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ilovebrokenhill.com , was first published on 8 December 2011 by Jane Deany. My blog is all about the famous outback Australian National Heritage Listed City named Broken Hill, located in the state of New South Wales. I first visited #BrokenHill in 2002 and have returned many times since then. ilovebrokenhill.com will help you discover what's great about this historic mining city, where in the mid 1880's the line of lode, a rich ore body of silver, lead and zinc was found. You will find stories about anything related to Broken Hill.

Thursday 17 January 2013

Broken Hill and FIFO (fly in fly out) workers

Poppet Head on the Line of Lode
Mining Industry
Fly In Fly Out (FIFO) mine workers are a big issue Australia wide at the moment so what is happening in Broken Hill on that front? For starters the FIFO lifestyle is widely recognised as having a significant impact on the miner or other type of FIFO worker and their family's lives. It is difficult to cope with long periods apart from loved ones even though there is good money to be earned.

A great deal has been written about this subject, much of it negative. Broken Hill however is seen in a relatively good light for FIFO workers as it is an excellent, friendly, well serviced city in which to reside whilst working in the local mines or other fields which use FIFO workers. Broken Hill is quite unlike some of the more remote mining areas and towns which lack the significant cultural side that Broken Hill enjoys.

As I am no expert on the subject however, other than to understand the difficulties I mentioned above, I have instead listed some links to sites below that cover the topic more thoroughly.
I am sure there many more articles that Google etc... can 'dig up' (excuse the pun) about this often controversial subject.

For your reference there are a number of large mining companies operating in and around Broken Hill, plus a number of other mid size and smaller players at the moment. The big 'names' in Broken Hill right now are Perilya Limited, CBH Resources Limited and Cristal Mining Australia Limited (Cristal) which was known as Bemax Resources Limited prior to 1 October 2012. Carpentaria Exploration Limited is also active in the region.

As mentioned above, mining is not the only industry to have FIFO workers. For example, Jac McLaurin referred to above in the ABC article works in a field which services both the mining and other industries.

Deb Hunt (left) with Kylee
Mitchell "Short and Sweet"
regional director, courtesy BDT
FIFO and Film/Live Theatre
On another directly related note, local Broken Hill writer Deb Hunt was one of four successful NSW entrants in the recent regional play festival "Short and Sweet". She was flown to Sydney last week to see the performance of her play "Clean Sweep", which came second in the audience vote and just missed out on a place in the final. It is the first play Deb has written.

Prior to her Sydney trip, Deb's play was well received in Broken Hill where it won "Best Script", "People's Choice" and "Best Production".

Here is a link to an article about Deb and her play from the 'Barrier Daily Truth' (BDT).

I hope I will have the opportunity to see the show sometime. It's theme is related to FIFO.

Cheers, Jane D

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