Leading the housing investment charge is BHP Billiton Iron Ore, which has recently announced a $150 million housing program spread across the towns of Port Hedland, South Hedland and Newman.

The two-year program represents the largest single private or public investment in Pilbara accommodation for more than 20 years and features a number of innovative housing models that will set a new benchmark for permanent, semi-residential and mining camp accommodation in the region.

Of the new housing in Port and South Hedland, the company will undertake construction of 64 homes, in addition to refurbishing 37 units and homes and purchasing 18 lots in LandCorp’s 37-hectare Pretty Pool residential estate in Cooke Point, five kilometres east of Port Hedland.

Hoping to add to its recent $16.2 million BHP contract, McGrath Homes is understood to be one of the short-listed bidders for the eco unit contract.

McGrath Homes general manager Vin Nolan said the company had a full order book for building transportable homes before transporting them to the site.

He said the eco units, while still being at the conceptual stage, would deliver a considerable cost advantage to traditional mining camp dongas, and could be built in a shorter timeframe.

The company will become a subsidiary of Nomad Building Solutions Ltd next month and is due to complete the new housing project in November 2007.

Nomad will also be busy constructing a 504-bed village and an additional 200 rental accommodation rooms for workers from Fortescue Metals Group’s Cloudbreak Mine, near Newman.

Pilbara Development Commission acting chief executive Lex McCulloch said the race was on between mining companies to offer personalised accommodation with all the mod-cons as a hook to attract and maintain employees.

“The eco huts are nothing like dongas and are individually self-contained units without shared walls, built with recycled materials,” Mr McCulloch said.

The eco units will be located close to Newman and will allow BHP’s large contractor workforce to stay there, even when not on shift.

But while mobile accommodation was important in the mining regions, much of the big action was in the towns, where house prices have escalated.

Those benefiting from the big spending include Pilbara-based businesses, and in particular local building companies, which are reporting sufficient work on their books to last for at least three to four years.

Pilbara Constructions has already commenced work for BHP on 19 houses in Cooke Point, close to Port

Hedland, as well as 40 housing refurbishments in the area.

“Business has been going through the roof in Port Hedland and so have prices. In general, the cost of steel is going up, and wages too,” the company’s contracts administrator Chris Gleeson said.

The majority of Pilbara Constructions’ workforce is local, and all are already housed in Port Hedland.

Mr Gleeson said finding housing for contractors posed huge problems for building companies, as did retaining skilled employees and being able to compete with lucrative mining wages.

The scene is similar in Newman, where Mahon’s Asset Manage-ment has begun work on the refurbishment of 75 homes for BHP.

Administration manager Marissa Mahon said the five-year-old company was over capacity and sub-contracting work out to cope with demand.

Ms Mahon said it was on schedule to complete 35 homes by June next year, equating to one home every 10 days.

“We can’t expand at all because the logistics of getting the BHP contract completed is more than enough. We also have demolition work to complete on 22 home sites and will have 11 finished by the end of January,” she said.

Most of the company’s 35-strong workforce is local with 15 new employees sourced from Victoria housed in its own accommodation.

Ms Mahon said the company needed a further five tradesmen but admitted this would be difficult to achieve considering the escalation of rental prices in the town.

“Four to five years ago, every second house in town was vacant. Now the price of an average three-bedroom home is $500 per week without a pool, up from $150 per week four years ago,” she said. 

News: 9-November-06 by Jenelle Carter