FIFO rosters explained: 2:1, 8/6, 7/7, 14/14 and the rest
Every FIFO job ad leads with a roster, and the roster decides more about your life than the pay does. It sets how long you are away, how long you are home, and whether the job works from where you live. This is what the common ones mean and who tends to run them.
How to read a roster
A roster is written as days on and days off. 2:1 means two weeks on site and one week at home. 8/6 means eight days on and six off. 14/14 means two weeks on, two weeks off. Some employers write the same thing with a colon, a slash or the word "and", so 14:7, 14/7 and "14 and 7" are the same roster. On site you work every day, usually twelve hours, and the days off are your own. Flights are on the first and last day of the swing and count as work days on most sites.
2:1
The standard roster in Western Australian mining. Two weeks away is long enough to settle into the swing, and the week home is a real week. Employers like it because a crew changes over only every two weeks. Most of the Pilbara iron ore contractors, the Goldfields gold and nickel mines and the village operators in WA run 2:1, flying from Perth.
8/6
Eight days on, six off. Short enough that you never feel far from home, and the six days off feel like a proper break. Because the cycle is fourteen days your days off drift through the week, so one swing you are home for a weekend and the next you are home midweek. Several of the big iron ore operators run 8/6 for operators and maintainers, and blasting contractors use it for crews flying from Adelaide. It suits people who live near the point of hire, since the flights are frequent.
7/7
A week on, a week off. Common in Queensland coal and at Olympic Dam in South Australia, where a lot of the workforce lives within driving distance and the roster is offered as residential, DIDO or FIFO. It is the easiest roster for family life and the one most people ask for by name.
14/14 and 2:2
Even time. Half the year at work, half at home. It shows up on construction and shutdown crews and at sites where the travel is long enough that a one week break does not make sense. Annual pay is usually a little lower than a 2:1 doing the same job, because you are on site fewer days a year, and the fortnight at home is the reason people take it.
14/7 and 9/5
Two weeks on and one week off, or nine days on and five off, are the village operators' rosters in Queensland and New South Wales. Camp work runs to the shifts of the crews it serves, so the hospitality and cleaning teams follow the same cycle as the mine.
3:1 and 4:1
Long swings for project work. A construction crew building a plant or a pipeline might run three or four weeks on and one off for the life of the project, then the job ends. The pay per swing is good and the time away is the cost.
Which one to pick
If you have a young family, look at 7/7 and 8/6 first, then 2:1. If you live interstate from the point of hire, look at 14/14 or 2:2 so the travel days do not eat your break. If you want to bank money quickly and do not mind the distance, project rosters pay for the sacrifice. On this board the roster is in every job title, and the 8/6, 14/14 and DIDO pages collect the jobs by roster.