Far North set to fly as main base for miners
Date: 27 March 2010


Industry leaders say the region has the potential to become one of the biggest bases for mine workers.

This week, they met in Cairns as part of the national resources sector employment taskforce to look at ways to attract more FIFO workers to the Far North.

Taskforce chairman Gary Gray, who is also the Parliamentary Secretary for western and northern Australia, saidthetaskforcehadidentified the potential for Cairns to overtake Townsville as a major fly- in-fly-out base for the mining industry.

He said the taskforce had identified up to 80 long to medium-term resource projects that could be supported from Cairns, which provided a beautiful environment and lifestyle for FIFO workers and
their families.

“These are higher paying, good jobs which would support substantial communities in host centres,” Mr Gray said.

More than 2000 mine workers already use Cairns as a base.

According to figures provided by economist Bill Cummings, there are 2100 fly-in, fly-out mine workers, including 1400 directly involved in work in northwest Queensland, the Northern Territory and
Papua new Guinea.

Mr Cummings said overall there were 3500 people who worked in mining in the region, including 1400 in the Far North and another 200 who flew to sites within the region.

He said there were more than 500 staff based in Cairns who were involved in construction and maintenance.

Mr Gray said the region had a workforce to provide a variety of skills to the industry, including truck drivers, cooks and cleaners.

He said there were mining operators in the Pilbara, Karratha and elsewhere ready and willing to talk to Cairns business leaders about FIFOs.

Queensland Resources Council deputy chief executive Greg Lane said Cairns was in an ideal
position to takeadvantageofexpanding its FIFO base with billions of dollars of mining projects coming on line soon.

“Cairns is highly attractive to families,” Mr Lane said.
“It has a beautiful environment, a great lifestyle and weather, good schools and other facilities,” he said.

Mr Lane said it could become a good place for mining companies to establish administrative offices with the good network of domestic and international flights.

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