Not the dry heat you stop noticing by Year 3. This one’s wet, and sits on your chest like a kelpie on a couch. The air smells of rain that can’t be bothered. The flies are rattled. The old fella next door squints at the sky, taps his nose and says, “She’s coming.”

He’s never been wrong. Most annoying thing about him.

This isn’t one night. It’s all of them. I came up here young with my family, and I’ve lived in Karratha long enough to know how they go.

A Dot on the Map

First it’s a dot on the Bureau’s map. A low off the Kimberley. Nothing.

Then it gets a name. You can ignore a dot. Not a name.

Back in the day this was Blue Alert. Since July 2024, DFES calls it an Advice, same as bushfires. New word. Same knot in your gut.

Your street splits in two.

The bloke at number 12 reckons it’ll turn. “They always turn, mate.” Same way he says the footy’s rigged: total confidence, zero evidence. Trampoline still in the yard. Not one tin of beans.

The couple at the end go full doomsday. Sixty litres of water. Three gas bottles. Enough tuna to survive a siege. Garage stacked like a Bunnings aisle. “Preppers,” number 12 calls them. Everyone laughs.

You land in the middle. Shade sail down. Bins in the shed. Gas bottles tied off. Tank filled, after a fuel queue to the road. Cyclone screens up. Batteries in the radio, because phones die and so do networks.

Some pack up and head south. Nobody judges. Near the water, you might get told to move. Others stay, like you. Fine, if you decide early. Late is how people get caught.

Next day it’s Watch and Act, the old Yellow. Get ready to shelter. Every update, the dot creeps closer. Nobody says it.

The Old Stories

The radio never goes off, and the old-timers start on the stories.

The Koombana, 1912. A steamer left Port Hedland for Broome with the barometer falling. The captains reckoned there “was nothing in it”. She sailed straight into a cyclone and vanished. Around 150 people. The wreck’s never been found.

Orson, ‘89. 905 hPa out at the North Rankin gas platform. Gusts of 249 km/h, then the storm smashed the gear measuring them, like it didn’t fancy being watched. Crossed west of Dampier. Damaged 70 per cent of the homes in Pannawonica.

Olivia, ‘96. 408 km/h on Barrow Island. Still the world record for a cyclone gust. Right off our coast.

Nobody talks for a bit.

Then somebody brings up George. 2007. Crossed east of Port Hedland at night, and the wind flipped the dongas at a mining camp south of town with blokes asleep inside. Three dead. Twenty-eight hurt. Nobody tells that one for fun.

Number 12 cracks a tinnie. “See? Hedland. Never hits here.”

“Mate,” someone says, dead quiet. George was meant to head for Exmouth and Onslow, then swung almost 90 degrees. Damien’s eye went right over Karratha in 2020. Zelia sat off Port Hedland in 2025, in water running 31 to 32 degrees, and wound itself up to a Category 5 while it sat deciding who to hit.

Number 12 gets his trampoline down. Half of it.

Party First

Me? I throw a cyclone party. Every time.

Mates over. Snags on. Music cranked. Big laughs before the doors shut. Some reckon that’s mad. I reckon it’s the sanest thing in town. You never know what tomorrow looks like, so have one good night first, just in case it’s the last chance you get.

It keeps your head up and drowns out the radio. When the warning jumps, everyone goes home laughing, not sick with nerves.

Red

Emergency Warning. The old Red.

Get inside.

Stay inside.

Don’t drive.

Around nine, the power dies. The fridge shudders and goes quiet, and the quiet is worse. Candles on the bench. Torch in your pocket. Thirty-something degrees, sweat down your back, the house smelling of candle smoke and wet towels.

Then the noise comes. And keeps coming.

It’s a road train that never finishes passing. The rain doesn’t fall. It flies sideways and finds every gap. Something metal cartwheels down the street, scraping bitumen. You hope it’s not the trampoline.

It’s the trampoline.

Bathroom now. Smallest room, no big windows. The dog’s jammed against your shins, shaking. Phone on 8 per cent. One bar. Then nothing.

The roof screams. The walls suck in and out like the house is breathing. Scared, same as you. You think about Damien: 194 km/h at Karratha airport. You think about Vance at Learmonth in ‘99: 267, a mainland record. You think about 408, and your brain politely declines.

The Eye

Then it stops.

Dead still. Hot. Silent. Just your heart thumping and the gutters dripping.

You do the maths every Pilbara kid learns too young. Is it over? Or is this the eye?

It’s the eye.

You don’t open the door. Not for anything.

Then the back half hits from the other side. Harder. For hours.

