In 2006 I visited northern Australia and was also looking for work and found:

Many mining towns are closed communities, there is no access for the general public, the workers are employed through head office in Perth

Miners are flown in for their roster and then flown home to any part of Australia. The miners roster is 14 days on then 14 day off, and they work 12 hour shifts.

Seasonal workers like fruit picking, meat packing or construction labourers are hired locally. If you have a trade like driving mining equipment, carpentary, mechanic you are in demand.

If you have a teaching qualification you can apply online at http://www.teaching.nt.gov.au/ and schools trawl the database looking for staff

In fact if you want work that uses your qualifications you should probably apply online before you leave home.

In the city there are heaps of temporary office jobs, in fact some organisations prefer to be "skip free zones" eg the largest superannuation manager prefers not to employ Australians. Workers get hired on a daily basis and if you get on well you will be invited back tomorrow.

Likewise I would suggest you check online prior to leaving home.

The real unemployment rate is much higher at about 15% to 20% rather than official statistics of 4%. The discrepancy is achieved by defining "employed" as not in full time study and working for 1 hour per week, paid or unpaid. The unpaid portion captures volunteers who might be volunteering to get experience to get a paid job. This definition includes people who are undertaking unemployed training schemes as employed.

If you are of asian descent you will have more difficulty in securing work.

Good luck!

Don't fall for the left-wing crap that my views are minority ones. Australians have had a gutfull of foreigners taking Austalian jobs because our pinko, gutless government has refused to put money into training Australians.

The users of this site are 90% left-wing looneys who take great delight in rubbishing their own country.

Find out more about the wider community before you make any decisions. Don't believer anything you see on OLO without checking it out for yourself.

Hi there...

I suspect most people in Australia would welcome folk from abroad, who have expressed a keen interest and desire to work in this country. And as the other correspondents have reiterated herein, I too would welcome anyone with that legitimate goal also. Did you mention from which country you're from ? Perhaps I missed it, if so I'm sorry.

Employment in the North West of Australia, within the mining industry, will earn you pretty good bucks I'm told (mate of mine is a copper in the region). However accommodation is both scarce and very expensive.

Both my sister and brother-in-law (mechanical engineer) lived in Karratha for 'round 11 years, and with very careful management of their finances, managed to buy two lovely properties in both suburban Perth and Sydney. And without the necessity of entering into a protracted and lengthy mortage.

Chris (my B.I.L.) used to come home absolutely covered in filth. Sometimes working a 10 or 12 hour day! They lived through extreme heat (40c - 50c) and some pretty fierce cyclones too. He worked through ALL weather, leading a gang of maintenance mechanics, repairing necessary plant and equipment for the mines. Yet, both of them and their kids, really loved it. I suppose it's a bit like living and working at the frontier, anyway it beats me!?

Hope this'll help you. Cheers...osungwo.

Is there any one currently working for a mining company? I’m sorry I have not expressed my occupation as I have had several, though currently I am in I.T. What sort of openings are there or do look at getting tickets for operating plant etc.

As for your comments Leigh, I fail to see why you waste your time bleating nonsense, you seem to have a very ignorant view? that is unless you are an native aboriginal, you should ad arrogance to your cyber CV cause I’m as aussie. And as for your remark it is quite racist and disrespectful. Please make your narrow-minded remarks in your own discussion area. Finally Liegh we have been educated overseas not at your expense, and I would be happy to share my skills and experience and contribute to Australia’s success as I already have for 28 years.

That said, I would love to hear from anyone living in a mine community

For those serious about making stuff happen, WA is the place
to be. Not just the NW. Lots of manufacturing and admin for
the NW is done from Perth. There are also huge multi billion
$ mining projects in the SW coming on stream. One in Boddington,
one in Ravensthorpe for instance.

The rush to mining has left huge holes in staff levels in
a number of other industries in WA. Lots of staff fly in
fly out from Perth to various mine sites in WA, north, east
and south of Perth. So thats where I would start to look.

Comparing WA with NSW and Vic right now, is like comparing
day and night.

Hi Skippis I have worked in IT for 3 mining companies in WA. Mining companies employ the bulk of their IT staff in Perth, there is usually a token soul on mine site. In the good old days women were always employed as temporaries so they were laid off in times of strike and thus unable to give sustainance to the strikers.

You can find out what IT work is going by searching the online job databases like

www.seek.com.au - be warned that every vacancy is advertised 5 times and there are fishing ads

www.mycareer.com.au

try the individual mining companies directly

RioTinto subsidiaries prefer graduates from Monash University - Caulfield campus