Fly-In Crime? Mining, rurality and social disorder

Abstract

Dispossession from traditional lands. Alienation. Invasion. Violence. Is this Australia circa 1788? No, it's Australia 2013. It's now. It's rural and regional Australia and the alleged victims are more often than not non-Indigenous people. The Australian mining boom has seen an unlikely coalition of interests form in rural and regional Australia, comprised of pastoralists, environmentalists and small business people. These groups have expressed opposition to mining practices, especially fly-in-fly-out (FIFO) and drive-in-drive-out (DIDO), on environmental, economic and social grounds. But as might be expected of such a broad ranging coalition, the vision of what they are fighting for and against has not always been clearly articulated. Sure, they are fighting to save so-called communities and traditions, but this also begs the question, which communities and what traditions?