes
that he's put in, but he persisted.
Then, all of a sudden, one of
my jobs that I put in for over at Penn,
they rung me up
and they said, 'You've got the job.'
It's like, 'You've got
your medical next week.'
And right then I just felt
a weight lifted off my shoulders.
It was an awesome feeling.
There are
at least 3,000 Indigenous people
in the workforce in the Pilbara alone.
I'm thrilled every time
I hear about or meet
an Aboriginal person whose life
has been changed by having a job.
The gap will be closed
if Aboriginal people have jobs.
It's just about giving people
an opportunity.
They either take the opportunity
or they don't.
Thankfully for us, the majority do.
This is just what I needed.
Get away from everything.
Just to get my life back on track.
Happy days.
Couldn't be happier.
It is fantastic that Aboriginal people
are being employed,
and it's wonderful when you see the
transformation in an individual's lives,
but mining is not for everybody.
I think it's the responsibility
of mining companies
to be actually offering
greater opportunities,
tertiary qualifications and the like,
and that's not always happening.
Aboriginal people, I think,
are entitled to much more than a job.
Building this up as the great solution,
I think, is seriously flawed.
It's a message
for all sections of the mining industry
But two Indigenous miners
who are happy with their FIFO life
are Annie and Charles.
When not at work, they're enjoying
their downtime in Geraldton, WA.
This walk on the foreshore
is pretty relaxing.
It's nice and open.
Can bring the kids down
so they can swim out to the pontoons
or whatever they call it.
Yeah, I don't swim that much
out in the ocean.
I'd rather be in the rivers, me.
And why is that?
The old movie.
You know, Jaws.
We got introduced
at the Christmas party.
- Yeah, I got snobbed off.
- You talk lies!
There is the truth, see?
Yeah, she...
Just, 'Oh, how you going?'
Just walked off.
I was nice. I said, 'Hello. How are you?
Where do you work?'
That sort of attracted me then.
I thought, 'Oh, hmm!'
And then after that we decided
to have a cup of tea and go for a walk.
The FIFO life is not
all fancy homes and luxury holidays.
For many, the money just means that
it's a little easier to pay the bills.
We're probably
on the low end of the scale
because we only do eight and six.
And, er, I do pay a bit
of maintenance as well, so...
- Are these the same fellas or nah?
- Yeah.
Everyone thinks because
we're FIFO workers we can afford it,
but, like, we get paid monthly
and we've got our bills to pay,
joint bills to pay,
and then by the end of it, yeah,
we've only got a little bit
to spend for ourselves, yeah.
Get the kids and bills
and everything out the way.
Yeah.
No such worries
for iron-ore miner Mark Lynch.
He's been making good coin for years,
which wife Emma, back home in Perth,
is more than happy to put to good use.
My relationship with Mark,
I don't think it's affected at all
by him doing fly-in, fly-out.
If anything, it's made
our relationship stronger.
- Hello!
- Hello, beautiful. How are you?
So, I've got heaps
to tell you tonight.
I've organised my dishwasher-
or, sorry, our dishwasher.
And also the washing machine -
after substantial research,
I'm going a front-loader.
- No, you're not.
- Ooh, your whole face dropped.
I am.
I couldn't tell you how much longer
this would go on.
We've always said that when one of us
decides that enough is enough
and we want to call it quits,
well, we'll call it quits.
- Are you on the internet?
- Nah.
You are. You're surfing Facebook!
- No, I'm not.
- Mark, you are so!
I was playing patience.
You are such a shit.
I got my steam mop today -
my little handheld steam mop thing.
I'll grab it and show you.
- Don't go away.
- OK. I'll stay right here.
Gonna be the highlight of my day.
Fucking steam mop.
This is it here,
and it looks like a jug.
Yep. Does it wash clothes?
I wash your clothes.
Our front-loader will wash your clothes.
Sometimes it'd be nice
just to have a normal existence.
- He can see you. Hello!
- Hello!
But then again, what is normal?
It's got all these little attachments.
- Like, this plugs into one end.
- Yep.
You've got no idea,
but this is a little thing here.
No, I've got plenty of idea.
'Cause what it's going to do,
I'll find it sitting in a cupboard
in three months' time never used.
It'll go the way of the bread maker.
I'll never live
the bread maker down.
'I need a bread maker.
I'll make bread every day.'
- Well, I'll let you go. And...
- Yeah, yeah. I'll make tracks.
The sacrifices that we make
are not being together 2417.
And you just have to... I don't know.
It's a sacrifice you make, I suppose.
- Love you.
- Love you too.
- Bye.
- Bye.
- You hang up first.
- You hang up.
No, don't do this!
- You hang up.
- OK.
- See you later.
- We'll hang up together, OK?
- Love you. Bye.
- Love you. Bye.
It's great. I've got the money.
We do whatever we want when we want.
But some nights you sit there
and you think, you know,
'What the fuck am I doing here?'
Copper miner Nick Dametto
flies out every eight days
for six days at home in Townsville.
For a man who's lost his finger
to mining, he's made plenty in return.
On a wage of $120,000 a year,
he's had the golden handcuffs on for
years and has the toys to show for it.
My biggest problem is I've got
too many toys and too many projects.
There's not enough days off,
but I'm working on it.
This is a senior kart for myself
and a junior kart for my son.
Also I've got a 300XS
Mercury racing outboard engine
on the stand at the moment.
Got the kitchen, large island bench.
Lovely partner, Alicia,
making some pasta for dinner tonight.
The lounge area, the main lounge area.
You've got TVs everywhere
so you don't miss any of the action.
Gas cooktop and range hood.
We have a 714m sq block.
I can mow this place
in about 35 minutes,
the reason being
when I get home from work
I don't want to worry
about doing too many outdoor chores.
I want to just sit by the pool, hose the
cement off a little bit and just relax.
And that's not all he enjoys doing
on his time off.
It's a Thursday afternoon.
Most people are still at work,
but this is son of the cream
of doing fly-in, fly-out work.
Six days off every fortnight,
so we get as much skiing
down the river in as possible.
When everyone's out working,
we're enjoying the nice calm water
down the river.
It's... yeah, it's perfect, mate.
Going back to a nine-to-five job
at this point in time
would not be feasible for me.
There's a lifestyle that we need
a certain amount of money to cover.
I've purchased now my second house.
I'm looking to do a third house
in the next couple of years.
It's also helped me put my son through
private school, which is very important.
It means a lot to me, and he's about
to start high school next year,
which, because
of our financial position,
we can choose where we send our son.
Whenever I'm hanging out with Deakin
or on the water with the boys,
it's brilliant.
Can't wipe the smile off my face.
Righto, Hickey!
Nick's firmly caught
in the mining money trap,
but he does have plans
to make a great escape.
My dream one day would be able
to walk away from the mining industry
financially set up,
perhaps walking into a business
that we could start.
Swing around, Hickey!
Going into semi-retirement -
that's my dream financially.
Until that day, I'm just going to keep
ticking away in the mining industry.
While the money is good
and the conditions are good,
I think we'll be hanging around
for a little bit longer.