You think about Veronica in 2019. Never crossed the coast. Sat about 80 km out for around a day, grinding. Hedland spent 39 hours on red alert. Karratha, 33.

You think about Ilsa in 2023, and the eight fishermen who died when their boats got caught out at sea. And anyone out on the water tonight.

The Morning After

Grey light. Still blowing, but just wind now. The warning steps down a level instead of jumping to All Clear like the old days, because floodwater and downed power lines don’t care the wind’s eased.

You open the door. The whole street steps out, blinking, wrecked, alive. The old fella next door taps his nose.

Ears ringing. You hear chainsaws before you hear birds.

Trees across the road. Fences flat. Someone’s roof sheet in your yard. The smell of wet red dirt and shredded gum leaves. Number 12’s trampoline is two streets over, upside down in a tree, trying to leave town. He laughs. Then he stops.

The couple at the end have the gas burner going, handing coffee to anyone who stumbles past. Nobody’s laughing at them now. By day two with no power, you’ll be knocking too.

After Damien, the SES got 180 reports of wind damage, 68 of fallen trees and 116 of water getting into homes. The City of Karratha’s clean-up bill hit around $5 million. After George, Port Hedland raised more than $520,000 for the victims in 48 hours, and the town threw itself into the clean-up to get South Hedland’s schools open again.

That’s the bit nobody puts on a postcard. Blokes rocking up with trailers. Someone checking on the old fella next door. They just turn up. That’s the Pilbara.

We don’t get to pick whether the next one comes. Only whether we’re ready, and whether we look after each other once it’s gone.

And yeah, there’ll probably be a party first.

Bring a torch. Snags’ll be on.

Get your updates from DFES on Emergency WA and the Bureau of Meteorology. Not your mate’s Facebook post.

Have you sat through one? Up here or anywhere. Tell me your story in the comments. I want to hear it.

Before I was a local, I did the FIFO life myself. The flights, the swings, the donga walls closing in. I’ve seen it all, and I’ve watched good blokes go quiet.

Men’s mental health in FIFO is one of the most neglected topics going. We’ll talk dollars, rosters and flights all day, but the headspace gets left at the gate. You seriously need to think about what you’re getting into before you commit. The money is real, but so is the isolation.

Every swing, the same plane leaves Perth full of men who say “yeah, good” when you ask how they’re going.

Nobody tells you the hardest part isn’t the heat or the 12-hour shifts. It’s the quiet. Lying in a donga at 2am, thinking about the kid’s birthday you missed and the mate who stopped answering his phone.

We’ll lend a mate a hundred bucks without blinking, but saying “I’m not okay” out loud is another story.

It’s true that the only time a man gets flowers is at his funeral. All the love, all the “best bloke you’d ever meet”, turning up when he can’t hear it.

A few lines I keep coming back to:

“Men don’t break loud. They go quiet, then they go missing.”

“We’ll fix your ute at midnight, but we won’t tell you we’re struggling.”

“Nobody gets a medal for suffering in silence, just a bigger crowd at the end.”

Some of the toughest blokes I’ve seen on site were the ones who finally said “mate, I’m struggling” over smoko and watched six others nod.

If that’s you, you’re not the only one on that plane.

Just something to consider before you make the decision. Stay safe, legends.

Last few months you couldn’t open a news site without seeing “first new oil refinery since the sixties” and the word Karratha in the same sentence. Half the town did a double take. So I thought I’d say what I reckon is actually going on, from a bloke who lives up here and has to deal with whatever gets built.

What’s actually happening

Not a refinery. A study. The federal and WA governments have put $4 million into working out whether a new refinery could even work, and Perdaman is the company pushing it. They’re the same mob building the giant fertiliser plant out on the Burrup.

A study is basically two blokes in a ute asking “should we?” Nobody’s poured concrete. Nobody’s signed anything.

If it ever did happen, it’d be the first new refinery in Australia since the sixties. We’ve only got two left in the whole country, and they cover less than a fifth of the fuel we use.

Why anyone’s bothering

Fuel got scary this year. Prices jumped around April and May when things went sideways overseas, and WA hasn’t had a proper refinery since Kwinana shut in 2021.

Up here that matters more than most places. Every haul truck, every drill rig, every ute going out to site runs on diesel. Port Hedland and Dampier bring in tens of thousands of barrels of it a day. If the diesel stops, the mines stop. Simple as that.

There’s another side. Plenty of smart people reckon one new refinery won’t fix the fuel problem on its own, because it’d still run on imported oil. And a big modern one could cost around $15 billion. That’s a lot of zeros.

