Leigh Creek’s traditional landowners want control over the town’s future while townsfolks, businesses and residents see a way forward
ON the surface, the future looks bleak for the remote coalmining town of Leigh Creek. But traditional landowners and townsfolks are resolved to stake out a future.
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THE traditional Leigh Creek landowners want to take control of the town and be given the right to rehabilitate the coal mine once it closes.
After decades of what they consider desecration of the mine site and surrounding area, the Adnyamathanha Traditional Land Association is calling on the State Government to hand them management of the coal mining town once Alinta moves out.
READ BELOW: Why it’s worth digging in for Leigh Creek
“Historically, Leigh Creek has always been a very important place to my people — the area, and particularly the coal, represents our law structure ... our people’s view has never really been given any consideration and now we want that to change,” ATLA elder and chief executive Vince Coulthard said.
In a proposal sent to Premier Jay Weatherill ATLA want the contract to clean up the mine site arguing their people have not “had any opportunity for employment” in Leigh Creek.
“It is our duty to clean this all up, ”the proposal states.
“Therefore we want the contract to do all of the rehabilitation and the equipment to do so.
“This will allow us to employ Adnyamathanha people and others to do this in a culturally appropriate way.”
Alinta Energy will close the mine on November 17 at a cost of 250 jobs and has committed $3.5 million for transitional support services to workers and will spend $75 million on redundancy benefits and entitlement packages.
The rehabilitation of the Leigh Creek coal mine is expected to be a 18-24 month process.
In their proposal ATLA is also seeking to be classified as a regional authority, which would formalise its role and responsibilities within the 41,000 square kilometres it was granted non-exclusive rights to in 2009 under a Native Title claim
“This will give us housing for our employees and others to work on the rehabilitation of the mine,” they state.
Mr Coulthard said should the Government fail to meet the demands, ATLA will likely seek compensation of about $11 million representing the damage done by the mine to their land.
He said ATLA viewed Leigh Creek as an ideal location for cultural tourism and an indigenous training base.
“We are part owners of the Wilpena Pound Resort (in the Flinders Ranges National Park), where about 25 per cent of employees are Adnyamathanha people,” Mr Coulthard said.
“At the moment they get trained on the job, but it’d be great to use the facilities in Leigh Creek to train them up beforehand — that’s just one example of the benefit.”
Mr Coulthard said he was scheduled to meet with Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation Minister Kyam Maher and Mr Weatherill to discuss ATLA’s proposal.
Mr Maher said Alinta was responsible for the rehabilitation.
“I would encourage the company to talk to the traditional owners about its rehabilitation plans,” he said.
An Alinta spokeswoman said the company is currently in detailed discussions with the Environment Protection Authority and the Department of State Development regarding its rehabilitation requirements.
luke.griffiths@news.com.au
WHY IT”S WORTH DIGGING IN FOR LEIGH CREEK
By Luke Griffiths
ONE MONTH out from the closure of the town’s lifeblood, it’s hard to put a finger on the mood in Leigh Creek and the surrounding communities that rely so heavily upon its services.
There’s underlying sadness, but surprisingly little anger.
Some suggest that’s been and gone, while others will tell you it never existed. Few are prepared to lay blame because, as many believe, there’s simply no one to blame. It’s not like the coalmine was going to stay open forever, they say.
Forlorn acceptance of the inevitable seems to be the general feeling around town, interspersed with instances of unbridled optimism about opportunities presented by the current predicament.
Most predict that the town’s population will, almost overnight, go from its current level of 500 to around 150 once the coalmine closes — and 250 jobs are lost — on November 17.
In its heyday, the Outback community — nestled in the northern Flinders Ranges — was home to 2800 people. Those who will remain post-closure can be broadly put into three categories: service contractors, mine rehabilitation workers — expected to number around 35 — and their families, and former mine
employees who plan to take advantage of the peppercorn rent they pay while searching for another job.