He's just going to keep going.
There've been media headlines
that suggest that FIFO workers,
you know, boys with their toys,
but it's by no means the majority.
In fact, FIFO workers
are really good savers.
So in terms of benefiting
and investing for the future,
I think some FIFO workers
have done it well.
- Front yard looks good.
- Nice fake lawn. No more mowing.
At the moment we're
just saving for a house in Geraldton.
- Annie.
- Hi, Annie. Nice to meet you.
- Charlie.
- G'day, Charlie. How are you?
Welcome to the Oakwood, guys.
Yeah, no, there's five kids,
so when we have them around all at once
it's going to be pretty hectic.
It's a nice big family home.
Should we go for a look?
- Yeah, let's go.
- Righto.
But we don't want,
like, a big flash...
Nothing big.
..house.
- Just basic.
- Just a shelter basically.
Simple things in life.
Brand-new. 4m by 2m.
It's about 240 odd square metres
of living.
Oh! The cucina!
Big pot for some kangaroo stew, man.
Smile if you want to smile.
Don't be shy.
Oh, yeah, I'm just speechless
just looking at it.
This would be perfect, eh?
Oh, yeah. Definitely.
I love it, yeah.
It makes us want it more.
It makes it more real having a target
and actually seeing it.
Like, this is something
that we would definitely go for.
And then put the barbecue over there,
table and chairs here.
Charlie will want his beer tub
in the corner.
I'm liking that.
That little power cord here.
You can have your bar fridge
and everything there.
Sorted.
Probably look at a couple more, though,
but, yeah, this one's
grabbing me already, I reckon.
Working all that time, travelling
all of that way back and forth,
being away from our family,
just to have house like this
to call our own
and something for the kids to have
if anything was to happen to us,
we know that they'll be fine.
- Thank you.
- What did you think?
- Loved it.
- Fantastic.
- I want one now.
- Yeah.
Nice to meet you both.
See you, Annie. See you, Charlie.
As Annie and Charles
think about making
their first big investment together,
some would argue that they need to be
careful as the money trap lies in wait.
Mining is a very, very
cyclical industry.
And one of the concerns
I have about Australia as an economy
is we have become
more dependent on it.
And for families to
be depending on it in that way
and for taking up big mortgages
and car loans
to buy boats and big four-wheel drives
and the like,
instead of using the money to get
themselves into a secure position,
they're actually taking on more debt.
One miner in debt
is Michael Lynwood.
But his debt is to an industry
that's given him a break
after months of unemployment
and depression.
Now enjoying life fixing iron-ore cars,
the money's not trapped him,
it's revived him.
Working over here by myself,
spend a lot of time by myself,
it works in your favour
'cause it rebuilds your confidence.
You know, it's worth it.
By the time you get home, you go and
see your kids and it's just awesome.
Dad, watch this.
I'm watching.
And on his downtime, he's able to
resume Daddy duties every three weeks.
Yay! Well done!
Oh, that scared her.
Hey, are we going on this?
Come on.
It's good to be back here really.
Because this R&R,
it happened to be on Jacaranda Thursday
so you've got all the festivities.
You can take the kids
round on the rides, fairy floss,
you can get your face painted,
just enjoy it, basically.
It's relaxing this year,
isn't it, bubba?
Yep.
I remember last year I just...
I didn't want to be in Grafton.
Now it's starting to feel like home
again, so that's a good feeling.
The kids love coming here.
So they've got all their toys
and they know when they come here
it's their time to spend it with Dad.
So that's a good thing for 'em.
You lost your earring, did you?
Oh, well.
Let's go and look for it.
The amount of time
that Michael spends with his kids
is the whole five days
that he's actually home for that period.
He gets very little time for himself
'cause he's a doting dad,
so he spends most of his time with them.
We, as a family, sort of get together
and help him out.
Not that often, but we try.
And to say thank you
for all their support,
Michael's new FIFO life meant
that he was able to pay for his family
to go to the snow
for the very first time,
on a holiday they'll never forget.
They helped me through
a bad time in my life
so I felt like I owed 'em.
It was a great feeling
knowing from where I was
to being able to give this to my family,
and coming from not being able to buy
me daughter a present for her birthday
to eight months later being in the snow,
I'm still emotional about it.
It's... just a great feeling, basically.
For the first time ever,
Indigenous people are able to afford
to take their families
on an actual holiday.
And most Australians
take that for granted,
but for an Aboriginal worker
that is such a privilege.
It makes them feel like
they're pan of Australian society.
And any social scientist will tell you
that being able to afford recreation
is actually a sign
of inclusion in society,
and suddenly the gap's closing for them.
So it's a great outcome.
My plan is next year
take the kids back to the snow
and then I might just go over
to America for a couple of weeks.
Go and check out Miami, I think.
I want to tick that off my list.
I never actually thought
about travelling until I got this job.
Never thought
I'd be financially able to.
So all I need to do now
is grab my passport and I can go.
I've got the money.
There's nothing stopping me.
And to be able to think
like that, then...
...there's nothing in this world
you can't do.
See ya!
You can't wipe the smile
off my face really.
The future looks bright
for Michael right now.
But what does the future look like
for the Australian mining industry?
If the mining industry
were predictable
people wouldn't be able to make
a fortune predicting it.
But these analysts
are making predictions
and some are right and some are wrong.
McNULTY: The mining industry is going
to continue to be a very large employer
of, you know, a broad range
of educational backgrounds,
from people that have been
to university in highly skilled careers
but also people...
effectively unskilled labourers
who can actually still earn an
incredibly good living from the sector.
Sol don't see any of that changing
any time in the future.
Surroundings like this
is why I love this job.
There's a misconception
that Aboriginal people have a choice.
Aboriginal people will get mining
whether or not they want it.
What I want to know about
is whether or not people
are in fact benefiting from mining.
Well, demonstrably they are.
But in the battleground
of global competition,
mining companies are looking for ways
to keep costs down and production up.
Welcome to
the brave new world of automatic mining,
where the humans are leaving the
dirty work to the monsters in the pit
The technological advances we're
gonna have - autonomous trucks, rail-
we'll see a lot of changes there
going forward over the next few years.
If you're going to move
into the future of mining
and be more competitive
with the world market,
I fundamentally think it is an area
that you need to start exploring
and start to understand.
Some jobs might be
in jeopardy,
but it looks like mining is here
for the long haul.
The resource industry
will come to a halt
when this society no longer needs
metal or energy.
I cannot see that happening
any time in the future.
A decade ago,
the biggest coalmine in the country,
in the Hunter Valley, produced
about 10 million tonnes of coal a year.
In the Galilee Basin,
we are going to see mega mines
of 30-, 40-, 60-million tonnes,
and all of that coal being shipped
through the Great Barrier Reef
from Abbot Point,
requiring massive dredging,
potentially massive impact on the coral
and marine life in that area.
Save our reef!
Save our reef!
So it's incredible
that State governments
are absolutely hooked
on getting more mining revenue
to try to shore up their deficits.
And it's not just
old-fashioned fuel that's making waves.
Australia has a new resource
up its sleeve
that is sure to grab the headlines.
