AS the coal industry surfs cyclonic seas, the Gunnedah Basin seems to be holding the interest of coal industries.
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Coal might have become almost as dirty a word as the earliest coal miners, but it’s not looking like being successfully replaced any time soon.
Slumps in coal prices, rises in concerns about climate change, an increase in protests – all of these things have hammered the coal industry.
But Australia is still the world’s largest exporter of coal. People still want and need coal.
Gunnedah has a long history of mining, with the first jobs generated by the industry back in the 1880s.
A visit to new housing estates in the region or to a supermarket after normal business hours is enough to convince you that mining is still here in full force.
There are mining employees and their families everywhere, and high-visibility clothing has become part of the fabric of Gunnedah.
The mining industry is not as in-your-face as many other places and anyone visiting the town would not label it a mining town.
That’s because we have it all.
We have beautiful farmland, productive properties and innovative farmers alongside increasingly massive mines.
Can they co-exist?
They have so far, but it would be putting blinkers on to fail to realise that these mines are getting bigger and bigger. They are producing more and more.
They might bring with them more jobs, but they also bring more trains, larger-scale production and environmental concerns.
Unfortunately, Gunnedah will never be in the position of choosing whether we want more mines.
The land is sold and the lengthy and frustrating approvals process begins. There are many opportunities for people against the mines to have their say, but not so many opportunities to actually be heard.
We have, in the past, struck the right balance, but it is so easy to see how divisive this issue can be – people’s family farms and the integrity of the land versus people’s family businesses and employment.
There is no other way than for there to be losers in this situation, and for some people, it will feel like they have lost it all.
Whatever the outcome of Shenhua Watermark and BHP Billiton’s new mine, a balance will have to be found again.
And that balance will have to include compassion for those who lose out, because all of us are part of this community.