Entry-level FIFO jobs are the roles that don't require prior mining experience — but they do require the right tickets, the right resume, and a realistic understanding of what each job involves. Here are five entry-level role types that are realistic starting points for people breaking into the industry.
What it involves: Camp maintenance, cleaning, kitchen hand work, laundry, groundskeeping, and general site support. You'll be keeping the village running so miners can focus on their shifts.
What experience transfers: Hospitality, cleaning, hotel/motel work, aged care, kitchen hand, facilities maintenance, any role with rosters and early starts.
Tickets that help: Police check, White Card, First Aid & CPR, Food Safety Certificate (for kitchen roles), Manual driver's licence.
What it involves: Assisting fitters, mechanics, and boilermakers with maintenance of plant and equipment. Cleaning work bays, fetching parts, basic tool work, running errands for the trades team.
What experience transfers: Labouring, warehouse, mechanical aptitude, farm work, any role with tools or machinery, apprenticeship (partial or completed).
Tickets that help: Police check, White Card, First Aid & CPR, Confined Space (for some maintenance crews), forklift ticket if you have one.
What it involves: Planned maintenance shutdowns on processing plants, refineries, or smelters. High-pressure, high-volume work — cleaning, scaffolding crew support, hydroblasting, painting, isolation support. Often 2–3 week rosters with heavy hours.
What experience transfers: Construction, civil, scaffolding, painting, labouring, any shutdown/refinery/plant exposure, heavy physical work.
Requirements to check: White Card, police check, Working at Heights, Confined Space or First Aid may appear depending on the site and duties. Scaffold or rigging work requires the relevant lawful competency. Check each ad before spending.
What it involves: Supporting a driller on a surface or underground drill rig. Handling rods, mixing fluids, sample collection, rig maintenance, truck driving to/from drill pads. Physically demanding — 12-hour shifts, often in remote locations.
What experience transfers: Farm work, heavy labouring, truck driving, outdoor/remote work, any physically demanding manual job with long shifts.
Tickets that help: Police check, First Aid & CPR, manual licence (HR preferred), Confined Space (for some underground drilling), White Card (for surface drilling).
What it involves: Learning to operate mobile plant — haul trucks, water carts, loaders, graders. Some sites offer traineeships that train you on-site and issue tickets. Competitive — you're competing against people with existing tickets.
What experience transfers: Truck driving, farm machinery operation, civil plant experience, any heavy machinery or transport background, strong safety record.
Requirements to check: Licence class, police checks, medicals and prior plant experience vary by traineeship. Some employers value transferable machinery experience; none of these items guarantees selection.