Looking forward into the future,
Australia can drive its prosperity
by riding the wave of gas.
The positioning of gas in Asia
is particularly exciting for Australia,
given our proximity.
China will be moving
more from coal to gas.
And the expected imports are going to
grow tenfold over the next 20 years.
And just recently we've had,
you know, more than $200 billion
of investment globally in Australia
developing our gas sector.
That will result in billions of dollars
of additional revenue to Australia
that didn't exist even 12 months ago
and create a whole lot of new jobs
that don't currently exist.
And FIFO is at the heart of those.
Clearly times are changing
for the mining industry,
but for now the FIFOs will continue
to fly high on mining prosperity
No-one knows for exactly how long,
but the money trap is set to snare
many more FIFOs for some years yet.
The thing is that
FIFO is not going to go away.
And communities and governments
that sort of either pretend
it's not there or wish it would go away,
that's not going to happen.
A bit of positive reinforcement,
you know.
FIFO's here.
It has been here for a long time.
It is not a disease.
It's not causing
our societies to collapse.
So what should we be doing
to actually enhance it?
So the quicker we do it,
the more cohesively we do it,
the result will be far better.
It's all good. Spot on.
Your mining company
needs to understand community values.
The community needs to understand
the values of the mining company.
Otherwise it's like talking
two different languages.
The main street of Port Hedland.
Not a soul around.
There certainly has been the haves
and the have-nets in some communities,
and that hurts, but the benefits
have been spread far and wide.
And I hope that we have something
to show for it in 50 years' time.
See you guys later.
We've had this incredible boom.
Biggest in our history.
All of our governments are in deficit
despite all this revenue
they've been getting
because it comes in and just goes
out the door and it's spent,
unlike other countries
that do a bit of planning.
It's a bit like just drawing money
out of the bank.
We're just sort of really funding our
lifestyle by running down our wealth.
Well, there's another two weeks, boys.
The trick is to retain that wealth
and to ensure that that wealth
that's come from mining,
which won't necessarily always be here,
that we make that wealth
work for us into the future.
We can't afford to let those riches
just ebb away.
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.
Last week, the tough reality
of mining...
There wasn't anything else we could do
to turn it around.
It's a difficult place to be.
...as hundreds of jobs were lost.
You just got to readjust.
It'll be tough. Tough for anyone.
- Yeah, just time to come home, I think.
- Daddy!
Tonight, we look at the future
of mining in Australia.
Any industry that's going to grow by 30%
over an 18-month period
is actually in a pretty good state.
But the warning signs are there.
Mining is a very cyclical industry.
One of the concerns I have
about Australia as an economy
is we have become more dependent on it.
Dependent as a nation,
dependent as individuals.
People, they get hooked
on the money.
You can't walk away.
You can't walk away.
Going back to a nine-to-five job
would not be feasible for me.
It's great.
I've got the money,
but, er, some nights you sit there
and you think, you know,
'What the fuck am I doing here?'
Is there trouble ahead
for the flying miners?
So the golden handcuffs are on tight.
One man who's really
bought into the FIFO life,
with a six-figure salary,
is iron-ore miner Mark Lynch.
I was on great money at one stage,
but I was also the highest child support
payer in central Queensland.
Hasn't always been easy.
I bought my first house when I was 19.
Second place when I was 26.
When I was 27, I had a couple of
cardboard boxes and four plastic chairs.
I'll show you something.
Here's me plastic chairs.
I take 'em everywhere with me.
That's all I had left
after my first marriage.
And then to this.
I left school at 15 and I got a job
in an alumina refinery in Gladstone.
And the plan was stay there
for about 12 months
and 23 years later I moved on.
Son of went from mine to mine there
for a couple of years,
and now with the project
I'm in now with...
...I've been there nearly three years.
So, welcome to my office.
Mark's job at BC Iron
is Production Superintendent -
managing the whole iron-ore process,
from pit to port.
It's funny
when you talk about mining.
Everybody that's not working in the
mines wants to get a job in the mines.
Everyone who's working in the mines
wants to get out of the mines.
So we've got a new crusher
coming to site now.
This will be our... beneficiation plant.
So, where do you think
the jaw is going to go?
No, it will be further over this side.
Now we've got the guys here that are
setting up this beneficiation plant,
which is just a little crushing plant
to upgrade the low-grade ore.
This is the plant layout.
That represents that pile
that's of the low grade.
The big drawcard
with the mining industry is the money.
This is our jaw crusher,
which is not here yet.
That's on tracks.
So we've got a crushing circuit that's
all going to fit on this pad apparently.
You sit around at night wondering
how you can make those son of bucks
but be home every night.
And, er, that ain't going to happen.
The common one is,
'Oh, I'm just here for two years.'
Two years to pay off the mortgage.
After two years they've normally
got a bigger mortgage.
Does that workshop
stay on the trailer or it all comes off?
It's a trap, and I often wonder
howl get off this merry-go-round
and get back to a normal life
and earn normal money.
There is the golden handcuffs
where people perhaps start spending
at a higher level
than they have in the past.
They have a big mortgage
or they have big repayments.
They might not like FIFO.
In fact, they may hate it.
But they have no choice
but to continue doing it
because they've hocked themselves,
and so the golden handcuffs
are on tight.
Someone who's tried
to get rid of the handcuffs
is Chinova copper miner Nick Dametto,
but 120 grand a year
is too good to refuse.
A typical day on a mine site
as a mechanical fitter
is basically fixing anything
that could have broken down
and looking out for things
that could go wrong.
The thing I love about my job
is the sense of accomplishment and that
you get from working
on the machinery
going into a breakdown situation.
It's quite easy to go away to work,
you know, for me
because once you get there,
all you've got to think about is work.
And you don't have to worry about
the small trials and tribulations
that happen every day at home.
I worked here about five years ago.
I then went back to town
and did a couple of years' work.
I was doing an electrical refrigeration
apprenticeship.
Got to work at about 5:50.
Today I've scored a water leak
up near the admin building.
I was doing HR,
actually, for a little while,
where my job was to find blokes just
like myself jobs in the mining industry.
Then that was actually
a little bit tougher than I expected
because people son of are hard
to work with, if you know what I mean.
I'm gonna change positions.
My cousin got a job
up in the Pilbara in Port Hedland.
And he gave us a call
and the 3.5 grand a week
was a little bit hard to say no to.
So I was back on a plane
and back in the mining industry.
The money is why I believe
nine out often blokes get on that plane
and fly out to any mine site.
It's the reason to leave your family.
It's the pay-off.
Today it's about 42 degrees.
The flies have made their way back.
And the aircon seems to have broken down
in the cab today,
so it's windows open and getting
a little bit of fresh air in.
The reason you want to do this
is to move ahead in life,
to have a better life for yourself.
To have the money
to go on overseas holidays
and enjoy your life while you're young
and then put some away
for when you're a little bit older,
so maybe you won't have to work
to 50, 65 and beyond.
This water leak, we're not sure
where it's coming from,
but it definitely has the potential
to shut the production down.
