"Fly-in, fly-out hookers join NW boom times" Philippa Perry, West Australian, 30 April 2007
Prostitutes from as far away as New Zealand are flying to WA's North West to have sex with cashed-up and lonely mine workers who have been drawn from Perth by the resources boom.
Brothel madam Jo Woodward, who owns Port Hedland brothel Port of Call, said women from the Eastern States and New Zealand were operating on a fly-in, fly-out basis, just like mine workers, to meet demand as Karratha and Port Hedland burst at the seams with young male workers.
Ms Woodward said she was turning away up to 60 men on Friday and Saturday nights because sex workers could not keep up with the demand.
"We have the clients, we just don't have the girls" she said. "There's not much to do in Port Hedland apart from get drunk and go to the brothel...some of them just want a cuddle. Some just want to talk to a female. Some have been in the bush too long".
"Girls from Perth we have here for 10 to 14 days. Girls from the Eastern States we have here for three weeks, if they can handle it".
She said the money was good but the hours were long, with prostitutes often seeing up to 12 clients each shift.
"We start at seven at night and earlier in the week finish about two in the morning" she said. "Later in the week, we finish at five or six in the morning and sometimes we go until lunchtime".
Ms Woodward, who took over ownership of Port of Call in 2005, said she remembers quieter days.
"Now, some nights I could have 20 girls on and it wouldn't make a difference" she said.
Clinical psychologist and sexual therapist Vivienne Cass said the male need for female companionship was not based solely on the desire for sex.
"There have always been men going to prostitutes to have sexual needs met and also because of the need for intimacy" she said.
"A lot of men are doing five or six weeks on duty. When the men get a break, especially the single men who don't have families to come back to, they're going to try to fill that time and get their needs met for both sexual and intimate connections".
Linda Watson, who runs a Perth-based rehabilitation service for sex workers wanting to get out of the industry said that she had spoken to women who were seeing 14 to 15 clients a shift.
"Do you know how much that puts on their bodies?" Ms Watson said. "It is one big, massive orgy".