The plot twist

Here’s the funny bit. Everyone announced it like it was happening in Karratha. But on the day, the Premier said the sites being looked at were mostly down the Mid West and South West. And the word since then is that the boss of Perdaman reckons the Pilbara’s out because of the cyclones. They want it to be bankable, and insurers don’t love a refinery in cyclone alley.

So the refinery that got announced up here is probably not coming up here. Rude. My view: that’s a lot of dust kicked up for a town that may not even get the thing.

Nothing’s official though. The study isn’t finished and no site has been locked in. So “probably not” is as far as I’ll go.

What it would have meant for Karratha

If it had landed here, we all know the questions.

Jobs. Governments love saying “thousands of jobs”. Construction jobs come and go. It’s the ongoing ones that matter, and nobody’s put a real number on those yet.

Ships. A refinery means regular crude tankers into Dampier, more tanks, more pipes, and a mountain of approvals.

Rent. Big projects bring workers, and workers need beds. Rent here is already around $1,500 a week. Would a refinery push it higher? Probably. Nobody’s worked it out, so I can’t give you a number.

Dust and traffic. I’d want to see the traffic plan before anyone promises a flyover. Dust we’ve already got covered.

What nobody knows yet

How much it’d cost, how big it’d be, where it’d go, when, or if. The Mid West, Kwinana and Kemerton have all been floated as options.

Not to be confused with

There IS a fuel-ish thing that actually got built in Karratha. A big oil and grease storage facility opened last year, with room for more than 2.4 million litres. It’s not a refinery and it’s not a fuel farm, but it means the gear for the mines gets here quicker.

What I’ll be watching

Whether Karratha stays on the list at all. And whether anyone ever puts real numbers on jobs and housing.

If you work on the Burrup or at the port and know something, hit reply and tell me. Locals especially.

If this was useful, subscribe so the next one lands in your inbox.

Cheers, mate, Luke

Up to 50,000 years ago, somebody sat on a rock near Karratha and started carving. The pictures are still there. The Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation reckons there's one to two million of them, and a 700-metre boardwalk at Nganjarli (Deep Gorge) lets you walk right through. Entry to the national park is free.

I live here, so I'm biased. You get numbers I checked on 27 October 2026, and opinions I'll label so you can ignore them. Prices move, so check before you go.

The heat gets you first

The Bureau of Meteorology's Karratha Aero record says January averages a top of 36.0°C and a low of 27.0°C. That's the low. At night. July tops out at 26.5°C, which is basically a different planet. A normal year has 19.1 days of 40°C or more, and the record is 48.4°C. That's not weather, that's a hair dryer pointed at your soul.

The wet season is more cyclones than rain. Karratha gets only about 298 mm a year. The official cyclone season is 1 November to 30 April, though the BOM says on the Pilbara coast it's mid-December to April, peaking in February. Port Hedland has copped 49 gale-force cyclones since 1910.

My view: go May to September. Full stop. Millstream's own park guide says temperatures can top 50°C from November to April, and when the park guide says stay away, listen.

What it costs

Karijini and Millstream Chichester are $17 a vehicle to get in, and one fee covers every park that day. Camping at Dales in Karijini or Miliyanha at Millstream is $15 an adult and $5 a kid, per night. Book online, because Karijini has next to no signal. The council's Cleaverville is $16 a night from May to September, and free October to April.

Fuel is where it bites. On 13 October, FuelWatch figures had Karratha unleaded at 249.5c a litre, Tom Price at 269.9c and Nanutarra at 297.9c. My view: fill up in town and again at Tom Price.

Cheapest one-way Perth to Karratha fares I found were $456 to $509. A Prado from one Karratha depot is $132 a day.

The good stuff, mostly free

Python Pool, at Millstream, is a plunge pool at the bottom of a cliff, a hundred metres from the car park. The hills around it roll, with spinifex in hummocks and white-barked snappy gums.

Karijini's gorges are the main event, and Fortescue Falls and Fern Pool are at Dales Gorge. Fern Pool is very deep. Don't dive, don't jump. At Hearson Cove the tide goes out for hundreds of metres, and that's where you watch the Staircase to the Moon.

Beaches, ranked by me

1. Honeymoon Cove, Point Samson. Protected sand, good for swimming and snorkelling. Point Samson's also known for fish and chips, which settles it.

2. Hearson Cove. Wide white beach. You can only swim at high tide, so check before you pack the esky.

3. Dampier Foreshore. Showers, shady trees, and a swim spot called Shark Cage Beach, which is a bold name.

Safety, quickly: stingers are worst from November to April, so wear a full stinger suit and carry vinegar. A crocodile closed Hearson Cove in January 2023. Read the signs.

Camping, fishing and 4x4ing

Cleaverville's 26 km from Karratha, with beach fishing and no drinking water, so bring your own.

