RESOURCES companies’ drive to source workers is having an effect on the state’s regional towns and cities, with growing numbers of fly-in, fly-out workers from these areas heading to the mines.
Rio Tinto has been most active in this role and now has more than 500 workers flown to its mines from regional centres including Busselton, Albany and Exmouth.
“We’ve found that regional centres from Albany all the way up to Broome and beyond contain people with a good mix of skills and backgrounds that transfer well to the mining industry,” Rio Tinto general manager human Resources Pilbara operations Kevin Lewis said.
Other companies increasing their regional FIFO worker presence include Karara Mining, which flies from Geraldton and Bunbury to its iron ore project in the Mid West, and Northern Star Resources, which offers FIFO from Exmouth to its Paulsens gold mine in the Pilbara.
Albany Mayor Dennis Wellington told WA Business News that, since the launch of direct flights to Rio’s Brockman 4 in March, some Perth-based families had taken up the opportunity to move to Albany, and other skilled workers in the region were able to take advantage of the job opportunities in the Pilbara.
“We have a number of new facilities in Albany, a great lifestyle and housing which is significantly cheaper than in Perth, so we expect a number of FIFO families will see Albany as a great place to live,” Mr Wellington said.
The Shire of Manjimup is also positioning itself as a FIFO hub to help boost its population and offset the decline in the timber industry.
“FIFO is the major contributor to our future population growth,” shire president Wade Decampo told WA Business News.
Last year, Rio Tinto recruited 50 former Gunns staff after the timber company closed its Manjimup sawmill. Those workers are currently bussed to Perth or Busselton to catch flights to the Pilbara.
“Long term our ambition is to fly people in and out of Manjimup from a new airport,” Mr Decampo said, adding that as part of the state government’s SuperTowns initiative it was examining options for a new airport to cater for the jets used to fly to the Pilbara.
Mr Decampo said the shire wanted to play a key role in providing the right support services for the families of FIFO workers to help them deal with the issues they often face.
He believes that attracting FIFO families can deliver longer-term benefits to the town.
“If we have a number of FIFO people within our community, then they will eventually come back into our community and want to work here,” Mr Decampo said.