FIFO career insights from Louis who went from a chef to a scaffolder here in Australia.
Episode Transcript:
– Best avenue, get your arse off the couch.
– Yeah.
– Go and do some…
– In the game, there’s nothing better than your mates saying to the boss…
– G’day welcome to Fit for FIFO and our first official episode. If you’re unsure of what Fit for FIFO is all about you can find our introduction episode which explains a little more. This weeks episode, we’ll be meeting Louis, the scaffolder. I think you’ll find him quite entertaining. Louis shares with us how he made the transition of working as a chef in the kitchen to working as a scaffolder in FIFO. He also shares some tips about how to get some experience and also how he copes with working away from home. So, without further ado, I bring you Chef to Scaffy with Louis, cheers. Louis, welcome to Fit for FIFO, mate.
– G’day mate, good to see your happy face, Cobs.
– Thanks for coming on. So, just tell us a bit about your position and what you do in FIFO.
– Guys, I’m a scaffolder here, just doing a bit of scaffolding there with the team.
– Yeah, sweet, and tell us a bit about your background, what you did before you were a scaffy? and how you got into it.
– I’m a chef by trade and yeah on returning from Japan where I picked up a job and they needed a scaffolder as well as a TA so I jumped into having a bit of a crack at the scaffolding and the old boy paid for the ticket so I said well stuff this, it’s pretty good, and I’m gonna do the scaffolding for him and yeah so, things led to other places. It’s all about your mates getting you a job in the trade. So yeah, so my mates ended up getting me a job here, young Brady, so yeah, very thankful to him.
– And did you find it hard to transition from being a chef to a scaffolder? Obviously a massive change.
– Oh, no. No not at all mate, you just gotta get a start in the construction or building or going out and TA-ing or helping someone, get your hands dirty and wet because the kitchen’s a pretty shit place to work. So, at any other job you can get at, you’ll excel so if you get in construction or you can work in the, you know just helping people out, being even a farmer, you know just get your hands dirty for a bit and you can move forward in that way.
– Okay, yeah good, right oh yeah, we talked the other day about this term working in the mines, do you want to just talk a little bit about, like I don’t know, the misconception about working in the mines and what you do for FIFO.
– Yeah, this mythical place called the mines. You know it must be where everyone disappears to and comes back loaded and a lot of people in the country I feel that you know, this mythical place called the mines, they don’t know the difference between construction and going to a mining camp and what it all entails. You know, we’re not all out there slugging it out, we actually hardly ever go slugging, so we’re barely working, but you know. This mythical place, the mines, you know, boys need to exactly say where they are, they need to say that they’re in construction and they’re fly-in, fly-out which is this type of gig.
– Yeah and is that the majority of the FIFO work these days?
– Yeah, it is but you know there’s some maintenance there too in those mines yeah so and there’s always roof fits and all these types of things like that, so. They might be mining something but if it’s not construction it’s maintenance. Maintenance of a mining place but yeah definitely, I don’t know how many people would be out there driving trucks and directly carving ore, so, you know I think it’s more of the maintenance and construction.
– Okay, yeah and for someone who doesn’t know anything about scaffolding, what would be the best avenue for them to get into scaffolding?
– The best avenue, get your arse off the couch, go and do some courses in Victoria, there’s some great places in Victoria, go down to Dandenong there, and yes they’ll put you through the course, see if you like it. But probably the best bet, Cobsy is go down to your local scaff yard and say, ‘Here, here I am, ready to do, I’ll do some volunteer work’ ‘I wanna see if I’ve got the go to…’ ‘To see if I like this type of work.’ I’m pretty sure every slave-dealer would love to get some free guys to come on down and help them out, eh?
-Yeah, that’s a great answer.
