To get people to work at a mine in BFE, Telfer is a FIFO mine. FIFO stands for fly in/fly out. What that means is that you live somewhere away from the mine and the company flies you to the site where you live and work for some amount of time then back home for your days off. Schedules are usually a few days/weeks on then a few off. Mine will be 8 days on, 6 days off. Not a bad set up if you ask me.
I will be living in Perth the capital of Western Australia. It is about 1,000 miles away from Telfer. It will be like living in LA and working in Bozeman, MT. Don't believe me? Look at this map that overlays the US and Australia.
Yeph. Really far away.
So those are the basics. Any questions?
(and sorry that this post was awful just trying to give people a basic understanding of my work situation since it is unusual for the US)
Awesome! Subscribed to your blog!
ReplyDeleteIs it a company plane, or a commercial airline? Because you could get some sweet airline rewards.
It is a commercial airline, but one that exclusively does FIFO operations for the mining industry. Not sure about the miles situation yet, but yeah that would be an awesome bonus.
ReplyDeleteIs there cell service at the mine, do you stay at a hotel type room while there or what and how will you keep yourself entertained while there?
ReplyDeleteThey say that only one company has cell service out there, so that is who I am gonna go with. The rooms are described as hotel rooms with either en suite bathrooms, or like suite style dorms where a few rooms share a bathroom. You stay in the same room, and the same person uses it on the other rotation.
ReplyDeleteFor recreation there are plenty of sports facilities(pool, footy oval, rugby/soccer field, tennis court, hoops court, gym, and more). There is a lounge which sounds a lot like the lounges in dorms. There is also a bar on site, but the hours are crazy since it is company controlled. It is open for a few hours at the end of both shifts every day, but closes in plenty of time so people can go sleep.
Honestly recreation isn't a big deal. The shifts are 12 hours(6-6, I will always be on days), so by the time you factor in eating, showering and then rest of the daily stuff there isn't a whole lot of time for recreation.
Oh and to answer Ben's question I will get Virgin Australia points for all my FIFO flights.
If there's a golf course out there, my handicap would get soooo low....
ReplyDeleteThat actually sounds very similar to what they used to do around here from turn of the century to about the 50s or 60s or so. They lived in the coal camps where all these houses were built by the same floor plan and had general stores and post offices and stuff. A lot of the coal camps are still there in the more remote places like the VA-KY border as private communities. I think a lot of times they even did stuff like 2 weeks in 2 weeks out and lived communally in those houses at work then went home for 2 weeks. And of course they built golf courses for the management, "coal courses" we call them. A lot of those are still around too as private-equity, but getting to them is a bitch because they're in the most remote mountaintop places with shitty roads in this area cause that's where the mines, coal camps, and power plants were (some of those are still active too, they're just now getting around to building newer cleaner power plants near major highways that haven't been around as long as the other resources). Interesting stuff.
ReplyDeleteIt is similar to that only there are a few key differences:
ReplyDelete1.) I am not paid in scrip.
2.) Telfer is not intended for families like some of the old mine camps were.
3.) The set up is not really like a town. More like a college campus with all services centralized and run by the company. No independent businesses.
And there is a driving rang on site, but honestly I am not sure how I would get clubs up here/store them. The checked bag regs are very tight since the plans are small, and I only have a small closet to store stuff in and it is mostly full of my work clothes. Honestly I work so much I have yet to really use any of the support facilities other then the gym and bar. And oh what a brilliant bar it is.