Shore fishing needs no licence in WA. A powered boat does, and a Recreational Fishing from Boat Licence is $40 (DPIRD), even for catch and release.

For the 4x4 crowd, the road from Tom Price to Millstream is Rio Tinto's rail access road, with about 82 km unsealed. Every driver needs a free 30-day permit, sorted online. Check road conditions first.

Where I'd live (my view)

REIWA's October 2026 medians:

1. Karratha. The shops, the airport, the beaches and the rock art, all close. The median rent was $1,500 a week in the June 2026 quarter, which hurts.

2. Dampier. Quiet, by the water, population 1,104. Median house $973,500, rent $795 a week.

3. Newman. The cheapest of the three: house $430,000, rent $850.

So, live here or not?

My view: if you love camping, fishing and 4x4ing, you'll love living here. You get gorges, empty beaches and a sky that doesn't quit. If you don't, don't bother. You'll pay $1,500 a week to live somewhere the average top is 34°C or more for seven months of the year, and you'll hate every minute.

Carry 2 to 3 litres of water per person (Millstream's guide), and never swim a gorge in the rain.

If this was useful, subscribe so the next one lands in your inbox, and reply and tell me where I've got it wrong. Locals especially.

Cheers, mate,
Luke

A few of you replied to last issue asking the big one: "How do I get into mining?" Fair call. Everyone in a Karratha servo queue has a mining job, wants one, or is married to one. Then there's the fourth group, who just want the last sausage roll.

Quick heads up. I'm not here with war stories. Everything below is somebody else's research or their own words, and I've said who. When it's just me carrying on, I'll say "my view", so you can ignore me politely.

Getting a start when you've got no experience

First, the honest bit. I couldn't find any published figure for how long a first mining job takes. So if someone's promising you a number, they're guessing or selling. My view: think months of applications, not weeks.

What I could actually verify is this. Fortescue has a Mining Operator ad for Christmas Creek, 7 days on, 7 nights, then 14 off, flying from Perth. It says "Previous mining experience is not essential, however experience in civil, construction, farming, transport, labouring, warehousing or other hands-on roles will be well regarded." It asks for a C class licence, which most of us have already.

Thiess runs a paid 12-month New to Industry Haul Truck Traineeship at Iron Bridge, and you finish with a Certificate II in Surface Extraction. Rio Tinto's Pilbara traineeships took applications from 1 to 29 July 2026, so that door's shut for now and I couldn't find the next date. Jobs and Skills WA also says its Job Ready Pathway programs, mining included, are fee-free for eligible students.

South West TAFE's guide lists the usual paperwork: a pre-employment medical, a driver's licence, a drug and alcohol screen, a National Police Check and a White Card. It varies by job.

Smoko gag: the hardest part of getting into mining is needing experience for the job that gives you the experience. Chicken and egg, except the chicken's wearing hi-vis.

And please, watch out for scammers. Scamwatch says the warning signs are a recruiter out of nowhere on text or WhatsApp, no interview, and a fee for training before you start. Its 20 May 2026 alert puts it plainly: "no real job will require you to pay money before you make money." The AFP says that in January 2025 alone Australians lost more than $4.2 million to employment scams reported to Scamwatch. If a "mining recruiter" wants cash or your ID up front, walk away.

The good bit: pay, rosters and a free bed

The number everyone quotes: full-time adults in mining average $3,224.20 a week, which is $167,658 a year by my maths (× 52). That's the ABS release for May 2026. It's an Australia-wide average, not an entry-level or Pilbara figure, so don't go booking a boat just yet.

Now the floor. The Mining Industry Award has a Level 1 basic rate of $28.65 an hour from 1 July 2026 (Fair Work Ombudsman). Over 38 hours that's $1,088.71 a week, about $56,613 a year by my maths, before tax, overtime and penalties. Plenty of mines pay above the award, but I couldn't find a published entry-level figure from the big Pilbara employers.

For a peek at the market, a SEEK page I checked on 27 October 2026 had contract ads for experienced dump truck operators at about $60 to $64.13 an hour. An ad's an offer, not a payslip. My view: the gap between the award and the "$160K" yarns is experience, overtime, shifts and roster. Nobody starts at the top.

Rosters? Fortescue lists the common FIFO ones as 1/1, 2/1, 4/1 and 8/6. It says operational rosters are often 2 weeks on, 1 week off, on 12 or 12.5 hour shifts that can flip between nights and days. And the bed and feed are free while you're on. Fortescue says its villages have air-conditioned ensuite rooms, gyms and pools, with meals provided daily. Your biggest bills mostly stop, which is a big part of why the savings can be so good.

