FIFO life.

[Skids]

[partypie]

sending good thoughts your way at the back of beyond

[Bruce Gonsalves]

As a fellow plumber, I feel your pain. Plenty of work over East, but living in W.A. it's probably the best way of making a decent quid, but yeah family life is the offset.

I've got an old school mate living on the Vic west coast, fifoing to northern W.A. oil rigs. He actually loves it. Each to his own I suppose.

[David]

[ronrat]

My brother and a heap of hs mates got retrenched in Borneo because the coal price is too low. He now flys in and out from Borneo to a gold mine in Surinam. His flight schedule is something like. Balikpapan to Batam. $5 minute ferry to Singapore. Singapore to Amsterdam. Ansterdam ti Instanbul. Instanbul to New York. New York to Miami. Miami to Pariboro. 2 hours flight to jungle and then one hour car ride. It takes near 29 hours. By the time he gets home he is frazzled.And the site is alcohol free and they get half a day off Sunday and head to the nearest town for a beer. (sneaking some back of course).That route is not certain because it is cost dependant. It can take longer.

[stui magpie]

^

Phuc Dat.

What's the work schedule? How many days/weeks of work to how long off?

[ronrat]

^

Phuc Dat.

What's the work schedule? How many days/weeks of work to how long off?

8 weeks on. 4 off. Travel time his his time. He is a smoker too so the stops are a godsend at times.He pays travel above a certain amount which is why he gors to Batam. Saves a few hunded dollars and his mate has a bar there so is a lot cheaper than sitting in Jacks bar in Changi.

[stui magpie]

Again, geezuz. Can I assume the 8 weeks on aren't 7 days per week?

Still, that's a single man's caper and even then I'd struggle with it

[ronrat]

6 days and Sundays on call. Most of the loacals go to church. He is the maintainance boss so if a truck breaks down he sends a mechanic, a diesel fitter or a auto elec. Then back to watching tv or whatever. A lot of the maids, domestics and working girls are from Indonesia as they are both ex dutch colonies and are on a working holiday from Holland. . Speaking fluent Indo is a good start. When I last saw him he had been on a bender on the airways. He got me banned from a local club in Thailand.

He reckons they work so they don;t get bored and end up getting too involved and start buying love shacks etc.

[Skids]

I do like the lifestyle, I have been fortunate enough to be on 'family friendly' rosters, as they call them, 8 days on/ 6 days off for the past 6 years.

I can't imagine what it's like for blokes on 4/1 or other long swings. A mate of mine does 4 weeks on/ 2 weeks off out of a copper mine in Mongolia.

Even on my roster there are times when you get down. This year I'm away for nearly all my families birthdays.

I wouldn't do anything other than an even time roster.

[Morrigu]

Or you could try African FIFO - which actually means walk ( a long long seriously long way) set up your flimsy tent on the side of the road - work and then walk miles back to your tent and rinse and repeat!! for months at a time - couple f the guys we stopped to chat to hadn't been home for 9 months!

[ronrat]

Or you could try African FIFO - which actually means walk ( a long long seriously long way) set up your flimsy tent on the side of the road - work and then walk miles back to your tent and rinse and repeat!! for months at a time - couple f the guys we stopped to chat to hadn't been home for 9 months!

Ner the Thai =Cambodian border are lots of farm workers. They congegrate around dams, live in UNHCR tents and have no power. Just light a fire and cook rice and whatever they are picking or have caught or found. They are on 8 bucks a day and send half that home. Unfortunately they also catch peoples dogs for the pot. Who knows when they go home, presumably when the work runs out.

[Skids]

A sad reminder of the struggles that come with FIFO.
A girl who had been here for 6 years, in her early 30's, took her own life in her room on Wednesday night.
RIP Louise

[Culprit]

Very sad.

[think positive]