Those occupations you talk about, most of them aren't technical. So I wouldn't know much about their market.

I've been here 7 odd years. Life is ok I guess.

I spend most of my time in a camp working 12 hours a day, the time I don't spend sleeping, I spend at the mess or at the gym.

There's little racism out here. The company f***s us all equally.

That's true. I used to do work for Anglo Grasstree and now people are saying it's a sinking ship. GlencoreXstrata already cutting jobs like mad at Oaky North and Oaky 1. Coal, Coking coal and Iron Ore are dying. Rio Tinto already downsizing their iron ore workforce. Saraji under BMA has already been mothballed.

At the same time, the gas industry is going from construction and consolidation phases into the "Sustainment phase", we've already been sent the emails to prepare. I predict that people without >70% upstream experience will start losing jobs in 1 year. That's 100,000 highly skilled OnG workers trained to the highest of standards with internationally recognized certifications flooding the market. It might be a bit hard for a migrant to compete.

But at the same time shale oil, offshore oil and other advanced unconventionals on the small scale look to be good.

http://www.news.com.au/finance/business/au...h-1227034281143

Either way, modeling by the RBA has shown that Australians are on average 13 percent richer because of the mining boom. Without it, we wouldn't be at US dollar parity as well, instead of the 95 US cents to the dollar we'd be at 65.