The ugly bit

Jokes down for a minute. These are real people.

A 2015 WA Parliament inquiry into FIFO and mental health started because of concerns about nine suicides of FIFO workers over 12 months (WorkSafe WA). The WA Government's summary says the inquiry found more mental health problems among FIFO workers (30%) than the general population (20%), with men aged 18 to 44 at highest risk.

A 2018 Medical Journal of Australia survey of 1,124 remote mining and construction workers found 28% had high or very high psychological distress, against 10.8% of Australians overall. The top stressor was missing special events, at 86.5%. Fair caveat: that's mining and construction lumped together.

Women get a harder deal again. In June 2022 the WA Parliament's "Enough is Enough" report said: "The shocking conclusion we had to draw was that sexual harassment has long been and continues to be prevalent across the industry." It cites national figures where 74% of women workers in the industry reported being sexually harassed in the previous five years. If you're a woman weighing this up, that's not me trying to put you off. It's what the inquiry heard.

And the golden handcuffs. A 2018 BMJ Open study, reported by the ABC, found 62% of workers enjoyed working away. One worker said: "The golden handcuffs go on. As people earn more, they spend more, and take on larger debt burdens, causing them to be trapped in the mining FIFO work lifestyle." Ex-rig electrician Cameron Matthew reckons you should agree a time limit or money target with your partner. Cheap advice, and probably good.

Back home in Karratha

I live here, so this one's close to home. I'm not putting words in anyone's mouth. It's other people's research and their own words, and my view is labelled.

First up, the rent. The median is $1,500 a week (REIWA, June 2026 quarter). The ABC, using REIWA figures, put Karratha's median house rent at $400 in 2016 and $1,100 in 2023. My view: plenty of households here need two incomes just to cope.

In 2022 the ABC told the story of Tia Martin, who grew up in Karratha. Her partner worked 12-hour days for contractors and they paid $750 a week for an old house. She said you'd need "a handbook on how to survive up there on one wage". They left the region.

Getting that second income isn't simple either. The ABC reported in 2023 that a Victoria University report found three kids for every childcare spot in Karratha, with some families waiting up to two years. Karratha mum Elkie Richards said: "I'm being offered promotions and other roles that need more commitment. And I'm not being able to accept them because I only have limited daycare options … I'm stuck." One Karratha centre lists a full day for a baby under 12 months at $204.86 on the government's StartingBlocks site, before the Child Care Subsidy. I couldn't find a solid Karratha school-cost figure, so I won't guess.

And the partner at home. A University of Queensland study, reported by the ABC in 2016, surveyed just over 230 female partners of FIFO workers and found they were more depressed, stressed and anxious than other parents. Researcher Dr Cassandra Dittman said: "mums were saying they were bearing the brunt of the responsibility and decision making and running around after the children, which can wear them down." She also found the couple's relationship mattered more than the roster. A review of 19 studies is less clear-cut, saying the impact on partners and children "remains unclear".

Then there's the stuff that can't be made up. In a 2020 story, Krystie Tarca, whose partner worked in the Pilbara, said: "If you calculate it, he's actually been away for one third of our daughter's life."

My view, and only mine: the people at home aren't a side effect of the roster. They're half the engine. If you're thinking about FIFO, have the proper chat with your partner before you sign, not after. And look after your mates.

So, should you?

Stuff to chew on at smoko. Got the basics, meaning licence, medical and police check? Talked it through with your partner, including who handles school, childcare and the 3am problems while you're away? Got a money plan with an exit in it, so the golden handcuffs don't lock on?

Still chasing: what the big Pilbara employers pay entry-level people, and when Rio's next traineeship window opens. I'll let you know.

If this was useful, hit subscribe so the next one lands in your inbox, and reply with your questions or what you'd like covered next. No question's too dumb.

Cheers, mate,

Luke

$1,500 a week. Dead set. That's Karratha's median rent for the June 2026 quarter, and it's the highest of any regional centre in WA (REIWA). Run that over a year and you're at $78,000 (52 × $1,500) for a rental sitting right in the middle of the market. The middle! Not the fancy end. The middle. I've seen the middle of some of these places and it's a demountable with a view of another demountable. Stone the crows, big pay can disappear fast up here.

Welcome to Pilbara Pay Packet, mate. It's a weekly email about FIFO money in WA, written from Karratha. Each week I'll pick one bit of the pay packet and go through it in plain English, no fancy suit talk. I'm a bloke who gets excited when the servo has the good sausage rolls, so if I can follow it, you can. About 25,000 people are in the Pilbara for work at any one time, on top of the roughly 60,700 who live in the region (Pilbara Development Commission). So if you're juggling rosters, rent and family, you've got heaps of company. Misery loves company, and the company has hi-vis on.

