July 19, 2026 • 9 mins
Former Southland Tim Sanson looks at the life of a FIFO worker and he says why it is a harsh yet rewarding experience.
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
No, this is the muster on Hokanui. Tim Samson, formerly
of Riversdale, joins us this afternoon like you're throwing their
former Northataga NPC coach as well with us a story
for another day, Tecker. You talk about five FO, the
fly in fly out industry over in Western Australia. Now
Tim's taking the plunge and he's gone from New Zealand
(00:26):
over to Perth working in the mines, joins us in
studio as he's got a bit of a break from
doing the hard yards as such.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Good afternoon, afternoon, Andy, good to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
The fi FO industry. You hear a lot about it,
but I suppose from your perspective, why.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Oh, there's no real good reason. Most people go for
the money. Obviously they hear that there's great money to
be made, and there is. But for me it was
more about an adventure. You know, I'm ticking over in
the years now and if I didn't take the chance
to do something like this now, I'd never do it.
And I thought, well why not nothing to lose, go
and have a look around. And I've never been a
(01:06):
fan of driving machinery, as anyone that knows me will
attest too, but they've chucked me in these big dump
trucks and I absolutely love it. I love the day
to day work. It's pretty long hours with the twelve
twelve hour shifts for fourteen days in a row, including
night shift, but you get a week off, so you
(01:27):
get a bit of a break and rehydrate and you're
good to go.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
It's a pretty brutal working life, truth be known, those
it won't be for everyone.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
It's definitely not for everyone. The six months I've been there,
I've seen about seventy people come and go.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Some people last couple of days, some.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
A couple of weeks. I think I had the advantage
of being lucky enough to have gone to boarding school
as a young fella and then sharing which had me
stay away from home a lot, and then latterly in
a professional life and sales, I've traveled a lot around
Australia and New Zealand, sort of used to being on
the road and away from home. But it's quite an
isolated experience until you don't realize how much you're in
(02:08):
the middle of nowhere, until you have a look on
Google Earth or something like that and you sort of
realize actually all you've got out there is yourself and
your workmates.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
There's nothing else. There's just nothing for miles.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
I was going to say, working in the mines and
doing these twelve hour shifts day in, day out, Yes,
you do get a week off in between. How do
you stop yourself from going back crazy?
Speaker 2 (02:32):
I suppose, Well you don't.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
You just go crazy and then worry about it the
next day. No, generally speaking, you find your own week
crew amongst the people you've got there. You have a
few yarns and just sort of try and keep each
other relatively motivated. Not so much for work, just in
terms of staying healthy. There are people that lose control completely.
(02:59):
It gets too much for them, and they're encouraged to
have a day or two off and just sort of
rest up. It can get the better of people quite easily,
particularly if they've got relationship trouble at home and all
that sort of thing, you know, and their kids at
home and things that really really can bite them. And
people tend to react in different ways to that sort
(03:19):
of thing, which is one of the reasons excuse me
why site doesn't have full strength alcohol anymore. They discourage
that because people were struggling then loading up on alcohol
and then all sorts of.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Trouble was happening.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
So it's sort of improving, and they take the mental
health thing relatively seriously.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Describe the dynamics and nationalities that you work with.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
Well, the predominantly Australians and then the next would be
New Zealanders and then you've got a quite an array
of people depending on the jobs. There's a lot of
Africans work in the mechanic area because they come out
of the mind sights over there and they've got to
be pretty on the ball.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
They're very good.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
A lot of people from Asia do a lot of
the geology type work, which is pretty critical.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
To what goes on.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
And then in your camp support, which is your cocks
and your cleaners and all these sort of people. They
could vary from anyone. A lot of Irish people backpackers
traveling around. They come and they'll do three or four
weeks that then they go and do something else. But
in terms of the guts of the working force, the
two top dogs in our mine of both New Zealanders
(04:29):
and there's a lot of ex military involved in the
tops as well.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
From here, But.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
What are the people received like though? If there are
only only for say three or four weeks, and they're away.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
Again, everyone's treated the same when they arrive. You're all
on the same level, and they're very good at ensuring
that you're welcomed and everything's done properly. But at the
end of the day, if you don't survive, no one
thinks anything less of you. It's just not for everybody.
