Life on site
Life on site
FIFO and DIDO on Australian solar builds: rosters, rooms and what is paid
Fly-in fly-out, drive-in drive-out and the residential arrangement most crews actually use — the rosters, who pays for the room and the meals, and what to ask before you accept an offer.
FIFO — fly-in fly-out — arrived in Australian solar from mining, and it did not arrive unchanged. A solar farm is usually closer to a town than a mine is, the build is shorter than a mine's life, and the crew is bigger and less specialised. The result is that solar sites use the whole spectrum of arrangements rather than one: some fly a crew in, some run a camp for people who drive there, some pay an allowance and expect you to find a room, and some offer nothing at all because the array is half an hour from a regional city.
Which one applies to a particular offer is the single most consequential thing on the listing after the pay, and it is the thing applicants read last. This article sets out what the terms mean, what is normally paid by whom, and what to ask before you accept.
FIFO, DIDO, and the third arrangement nobody names
FIFO — fly-in fly-out. The employer flies you from a nominated city to the nearest regional airport, buses you to a camp, and flies you home at the end of your swing. On the listings published on this board in August 2026, 4 of 38 were fly-in fly-out, with the points of origin written into the listing: Perth, Adelaide, and one offering Sydney or Adelaide.
DIDO — drive-in drive-out. You drive yourself to site at the start of the swing and home at the end, and you stay in a camp or a village in between. The flights are the difference, and so is the fact that the drive is usually on your own time.
The residential arrangement, which is the most common of all. You live in the nearest town for the length of the build — in a room, a share house or a caravan park — and drive 20 to 40 kilometres to the gate every morning. It is not FIFO, it is not DIDO, and it is what most people on most solar builds actually do. On those same August 2026 listings, 7 quoted a living-away or accommodation allowance, 4 offered help finding a room without paying for it, and 6 offered nothing on accommodation at all.
Rosters, and what they tell you before you ask
A roster is written as days on and days off, and it is the most honest single line on any listing: it tells you where you will be living, how tired you will be, and how much of your year this build occupies.
On the listings published on this board in August 2026, the patterns written into the descriptions were these:
- 5 days on, 2 days off — 16 listings. A local or residential roster. You sleep in the same bed every night, and some listings add that Saturdays are offered during the delivery peaks.
- 10 days on, 4 days off — 9 listings. The workhorse roster of solar construction. Long enough to justify a camp, short enough that people go home between swings.
- 14 days on, 7 days off — the longer end of the same idea.
- 2 weeks on, 1 week off and 3 weeks on, 1 week off — the FIFO patterns, where the swing has to be long enough for the flight to be worth paying for.
Two things a roster does not tell you and a listing sometimes does: the shift length — 10-hour days are written on some of these listings — and what happens when the weather stops work. Wet weather standing a crew down is a normal clause on a civil-phase listing, and whether that stand-down is paid is a question about the agreement your role sits under, not the roster.
What is actually paid, and by whom
This is where the terms stop being interchangeable. The categories below are the ones this board files listings under, and each says something specific.
Camp accommodation. A room in a workers' camp or accommodation village, usually single occupancy with an ensuite, with meals in a mess. On the August 2026 listings, 12 quoted a camp — the most common arrangement on the board. What varies is whether you pay for it: most of those listings state that meals and the room are at no cost to the worker, and two of them state a nightly contribution deducted from pay, $25 and $28 respectively. Both are ordinary and neither is hidden; what matters is that you read which one you were offered.
FIFO, flights paid. The category name is the substance. The listings in this category state which city the flight leaves from, and that camp and meals are covered.
Allowance. A living-away or accommodation allowance paid per night, and you arrange the room. Two of the August 2026 listings state the amount: $90 and $95 per night, one of them conditional on your usual residence being more than 100 kilometres from site. An allowance is not a room — it is money towards one, in a town where rooms near a build are scarce.
Assistance. No money, but help: a site administrator with a list of vetted share houses and caravan parks, and an introduction. Rent remains yours.
Provided. Accommodation arranged and paid by the employer without it being a camp — motel-style rooms in the nearest town, for instance.
None. Written plainly on 6 of the August 2026 listings, which is the honest form. A role written for someone who already lives locally is not a worse role; it is a role you should not apply to from another state.
The arithmetic people get wrong
An hourly rate on a FIFO listing and the same rate on a residential listing are not the same offer, and the difference is not in the pay line.
Count these before comparing two offers: rent and food during the swing, the drive or the flight, what you keep paying at home while you are away, and unpaid travel time at each end of the swing. A camp where the room and the meals cost you nothing removes two of those entirely. An allowance of a fixed amount per night removes part of one, and only if you can find a room at that price. A residential role with no accommodation offered removes none of them, and may still be the better job if you already live in the town.
Ask before you accept, not after. Whether the room is single occupancy. Whether meals are included or deducted. Who pays the flight if you leave mid-build. Whether travel to site from the camp is on the clock. Whether the allowance is paid on days off. None of these are awkward questions on a construction site; every supervisor has answered them fifty times.
Finding the listings that suit your arrangement
Accommodation is a filter on this board rather than something to read fifty listings to discover: listings that offer accommodation shows the roles where the employer has stated an arrangement, and each listing's own accommodation section states which of the categories above applies and in how many words the employer chose to explain it. This article stays with the roster and the money; what a camp is, and what a listing means by accommodation — the room, the table and the rules — is the other half, written separately.
If you are weighing this against everything else an offer contains, our guide Working on a solar farm in Australia covers what a day and a swing on site are actually like, and What solar farm jobs pay sets out the advertised bands, so you can put the accommodation arrangement and the rate side by side rather than in sequence.
General information only. Allowances, travel time and stand-down provisions are set by awards, enterprise agreements and individual contracts, and they differ between roles on the same site. This page reports what listings on this board stated in August 2026; it is not advice about your entitlements. The national source is fairwork.gov.au.