大象传媒

How would you like to be able to earn over a hundred thousand dollars a year with no qualifications? Sound impossible in these difficult economic times?

Not in Western Australia, where huge demand for natural resources from places like China has lead to a boom in the mining industry.

There's been a boom in high paying jobs too - many of them so-called Fly In Fly Out, or FIFO, jobs where people travel to remote mine sites for several weeks at a time.

It's a lucrative way to earn a living, but there's increasing concern in Australia that it might be coming at a big cost for workers and their families.

For the 大象传媒's Assignment programme, James Fletcher has been to Western Australia to find out more.