It can be quite a harsh environment. The loneliness in particular,
can get to your night shift. Drops a lot of
(05:00):
people off. They think they can do it, but then
you get into these great, big machines putting around in
the middle of the night, and it's a different world
and unless you're prepared to take the time to learn
about it and adapt to it, you're just not going
to last.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
As far as New Zealander is leaving the country going
over to Australia, we've heard a lot about it recently.
Do you hear a many ossies wanting to come over here.
I think Capital Gains is quite a bugbeer over there.
A moment Capital Gains.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
Tacks No, No, I don't know that I'm talking to
does Some would like to come for the lifestyle purely
because of the mountains and the rivers and the lakes
and the hunting and the fishing. But generally speaking, at
the end of the day, money talks and that's why
they stay there. There's some a lot of expertise New
Zealand expertise and mining over there that I've spoken and
(05:49):
IM said, you're going to come back and have a
look at Bendigarf for gets going and they said, well, no,
it won't pay enough. It won't even be close to
enough for them to come back and do that. So no,
I haven't seen anyone or heard of anyone jumping to
get over here because of capital gains tax And let's
face it, the way the political system is here will
(06:10):
leand up with it anyhow, regardless of who gets and
it might not be this cycle, but it'll come.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
And eventually what happens if Bendigo gets to go here,
what does it mean for the South?
Speaker 3 (06:17):
From what you've seen, I can't understand why there's a delay.
Like I said earlier, and New Zealand's traditionally made its
living off top of the ground in Australia under it
or Western Australia under it, we're in a unique position
here and particularly in Central Otago where in the west
coast where we can make it off the top end underneath.
(06:38):
And the people that say that the money's going to
go overseas from these mines are pretty short sighted. These
are the guys that make a living out of living
in a tourist area. So you know, money comes and
money goes. But ninety percent of the people that work
at Bendigard imagine we'll have to live fairly local and
they're going to get paid a lot of money where
they're going to spend it locally. And then they jump
(06:58):
up and down about the the condition that they may
leave the mind sight. And while I watched the rehab
guys on air site working in, what they turn what
we do into is incredible. What they're able to do,
these guys, and it'll look a whole lot better than
it does now. And as for trying to preserve everything
that's natural, if we did that, we wouldn't have the
(07:19):
Clyde damn, so we'd have no power, we wouldn't have
that beautiful lake Dunst and Cromwell wouldn't have gone ahead.
You know, these people that jump up and down about
everything don't mind when a road's being built. When the
house is being built, when new orchards go in and
new vineyards and people skiing over the top of lizards
flat out up on the mountains, they're happy to take
(07:40):
the money for that.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
What's the difference?
Speaker 1 (07:42):
So how long can you see yourself doing this?
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Well, I'm getting old.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
You never ask someone the rock.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
I think I initially set out to do a couple
of years just for the adventure. So I've negotiated a
deal which anyone that's been over there in the pilbra
will understand, but where I can knock off at the
end of November and go back in March because the
heat will kill me over there. When I arrived late
January down in the pits, it was getting well over
(08:11):
fifty six degrees, which is just ridiculous.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
You know.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
And also at that time of year you become better
at kung fu than Bruce Lee at bashing.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Away the flies.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
So I don't know what the point of those things is.
But so yeah, I reckon, if I can get through
this year, I'll look at another year. And that's one
of the beautiful things about this mining is no one.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Cares about your age.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
There's guys over there seventy year old driving trucks and
diggers and things and knowing bats in island. They actually
welcome experience out on those sites because they're mature enough
to handle what they're doing.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
Just finally, Tim, what are your words of advice to
anybody considering fifth day?
Speaker 3 (08:52):
Well, I have a crack, have a go if you
know someone in it, that's the way to get in there.
That's the quickest way. Have a plan, that would be
the biggest thing. Have an exit plan before you go.