Not enough water getting underground
to the drill rigs
or not enough drinking water
getting down to the underground,
we've got to pull the guys
out of the mines.
So, yeah, we've got to hook in and
find out where this water's coming from
and try and rectify it
as quickly as possible.
Nick's work is key
to keeping the copper mine going.
If production ground to a halt,
they'd lose $0.75 million
in revenue each day,
so he does all he canto ensure Chinova
makes 9,000 tonnes of copper concentrate
every month,
worth a cool 17 million bucks.
This is where the trucks
come and tip their ore.
They tip it into a vertical shaft.
It is roughly 370m long.
It's a 4m-diameter hole.
Down here, Jeff runs the show
in a copper industry that's worth over
$6 billion each year to our economy.
You can see these bars -
the grid that's sitting over the top
of the hole, that's called a 'grizzly'.
Alright, anything that can fit
through either one of those holes,
the crusher can take.
So this crusher is a toggle jaw crusher.
It's set to crush our din down here
to around 140-150mm
before we hoist it up.
Once on the surface,
the ore is crushed down even more,
floated in tanks,
thickened and filtered,
giving a valuable copper concentrate
that's then shipped overseas.
This is copper concentrate.
This is our final product.
This is what all the hard work's for.
And that hard work continues
back above ground,
where Nick is digging deep
in the 42-degree heat.
We're still no closer
to finding the source of this leak,
so we're just gonna have to keep digging
and see what we can find.
Hopefully we're not here all day.
People get caught
in the mining trap in two ways...
Hey, Scotty, if you can move that pump,
I'll just take that out.
..getting caught up in the
lifestyle of having that extra money
and being used to spending
that extra money,
and then needing to go back
week in, week out to the mining industry
so that they can afford
to sustain this lifestyle.
The guys you see
with the two- to five-year plan
are the guys that first started.
And that's everyone's initial plan.
'I'm going to get in,
make the big money and get out.'
But with the big money
comes bigger bills.
They decide, 'Maybe we could
stick this out for another five years
and have the money
to buy another house,' you know,
and put themselves
in an even better financial position
than they ever thought they could be.
And I guess that's where people
get hooked on the money.
This water leak's
got us a bit stumped at the moment.
We'll be here for a couple more hours,
that's for sure.
A lot of people
that aren't used to making money,
all of a sudden are making it
and just don't know how to deal with it.
It's like winning lotto. How many people
lose their lotto winnings?
I don't know anyone that's worked FIFO
for five years and left.
All of our friends who work FIFO
are all still working FIFO.
And you can't walk away.
You can't walk away.
Mining is a really unique industry
because it has a whole range
of perverse effects
both on individuals, on communities
and on the national economy.
And it, in a sense, becomes an industry
that divides the nation
between those who are benefiting
and those who are losers.
It's a clear case of winners and losers.
In the past, those who had much to lose
were the Indigenous communities
of Australia.
Opposition to the Jabiluka uranium mine
is intensifying.
Today, blockaders
at Kakadu National Park
dug in at the main access
to the Jabiluka site.
Stop the Luka mine.
Stop the Luka mine.
Indigenous land rights
have been central
to the controversy around mining.
I'm off the fence now.
I'm saying no.
No to this mine. One's enough.
The hunger for profit
versus the protection of heritage
is an ongoing struggle.
It represents the singly
most important environment issue
for all Australians to consider.
Whilst large sections of the community
have seen no benefit at all from mining,
some feel it's now better
to sleep with the enemy
rather than completely miss out
on the spoils of war.
When I was young, I organised protests
against the mining industry.
But back then, mining companies did not
negotiate with Aboriginal people.
Now they do, because our rights
have been recognised.
I'm not saying that everybody
has to work in mining.
I'm not saying that you have to agree
with everything the mining industry
has to say.
But the overall benefits
are evident and demonstrable.
If an Aboriginal group
does not negotiate
the conditions of a mining project,
then they will get nothing.
They wont have guaranteed jobs,
they won't have guaranteed
business opportunities,
they won't have any say
in environmental protection
and, most importantly,
cultural heritage protection.
If they do negotiate the conditions
under which mining takes place
they have a say in all of those matters
and they have some guaranteed rights
under a registered agreement,
such as jobs.
And one Indigenous man
who's just scored his first job
in mining is Michael Lynwood.
I'm an ore car technician.
Put new wheels on, new brake blocks.
Make sure there's no cracks,
no body damage.
It's something I haven't done before,
something I enjoy doing.
Me mother is of Aboriginal descent
and my father is English.
So I was called a 'half-caste',
so... I copped it from both sides.
Mining has helped
turn Michael's life around,
as only six months ago
he was at rock bottom.
Hey, big girl. You look buggered.
Yeah, I've been playing tips
all afternoon.
Back then, spending time
with kids Carter and Jordan
was a rare and precious treat.
Right now, well,
we are at my place in Grafton.
My little two-bedroom flat
right across the road from the jail.
So I've got a great view.
My little brother is three years old.
And... you can see
that he's a little bit annoying.
Well, had a rough patch
with the ex-missus,
and then finally, Anzac Day last year,
finally called it quits.
And I've been here ever since.
Not knowing when you're going to see
the kids again
to coming home to an empty house,
it was physically draining.
He didn't know who he was.
He didn't know what to do.
Um, he didn't know
what would happen to his kids.
And what made things worse,
I had knee surgery a month later,
so basically you're sitting around
all day at home.
Just get the kids out of the house.
It's good for me to get out too.
Then the depression set in.
He wasn't looking after himself well.
He had become very unhealthy.
Are you finished?
A little over a month
after that I lose my job.
No kids. No job.
No money.
Financially ruined.
So to me this place was like a...
bad omen.
Like, I just wanted to get away from it.
There was one specific time
that I can remember...
...like end of last year,
me daughter's birthday,
not even being able to afford
to buy her a present.
That was... that was a big
devastating point in my life.
And it hurt 'cause,
you know, being a father,
you want to buy your daughter a present.
You want to be able to give
whatever she wanted.
And I just couldn't.
I couldn't afford to.
Still hurts to this day
that I couldn't do it.
I think that that's the lowest point
in my life really.
It's hard to say. I was in a dark time.
As far as I could see, I had no way out.
He wasn't in a good space
at that time.
Thank God that all changed.
For many, FIFO
is a golden opportunity to get ahead.
But while some get cashed up,
Annie and Charles
have also got loved up.
They met, and now live together,
on their iron-ore mine in the Pilbara.
I'm ready to go back to bed.
Oh, when I wake up,
we chuck our uniforms on,
head up for brekkie.
See you later on, eh?
He'll have a big, heavy breakfast
and I'll have Weet-Bix.
Don't look at me like that.
And give him a little kiss for the day
before we go our separate ways.
- See you.
- See ya.
I'm in a truck hauling din.
And it'll either be high grade,
which we send on to the boats to China,
or it'll be waste,
which we'll tip off at the dumps.
I've just completed
the walk-around of the truck,
just to see if there's any damage
or anything like that out of place.
But it's all good.
I'm ready to rock'n'roll.
While Annie is in her aircon cabin,
Charles is out in the 40-degree heat.
