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Tougher limits on prostitution are also on the table in the state of Western Australia, where iron ore is excavated from its sparsely populated north. Proposed laws would limit the sex trade to a few designated areas and require self-employed sex workers to be licensed. No more than two such licensed prostitutes could work from the same premises. John Scott, a criminologist at Australia's University of New England, said that Queensland and Western Australia are tightening restrictions after a loosening of controls by Australian states that began in the 1990s. "There does seem to be a reverse trend in both those mining states, and I suspect part of it relates to the mining industry and some of the concerns raised in rural areas," Scott said. The FIFO sex workers tend to be older than their city counterparts and don't dress as provocatively. With housing tight, some arrive in motor homes or sublet spare rooms in clients' homes. They advertise in newspapers and on websites, and have even handed out fliers at Moranbah's main shopping mall. Karlaa, who lives more than 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) away in the tourist city of Gold Coast, said she used to send text messages to regular clients announcing the dates of her next visit. Word would quickly spread among hundreds of men across mine sites by two-way radio. Another Gold Coast-based sex worker said she doesn't plan to return to Moranbah because escorts are made to feel unwelcome. The woman, who is in her early 20s, said young and attractive sex workers are particularly conspicuous and likely to be given a room near the reception if they stay at Drover's Rest, so they can be kept under surveillance. She continues to work in other mining towns in the region. Some say that a more open sex industry and even a legal brothel would be good for Moranbah. Real estate agent Marie Plahn sees a brothel as a better option than miners potentially spreading disease or impregnating women they meet in bars. "Paying for sex is cheaper than child support if it resulted in that," she said.
But Roger Ferguson, a former deputy mayor and a motel owner also sued by Karlaa, said the Moranbah council would probably reject a brothel. Miners often drive 190 kilometers to the nearest brothel in the port city of Mackay, a regional support center for mining. Club 7 sits discretely on the fringe of an industrial estate on a cul-de-sac called Enterprise Street. Nearby, boilermakers weld day and night in aircraft hangar-sized workshops, repairing the giant dragline buckets that excavate coal-bearing earth, 45 cubic meters (1,600 cubic feet) at a time. It was one of Queensland's original legal brothels, built 12 years ago as the state was relaxing prostitution laws. Manager Warwick Bumstead said all but one of the 60 sex workers are FIFO, working 4- to 10-day stints before flying home to distant cities. He said a typical "mattress actress" at his brothel makes between AU$5,000 and AU$9,000 a week. A Club 7 worker, a New Zealander in her late 20s, said she is thinking of branching out to some of the smaller mining towns such as Moranbah, where she has heard she can make more money working on her own. It may no longer be as lucrative as she thinks. Karlaa said the money is not as good or consistent as it was when she started coming to mining towns five years ago. It's not the new law, she said, but the economy: Hundreds of miners have been laid off as falling coal prices take some of the sheen off Australia's mining boom.
[Associated
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