– Yeah so, bomb on down there, they’d love to see ya, bring your garden gloves cause they’re all a bit tight out there, so. Yeah mate be prepared and see if it’s you because working in the scaff crew is really good if there’s a good bunch of guys. And, the other side of that if they’re all shitheads well it’s really a hard day. Yeah but it’s all teamwork, you know. It’s like footy with a job, you get paid for this and if the team’s good you can get the job done and you can have a few beers.
– Yeah, right, and it’s quite a physically demanding job?
– Yeah, yeah, especially when you’re volunteering, I think that’s really give you a floggin. But yeah here it’s not so bad, it’s not so bad, I need to go to the gym here yeah so, it’s good, there’s a lot of safety things you need to look after on these bigger jobs but around town and that just be careful, it could be dodgy, so just take your time and be safe. Don’t lift too much, don’t try and prove you’re a big macho man you know, a lot of them do, you know, ‘Oh I can carry all this stuff,’ and stuff like that so, next thing you know, oh geeze my back’s a bit stuffed, so take it easy.
– So, with what you know now from your time being in FIFO if there was one thing that someone could have told you before you got into it, maybe tell people, what would that, Is there anything you can think of?
– Something that helped me? To adjust to the life?
– Yeah, yep.
– It’s hard for me cos I went to boarding school so if you’ve been to boarding school, and if you’re not mummy’s boy and you know, you don’t have a really dependent wife, you know it’s pretty easy to slug it in there.
– Yeah, okay.
– I was kinda prepared, I went to boarding school. I’ve lived away from my family for many a moon, so.
– Okay yeah, and what about to get into the industry, or into your position, what do you do now?
– Cultivate friends. In the game, there’s nothing better than your mates saying to the boss, ‘Here’s Lou, he works like a demon.’ Doesn’t have to be too much truth in it, but just has to have the experience, you know?
– Yeah, yeah, spot on. Apart from the common things like your toothbrush and clothing, what’s the one thing you never leave home without when you’re coming to camp?
– When I come to this place?
– Yeah, or any camp for that matter yeah, that you’ve been to.
– Right, guys when you do this work, you really need to take your hobbies. Now, I’m not too sure what your hobbies might be but all my hobbies, my hobby’s music. So I cover the TV up, pull the plugs out and I’ve got a little mini 2.1 sound system with a big subwoofer to give me my reggae dub music in, just poundin’. Yeah you need the churns, you need some crankin’ speakers, you need copious amounts of memory space for all your tracks and if you’re into guitars and you need music stands you bring your guitars, everything that you need that makes you happy. Without those things, all you sit around and do is fuck all and drink beers.
– Yeah, right, spot on. What’s the best thing you find to cope with the solitude or being away from friends and family? – The best thing. I don’t really, because I’ve lived away for a long time I really, I don’t feel sad or anything like that. The phones here I can pick up and have a quick chat you know I can see their face from the computer. Yeah, I don’t let it get to me. I just distract myself with being selfish, being selfish, Cobsy and get that music out there and gettin’ some crankin’ beers happening, when you know, you’re partying with the boys, so. Yeah, that’s all in a distraction, I reckon, to keep your mind off the game, and you know, there’s plenty of good guys out there to help you do that so it’s not all misery and pain.
– Right yeah, so I suppose technology is a good one you said because you can contact.
– Yeah with your computers and stuff like that, that’s alright. There’s a lot of dorks out there that love to play the computer games and that, and that gives them no end of, you know, they’re loving it, you know they’ve all got their Pokemons and stuff, and you know. Old guys playing Pokemon, what’s goin’ on?
– As I’m quite new to all this, I would appreciate any feedback, suggestions or questions for Louis or myself. You can add them to the comment box below, and I’ll do my best to respond. Don’t forget to subscribe to our channel for the latest updates. Next week, Louis shares with us the best way that he finds to find out about the next job and also talks a bit about some common traps that FIFO workers can fall into. Here’s a quick preview.
– So that’s the first way to piss the boys off is…
– But the problem is, cops, they don’t…
– Yeah, that’s what it’s all about.