Locals Chris Gale, 31, Joel Austin 31, and Tyson Ridsdale, 27, plan to stay for the foreseeable future.
The trio aren’t directly employed by Alinta, although contracts that stem from the company boost their bottom line. “I’ll stick it out for at least the summer because that’s the busiest time of the year for me because everyone needs their airconditioner working,” Tyson, an electrician, says.
Eddie Nicholls, a tough-as-nails bushie, won’t be going anywhere either. He bought
himself a 200sq km station 35km northeast of Leigh Creek a while back with money earnt from his decade working for Santos in Moomba.
In addition to the 2500 sheep he runs on that property, he recently had his rolling contract
renewed to maintain the lights at the Leigh Creek airport.
Together with a similarly tough bushie, Glen “Jaws” Freebairn, Eddie also herds feral goats, which are in increasing demand internationally.
“You have to do what you can to survive out here,” he says. “With the infrastructure that’s already in place, Leigh Creek is too good to go to waste, but it’s uncertain times.”
Outside of Liz’s Open Cut Café, which will close in mid-December unless a buyer is found, the benches are the site of regular, unplanned gatherings of soon-to-be-unemployed Alinta workers.
On Wednesday, the Leigh Creek Tavern’s conference room — the town’s main meeting place — played host to a workshop that canvassed ideas for the future of the town and wider region. Pointedly, it was promoted as a politician-free event, because while there’s little anger, the State Government remains a target of cynicism and criticism.
According to some, the Government is broke, so how can it be expected to fix the problem, even if it knew how?
For many, this week’s appointment of former Labor minister Jane Lomax-Smith to collate ideas for potential business ventures has only reinforced a lack of confidence in the Government’s response.
“We’ve had a heap of ministers visit, the Premier has shown his face, a State Government taskforce has been on the ground since June,” one Alinta worker says.
“No doubt they come with good intentions, but let’s be honest, they don’t know what to do — and even if they did, they’ve got no money. You’d be forgiven for thinking that they’re making it up as they go.”
The local Liberal MP and Opposition spokesman for mineral resources and energy, Dan van Holst Pellekaan, has become increasingly frustrated with the Government’s drawn-out consultation. The appointment of Dr Lomax-Smith, he says, further delays the development and implementation of solutions.
In a letter to Premier Jay Weatherill following the appointment of Dr Lomax-Smith — whose “request for information” process will run until January 31 next year — he is critical of the Government’s failure to grasp the “very genuine urgency” of the issue.
“There are people in Leigh Creek whose entire lives will be turned upside-down on November 17 and to say that the Government may announce its intention some time in the first part of next year is not nearly good enough,” Mr van Holst Pellekaan told the Premier. “This does not indicate the type of focus from the Government which I believe the challenge warrants.”
The focus of Wednesday’s workshop was to generate discussion about potential industries that can create the economy needed for the town to survive.
Coordinated by Steve Dangerfield, who came to town in mid-June as head of the
State Government’s Community Engagement Team, some labelled it as “just another talkfest”, while others said it was “very productive”.
Ideas floated included turning the town’s water supply, Aroona Dam — an idyllic 4860 megalitre catchment located 5km south of the town — into an adventure tourism hub, lobbying the film industry to regularly use local landscapes, and the creation of a resort-style tourism facility that would see existing buildings modernised.
Long-time resident, Desley Wardell, was, as she has been for much of Leigh Creek’s history, front and centre. Along with husband Peter, she has run the town’s grocery store since 1974, initially as a Servwell and then as a Foodland soon after the town was relocated in 1981 to allow for greater access to coal deposits.
It is impossible to overstate the importance of the Foodland to the local community and surrounding townships. Without it, the town cannot function. However, neither Alinta, through its contractual obligations to maintain town services until 2018, or the Government, have guaranteed its future.
Despite being “beyond retirement age”, you sense Desley views the continuing operation of the store as an obligation to the community. But even if she’s successful in convincing Peter
to stay, her entire staff of 12 are leaving town once the mine closes because their partners are all Alinta workers.
