Mining career guides
Last updated 8 October 2026
These guides answer the questions people ask before they apply for mining work in Australia. Can you get a FIFO job with no experience? What are the entry level mining jobs? What does FIFO mean? Where are the jobs in Western Australia, Queensland and New South Wales? What do the lowest award levels pay? Which inductions, medicals and licences do you need before you start?
Start with how to get into mining for the full path, or with entry level mining jobs if you have no mining background. Each guide is dated and cites its sources, such as the Fair Work Ombudsman pay guide for the Mining Industry Award, state government resources data and a federal parliamentary inquiry into FIFO work. Where we could not verify a figure, for example typical FIFO earnings, the guide says so instead of guessing. The ten guides below are grouped by the question they answer.
Where do I start?
How to get into mining
The step-by-step path from no experience to a first mining job.
Entry level mining jobs and FIFO jobs with no experience
Seven starter roles, award minimum pay, what each involves and what you need to apply.
FIFO meaning: what is FIFO work?
What fly-in fly-out means, how rosters work, camp life and the trade-offs.
Where are the mining jobs?
Mining jobs in Western Australia
Pilbara, Goldfields and the other WA regions, with state government figures and verified employers.
Mining jobs in Queensland
Bowen Basin coal, North West metals and who employs, with Queensland Government data.
Mining jobs in NSW
Hunter Valley and other NSW coal and metal regions, and what NSW requires.
What tickets and medicals do I need?
Standard 11 mining induction
What Queensland coal mines require, how long it takes and what providers charge.
Coal board medical
The Queensland coal mine workers' health assessment, and how NSW differs.
High risk work licence
The licence classes that matter on mine sites, how to get one and how long it lasts.