Quote Originally Posted by Gavin Luper View Post
It's not folklore. I'm basing this on 1) living in WA, 2) loads of my mates and other people I grew up with getting jobs in the mining sector quite easily and getting paid really well, and 3) processing credit applications for miners who do fly-in, fly-out work and, assessing their payslips for this on a regular basis, I can guarantee you that they do get paid exceptionally well, and that a lot of these people earning $100k+ per annum are, as I said, 18-year-old bogans.

I agree it's a high risk job, of course - but that explains the high pay.
Like I say, they do get paid for a while. However it's high risk employment and also highly sought after; the mining sector is as likely to be the death of our economy as the salvation IMO.