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Bloomberg
Some of the biggest mining and energy companies are scrambling to respond to tightening controls on movement inside Australia — the biggest exporter of iron ore and liquefied natural gas — by temporarily rehousing employees and their families thousands of miles from home.
About 800 so-called fly-in fly-out (FIFO) mining workers have been relocated to Western Australia for potentially the next three months, and around 300 to Queensland, along with scores of people staffing offshore oil and gas operations, according to the Australian Workers’ Union.
BHP Group, the world’s biggest miner, has relocated about 300 workers to Western Australia, including train drivers and tug boat pilots — some from as far away as the island state of Tasmania, about an eight-hour flight away.
It’s part of the multi-industry effort to ensure the nation’s giant iron ore mines, oil platforms and LNG projects have sufficient employees available to maintain output even as the country’s states enforce stricter controls over regional borders.