FIFO means fly-in fly-out. Your employer flies you to a remote work site, you live in a camp near the site for a set number of days, then you fly home for your days off. You do not move to the mine. You commute to it by plane, on a repeating roster.
DIDO means drive-in drive-out: the same arrangement, by road. The rest of this guide explains the words you will hear in your first week, and what the life looks like between flights.
What does FIFO stand for?
FIFO stands for fly-in fly-out. Western Australia's code of practice for FIFO workplaces describes it as a way of employing people in remote areas that are beyond daily commuting range of their permanent home. Workers are transported to the site for a time instead of being relocated, they are given accommodation for the length of their roster, and their time at the workplace alternates with time at home.
Three things make a job FIFO:
- The site is too far to commute to each day. In WA that usually means a mine, a processing plant or a gas facility in the Pilbara, the Goldfields or offshore.
- The employer houses you while you are there. You sleep in a camp or village, not in your own place.
- You work a roster. A block of days on site, then a block of days at home, repeating.
FIFO code of practice (WorkSafe WA)worksafe.wa.gov.au
What does DIDO mean?
DIDO stands for drive-in drive-out. The roster, the camp and the work are the same as FIFO. The difference is that you get to site by road, in your own car or a company vehicle, instead of by plane. The WA code of practice names DIDO as another long-distance commuting arrangement where people work away from home.
You will also see BIBO, for bus-in bus-out. The Mining Industry Award groups all three together: it defines remote work as including sites that operate on a fly in/fly out, drive in/drive out or bus in/bus out basis.
Mining Industry Award (Fair Work Ombudsman)awards.fairwork.gov.au
The FIFO words you will hear
| Term | What it means |
|---|---|
| FIFO | Fly-in fly-out. You fly to a remote site for work and fly home for your days off |
| DIDO | Drive-in drive-out. The same arrangement, by road |
| BIBO | Bus-in bus-out. The same arrangement, by bus |
| Roster | The repeating pattern of time on site and time off, written like 2:1 or 8:6 |
| Swing | One block of time on site |
| R&R | Rest and recreation: your days off at home |
| Even time | A roster with as much time off as time on, such as 2:2 |
| Camp or village | The accommodation near the site where you sleep and eat during your swing |
| Motelling | You do not keep the same room from one swing to the next |
| Residential | The opposite of FIFO: you live in a town near the site |
Rosters deserve their own guide. What 2:1, 8:6 and 2:2 mean in real days, and how many nights you spend at home on each, is in FIFO rosters explained.
How does FIFO work day to day?
You fly from a set airport. Employers fly their workforce from named pick-up points. Fortescue, for example, says it offers FIFO flights to its Pilbara operations from Perth, Busselton, Broome, Karratha, Port Hedland, Newman, Fitzroy Crossing and Kununurra, and that if you live somewhere else you arrange your own flights to one of those places at your own cost. That is one reason FIFO workers base themselves in Perth. Who those employers are is covered in FIFO jobs in Perth: who hires and where to look.
What is FIFO and how does it work? (Fortescue)careers.fortescue.com
You work long days. Jobs and Skills Australia's profile for drillers, miners and shot firers, the largest occupation in mining, puts average full-time hours at 64 a week, against 44 for all occupations. That figure comes from the 2021 Census. What those hours pay is in FIFO salary: what workers really take home.
Drillers, Miners and Shot Firers (Jobs and Skills Australia)jobsandskills.gov.au
You go home for R&R. At the end of the swing you fly back and your days off start. Whether the travel days come out of your work time or your time off depends on the employer, so ask before you sign.
What is camp life like?
Camp, village and site accommodation all mean the same thing: the place you live during your swing. It works more like a hotel than a house. Civeo, which runs workforce villages in Queensland, New South Wales and Western Australia, describes its properties as operating in a similar manner to a hotel, with food, housekeeping and maintenance run for the guests.
What is in a camp varies by site. Fortescue describes its Pilbara site villages as having social events and amenities such as a gym, a swimming pool and a football field.
