The CourierMail reports fly-in, fly-out “working girls” travelling from as far away as New Zealand to the remote mining regions of Queensland and Western Australia are making as much as $2,000 a day from mine labourers who have lots of cash but are deprived of female company for weeks on end.
Fifo prostitution is just the latest concern for rural communities in the country’s mineral-rich states who are becoming increasingly unhappy about mining firms like BHP that set up self-contained mining towns cut off from locals or let miners fly in and out without ever investing in existing communities.
The Courier Mail reports it is legal for women to work as sole operators as long as they don’t solicit in public. Local newspapers have columns of small ads from hookers announcing their arrival in town.
MINING.com reported in October how rural communities are calling state politicians cowards for encouraging big mining firms’ fly-in-fly-out attitude after a planning and environmental court ruling okayed a self-contained 750-head camp separate from the local town.
MINING.com reported in September jobs in mining and mining-related work in Australia is expected to more than double in the next 20 years, from an estimated 693,000 who are now directly and indirectly employed to 1.45 million workers Australia-wide.
MINING.com has also reported on wide-spread misconceptions about the Australian mining industry: A study by the Australia Institute showed Australians believed around 16% of the country’s workforce were employed by mining companies, when according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) the actual figure is only 1.9%.
3 Comments
Sailor Mac
What an insult this article is to all the real working women of mining. Those who buckled down and spent years getting a degree or trade. All those women who are geologists, engineers, journeymen, operators, labourers etc.
These are the true ‘working girls ‘ of mining.
Sargent Nitro
These true grit working girls should be commended for they’re contribution to the industry by presenting so many much needed openings which should lessen the work load for the local police & security services @hotels &nightclubs & no doubt increasing the intake of more open cut examiners , go girls .Sarge.
[email protected]
I certainly hope that the Pilots get a cut on all that loot!! And that those workers get reduced fares!! And that the ‘boys’ put it on!!!