Smoko gag: the weather forecast up here is just the word "yes" with a sunburn.

The 60-second version (smoko read)

• Rent: the median hit $1,500 a week in the June quarter. Growth has cooled since March, but it's still climbing. Yeah nah, not great. Cooling, up here, is a relative term. Everything's cooling compared to the sun.

• Take-home: the ABS average for full-time mining workers is $3,224.20 a week, about $167,658 a year before tax. After tax and Medicare you keep about $121,200 a year, or roughly $4,660 a fortnight. Median rent takes $3,000 of that. Bloody oath. That's the landlord getting the big slice, and you getting the crust.

• Tax: the $338 zone offset goes by where your home is, not where you work. Yes, the tax office cares where your couch is. Romantic, really.

• Super: employers now pay it with each payday. Worth a look at your fees, insurance and any extra accounts. Future you is a stranger who'll be very keen to meet your money.

Smoko gag: they say money can't buy happiness. Those people have never seen a smoko room with a working air conditioner.

Pilbara number of the week

$1,500

Karratha's median weekly rent, June 2026 quarter. Highest in regional WA. Port Hedland came next at $1,200 (REIWA). Silver medal, Hedland. Still not cheap, but you can hold your head high at the podium.

Smoko gag: in Karratha, "cosy" means you can reach the fridge from the bed. "Spacious" means you can also reach the toilet.

The rent squeeze

Back in the March quarter, REIWA had Karratha's median rent at $1,450 a week. That was up 31.8% in a year, and the vacancy rate was 0.1% at the end of April. By June it was $1,500, up 3.4% on the quarter and 15.4% on the year. So the pace has slowed, but it's still heading the wrong way, mate. The latest vacancy figure is 0.8% (August). A balanced market is usually 2.5% to 3.5%, according to REIWA. So "balanced" is a bit like my diet. Everyone agrees it exists and nobody up here has seen it.

REIWA's regional spokesperson, Peta McKenzie, said back in May that rent growth was mostly coming from mining companies, their subcontractors and government departments, who can afford to pay more to house workers. She put it this way: "This all makes it very challenging for the average person who is not employed by, or having their rent subsidised by, a company."

REIWA's October update reckons Karratha rents could rise 10% to 15% over the 2026 calendar year. That's a forecast, not a promise, so don't go selling the ute over it. Also, who's going to drive you to the servo then? Think it through.

Here's what a rent jump looks like for one FIFO worker. In June 2024, ABC News reported on David Murgatroyd, a marine pilot who has lived in Karratha on a FIFO basis for 10 years. An email in April told him the rent on his two-bedroom apartment was going up. "We were originally paying $979 a week, and we received a lease agreement saying that the rent had gone up to $1,850," he said. "When we first saw it, we actually thought it was a typo." ABC said he left the rental after the increase of almost 100 per cent. That's a 2024 story, but it shows how fast a lease can change. Fair dinkum, it'd make your eyes water. And fair play to him, because anyone would have read that email twice and then gone looking for the "just kidding" bit.

My view is that, with inflation, the cost of living and everything we've just gone through, most households are forced to have two incomes in the household. I can't prove the "forced" part, but the numbers lean that way. In the 2021 Census, about 62% of Karratha couple families had both partners working, compared with about 49% across WA. So up here the "stay-at-home partner" is basically a unicorn with a tan. And the usual 30% rule of thumb says a $1,500 rent needs roughly $260,000 a year before tax (my sums: $1,500 × 52 ÷ 0.30). Karratha's median household income in 2021 was about $166,000 a year (ABS, $3,194 a week). That's an older number, so treat the gap as a rough guide. A rough guide with a gap you could park a road train in.

Here's the part I reckon gets missed, and I'll dial the jokes down a notch for it. It really does hit everyday relationships too. When both of you are working flat out like a lizard drinking just to keep up, people end up struggling and feeling their way through it, settling for less, and a lot of them end up more miserable for it. Your date night becomes passing each other in the driveway with a nod, like two ships, if the ships were both knackered. That's my read, not a stat, but I'd bet plenty of you have seen it. Look after each other, yeah? Cheaper than counselling and the rent's not going to do it for you.

