brisbane queensland coal

FIFO from Brisbane: Queensland coal flights and the 100% FIFO ban

October 25, 2026

Brisbane is the main FIFO departure point for Queensland coal. BHP and Thiess both have current ads that put Brisbane on the ticket, mostly on flights to Moranbah in the Bowen Basin, and MMG flies Brisbane crews to its Dugald River zinc mine near Cloncurry. Sodexo hires from Brisbane too, for jobs in the mining villages. Expect a flight of under two hours, a camp room with meals, and a roster such as 7/7 or 14:7.

Who flies workers out of Brisbane

We read the current ads on each employer's own careers site in late October 2026. BHP's senior mining engineer ad for its central Bowen Basin mines says FIFO "BNE to MOV", airport codes for Brisbane and Moranbah, with residential and drive-in options as well. Its security and emergency lead at Peak Downs, a Monday to Friday job, can also be FIFO, drive-in or residential.

Thiess had more current Brisbane ads than anyone else we checked, many of them at BHP's Peak Downs and Caval Ridge mines. Its mining operator and haul truck jobs at Peak Downs come with paid flights from Brisbane on a 7/7 roster of 12.5 hour day and night shifts, and the mining operator ad has a bus option from Mackay or Proserpine as well. A maintenance leading hand at Caval Ridge gets flights from Brisbane on the same 7/7, and a tyre fitter at Peak Downs is housed at Civeo's Moranbah village, 35 minutes from site. A senior geologist at Moranbah works 5/2/4/3 day shifts, with paid flights from Brisbane, a travel allowance, or help to live locally.

Further north, MMG's Dugald River ads offer FIFO from Townsville or Brisbane on an 8/6 roster, or drive-in from Cloncurry or Mount Isa. MMG says about 750 employees and contractors work there, a mix of FIFO and local, and they stay in an on-site village with a gym and pool.

The camps need people too. Sodexo is hiring service attendants for regional Queensland mining villages, FIFO from Brisbane on 14:7 with 11 hour days, and the ad states pay from $90,000 plus super. Its head chef ad on the same roster states $100,000 to $107,000 plus super, and it has an electrician on 2:2. Village housekeeping and kitchen work is one of the more realistic ways in if you have no mining tickets. Our guide to a FIFO job with no experience covers the rest.

Not every Queensland mine flies people from Brisbane. Coronado's Curragh ads near Blackwater offer drive-in from the Capricorn Coast or Mackay, or a house in town. Thiess buses its Curragh North dozer crews from Mackay, Yeppoon and Rockhampton. Anglo American's Dawson dragline job at Moura calls Dawson the closest large mine to South East Queensland, and offers residential or drive-in only. Western Australia is a different story again: Fortescue's FIFO page says flights leave from WA towns only, so from Brisbane you'd pay your own way to Perth. Our FIFO from Perth guide covers that side. The full list of employers we've checked, with links to their careers pages, is on our companies hiring FIFO direct page.

The flight and the airport

Qantas lists about 1 hour 45 minutes from Brisbane to Moranbah, 1 hour 35 to Emerald, 1 hour 10 to Rockhampton and 2 hours 35 to Mount Isa. Those are the public flights, and plenty of crews fly charters instead. In 2015 BHP told a Queensland parliamentary inquiry that its Caval Ridge and Daunia crews flew from Brisbane and Cairns to Moranbah on QantasLink charters and were bussed to their villages. In 2023 Rex announced that its National Jet Express arm had added Brisbane charters to Moranbah for BMA, and to Emerald and Rockhampton. Alliance Airlines, which flies FIFO contracts around the country, is based at Eagle Farm and spent $20.1 million on hangars at Brisbane Airport in the 2025 financial year.

The company flight isn't guaranteed forever. The BMA enterprise agreement, the pay deal for BHP's Goonyella Riverside, Peak Downs, Saraji and Blackwater crews, says bus or air transport from Brisbane, Rockhampton, Mackay, Emerald or other places is at the company's discretion. It may need enough people on a roster first, and it can be changed or stopped on three months' notice. The same agreement lets commuters drive themselves if they lodge a travel plan and follow the fatigue policy.

Think hard before you drive home after a block of nights. Resources Safety and Health Queensland has flagged driving more than two hours, or 150 km, after a run of night shifts as a fatigue risk that paperwork alone doesn't manage.

At Brisbane Airport everything leaves from the Domestic Terminal. Qantas and QantasLink check in at the northern end and Virgin at the southern end. Since October 2024, Rex, Link Airways and National Jet Express have checked in at the southern end too. Check which desk with whoever books your flight.

