FIFO Packing List: What to Pack for Your First Swing (and What to Leave Home)

Pack for the gate first, comfort second

Your first swing sets the tone. Turn up short of something and you spend two weeks borrowing chargers off blokes you met yesterday and paying camp shop prices for sunscreen. The good news is that a FIFO bag is simpler than it looks. The site supplies your PPE, the camp supplies your bed and your meals, and everything that makes the swing bearable is on you.

This list is built from our free First Swing Packing Checklist and the things long-term FIFO workers tell new starters every week. Work through it top to bottom: the first section stops you getting turned away, the rest just makes life easier.

1. The things that stop you getting through the gate

Forget these and nothing else on the list matters.

• Photo ID and your driver's licence. You will not get through the gate or the induction without them.
• Every ticket and licence your role needs. High risk work licences, VOC paperwork, and your Standard 11 certificate if you are heading into Queensland coal. Bring the originals and photograph each one.
• Your flight and travel confirmation, with the charter details and the baggage limit it states.
• Bank details and super fund details for the day one paperwork.
• Medications, in their original packaging, with enough for the whole swing plus a few spare days in case a flight is delayed. Camp shops do not stock prescriptions and the site medic cannot hand out yours. Keep them in your carry on, never in checked baggage.

Photograph every licence and certificate and email the photos to yourself. If a card goes missing on site, the photo gets you through the conversation while you sort a replacement.

One more on medications: most sites run drug and alcohol testing. If you take anything on prescription, find out how your site wants it declared before you fly, and keep the packaging so the label matches the name on your ID.

2. Power and phone

• Phone charger with a long cable. Camp room power points are never where the bed is. A two metre cable beats a one metre cable every single swing.
• A double adapter or small power board, if your camp allows them. Check the camp rules first, some do not.
• Headphones, for the flight, the bus and the room.
• Downloaded shows, podcasts and playlists. Camp wifi is for messages home, not streaming. Download before you leave the city.

3. The room: make it yours

The camp gives you a room. These are the items that turn it into somewhere you can actually sleep.

• Your own pillow, or at least a pillowcase from home. It is the single most recommended item by people who have done years of swings. Camp pillows are a lottery.
• Earplugs. Someone on your corridor will snore like a dozer.
• An eye mask, if there is any chance you are on nights. Day sleep in a bright donga is hard work without one.
• Two pairs of thongs: one for the shower block, one for the verandah.
• Washing powder pods. Camp laundries usually have the machines but rarely the detergent.
• A drink bottle you actually like drinking from. It will do more for your hydration than any toolbox talk.

4. Skin, body and the heat

• Sunscreen and a decent moisturiser. They sound soft until you have done a summer swing in the Pilbara or the Bowen Basin.
• Lip balm with sunscreen in it.
• A basic toiletries bag sized for the whole swing, so you are not paying camp prices in week two.
• Something for downtime that is not your phone: a book, a tablet, a deck of cards. The crib room gets a lot friendlier when somebody has cards.

5. Clothes: less than you think

Every first timer overpacks clothes. You will live in work gear and wear civvies twice. Your PPE and work uniform normally come from site, so check your start pack before buying anything yourself.

• A few changes of casual clothes for the flight and the evenings.
• Gym gear, if your camp has a gym. Most do, and it is the easiest way to keep your head straight on a long roster.
• Something warm. Desert nights and air conditioned crib rooms both get cold.
• Towels only if your camp does not supply them. Many do. Check your camp's own list.

6. What to leave at home

• Anything valuable or irreplaceable. Camps are generally safe, but rooms change, bags get misdirected, and losing something that matters ruins a swing.
• Alcohol, until you know the rules. Many camps are dry and most limit what you can bring in. Getting it wrong on your first swing is a bad look. If in doubt, arrive without it and ask on site.
• Anything that could be questioned at a bag search. If you are not sure, leave it out.
• Seven outfits. See above.

Before you zip the bag

Weigh it. Charter flights enforce baggage limits strictly, and they are often tighter than a normal airline. Your travel confirmation states the limit for your flight. Believe it.

Then take a photo of everything laid out on the bed before it goes in. Next swing you just copy the photo. After three or four swings it becomes muscle memory and you will pack in ten minutes.

Get the printable version

Everything above is also in our free First Swing Packing Checklist, a short PDF you can print or save to your phone and tick off as you pack. There are more free guides for FIFO workers and families on the guides page.