I'm not saying it's a bad job,
but sitting in a truck or something,
just driving around in circles,
I can't see myself doing that
because I need to be active,
son of doing things
to keep lively son of thing.
So not this one. Because we're missing
a row. It'll be the next one.
Our department's geology,
and Charles works
on the development crew.
And he assists us
in helping us to take the samples.
So we have to actually take a 3-5kg bag
sample of the blast cones.
Well, it's certainly not waste but...
..it's not some
of our high grade either.
When we send them to the lab,
they'll put them through
the big X-ray screen
and tell us the zincs and irons
and the different levels,
so that gives a good representative
of what's in there.
OK, this is the last one here.
He's in the thick of it,
but he loves it.
He absolutely loves it.
Love working in the heat, mate.
Couldn't think of a better place.
She works in production
and I work in development,
so that sort of gives us
that little bit of freedom for 12 hours.
When I'm in my truck,
it's my time.
I just chill out with music. That's what
I need - my music and my aircon.
She's over there and I'm over here.
She's probably driving past somewhere.
Now and then, we drive past a
drill pattern that Charlie's working on.
And I just see if he's there,
and if I see him I just give him
a toot-toot and wave like the Queen
and say, 'Ha ha! In your face.'
I'm just getting loaded at the moment.
And I have my little Kindle that I have
a read of or have the gossip magazines,
things like that,
when I'm getting loaded.
I'm very sad that Miranda Kerr
and Orlando Bloom have broken up.
I like them.
Should be getting kicked out soon.
Toot-toot from the shovel op.
I like the long runs...
...where you just cruise along merrily.
It's perfect to drive.
Top speed is 40, so it's like driving
in a school zone all day for 12 hours.
It's a big change
when we go back to Geraldton
because there's obviously
no traffic lights
or roundabouts or anything like that.
Back home, in my little Toyota Corolla
I struggle to get to 60 kays
because I'm so used
to driving 40 all day.
The Indigenous mining workforce
in Australia today
is the largest private sector industrial
workforce of Indigenous people
Australia has ever seen.
Copy, truck 831.
The companies are finding
that they get a secure,
reliable workforce
because Indigenous people,
you know, aren't highly employable
because other industries don't employ
Indigenous people at such rates.
And so once they make the investment
in an Indigenous person,
the retention rates
are much, much higher
than for the rest of the workforce.
But not everyone is convinced
that the Indigenous opportunities
are as good as they could be.
Anecdotally, from the research
I've done, there is a lot of resentment
among those Aboriginal workers
about the lack of career progression -
that they're doing
all the low-level jobs
and the non-Indigenous workers
are coming in,
and after a short period of time
they are seeing those workers
promoted up through the ranks.
And it really is the case
that it's window-dressing.
Back on site, home for Annie and Charles
is their double donga,
but she doesn't exactly
call it domestic bliss.
I thought I was having Christmas
when I come here.
Got TV and everything.
I thought, 'Far out.'
Same as B2.
Yeah, you'd have to buy your own TV.
When we first got into the couples room,
it was... he'd just chuck his shoes
on the floor, his bag there
and I'd come along and trip over them.
And I was just... it got to the point
where I was like, 'Nuh,
I'm not doing it anymore.'
And then I think he picked up on it.
I get to watch a bit of cricket. 'Cause
my team's the old West Indies so...
Windies.
Yeah, I get to watch them
every so often.
- I love my Aussie Rules.
- Yeah.
Go the 'Pies.
Like, when he's in the shower,
that's when I run amok in here.
I'll put this over there,
put clothes out for the day
or I'll put them in the washing machine.
But that's howl am at home as well.
Like, I was packed two days
before we flew out, so...
I do take advantage of it a fair bit.
Yes, you do.
Bye.
Over at BC Iron,
the pressure is on Mark Lynch
to keep shipping out the iron ore
in as high a quality as possible
by keeping a close eye
on all the crushing units on site.
We're just heading down
to the benny plant
that we put in a couple of weeks ago,
just to see how it's all running.
We've got a product there
which was an under-spec grade.
We're trying to lift the grade a bit
so it's a bit more
of a saleable product.
So that's a lump of ore.
All the finer stuff in there
at the moment -
all the white stuff and all that-
that's all the impurities.
We'll remove a lot of those
so it'll give us just all of your iron.
So what we've got here
is our benny plant.
So basically we're crushing
this low-grade ore
just sitting in the pile behind here.
Goes through the crusher,
gets crushed down to -10mm.
We're actually screening it
to get rid of the waste.
So we're actually upgrading
the iron ore.
We're trying to make strawberry jam
out of pig shit.
So we're pumping out
over 20,000 tonne a day,
25,000 tonne a day,
depending on the day.
$120 a tonne -
you do the maths, you know?
Iron ore is the lifeblood
of Australia's mining industry
thanks to customers like China,
whose scale and pace of urbanisation
remains unprecedented.
They constantly need steel,
and for steel they need iron ore -
a lot of iron ore.
There's still so much going on
within iron ore,
and that's going to keep going on
for a long time.
I mean, any industry
that's going to grow
by 30% over an 18-month period
in terms of output
is actually in a pretty good state.
And I think that's what we've got
within our iron-ore sector here.
The value has risen 30%
in the last year alone,
and is now raking in over $70 billion,
making it Australia's greatest export.
But if the ore runs out one day,
what then?
Is Australia becoming caught
in a money trap too?
It's an industry
that I think Australia
really shouldn't be relying on
as much as we have been.
And, in fact, we should really be trying
to maintain that economic diversity
that we actually had before this boom.
And a bit like managing
an investment portfolio.
For example, the economists all tell us
that it's great that we're specialising
and this is our comparative advantage,
but none of those advisers, I think,
from the Treasury
would be putting, like, 60% of their
superannuation into mining stocks,
which is what we're doing as a country
for our export incomes,
and we've lost a lot
of that economic diversity
as a result of this mining boom.
So what we've got here
is the final product.
The ore we're putting in there
is running at about
anywhere between 50-55% iron ore.
Once it's been crushed and screened,
this stuff here will come in
at probably close to 57%,
which is what we're looking for.
At the start of this mining boom
we had 130 years of iron-ore production.
That's come down to 70 years
just in the space of a decade,
and we are now looking at
doubling our iron-ore production again
by the end of this decade.
So while they are trying to shore up
new deposits and expand into new mines,
it is the case that production
is going through the roof
and the resource is finite.
And so those life expectancies are
actually coming down quite dramatically.
The warning signs
are there for all to see,
but over in Queensland,
copper miner Nick Dametto
has more immediate concerns.
Having just fixed the water leak,
another danger
is just around the corner.
The problem with working
in a confined space,
you don't know what the atmosphere
in there's been like
before you've opened up the doors
to work in there.
So there's a lot of potential
for danger.
It could be harmful gas in there,
explosive gases.
There could be inert gases
that displace oxygen.
This machine here tests for all that.
Before we enter a confined space,
those tests need to be carried out.
The correct permits
need to be filled out.
And if the machine says
it's OK to go in,
you can then enter that confined space.