The WA code of practice sets out what good accommodation should do. It says villages should be designed to encourage people to socialise while also allowing for peace, privacy and safety, and that accommodation arrangements should be predictable where practicable. It notes that workers with permanent rooms report better mental health and wellbeing than those in other arrangements, such as motelling or changing rooms in the middle of a roster.
It is fair to ask a recruiter three questions about camp: do I keep the same room, what is the phone and internet coverage like, and what is there to do after shift.
How many people work this way in WA?
There is no single official count of FIFO workers. The closest official figure is on-site employment. The WA Department of Mines, Petroleum and Exploration reported 138,257 full-time equivalent on-site positions in mining and mineral exploration in 2024-25, plus 9,428 on-site people in petroleum. Not all of those people fly in. Some live in towns near their site.
2024-25 Statistics Digest announcement (WA Government)wa.gov.au
What does FIFO mean for where you live?
Your home is wherever you spend your R&R. For a lot of people working WA sites, that is Perth, because that is where the flights leave from.
It changes what you need from a home. You are away for a week or two at a time, then home all day for a week. You want a short run to the airport for early flights, somewhere safe to leave a car, and housemates who know your roster. People looking for rooms in Perth put it simply: "a comfortable place to call home between our FIFO swings".
Suburbs next to the airport, such as Redcliffe, Belmont and Cloverdale, cut the early-morning trip, and where to live in Perth as a FIFO worker compares them. If you are still looking for that first job, see how to get a FIFO job with no experience. If you are moving to Perth for a first FIFO job, the order to do things in is in moving to Perth for FIFO work: the complete checklist.
Kipmates is a room-share marketplace launching in Perth. Your roster is a field on your profile, hosts can mark a household as FIFO-friendly, and listings show the weekly rent and the move-in date. You can browse rooms, or list a room if you have one that suits someone who is away half the time.
Does FIFO have a legal definition?
Not one definition for everything, but the tax office has a precise one for its own purposes. For fringe benefits tax, the ATO treats an employee as working on a fly-in fly-out or drive-in drive-out basis when they work a regular rotation of days on and days off, return to their normal home on days off, work in an industry where that is customary, cannot reasonably travel between home and work each day, and are expected to go back to living at home when the job no longer needs them away. What that means for allowances is covered in living away from home allowance (LAFHA) for FIFO workers.
FAQ
What does FIFO mean?
FIFO means fly-in fly-out. You fly to a remote work site, live in employer-provided accommodation for a block of days called a swing, then fly home for your days off. The pattern repeats on a fixed roster.
What does DIDO mean?
DIDO means drive-in drive-out. It is the same arrangement as FIFO, with a camp and a roster, but you travel to site by road instead of by plane.
What is a swing in FIFO?
A swing is one block of time on site. On a 2:1 roster your swing is two weeks, followed by one week of R&R at home.
What does R&R mean in FIFO?
R&R stands for rest and recreation. It is the time off between swings, when you are back at home.
What is the difference between FIFO and residential?
A FIFO worker commutes to site and lives in camp during the swing. A residential worker lives in a town near the site and goes home each day. Some employers offer both. Fortescue, for example, says it has some residential roles in Port Hedland and Karratha for people willing to relocate.
Do FIFO workers need a home in Perth?
Not by rule, but you need to get yourself to the airport your employer flies from, and for many WA sites that is Perth. If you live elsewhere, check whether the flight to the pick-up point is at your own cost.
Sources
Checked October 2026.
- Mentally healthy workplaces for FIFO workers in the resources and construction sectors: code of practice, WA Commission for Occupational Safety and Health, 2019, foreword and section 5.4.
- Mining Industry Award 2020 (MA000011), Fair Work Ombudsman, clause 2, definition of remote work.
- Careers FAQ and Why work at Fortescue, Fortescue.
- Civeo Australia careers, Civeo.
- Statistics Digest reveals Western Australia's strong resources sector amid market challenges (11 May 2026), WA Department of Mines, Petroleum and Exploration.
- Drillers, Miners and Shot Firers occupation profile and Mining industry profile, Jobs and Skills Australia.
- Fringe benefits tax: a guide for employers, chapter 11, Australian Taxation Office, section 11.9.