Parking is your cost. Brisbane Airport lists no FIFO parking deal. Drive-up ParkLong at the terminal is $226 for 7 days and $244 for 8, then $18 a day, so a 14 day swing comes to about $334. The cheaper AIRPARK is $125 for 7 days and $136 for 8, then $11 a day, about $202 for 14 days, with a free shuttle that runs around the clock. The airport says booking online is cheaper than drive-up.

Rosters and pay on Brisbane ads

The rosters on current Brisbane ads are all over the place: 7/7 for Thiess crews at Peak Downs and Caval Ridge, 5/2/4/3 for a Thiess geologist, 8/6 at Dugald River, 6/6 for BHP's Peak Downs dragline crews, 14:7 and 2:2 in Sodexo's villages. Our rosters guide explains how each one works out over a year.

For real coal pay figures, the BMA enterprise agreement is public on BHP's site. On a seven day roster at Peak Downs, day and night shifts of 12.5 hours, the first year salary is $163,704.32, rising to $177,062.59 in the third year. That's the full rate, paid to the top operator level (load unit operators, shotfirers and Cert III trades). The next level down gets 90% and the one below that 87%. The salary already includes rostered overtime and shift penalties, so don't expect much on top. The version BHP publishes is the December 2022 ballot copy, so the dollar figures may have moved since.

Two other things in that agreement are worth knowing. Commuters get village accommodation at a subsidised rate, not free. And travel time is paid only when you're sent to work away from your usual mine, so your flight to and from Brisbane is on your own time unless your employer says otherwise. The national Black Coal Mining Industry Award gives five weeks of annual leave, plus an extra week if you work a seven day roster.

Where you'll sleep

Almost everyone who flies in stays in a village. Queensland's statistician counted 24,745 non-resident workers on shift in the Bowen Basin in June 2025, the most since 2012, and 89% of them were in worker villages. Moranbah alone had 2,625. Civeo's Coppabella village, on the Peak Downs Highway between Moranbah and Nebo, has more than 3,000 rooms, each with an ensuite, a king single bed and air conditioning, and three meals a day are included. Wifi costs extra. Civeo's Moranbah village has more than 1,200 rooms on the same setup.

Brisbane people are a big part of that crowd. The same statistician found South East Queensland, which it counts as Brisbane plus the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast, supplied about 7,065 Bowen Basin resource workers in June 2025. That was 20% of workers whose home town was known, just behind the Mackay region at 22%. In the Isaac region, home to Moranbah and Dysart, only 17% of the mine workforce lives locally.

Queensland's ban on 100% FIFO mines

Queensland is the one state with a law about FIFO hiring. In 2011 the state let BMA run Caval Ridge and Daunia with up to 100% FIFO crews. BHP later told the 2015 inquiry about 950 people flew in to the two mines on a week on, week off roster: about 250 from Cairns and the rest from South East Queensland. It had 33,000 applications for those 950 jobs.

The Strong and Sustainable Resource Communities Act 2017 came out of that fight. Since 30 March 2018, a large resource project with a nearby town (within 125 km and over 200 people) can't run an operational workforce that is 100% FIFO. It's also an offence to word a job ad so that people from that town can't apply. Under the Anti-Discrimination Act, the company can't sack you for moving to the town and giving up the commute. The state's list of projects covered runs to 76, Caval Ridge and Daunia among them.

For a Brisbane applicant this changes less than it sounds. The 2021 review of the Act notes that hiring a single local is enough to comply, so a mine can still be almost all FIFO. What it does do is protect you if you decide later that you'd rather live in Moranbah than sit at the gate in Brisbane every second week.

Tax for a Brisbane-based FIFO worker

You won't get the zone tax offset. The ATO uses a Brisbane resident who flies to a mining job at Blackall as its own example of who misses out, because the test is where you usually live, not where you work. The flight itself isn't a deduction either. Trips between home and your regular workplace are private however far apart they are, and if your employer books and pays for the flight there's nothing for you to claim anyway.

Before you apply

Queensland coal has two requirements of its own, the coal board medical and the Standard 11 induction. Our tickets and medicals guide explains both, and why you usually don't pay for the medical yourself. Apply on the employer's own site, as the ads above link to, and read the roster and departure point in the ad before you hit submit. A job that says DIDO or residential only won't turn into a Brisbane flight later.

When you apply, the resume does most of the work. If you'd like one written for FIFO applications, with your tickets, rosters and site experience where a recruiter looks first, our FIFO resume service can do it for you.

Where to look on this board

Start with the FIFO jobs from Brisbane page, then widen to all Queensland FIFO jobs. For the Bowen Basin coal mines, try the Moranbah FIFO jobs, and for village work, the camp and village jobs.

Sources

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