BHP Strike Settlement: Your Step-by-Step Plan to Catch Up on Everything You Fell Behind On

The back pay's landing. Maybe it already has, maybe it's hitting accounts over the next couple of pay cycles depending on how your site's payroll team processes the settlement. Either way, after however many weeks of strike action, reduced hours, or sitting at home wondering if this swing was even going to happen, there's suddenly a lump sum in your account and about six different things screaming for a piece of it.

This is the bit nobody warns you about. The stress of the strike itself is one thing. The stress of having money again and needing to make good decisions with it fast, before it evaporates into whatever's loudest, is a different problem entirely. I've watched blokes get their back pay, feel like a king for about four days, and then realise three weeks later they're in exactly the same hole because they paid the wrong things first or just spread it around evenly like peanut butter instead of actually clearing anything properly.

So here's the order to do this in. Not what feels most urgent emotionally, what actually protects you financially.

First: work out what you're actually dealing with

Before you touch a single payment, get every arrears figure in front of you on one page. Not a mental tally, an actual list. Call or log into each one:

• Car and equipment finance: exact arrears amount, not just the regular repayment
• Home loan or rent arrears, including any fees the bank or agent has tacked on
• Credit cards and personal loans, with current balance and minimum owing
• HECS/HELP, only relevant if you're near indexation dates or it's been flagged
• Any hardship arrangement you set up during the strike, and what "closing it out" actually requires
• Utilities, phone, insurance, anything on a payment plan

Write the number down next to each one. Not the total debt, the amount that's actually overdue or in arrears. That's the number that matters for this exercise. You're not trying to pay everything off today. You're trying to get current, stop the bleeding, and protect the stuff that can be taken off you if you get this wrong.

Priority one: anything secured against something you can lose

This is non-negotiable and it comes first regardless of how small the number looks compared to your credit card balance. Secured debt means the car finance company or the mortgage lender has a legal claim on an actual asset. Miss enough payments and they can repossess the car or, in a mortgage default scenario, eventually move toward selling the house.

Car loan arrears go first. If you've fallen two or three payments behind on a $650 fortnightly car repayment, that arrears figure might only be $1,300 to $1,950, but it's the debt with teeth. Finance companies on vehicles used for work, especially anything financed through a novated lease or equipment finance for a ute you need to get to camp or the airport, will move on repossession faster than most people expect once you're past 90 days.

Mortgage arrears come next, same logic, bigger number. If you've got a joint mortgage and your partner's been covering it solo on a reduced household income during the strike, find out exactly what's owed including any default fees or additional interest charged during that period. Ring the bank's hardship team (not the regular call centre) before you pay it. Sometimes there are fees they'll wipe once they see the account's back to being serviced properly, but only if you ask before you pay rather than after.

Rent arrears matter too if you're renting rather than buying, obviously, since eviction is the equivalent outcome. Same rule: pay it, get it in writing that the arrears are cleared, and ask if any late fees can be waived given the circumstances.

Priority two: close out hardship arrangements properly

If you rang your bank, your car financier, or a utility provider during the strike and got a hardship variation, a payment pause, reduced repayments, or a deferral, this back pay is your chance to close that out cleanly rather than let it quietly become a new problem down the track.

Here's the thing people miss: a hardship arrangement usually doesn't erase what you owe, it just delays it or spreads it. If you deferred three months of mortgage repayments, that money is now sitting on the loan somewhere, either as a lump sum due, added to the loan term, or as increased future repayments. Ring them, get the exact figure to bring the account fully current, and ask specifically: "does this clear the deferral or does it still show as an arrangement on my file?"

This matters because hardship flags and arrangement notations can sit on your credit file and make the next loan application (ute, house, whatever) harder even after the money's sorted. Getting it closed out properly, not just paid down casually, is worth the phone call.

Priority three: high-interest unsecured debt

Now you're onto credit cards, personal loans, buy-now-pay-later stacked up during the lean weeks, that sort of thing. Nobody's taking your house over a $4,200 credit card balance, but at 21% interest that's costing you close to $900 a year in interest alone if you just let it sit, so it deserves the next slice of the payout.

If you've got more than one, pay the highest interest rate first, not the smallest balance. The "smallest balance first" method feels satisfying but it costs you more in real dollars. A $6,000 balance at 22% is bleeding you faster than a $2,000 balance at 13%, so the bigger one gets the priority even though clearing the small one feels quicker.

If a BNPL account (Afterpay, Zip, whatever you're using) has gone into arrears and is about to hit your credit file, that one jumps the queue regardless of the dollar amount, because these report to credit bureaus now and a default here follows you for years over what might be a few hundred dollars.

What to leave for next payday

This is the part that takes discipline. Not everything needs fixing with this lump sum, and trying to zero out every single thing at once often means you clear four small debts and leave nothing in the account for the fortnight ahead, which just starts the cycle again.

HECS/HELP debt, unless you're right on an indexation date (usually 1 June each year) with a genuine reason to make a voluntary payment before then, can wait. It's not accruing daily interest the way a credit card does, and there's no repossession risk. Let your normal payroll deductions handle it once you're back on a full roster.

Smaller retail accounts or store cards with modest balances and no imminent default risk can also wait a payday or two if the money's needed elsewhere first. Same goes for annual expenses that aren't due yet, like car rego or insurance renewal that's still eight weeks out. Note the date, but don't pay early just because you've got cash sitting there. Put that portion in a separate account earning some interest instead.

Leave something for the actual reset

After secured debt, hardship closures and high-interest unsecured debt are handled, resist the urge to hand every remaining dollar to the next thing on the list. Put something aside, even $500 to $1,000, as a buffer specifically for the next disruption. Strikes, stand-downs, camp closures, they've all shown you this year that FIFO income isn't as bulletproof as it can feel when the roster's running smoothly and the swing is steady.

If you're weighing up whether your current site, roster and living arrangement is actually working for you financially, particularly if this whole saga has you thinking about whether the drive-in drive-out or a different swing pattern somewhere else might suit better, it's worth properly comparing what's on offer elsewhere rather than assuming the grass is greener based on one bad stretch. There's more detail on rosters, camp conditions and what different sites are actually like to work at across the country if you want to look properly before making any big decisions off the back of a stressful few months.

The blunt version

Secured debt first (car, house, rent), then close out any hardship arrangement properly so it doesn't linger on your file, then high-interest unsecured debt starting with the worst rate, then a buffer for next time. Everything else can wait for the next pay run.

Back pay feels like a windfall but it's really just wages you already earned showing up late. Treat it that way. Pay it in the order that protects the roof over your head and the ute in the driveway first, close out anything that's quietly still costing you through a hardship arrangement, then knock down the expensive unsecured stuff, and don't feel guilty about leaving the low-priority balances for next payday. That's not avoiding them, that's just doing this properly instead of doing it fast.