People have died in confined spaces.
The biggest problem is people
don't check the atmosphere
before they enter it.
What happens is one guy can go in.
He just collapses all of a sudden.
The second guy behind him,
they don't know exactly
what's gone wrong for him.
They end up going in the confined space
to help their mate -
it's just human nature - the next minute
you've got two casualties.
The lower explosive limit is zero,
so it means there's
no explosive gases in there.
The oxygen percentage is 20.9.
That's perfect for people to breathe.
And OOO on all the LELs.
Perfect.
A large part of Nick's job
is to prevent accidents happening,
something he's more than qualified to
talk about from first-hand experience.
Everybody wants to go home with
all their fingers and all their toes.
I didn't do that one day
and that's why I make sure
that everyone's doing the right thing,
make sure everyone's
doing the job safely
because no-one wants a workplace injury.
They tried to stitch it back on,
but after about three months, the bone
in the finger just didn't take properly.
It was getting in the way,
so I asked the doctor to chop it off.
My life's changed a lot
in the last, say, five years.
First, when I was single and that
and doing the FIFO work,
you'd spend the whole time partying
and having a good time
and out on the town nearly every night,
flying over to Bali
and all sons of things like that.
And now, well, I think it's easier
doing the family thing.
Life's a lot...
it's a little bit more laid-back,
a little bit more relaxed
and a lot less hangovers.
To ensure there are no hangovers while
on site, the mines run a tight ship.
For a start, before each shift
everyone has to be breath-tested.
Must blow zeros.
If you blow numbers,
then we wait half an hour. Try it again.
If you still blow numbers,
you go back to the village.
You go back to the village,
you stay in the village for the day
and you get a written warning.
You get three written warnings,
you get a window seat.
Let's keep moving.
You have to have
rules and regulations up on site.
You're there to do a job.
And you can go have a couple of beers
and that's fine, but don't run amok.
Don't not turn up the next day
because you had a big night on the piss.
You're there to work.
Work hard, make your dollars.
I mean, you earn every cent.
Everyone says, 'Oh, miners
are on big money.' You fucking earn it.
Say you're working locally, you might go
for after-work drinks in the city.
You know, like, you can't just...
you can't do that on a mine site.
Like, you can have a couple of beers
down at the wet nurse, you know,
but then everyone has to get up,
like, a ridiculous hour in the
morning, so it's a little bit different.
I try not to drink
when I'm at work.
I used to drink at shift change
and throughout the week.
But, nah, not no more.
I found for me personally that it was
just taking too much of a toll,
just because of the fact
that you stayed up too late,
had one too many drinks or something.
So I just, 'Nah, bugger it.'
It's not worth it.
Out here for a reason -
to get in front.
But that's not always the case
when FIFOs clock off.
With spare time and spare cash,
for some flying miners the money's
not a trap, but a temptation.
Sometimes people with lots of money
don't necessarily spend it very wisely.
And so you have
antisocial issues arise
where there is drink, drugs
or prostitution
in areas where there's lots of people
with too much money.
I was on a plane coming back
from Port Hedland last week
and I saw the bad of FIFO
where there were three young guys
who had obviously between
their last shift and catching the plane,
there were several hours to drink
and they were quite obnoxious.
So you see the worst as well.
But the other 40 guys on the plane
who were FIFO workers
were embarrassed by them.
I think the FIFO industry
has had a bad rap.
They work hard. They're not necessarily
cashed-up bogans.
They're not necessarily
drug and alcohol fiends.
There are rules,
and mining companies are very keen
not to have the responsibility
for very young FIFO workers,
so I think the average age
of the younger FIFO worker
is considerably higher
than it was perhaps ten years ago.
You need people who are good
at what they do and are focused.
If they're not, they're not going to be
on your staff for very long.
Have a safe one, guys.
Six months ago, Michael was trapped
by too much debt
rather than too much money.
Having lost his job
and broken up with his partner,
he moved back home
to ponder his next step.
I shot through
to the Gold Coast.
Went up there and stayed with the mother
and the sister for a little bit.
And that was... it was helpful,
it really was, being around family.
I knew what he was going through,
but I couldn't help him.
He was so depressed at the time,
he could have swung either way
because there was some highs and lows
in the end throughout that process.
The only thing that kept us
all together was basically his kids
and knowing that we were doing
the right thing for him and his family.
Mum did help
'cause she give me someone to talk to,
someone to express my feelings to.
And she's always there
when I've needed her.
- Well, drive safely.
- Bring the kids up.
Yeah, OK. See you then.
So it was a very emotional time for me
as a mother,
knowing full well that he had to hit
that rock bottom first, and he did.
He did.
Just watch that tree behind you.
I always want
good things for my kids,
and they've always been
my motivation for everything.
So I was always trying to get a job,
but there was just no work
on the East Coast.
I was putting in for everything, sol
started looking over the West Coast.
I think he put in
something like 30 resumes
to different organisations every week,
and unfortunately
didn't hear anything back
from those 30 different resumes
that he's put in, but he persisted.
Then, all of a sudden, one of
my jobs that I put in for over at Penn,
they rung me up
and they said, 'You've got the job.'
It's like, 'You've got
your medical next week.'
And right then I just felt
a weight lifted off my shoulders.
It was an awesome feeling.
There are
at least 3,000 Indigenous people
in the workforce in the Pilbara alone.
I'm thrilled every time
I hear about or meet
an Aboriginal person whose life
has been changed by having a job.
The gap will be closed
if Aboriginal people have jobs.
It's just about giving people
an opportunity.
They either take the opportunity
or they don't.
Thankfully for us, the majority do.
This is just what I needed.
Get away from everything.
Just to get my life back on track.
Happy days.
Couldn't be happier.
It is fantastic that Aboriginal people
are being employed,
and it's wonderful when you see the
transformation in an individual's lives,
but mining is not for everybody.
I think it's the responsibility
of mining companies
to be actually offering
greater opportunities,
tertiary qualifications and the like,
and that's not always happening.
Aboriginal people, I think,
are entitled to much more than a job.
Building this up as the great solution,
I think, is seriously flawed.
It's a message
for all sections of the mining industry
But two Indigenous miners
who are happy with their FIFO life
are Annie and Charles.
When not at work, they're enjoying
their downtime in Geraldton, WA.
This walk on the foreshore
is pretty relaxing.
It's nice and open.
Can bring the kids down
so they can swim out to the pontoons
or whatever they call it.
Yeah, I don't swim that much
out in the ocean.
I'd rather be in the rivers, me.
And why is that?
The old movie.
You know, Jaws.
We got introduced
at the Christmas party.
- Yeah, I got snobbed off.
- You talk lies!
There is the truth, see?
Yeah, she...
Just, 'Oh, how you going?'
Just walked off.
I was nice. I said, 'Hello. How are you?
Where do you work?'
That sort of attracted me then.
I thought, 'Oh, hmm!'
And then after that we decided
to have a cup of tea and go for a walk.
The FIFO life is not
all fancy homes and luxury holidays.
For many, the money just means that
it's a little easier to pay the bills.
