BHP Port Hedland development to council

REVISED development plans for BHP Billiton’s enormous temporary accommodation and light industrial site in Port Hedland will go to council for approval in mid March, with significant reductions in the number of staff to be housed and length of lease from the original plan.

The original plan was released in November and set out to accommodate 6,000 transient construction workers at the 112-hectare site with a 25-year lease. Community criticism led to a revision of the plan, which now aims to accommodate a maximum of 4,000 people for 10 years with one five-year option to extend.

BHP maintains the financial returns related to the development in the town of Port Hedland, which exported $40 billion worth of goods last financial year, would be $200 million over the 10 years.

At the time of the original plan’s release, Town of Port Hedland chief executive Paul Martin said the development proposal was not a question of whether the town wanted another transitional workforce accommodation site, but whether it wanted to build the accommodation on council-owned land and reap the financial benefits of it.

Fly-in, fly-out, or transitional workforces, are largely used during the construction phase of a project and require large worker numbers.

The Senate is currently holding an inquiry into fly-in, fly-out practices and the effects on communities. 

The Town of Port Hedland made a submission to the inquiry last November, outlining the difficulties in managing the competing interests of a community.

“Short-term use of FIFO workforce, housed in temporary camps, outside town sites is recognised as being necessary in periods of construction and productivity spikes,” it said.

“However, operations staff required for longer terms need to largely be provided by a resident workforce to normalise our community as far as possible. FIFO based resource operations are usually accompanied by FIFO trade and service industries. These arrangements operate to the detriment of our local residential community.

“Small business, unrelated to the mining sector, struggles to be viable in our community due to the high cost of housing for employees.

“Obviously the town is keen to attract a workforce of permanent residents.”