FLY-IN, FLY-OUT
TAKING FLIGHT WITH THE POWER OF WORDS FIFO LIFE MIGHT BE A STAPLE FOR MANY FAMILIES, BUT IT CAN BE HARD ON THOSE BACK AT HOME. AUTHOR KIARA ELLIS DISCUSSES HOW HER BOOK HELPED HER KIDS UNDERSTAND THE NATURE OF THEIR DAD’S WORK.
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here’s a good reason that Western Australia is often called the epicentre of Australian mining. The state is home to truly vast reserves of precious resources, including the largest supplies of iron ore and gold in Australia, as well as equally vast reserves of people directly employed in the mining sector – more than 20,000 people across 125 operating projects, in fact. But not all of those people live close to the mine sites and WA hosts a record number of fly-in, fly-out (FIFO) workers. Kiara Ellis’ husband is one of over 60,000 FIFO workers who catch a flight to one of WA’s mining operations. For around a week or so at a time, the site will become his base; he will sleep, eat, and work there, before heading home for a well-deserved week off with his family. Having been together for 12 years, Ellis is accustomed to her husband’s time away from home. But when the couple had their first child, she began to realise she’d have to help her son understand this way of life, too. “My son loved going to pick his dad up from the airport,” Ellis told Australian Mining. “But he started asking us questions in the car on the way home like, ‘where do you sleep?’ and ‘what do you do at the airport all week?’” It wasn’t until her son revealed that he thought his dad lived at the airport for a week at a time that Ellis realised she would need to help him understand.
THE BOOK IS ALSO DESIGNED TO HELP KIDS UNDERSTAND THE NATURE OF WORK AT A MINE SITE.
She initially hunted around for books to help explain where Dad went when he was away. There were lots of books to be found on big emotions, but not much in the way of answering a child’s favourite question: why? “I felt like we needed something tangible to educate them a bit on mining, and to show them that there’s a purpose for their parent leaving home for a bit,” Ellis, who is now a mother of two, said. The idea for FIFO & Me was born. AUSTRALIANMINING
The book was written over four and a half years, with a break when Ellis had her second child. While her newborn daughter slept, Ellis would write and, when much of the world shut down over the COVID-19 pandemic, she found an illustrator and an editor. “COVID has been awful, but it has had its technological advantages. My illustrator (Andrew McIntosh) is in Melbourne and I was able to make the book over my laptop,” Ellis said.
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“The books are printed locally here in Perth. They bear the Australian Made and Owned logo. It was so important to me to support the Australian industry.” Ellis felt it was important for FIFO kids to learn about what their parent does at a mine site while they’re away, so she has dedicated an entire page in FIFO & Me to showing children that the materials their parent helps to mine are used in things they utilise every day, from bikes to refrigerators.