And if you're trying to do it on one income up here, I reckon it's a real struggle. The 2021 Census had the median personal income in Karratha at $1,570 a week, before tax. A $1,500 a week rent is about the same as that whole pay packet. So on one wage you're basically working for the landlord, with a small tip left over for yourself. Incomes have gone up since 2021, and a lot of FIFO wages sit well above the median, so it's not the same for everyone. But for a single earner on an average wage, the maths gets tight fast, and you'll be cooked before the end of the fortnight. That pressure follows you home too. It's affecting everyday relationships, because when money is tight, the stress ends up in the house, and I reckon plenty of couples up here feel it. If that's you, you're not weak and you're not alone. It's a hard gig and the numbers are doing most of the damage, not you.

Keep in mind a median is just the middle of the market, not what any one place costs. If you rent in town, you're bidding against employers, so it's worth asking whether a lease makes sense when you're only home half the time. Paying full rent for a place you sleep in half the time is like buying a whole pizza to eat the crusts. If your company provides camp accommodation, that takes the rent problem off your plate, but ask payroll how it affects any allowances you get. And if you're thinking of buying, REIWA's June quarter median house price for Karratha was $755,000, up 19.8% over the year. That's a big call on a roster that might change. Run the numbers for a good year and a quiet one.

Smoko gag: my budget and the heat have one thing in common. Both go up when I'm not looking and neither has ever come down.

What a pay packet looks like (real averages)

Let's use real numbers, no dodgy made-up ones. Every figure below has a source. The ABS Average Weekly Earnings release for May 2026 (out 13 August 2026) has full-time adults in mining on $3,224.20 a week of ordinary-time earnings. That's an Australia-wide average for the whole mining industry, not a Pilbara figure and not a real person. It's before tax, it doesn't include overtime, and it's the figure for full-time adults only. The ABS doesn't split mining out by state in this release. For comparison, the all-industry average for full-time adults in WA is $2,227.40 a week.

Times 52, the mining figure comes to $167,658 a year (my sums). Say that's your taxable income, you're an Australian resident for tax, and you've got no deductions, offsets, HELP debt or Medicare levy surcharge. On the 2026-27 resident rates from the ATO, tax is $31,020 plus 37c for every dollar over $135,000. That comes to $43,104. The Medicare levy is 2%, so $3,353. You're left with $121,202 a year, or about $4,662 a fortnight over 26 pays. On the WA all-industry average ($115,825 a year) the same sums leave about $88,241 a year, or $3,394 a fortnight. If your eyes just glazed over, that's normal. Mine did too, and I wrote it.

Now put real costs against that $4,662 fortnight (this is the bit where we all go quiet):

1. Rent: $3,000. That's Karratha's June 2026 quarter median of $1,500 a week, twice over (REIWA). It's about 64% of the take-home. Ouch, that's a crook chunk. Your pay lands, waves hello, and walks straight out the back door to the landlord.

2. Power: about $81. WA's regulated A1 tariff applies to Horizon Power customers like Karratha too (Uniform Tariff Policy). From 1 July 2026 it's 119.24c a day plus 33.26c a kWh. The supply charge alone is $16.69 a fortnight. I've used 5,000 kWh a year as a round-number example, which is not a Karratha average. Use your own bill for the real number. And yes, the aircon is why. The aircon is always why. It's the only relationship in the house that never gets a night off.

3. Food: about $237. WACOSS's 2025 Cost of Living report (Table 19) puts a lean single-adult food budget in the Pilbara at $118.68 a week for 2024/25. It's a modelled budget, so plenty of people spend more (a Maccas run or two will do that). The same report has a family with two kids at $388.14 a week. Meanwhile, the "lean budget" in my head is a spreadsheet and the real me is at the drive-through again.

4. Fuel: a 50 litre tank (round-number example) costs $124.75 at today's cheapest Karratha unleaded of 249.5c a litre (FuelWatch, 27 October 2026). Fill the ute and watch your wallet cry. The ute doesn't care. The ute has never cared.

Rent, power and food come to about $3,318. That leaves roughly $1,344 a fortnight, and it still has to cover fuel, the car, phone, insurance, flights home, and anything you want to save. Nobody's spending is the same, but the point is to run your own numbers once, so you're not wondering at the end of the month where it all went. (Spoiler: it went to the landlord, the aircon and the servo.)

Smoko gag: doing your own tax is like a roster. Looks simple on paper, and then somehow it's all night shift.

Tax stuff worth knowing

The rates. For 2026-27, residents pay nothing up to $18,200, then 15% to $45,000, 30% to $135,000, 37% to $190,000 and 45% above that. Add the 2% Medicare levy on top (ATO and Moneysmart). The 15% rate drops to 14% from 1 July 2027, and that's already law. The cut is worth $268 a year (about $10 a fortnight) if you earn $45,000 or more, with another $268 coming in July 2027. That's a free feed, near enough. Take it and don't ask questions.

