When she finally graduates from her teaching degree, Tahlia already knows she is in for an uphill battle to get a job working in a classroom.

The 27-year-old Perth woman has four kids and years of experience running her own businesses. She is not a criminal and says she has never used illicit drugs.

But she is a skimpy, and no level of professional qualification can erase that in the eyes of potential employers.

"It needs to be very hidden. If you've been public about it, like I have, then it almost stops your job opportunities," she said.

"The minute they know you've been in adult entertainment, as wrong as it is, you're naturally off the list."

Skimpies are the sometimes-topless, sometimes-bikini-clad barmaids that pull beers and chat to patrons at pubs throughout Western Australia.

Made famous in mining towns during both booms and busts, many work as fly-in fly-out labourers around the state, working long hours and late nights for wages and tips.

Skimpies are the sometimes-topless, sometimes-bikini-clad barmaids at pubs throughout WA. ( ABC Goldfields: Tom Joyner )

In the gold mining hub of Kalgoorlie, where skimpies remain a daily fixture at the biggest hotels on the main street, they make up part of the town's fabric.

In a good week, like during the annual Diggers and Dealers conference that draws thousands of mining representatives from around the world, they can pocket several thousand dollars.

"Take skimpies away, take Hay Street [brothel precinct] away, take the two-up school away, and what have you got in Kalgoorlie?," said Josie Fragomeni, who has been booking skimpies in Kalgoorlie for 30 years.

'If we can make one guy's day better'

But behind the smiles of the women in their industry, Tahlia and other young women can grapple with stigma, mental illness and nasty comments.

"There are a lot of girls who are susceptible to depression, even suicide in dangerous situations like in any job," Tahlia said.

But in many ways, similar pressures on skimpies are reflected in the crowds of fly-in-fly-out mining workers they regularly entertain throughout regional Western Australia.

Jennifer Bowers, chief executive of Rural and Remote Mental Health, said the prevalence of mental distress among FIFO workers was almost three times the national average.

Dr Bowers' research found there was a particularly high risk among 25 to 34 year olds.

"They're the ones that have got jobs, young families, challenges, and trying to buy houses and maintain mortgages," she said.

Tahlia and Hayley see part of their job as providing a kind of de facto counselling role for mining workers in pubs who may need someone to talk to about their problems.

"They work long days, they're away from their family, and just sitting at the bar and having a conversation breaks-up their routine and picks them up," Tahlia said.

That Hayley, 25, can feel good about her body and entertain someone who might be going through a tough time — and get paid for it — makes her job worthwhile.

"Obviously in the FIFO industry, sadly, there is a lot of depression and suicide and whatnot," she said.

Hayley says part of her job is simply being someone for miners to talk to after work. ( ABC Goldfields: Tom Joyner )

"And if we can make one guy's day better by having a conversation and being a bit of a visual bonus, then we feel good about ourselves."

Ms Fragomeni, the veteran skimpies booking agent, has seen firsthand how mental illness can affect the fly-in fly-out skimpies she works with week to week.

Often, she said, skimpies confide in her their personal struggles. In one instance, she urged a young woman to leave town and seek help.

"Then I find out that she's out of her black hole and I sent her a text and said 'I'm so proud of you, you're like the phoenix. You've risen from the ashes and been reborn'," she said.

As attitudes change, the industry remain the same

As attitudes towards adult industries in Kalgoorlie and regional towns around the state have shifted, less about the skimpy industry itself has changed.

At the recent Diggers and Dealers conference in town, delegates spoke out about their discomfort of the event's association with skimpies.

Despite that, Hayley, who first began working as a skimpy at age 18, said she was proud of what she does and that working so physically exposed induces a feeling of freedom.

"It gives you a huge confidence boost. It makes you feel really good about yourself that you can make other people happy with your body image," she said.

"I've always been very confident in my body, and I thought 'well, if I'm confident doing it, why not see the type of money I can make?'"

There are still rules of course — three-quarters of their breasts must be covered, and lacy or see-through underwear can't be worn, Tahlia said.

"[Government regulatory officers] do inspect quite closely what sort of lingerie or bikini or costume you've got on and how much is actually covered," she said.

Toplessness or even total nudity is still permitted in hotels with a cabaret license — a regulatory quirk in Western Australia.

"The skimpies haven't changed. They'll still do exactly the same as what they are allowed to do. The law has changed," said Ms Fragomeni, who remembers the wild days of the 1980s.

"Today, it's more or less cover up."