If you if you go over there just by the
seed of your pants, you'll end up doing it. All
the young people do over there that have no idea
what they're going to do in life, and they dart
(09:14):
off to Bali or all other parts of Indonesia of
Southeast Asia on the week off and they come back,
you're about thirty more tattoos and one hundred more piercings
and absolutely no idea what they're going to do the
following two weeks.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
So have a plan.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
And if you're if you're serious about getting onto the
property leadder, I'd advise get to Western Australia again in
the mines, build yourself a house there. The finance for
housing is readily available for that good eye your term.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
Thanks for coming into studio and enjoy your break.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Thanks Andy, good to see you.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
Tim Samson, formerly at Riversdale, these days a Fi Fi
worker in Western Australia. This is the muster before you
wrap up. Jason pine Out, a New Stork ZB
No, this is the muster on Hokanui. Tim Samson, formerly
of Riversdale, joins us this afternoon like you're throwing their
former Northataga NPC coach as well with us a story
for another day, Tecker. You talk about five FO, the
fly in fly out industry over in Western Australia. Now
Tim's taking the plunge and he's gone from New Zealand
(00:26):
over to Perth working in the mines, joins us in
studio as he's got a bit of a break from
doing the hard yards as such.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Good afternoon, afternoon, Andy, good to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
The fi FO industry. You hear a lot about it,
but I suppose from your perspective, why.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Oh, there's no real good reason. Most people go for
the money. Obviously they hear that there's great money to
be made, and there is. But for me it was
more about an adventure. You know, I'm ticking over in
the years now and if I didn't take the chance
to do something like this now, I'd never do it.
And I thought, well why not nothing to lose, go
and have a look around. And I've never been a
(01:06):
fan of driving machinery, as anyone that knows me will
attest too, but they've chucked me in these big dump
trucks and I absolutely love it. I love the day
to day work. It's pretty long hours with the twelve
twelve hour shifts for fourteen days in a row, including
night shift, but you get a week off, so you
(01:27):
get a bit of a break and rehydrate and you're
good to go.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
It's a pretty brutal working life, truth be known, those
it won't be for everyone.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
It's definitely not for everyone. The six months I've been there,
I've seen about seventy people come and go.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Some people last couple of days, some.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
A couple of weeks. I think I had the advantage
of being lucky enough to have gone to boarding school
as a young fella and then sharing which had me
stay away from home a lot, and then latterly in
a professional life and sales, I've traveled a lot around
Australia and New Zealand, sort of used to being on
the road and away from home. But it's quite an
isolated experience until you don't realize how much you're in
(02:08):
the middle of nowhere, until you have a look on
Google Earth or something like that and you sort of
realize actually all you've got out there is yourself and
your workmates.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
There's nothing else. There's just nothing for miles.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
I was going to say, working in the mines and
doing these twelve hour shifts day in, day out, Yes,
you do get a week off in between. How do
you stop yourself from going back crazy?
Speaker 2 (02:32):
I suppose, Well you don't.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
You just go crazy and then worry about it the
next day. No, generally speaking, you find your own week
crew amongst the people you've got there. You have a
few yarns and just sort of try and keep each
other relatively motivated. Not so much for work, just in
terms of staying healthy. There are people that lose control completely.
(02:59):
It gets too much for them, and they're encouraged to
have a day or two off and just sort of
rest up. It can get the better of people quite easily,
particularly if they've got relationship trouble at home and all
that sort of thing, you know, and their kids at
home and things that really really can bite them. And
people tend to react in different ways to that sort
(03:19):
of thing, which is one of the reasons excuse me
why site doesn't have full strength alcohol anymore. They discourage
that because people were struggling then loading up on alcohol
and then all sorts of.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Trouble was happening.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
So it's sort of improving, and they take the mental
health thing relatively seriously.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Describe the dynamics and nationalities that you work with.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
Well, the predominantly Australians and then the next would be
New Zealanders and then you've got a quite an array
of people depending on the jobs. There's a lot of
Africans work in the mechanic area because they come out
of the mind sights over there and they've got to
be pretty on the ball.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
They're very good.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
A lot of people from Asia do a lot of
the geology type work, which is pretty critical.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
To what goes on.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
And then in your camp support, which is your cocks
and your cleaners and all these sort of people. They
could vary from anyone. A lot of Irish people backpackers
traveling around. They come and they'll do three or four
weeks that then they go and do something else. But
in terms of the guts of the working force, the
two top dogs in our mine of both New Zealanders
(04:29):
and there's a lot of ex military involved in the
tops as well.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
From here, But.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
What are the people received like though? If there are
only only for say three or four weeks, and they're away.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
Again, everyone's treated the same when they arrive. You're all
on the same level, and they're very good at ensuring
that you're welcomed and everything's done properly. But at the
end of the day, if you don't survive, no one
thinks anything less of you. It's just not for everybody.
It can be quite a harsh environment. The loneliness in particular,
can get to your night shift. Drops a lot of
(05:00):
people off. They think they can do it, but then
you get into these great, big machines putting around in
the middle of the night, and it's a different world
and unless you're prepared to take the time to learn
about it and adapt to it, you're just not going
to last.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
As far as New Zealander is leaving the country going
over to Australia, we've heard a lot about it recently.
