The aim of this article is to explore the historic and contemporary use of nonresidentworkers (NRWs) in the Gladstone region, how this has contributed tothe region’s development, and the economic and social impacts of the use ofFly-in Fly-out (FIFO) employment practices. Gladstone, in Central Queensland, isat the front and centre of Australia’s evolving economic growth with some $45billion of investment being delivered in the region. Recently, the constructionof three coal seam gas and liquefied natural gas (CSG and LNG) projects onCurtis Island in Gladstone harbour has placed enormous pressure on theregion in terms of unprecedented labour and housing demands. It has seen theextensive use of FIFO and Drive-in Drive-out (DIDO) workers. An exploratoryqualitative approach framed by key concepts in the literature on resourcedependence and socio-economic well-being and, in particular, the fly-overeffects of utilising large-scale FIFO labour practices is used in this study. A casestudy research design has been utilised involving archival and documentaryanalysis, and a series of qualitative semi-structured interviews with communitystakeholders. Recent research into the socio-economic impacts on regionalresource-dependent regions across Australia points to a shift away from the‘resource curse’ hypothesis (Lawrie et al. 2011, Tonts et al. 2012). We argue thatthe Gladstone story is unique and is differentiated from the atypical story of thecompany-built inland mining town, due to a number of contextual variables.Key issues from multiple perspectives are identified and recommendations forfuture research are made.