We're probably
on the low end of the scale
because we only do eight and six.
And, er, I do pay a bit
of maintenance as well, so...
- Are these the same fellas or nah?
- Yeah.
Everyone thinks because
we're FIFO workers we can afford it,
but, like, we get paid monthly
and we've got our bills to pay,
joint bills to pay,
and then by the end of it, yeah,
we've only got a little bit
to spend for ourselves, yeah.
Get the kids and bills
and everything out the way.
Yeah.
No such worries
for iron-ore miner Mark Lynch.
He's been making good coin for years,
which wife Emma, back home in Perth,
is more than happy to put to good use.
My relationship with Mark,
I don't think it's affected at all
by him doing fly-in, fly-out.
If anything, it's made
our relationship stronger.
- Hello!
- Hello, beautiful. How are you?
So, I've got heaps
to tell you tonight.
I've organised my dishwasher-
or, sorry, our dishwasher.
And also the washing machine -
after substantial research,
I'm going a front-loader.
- No, you're not.
- Ooh, your whole face dropped.
I am.
I couldn't tell you how much longer
this would go on.
We've always said that when one of us
decides that enough is enough
and we want to call it quits,
well, we'll call it quits.
- Are you on the internet?
- Nah.
You are. You're surfing Facebook!
- No, I'm not.
- Mark, you are so!
I was playing patience.
You are such a shit.
I got my steam mop today -
my little handheld steam mop thing.
I'll grab it and show you.
- Don't go away.
- OK. I'll stay right here.
Gonna be the highlight of my day.
Fucking steam mop.
This is it here,
and it looks like a jug.
Yep. Does it wash clothes?
I wash your clothes.
Our front-loader will wash your clothes.
Sometimes it'd be nice
just to have a normal existence.
- He can see you. Hello!
- Hello!
But then again, what is normal?
It's got all these little attachments.
- Like, this plugs into one end.
- Yep.
You've got no idea,
but this is a little thing here.
No, I've got plenty of idea.
'Cause what it's going to do,
I'll find it sitting in a cupboard
in three months' time never used.
It'll go the way of the bread maker.
I'll never live
the bread maker down.
'I need a bread maker.
I'll make bread every day.'
- Well, I'll let you go. And...
- Yeah, yeah. I'll make tracks.
The sacrifices that we make
are not being together 2417.
And you just have to... I don't know.
It's a sacrifice you make, I suppose.
- Love you.
- Love you too.
- Bye.
- Bye.
- You hang up first.
- You hang up.
No, don't do this!
- You hang up.
- OK.
- See you later.
- We'll hang up together, OK?
- Love you. Bye.
- Love you. Bye.
It's great. I've got the money.
We do whatever we want when we want.
But some nights you sit there
and you think, you know,
'What the fuck am I doing here?'
Copper miner Nick Dametto
flies out every eight days
for six days at home in Townsville.
For a man who's lost his finger
to mining, he's made plenty in return.
On a wage of $120,000 a year,
he's had the golden handcuffs on for
years and has the toys to show for it.
My biggest problem is I've got
too many toys and too many projects.
There's not enough days off,
but I'm working on it.
This is a senior kart for myself
and a junior kart for my son.
Also I've got a 300XS
Mercury racing outboard engine
on the stand at the moment.
Got the kitchen, large island bench.
Lovely partner, Alicia,
making some pasta for dinner tonight.
The lounge area, the main lounge area.
You've got TVs everywhere
so you don't miss any of the action.
Gas cooktop and range hood.
We have a 714m sq block.
I can mow this place
in about 35 minutes,
the reason being
when I get home from work
I don't want to worry
about doing too many outdoor chores.
I want to just sit by the pool, hose the
cement off a little bit and just relax.
And that's not all he enjoys doing
on his time off.
It's a Thursday afternoon.
Most people are still at work,
but this is son of the cream
of doing fly-in, fly-out work.
Six days off every fortnight,
so we get as much skiing
down the river in as possible.
When everyone's out working,
we're enjoying the nice calm water
down the river.
It's... yeah, it's perfect, mate.
Going back to a nine-to-five job
at this point in time
would not be feasible for me.
There's a lifestyle that we need
a certain amount of money to cover.
I've purchased now my second house.
I'm looking to do a third house
in the next couple of years.
It's also helped me put my son through
private school, which is very important.
It means a lot to me, and he's about
to start high school next year,
which, because
of our financial position,
we can choose where we send our son.
Whenever I'm hanging out with Deakin
or on the water with the boys,
it's brilliant.
Can't wipe the smile off my face.
Righto, Hickey!
Nick's firmly caught
in the mining money trap,
but he does have plans
to make a great escape.
My dream one day would be able
to walk away from the mining industry
financially set up,
perhaps walking into a business
that we could start.
Swing around, Hickey!
Going into semi-retirement -
that's my dream financially.
Until that day, I'm just going to keep
ticking away in the mining industry.
While the money is good
and the conditions are good,
I think we'll be hanging around
for a little bit longer.
He's just going to keep going.
There've been media headlines
that suggest that FIFO workers,
you know, boys with their toys,
but it's by no means the majority.
In fact, FIFO workers
are really good savers.
So in terms of benefiting
and investing for the future,
I think some FIFO workers
have done it well.
- Front yard looks good.
- Nice fake lawn. No more mowing.
At the moment we're
just saving for a house in Geraldton.
- Annie.
- Hi, Annie. Nice to meet you.
- Charlie.
- G'day, Charlie. How are you?
Welcome to the Oakwood, guys.
Yeah, no, there's five kids,
so when we have them around all at once
it's going to be pretty hectic.
It's a nice big family home.
Should we go for a look?
- Yeah, let's go.
- Righto.
But we don't want,
like, a big flash...
Nothing big.
..house.
- Just basic.
- Just a shelter basically.
Simple things in life.
Brand-new. 4m by 2m.
It's about 240 odd square metres
of living.
Oh! The cucina!
Big pot for some kangaroo stew, man.
Smile if you want to smile.
Don't be shy.
Oh, yeah, I'm just speechless
just looking at it.
This would be perfect, eh?
Oh, yeah. Definitely.
I love it, yeah.
It makes us want it more.
It makes it more real having a target
and actually seeing it.
Like, this is something
that we would definitely go for.
And then put the barbecue over there,
table and chairs here.
Charlie will want his beer tub
in the corner.
I'm liking that.
That little power cord here.
You can have your bar fridge
and everything there.
Sorted.
Probably look at a couple more, though,
but, yeah, this one's
grabbing me already, I reckon.
Working all that time, travelling
all of that way back and forth,
being away from our family,
just to have house like this
to call our own
and something for the kids to have
if anything was to happen to us,
we know that they'll be fine.
- Thank you.
- What did you think?
- Loved it.
- Fantastic.
- I want one now.
- Yeah.
Nice to meet you both.
See you, Annie. See you, Charlie.
As Annie and Charles
think about making
their first big investment together,
some would argue that they need to be
careful as the money trap lies in wait.
Mining is a very, very
cyclical industry.
And one of the concerns
I have about Australia as an economy
is we have become
more dependent on it.
