Fly-in, fly-out fuelling violence: study

The mining sector's reliance on fly-in, fly-out workers is fuelling an epidemic of violence, a groundbreaking new study has shown.

Researchers have found rates of violent assaults in mining communities in Queensland and Western Australia are more than double the average for each state.

Queensland University of Technology Professor Kerry Carrington has identified serious social problems resulting from the fly-in, fly-out workforce model used by mining companies.

Prof Carrington, the head of the School of Justice Studies at QUT's Faculty of Law, said the three-year study showed mine workers were turning to alcohol and drugs in isolated environments where there were few other ways to spend their time.

The result was a spike in violence, including brawls over women, sex workers and spilt drinks.

The findings are at odds with reports from the resources sector itself.

Mining companies have repeatedly said they have strict alcohol and drug testing and that they have worked hard to invest in improving the quality of mining camps.

But Professor Carrington's study questions these assertions.

"Work camps have a profound impact upon the patterns of violence in host communities," Prof Carrington told reporters.

"In one Western Australian mining community, which was surrounded by work camps housing about 8000 mostly male workers, the rate of violence was 2.3 times the state average.

"In a Queensland mining community, the rate of violence had grown from 534 (assaults) per 100,000 (people) in 2001 to 2315 per 100,000 in 2003, more than twice the state average."

The study, which is the first of its kind, also took into account anecdotal evidence from police, magistrates, doctors, industry and community workers, who told of what little it took to spark brawls.

"It's usually something like 'I was drunk and he was looking at my girlfriend' ... 'I didn't like the way he looked at me' or 'he knocked my beer over'," one magistrate told researchers of the defences offered when workers were charged with assault.

Prof Carrington said most work camps had a rotating roster of hundreds, or even thousands, of fly-in, fly-out staff who had no allegiances to the communities in which they worked.

Such workers often put in 12-hour days, for two weeks straight, with few entertainment options other than the pub, she said.

"The other main cause of violence is rivalry between different groups of men, including between non-resident workers and locals and between contractors and crews, and rivalry over available women or sex workers," Prof Carrington said.

"High stress, job insecurity, long hours and isolation are catalysts for violent cultures to flourish."

Prof Carrington said young men from good families, with no history of violence, were among those ending up behind bars.

She questioned the fly-in, fly-out model, saying mining companies and governments should be trying to build healthy, attractive communities so people would instead chose to settle there.

A proportion of the federal government's proposed new mining tax should go towards that goal, she said.