Australian FIFO miner reveals the huge six-figure salary he earns

A miner has revealed he started making $190,000 a year at the age of 24, and hasn’t earned less than six figures in almost a decade.

Melbourne dad Simon Blackburn revealed in a TikTok video on Friday that he has been raking in hundreds of thousands of dollars each year since 2011.

Mr Blackburn, who is now in his early 30s, spoke about his exorbitant pay increases during his eight years working in mines around Australia.

‘When I was 23 I was on $160,000 a year,’ he said.

Pictured: Simon Blackburn on Tik Tok answering questions about how much money he makes as a miner

‘Twenty-four and 25 went up to about $190,000 a year. When I went over to WA [Western Australia] I think I did $190,000 again, and then when I went to maintenance … it dropped down again to about $130,000 a year.’

During the last year, the father-of-two took home $150,000.

Despite the enormous paycheques on offer, Mr Blackburn said getting a job as a miner can be as simple as writing a resume.

‘I can pretty much get most people a gig in the mines,’ he said in a follow-up video on Sunday.

‘It’s pretty easy, you just need to know how to write a CV.’ 

Pictured: Mr Blackburn with his wife Alana. The couple have two children and live in Melbourne

Mr Blackburn (pictured with his wife Alana) started his career as an assistant with no formal training or qualifications

Mr Blackburn started his career as an assistant with no formal training or qualifications.

He would clean, cook barbecues, put up fencing – ‘pretty much whatever they wanted’, he said.

After paying about $30,000 for ‘tickets’ – or qualifications – during his first year, Mr Blackburn became a dump truck driver and excavator.

He then got jobs fitting pipes, scaffolding, rigging machinery and operating cranes – with a pay increase each time.

Mr Blackburn wishes he had bought houses and made investments when he was younger, before he became a father, and urged other young miners to ‘save your cash’

‘You just need a few basic tickets, lads – you’re working at heights, confined spaces,’ he said.

‘Get yourself a HR [heavy rigid] truck licence and then you’ve got your laboring stuff set and you an either go into the earthmoving side or scaffolding side.’

When one viewer asked what he he did with the hundreds of thousands of dollars he earned over eight years, Mr Blackburn revealed that squandered it on a lavish lifestyle.

‘I chucked $100,000 down on a house at about 25, bought that, didn’t really pay much off it so I’m copping that now,’ he said.

‘I lived it up too much.

‘I thought I was going to do it forever, so I thought “rightio, I’m making over $2,000 a week for the next 30 years, I can have bikes, cars, a ute, I can go on holidays and have a lifestyle.”‘

He wishes he had bought houses and made investments when he was younger, before he became a father, and urged other young miners to ‘save your cash’.