“We can’t possibly run that place on our own,” she says.
“We are seeing the destruction of a community, of families, of friends. I feel for the Port Augusta workers (who will lose their jobs at the Alinta power stations next year), but we’re losing a community.”
Cafe owner Liz Matulick had a similar response. She was in Queensland with her husband, Buddy, who was scoping out job opportunities in the mining sector when she received a call from one of her five staff members.
“When I got the news, all I could do was sit down and cry,” she says.
Liz and Buddy will remain in Leigh Creek until he finds new employment. The cafe and Foodland are not only of vital importance to the residents of Leigh Creek, but to communities both near and far.
John and Joan Osborne make the 1000km round trip from
Innamincka — where they oversee the local Progress Association — to Leigh Creek every couple of months when, as John explains, “something’s left off the bloody truck”. Yet their affiliation with the town runs much deeper than being a secondary supply destination: they call home one of the standardised three-bedroom portable houses that are ubiquitous in Leigh Creek.
“We got one put on the back of a truck and brought up to us a while back,” John explains. But beyond their home, beyond their need for supplies, the couple
are adamant that Leigh Creek must remain. Not just because of its history, but because of its future. “There’s nothing up here in the Outback that compares to Leigh Creek — its layout, services, school, the whole works,” John says. “Geez, we’d hate to see it go.”
Citing their discussions with tourists to Innamincka, John and Joan — who were both awarded an Order of Australia Medal earlier this year for services to their local community — say that the sealing of the Strzelecki Track is vital. The 426km stretch of road from their home town to Lyndhurst, 40km north of
Leigh Creek, becomes unpassable when it rains.
Last month, Infrastructure Australia, an independent Commonwealth statutory body, gave the $450 million project an “early stage” rating. The State Government, which has long lobbied for the road’s sealing, said this indicated growing support, however uncertainty lingers in the local community as to if, not when, the project will commence.
Similar scepticism surrounds an ambitious $1 billion Leigh Creek Energy gasification project, announced this week. It barely rated a mention from locals, who seem too preoccupied with the present to place their future in the hands of a project that has no starting date.
Mick Secomb, publican of the Leigh Creek Hotel (which is in nearby Copley, but named as such because of the township’s original location), doesn’t place the same importance on tourism as many others. He says that income generated from the largely self-sufficient tourists who visit the area needs to be the “icing on the cake” to another year-round industry that’s capable of employing around 50 people on a fulltime basis. “A lot of people are panicking at the moment, but we need the dust to settle and the emotion to be taken out of any decision-making,” he says.
“I reckon 2018 (when Alinta’s obligation to provide town services ends) is more important than 2015. Between now and then, we really need to get it right so we’re set up for the long-term.”
An increasingly attractive option for many, including Mick, is using Leigh Creek’s existing infrastructure to establish an indigenous learning centre.
“The place is perfectly positioned, both geographically and with the buildings that already exist,” Ian McClean adds.
Ian, or “Tad” as he is widely known, is another out-of-towner who has a close connection to Leigh Creek. He spent a lot of time in the area as a teenager riding show horses, and while he still has a strong association with horses, it’s his work that has brought him to Leigh Creek for the past few decades. He trains coalmine workers on heavy machinery, while also lending a hand to local indigenous youth.
In between the colourful language you’d expect from someone with his strong Irish heritage, the affable character admits to being glum about what is happening — or not happening — in Leigh Creek.
“Once the mine shuts, I’ll have no reason to come back here, but I will,” he says. “I like the place, I have friends here.” For the town to remain relevant, Ian says lateral thinking from political and business leaders is needed.
“But it all costs money and you’d think with all these recent job losses that the state is broke — but it’s a bloody good state and Leigh Creek is a bloody good place,” he says. While few would argue with the final point, “a bloody good place” doesn’t guarantee the future of a town. Only the resilience and entrepreneurship of the local community can do that.
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