And for families to
be depending on it in that way
and for taking up big mortgages
and car loans
to buy boats and big four-wheel drives
and the like,
instead of using the money to get
themselves into a secure position,
they're actually taking on more debt.
One miner in debt
is Michael Lynwood.
But his debt is to an industry
that's given him a break
after months of unemployment
and depression.
Now enjoying life fixing iron-ore cars,
the money's not trapped him,
it's revived him.
Working over here by myself,
spend a lot of time by myself,
it works in your favour
'cause it rebuilds your confidence.
You know, it's worth it.
By the time you get home, you go and
see your kids and it's just awesome.
Dad, watch this.
I'm watching.
And on his downtime, he's able to
resume Daddy duties every three weeks.
Yay! Well done!
Oh, that scared her.
Hey, are we going on this?
Come on.
It's good to be back here really.
Because this R&R,
it happened to be on Jacaranda Thursday
so you've got all the festivities.
You can take the kids
round on the rides, fairy floss,
you can get your face painted,
just enjoy it, basically.
It's relaxing this year,
isn't it, bubba?
Yep.
I remember last year I just...
I didn't want to be in Grafton.
Now it's starting to feel like home
again, so that's a good feeling.
The kids love coming here.
So they've got all their toys
and they know when they come here
it's their time to spend it with Dad.
So that's a good thing for 'em.
You lost your earring, did you?
Oh, well.
Let's go and look for it.
The amount of time
that Michael spends with his kids
is the whole five days
that he's actually home for that period.
He gets very little time for himself
'cause he's a doting dad,
so he spends most of his time with them.
We, as a family, sort of get together
and help him out.
Not that often, but we try.
And to say thank you
for all their support,
Michael's new FIFO life meant
that he was able to pay for his family
to go to the snow
for the very first time,
on a holiday they'll never forget.
They helped me through
a bad time in my life
so I felt like I owed 'em.
It was a great feeling
knowing from where I was
to being able to give this to my family,
and coming from not being able to buy
me daughter a present for her birthday
to eight months later being in the snow,
I'm still emotional about it.
It's... just a great feeling, basically.
For the first time ever,
Indigenous people are able to afford
to take their families
on an actual holiday.
And most Australians
take that for granted,
but for an Aboriginal worker
that is such a privilege.
It makes them feel like
they're pan of Australian society.
And any social scientist will tell you
that being able to afford recreation
is actually a sign
of inclusion in society,
and suddenly the gap's closing for them.
So it's a great outcome.
My plan is next year
take the kids back to the snow
and then I might just go over
to America for a couple of weeks.
Go and check out Miami, I think.
I want to tick that off my list.
I never actually thought
about travelling until I got this job.
Never thought
I'd be financially able to.
So all I need to do now
is grab my passport and I can go.
I've got the money.
There's nothing stopping me.
And to be able to think
like that, then...
...there's nothing in this world
you can't do.
See ya!
You can't wipe the smile
off my face really.
The future looks bright
for Michael right now.
But what does the future look like
for the Australian mining industry?
If the mining industry
were predictable
people wouldn't be able to make
a fortune predicting it.
But these analysts
are making predictions
and some are right and some are wrong.
McNULTY: The mining industry is going
to continue to be a very large employer
of, you know, a broad range
of educational backgrounds,
from people that have been
to university in highly skilled careers
but also people...
effectively unskilled labourers
who can actually still earn an
incredibly good living from the sector.
Sol don't see any of that changing
any time in the future.
Surroundings like this
is why I love this job.
There's a misconception
that Aboriginal people have a choice.
Aboriginal people will get mining
whether or not they want it.
What I want to know about
is whether or not people
are in fact benefiting from mining.
Well, demonstrably they are.
But in the battleground
of global competition,
mining companies are looking for ways
to keep costs down and production up.
Welcome to
the brave new world of automatic mining,
where the humans are leaving the
dirty work to the monsters in the pit
The technological advances we're
gonna have - autonomous trucks, rail-
we'll see a lot of changes there
going forward over the next few years.
If you're going to move
into the future of mining
and be more competitive
with the world market,
I fundamentally think it is an area
that you need to start exploring
and start to understand.
Some jobs might be
in jeopardy,
but it looks like mining is here
for the long haul.
The resource industry
will come to a halt
when this society no longer needs
metal or energy.
I cannot see that happening
any time in the future.
A decade ago,
the biggest coalmine in the country,
in the Hunter Valley, produced
about 10 million tonnes of coal a year.
In the Galilee Basin,
we are going to see mega mines
of 30-, 40-, 60-million tonnes,
and all of that coal being shipped
through the Great Barrier Reef
from Abbot Point,
requiring massive dredging,
potentially massive impact on the coral
and marine life in that area.
Save our reef!
Save our reef!
So it's incredible
that State governments
are absolutely hooked
on getting more mining revenue
to try to shore up their deficits.
And it's not just
old-fashioned fuel that's making waves.
Australia has a new resource
up its sleeve
that is sure to grab the headlines.
Looking forward into the future,
Australia can drive its prosperity
by riding the wave of gas.
The positioning of gas in Asia
is particularly exciting for Australia,
given our proximity.
China will be moving
more from coal to gas.
And the expected imports are going to
grow tenfold over the next 20 years.
And just recently we've had,
you know, more than $200 billion
of investment globally in Australia
developing our gas sector.
That will result in billions of dollars
of additional revenue to Australia
that didn't exist even 12 months ago
and create a whole lot of new jobs
that don't currently exist.
And FIFO is at the heart of those.
Clearly times are changing
for the mining industry,
but for now the FIFOs will continue
to fly high on mining prosperity
No-one knows for exactly how long,
but the money trap is set to snare
many more FIFOs for some years yet.
The thing is that
FIFO is not going to go away.
And communities and governments
that sort of either pretend
it's not there or wish it would go away,
that's not going to happen.
A bit of positive reinforcement,
you know.
FIFO's here.
It has been here for a long time.
It is not a disease.
It's not causing
our societies to collapse.
So what should we be doing
to actually enhance it?
So the quicker we do it,
the more cohesively we do it,
the result will be far better.
It's all good. Spot on.
Your mining company
needs to understand community values.
The community needs to understand
the values of the mining company.
Otherwise it's like talking
two different languages.
The main street of Port Hedland.
Not a soul around.
There certainly has been the haves
and the have-nets in some communities,
and that hurts, but the benefits
have been spread far and wide.
And I hope that we have something
to show for it in 50 years' time.
See you guys later.
We've had this incredible boom.
Biggest in our history.
All of our governments are in deficit
despite all this revenue
they've been getting
because it comes in and just goes
out the door and it's spent,
unlike other countries
that do a bit of planning.
It's a bit like just drawing money
out of the bank.
We're just sort of really funding our
lifestyle by running down our wealth.
Well, there's another two weeks, boys.
The trick is to retain that wealth
and to ensure that that wealth
that's come from mining,
which won't necessarily always be here,
that we make that wealth
work for us into the future.
We can't afford to let those riches
just ebb away.
Captions by CSI Australia