The zone tax offset. The ATO lists Karratha in Zone A, not as a special area. The offset goes by your usual place of residence, not where you work. If you work in a remote area but live somewhere else, the ATO says you're not eligible. Its own example is an engineer who lives in Adelaide and works in Alice Springs. Imagine telling that bloke he's in a remote zone. He'd say "Mate, I've got a Woolies."

So if your home is in Karratha and you've lived here 183 days or more in the income year, you may be able to claim it. There are extra rules if you moved part way through. If your home is in Perth, you generally can't.

The base amount for Zone A is $338, and it's written into the tax law (section 79A). It comes straight off your tax bill. Kids or students you support can lift it, and any Centrelink remote area allowance cuts it. The ATO has a calculator, and it's worth five minutes if your home is in a zone. Ripper of a deal for five minutes' work. Best hourly rate you'll ever earn, and nobody makes you wear a hard hat for it.

Living-away-from-home allowance (LAFHA). If you're paid an allowance because the job has you living away from your normal home, it can be taxed as a fringe benefit (your employer pays the tax) instead of as your income. For FIFO workers that generally means a regular rotating roster, going home to your normal residence on days off, and a signed declaration, or your employer's own records doing the same job. The ATO says you shouldn't use the FIFO declaration if you also get accommodation and transport to and from your usual home. If the conditions aren't met, the allowance can end up taxed as part of your income. Ask payroll how yours is treated. Yes, it's paperwork. No, it's not fun. Yes, it's still cheaper than finding out later.

Smoko gag: super is the only savings plan where you pay in for decades and then get excited about a free sausage at the end of it. Fair enough, it's a good sausage.

Super

Your employer has to pay 12%. Since 1 July 2026 it's worked out on "qualifying earnings", which covers ordinary-hours pay, bonuses and commissions. Overtime stays out, as long as your ordinary hours are clearly identified in your award or agreement. Your employer also now has to get the money into your fund within 7 business days of each payday, instead of quarterly. Finally, super that shows up on time. If only the bus did that.

A few things to check. The ATO's YourSuper tool lets you compare MySuper products side by side on fees and returns.

Then there's insurance. Most funds give you life and total and permanent disability cover automatically if you're 25 or over, and some throw in income protection. It doesn't start on its own if your balance is under $6,000. Have a look at what you've actually got, whether you're paying a loading for a high-risk job, and whether you're paying twice for similar cover on more than one account. Paying twice for the same cover is the financial version of buying two Maccas meals and eating them in the car park, alone, in shame.

If you've got extra accounts, Moneysmart says rolling them into one can mean a single set of fees and less paperwork. Check first that you won't lose insurance, that it won't change what your employer pays in, and that none of them is a defined benefit fund. Think of it as a spring clean for a shed you forgot you owned.

One more. By law, funds cancel insurance on accounts with no contributions for at least 16 months. That can catch you out when you change employers, so keep an eye on it.

Smoko gag: the best thing about a fortnightly budget is you only have to feel bad about it every second Thursday.

Do this week (before the arvo beers)

1. Work out your take-home. Add up each swing's pay after tax, then see what each week off costs you. Brace yourself. It's like stepping on the scales after Christmas.

2. Set up a pay-day split. Send fixed amounts to bills, savings and spending the moment you're paid. It's harder to spend money you never see. Hide it from yourself. You're the most dangerous person in your own bank account.

3. Check your super. Log in through myGov and look at how many accounts you've got, the fees, and whether the insurance matches your job.

4. Ask payroll two questions. How is any allowance treated for tax? Is overtime shown separately on your payslip?

5. Home in Karratha? Run the ATO zone offset calculator.

Smoko gag: nothing has ever made me feel quite as organised as a list I haven't started.

What I'm still checking

How camp accommodation affects allowances in practice. It depends on your employer and your agreement, so I'm not going to guess. And REIWA's September quarter regional figures for Karratha, which aren't out yet. I'm refreshing the page like a kid waiting for the ice cream van.

Next issue: whether your income protection actually covers your job, and what your roster does to your sleep. (Short answer, nothing good, but I'll bring sources.)

So, what's the biggest leak in your pay packet right now? Rent, flights, a second car, something else? Hit reply with one line and I'll cover the most common answers in issue #2. No worries if you're not sure, just have a crack.

Cheers, mate,
Luke

Numbers checked against REIWA, the ATO, Moneysmart, the Pilbara Development Commission, the ABS, WA Energy Policy, FuelWatch and WACOSS on 27 October 2026. This is general information, not financial advice. If I ever earn from a link, I'll say so. Jokes are exaggeration for fun and aren't claims about any real person or company.