Do you hear a many ossies wanting to come over here.
I think Capital Gains is quite a bugbeer over there.
A moment Capital Gains.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
Tacks No, No, I don't know that I'm talking to
does Some would like to come for the lifestyle purely
because of the mountains and the rivers and the lakes
and the hunting and the fishing. But generally speaking, at
the end of the day, money talks and that's why
they stay there. There's some a lot of expertise New
Zealand expertise and mining over there that I've spoken and
(05:49):
IM said, you're going to come back and have a
look at Bendigarf for gets going and they said, well, no,
it won't pay enough. It won't even be close to
enough for them to come back and do that. So no,
I haven't seen anyone or heard of anyone jumping to
get over here because of capital gains tax And let's
face it, the way the political system is here will
(06:10):
leand up with it anyhow, regardless of who gets and
it might not be this cycle, but it'll come.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
And eventually what happens if Bendigo gets to go here,
what does it mean for the South?
Speaker 3 (06:17):
From what you've seen, I can't understand why there's a delay.
Like I said earlier, and New Zealand's traditionally made its
living off top of the ground in Australia under it
or Western Australia under it, we're in a unique position
here and particularly in Central Otago where in the west
coast where we can make it off the top end underneath.
(06:38):
And the people that say that the money's going to
go overseas from these mines are pretty short sighted. These
are the guys that make a living out of living
in a tourist area. So you know, money comes and
money goes. But ninety percent of the people that work
at Bendigard imagine we'll have to live fairly local and
they're going to get paid a lot of money where
they're going to spend it locally. And then they jump
(06:58):
up and down about the the condition that they may
leave the mind sight. And while I watched the rehab
guys on air site working in, what they turn what
we do into is incredible. What they're able to do,
these guys, and it'll look a whole lot better than
it does now. And as for trying to preserve everything
that's natural, if we did that, we wouldn't have the
(07:19):
Clyde damn, so we'd have no power, we wouldn't have
that beautiful lake Dunst and Cromwell wouldn't have gone ahead.
You know, these people that jump up and down about
everything don't mind when a road's being built. When the
house is being built, when new orchards go in and
new vineyards and people skiing over the top of lizards
flat out up on the mountains, they're happy to take
(07:40):
the money for that.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
What's the difference?
Speaker 1 (07:42):
So how long can you see yourself doing this?
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Well, I'm getting old.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
You never ask someone the rock.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
I think I initially set out to do a couple
of years just for the adventure. So I've negotiated a
deal which anyone that's been over there in the pilbra
will understand, but where I can knock off at the
end of November and go back in March because the
heat will kill me over there. When I arrived late
January down in the pits, it was getting well over
(08:11):
fifty six degrees, which is just ridiculous.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
You know.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
And also at that time of year you become better
at kung fu than Bruce Lee at bashing.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Away the flies.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
So I don't know what the point of those things is.
But so yeah, I reckon, if I can get through
this year, I'll look at another year. And that's one
of the beautiful things about this mining is no one.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Cares about your age.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
There's guys over there seventy year old driving trucks and
diggers and things and knowing bats in island. They actually
welcome experience out on those sites because they're mature enough
to handle what they're doing.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
Just finally, Tim, what are your words of advice to
anybody considering fifth day?
Speaker 3 (08:52):
Well, I have a crack, have a go if you
know someone in it, that's the way to get in there.
That's the quickest way. Have a plan, that would be
the biggest thing. Have an exit plan before you go.
If you if you go over there just by the
seed of your pants, you'll end up doing it. All
the young people do over there that have no idea
what they're going to do in life, and they dart
(09:14):
off to Bali or all other parts of Indonesia of
Southeast Asia on the week off and they come back,
you're about thirty more tattoos and one hundred more piercings
and absolutely no idea what they're going to do the
following two weeks.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
So have a plan.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
And if you're if you're serious about getting onto the
property leadder, I'd advise get to Western Australia again in
the mines, build yourself a house there. The finance for
housing is readily available for that good eye your term.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
Thanks for coming into studio and enjoy your break.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Thanks Andy, good to see you.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
Tim Samson, formerly at Riversdale, these days a Fi Fi
worker in Western Australia. This is the muster before you
wrap up. Jason pine Out, a New Stork ZB
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