Irish expat Cal McIlwaine reveals how FIFO on WA mine site helped him earn $140,000 in nine months

An Irish expat has revealed how he was able to earn more than $140,000 less than nine months after landing in Western Australia.

Cal McIlwaine, 31, quit his jobs at Amazon and Aldi and moved Down Under on a working holiday visa, determined to score a job working fly-in-fly-out (FIFO) on a mine site.

“I started researching jobs that I could seriously do that could make me a lot of money fairly quickly so I could go travelling, and FIFO and moving to Australia was one of the things,” he said.

He had no experience in mining before the move and had never worked on any machinery, but spent $1,600 upon landing to secure the necessary tickets and licenses.

“I didn’t have anything organised before I went over (to WA) so as soon as I landed, I started doing all the tickets and getting my resume all done up,” he said.

He earned a Heavy Rigid license to allow him to drive large vehicles, his White Card to authorise him to work on mine sites, and completed an advanced first aid with CPR course.

McIlwaine then reached out to a Perth-based FIFO recruiter and after applying for roughly 70 to 100 jobs, he scored a FIFO position just 28 days after landing in the country — a timeline he called “insane”.

“The job I started off with: I was working a three-in-one swing in the Pilbara,” he said in a video.

“I earned $141,000 in nine months’ worth of work — that was crazy money to me, I’d never made that back home.

“That was no joke, probably more than double what I was earning back home.”

Following the nine month stint, he spent a year travelling through South East Asia and New Zealand, while also taking time to explore the wonders of Australia.

He was soon ready to get back into the world of mining, landing another FIFO job for the second year of his working holiday visa.

McIlwaine currently works as a serviceman on a Pilbara minesite, which he says involves visiting machines in a service truck and ensuring they have all necessary fuel, grease, and oils.

“I’ll just do that all day long, looking after anywhere between like 35 and 50 machines a day,” he said.

“That’s mixtures of dump tricks, diggers, dozers, graders, compactors, rollers, generators, sandpipes, (and) pumps.”

The role also entails checking machines for defects before any bigger issues arise.

The 31-year-old revealed the serviceman role pays very well.

In a video audit of his current position, McIlwaine said he earns $60 an hour before tax and worked 12 hour days.

“Each day I’m earning $720, so for the whole week that brings me to $5,040 before tax,” he said.

“After tax, I take home into my bank $4,284 per week — I’m currently on a two-in-one swing so per swing after tax, I earn $8,568.

“That is absolutely way more money than I was making back in Ireland.”

Despite the financial perks, McIlwaine has warned FIFO jobs can definitely be a “mental game”, especially for expats away from family and friends.

“It’s a tough game — you’re up early every single day, you’ve got long hours, the environment is hot, there’s loads of flies, it’s dusty and very very grimy,” he said.

“If people do not think they’re headstrong, I honestly would not even consider ever trying to do (FIFO) because it will chew you up and spit you out,” he said.

“All this money that you’ve just invested to try and get the job will just be all for nothing.”

He has since taken to social media to share tips with others on moving to Australia and starting in the world of FIFO, amassing 145,000 TikTok followers.

McIlwaine says he has received thousands of messages from others wanting to move to WA and kickstart their FIFO careers,

“It’s way more competitive than it’s ever been — the amount of people from all over the world that are all in Perth, all trying to get these FIFO jobs is insane,” he said of the growing interest in the industry.

PerthNow has reached out to McIlwaine for comment.