The socio-economic impact of mine industry commuting labour force on source communities

There has been considerable interest in, and often criticism of, long distance commuting (LDC), an encompassing term for the fly-in/fly-out (FIFO), drive-in/drive-out (DIDO) and bus-in/bus-out (BIBO) work arrangements utilised by the resources industry that have sustained the mining industry in Australia in recent decades. LDC workers leave their resident community and live away from home in a host community, (usually considerable distance away), returning (typically, several days or weeks later) for furlough. The majority of the academic interest has focused on the impact of LDC on the host community (the community where a person works), individual workers and their families. To date there has been limited focus on how LDC impacts on the resident community (where the LDC worker lives when not working) and where their family usually resides.