Tourism, property sales ‘key’ to Leigh Creek’s future, locals say
At the northern tip of the Flinders Ranges, former coalmining town Leigh Creek faces an uncertain future — but the locals remain optimistic about turning the area’s fortunes around.
SA Business
Don't miss out on the headlines from SA Business. Followed categories will be added to My News.
On a hot summer’s night, Leigh Creek Outback Resort’s front bar is testament to the state of the former coalmining town, with about half a dozen people gathering to have a drink or a counter meal.
The pool table is empty and pinball and video-gaming machines turned off in the corner.
But for many of Leigh Creek’s population of about 120 people, the tavern is a special place helping hold the community together.
It’s a town where, despite a drastic population slide since coal mining ceased in 2015, those who remain are parochial about their home.
On March 31, 1834 Hotels’ lease over the Leigh Creek Outback Resort will come to an end, and the State Government is considering expressions of interest from parties willing to take the business on.
With nowhere else to eat and few other options for accommodation, the resort is a vital link in the remote community’s survival.
Pub manager Tammy Roach says during the town’s heyday, crowds stood three or four deep at the front bar.
“It’s going to take something pretty special for that to happen again, but there’s so much potential here,” she says.
The cooler months bring tourists to the Flinders Ranges in droves, with Leigh Creek also benefiting from visitors on the way up to the Oodnadatta, Strzelecki and Birdsville tracks, eager to experience life in the Outback.
“There could be 50 four-wheel-drives and caravans out the front at one time,” she says, and the caravan park, too, is packed out.
Since mining wound down, Ms Roach says, the remaining locals are there not to earn a quick buck and move on.
“We’re here because we love it,” she says. “For us up here, we can see potential into the future.
“The people are amazing. We all get along and just love every day — the weather, the landscape, the lifestyle — everything.”
BUT, many locals agree, there is little incentive for people to invest in Leigh Creek, with all buildings owned by the State Government and no guarantee it will keep the town open for the long-term future.
Allowing people to buy houses or business premises would go a long way towards helping boost the town’s prospects, they say.
It might help fill the dozens of homes in the town’s backstreets sitting empty
Leigh Creek Community Progress Association chairman Darryl Bowshire has been in town about 10 years, previously working in the coal mine. Among a string of other jobs, he now works as a handyman fixing up homes, including those left vacant since Alinta Energy decided to close its power plant in Port Augusta, leaving no need to mine Leigh Creek’s coal.
“When I arrived, there were about 1800-2000 people here,” Mr Bowshire says.
“It was a bustling place and the supermarket was flat out.
“But when the mine shut, there was a mass exodus. I’ve been into houses that were fully furnished — people just walked out and left it all there.”
A large part of the town’s future now sits in making the most of tourism opportunities, he says, including a plan to rent canoes so people can explore the nearby Aroona Dam.
Breyton Ward, who runs the local caravan park and petrol station, also sees tourism as the town’s wildcard. He hopes to one day run tours to Outback towns such as Arkaroola and Blinman.
“I think the area’s got huge potential, we just have to get better at marketing it,” Mr Ward says.
Cliff Coulthard, who helps run cultural tourism business Iga Warta at the nearby Gammon Ranges, says the venture relies heavily on Leigh Creek.
He shudders to think of the impact if the town’s hotel or sole shop — a Foodland store — were ever closed. Leigh Creek was already “beginning to be a ghost town”, he says.
Terrence Coulthard, Iga Warta’s founder, says the region needs more Government-led marketing to attract tourists, and he would also like to see unused houses at Leigh Creek made available for accommodation at his property.
“There’s huge opportunities here around Leigh Creek but there has to be some sort of serious commitment from the Government to market what we’ve got there, otherwise nobody is going to go there … and Leigh Creek is going to die a rapid death,” Mr Coulthard said.
His brother, Vince, is chief executive of the Adnyamathanha Traditional Lands Association (ATLA), which is opposing Leigh Creek Energy’s trial of underground coal gasification (UCG) at the former mine.
IT involves igniting coal reserves underground — a process ATLA is trying to block because of concerns about potential environmental damage and the impact on the area’s cultural heritage.
While he agrees tourism would help inject new life into the town, the organisation’s chief also says it won’t be its sole saviour.
“If the Government were to make it an open town, to allow people to buy properties or, better still, hand the township over to ATLA, it would create business opportunities,” Mr Coulthard says.
Marilyn Coulthard and Annette Wilton moved to Leigh Creek with their families last year, eager to connect with their community’s traditional land.
“The kids love it,” she says.
“When we moved into our house it felt like home straight away. “I knew I was home in my own country and I felt the presence of the family that has gone before.”
Carrie-ann Smith moved to the town in 2017, working as a teacher at the local area school, which has about 55 students.
“It’s just a beautiful place. When I go out, I don’t want to go anywhere else — I go to the bush,” she says.
“There’s people like me here who don’t like the city and all of its trappings.”
The area could prosper from growing bush foods, she said, or be a good place to help refugees integrate into life in Australia.
Leigh Creek Energy managing director Phil Staveley says UCG could bring more than 1000 construction jobs, and hundreds of ongoing production roles.
“Ongoing monitoring by (Leigh Creek Energy) and reported to the South Australian Government regulator continues to validate safe, regulated and controlled operations,” Mr Staveley says of the trial.
“The company will continue to work with and provide the South Australian Government regulator with the data it needs to make any future decisions.”
There had been “zero reportable environmental or safety incidents”, Mr Staveley said.
In the small town of Lyndhurst, 40km from Leigh Creek, Cornelis Johan Alferink, or Talc Alf, as he’s locally known, shows international backpackers the dozens of artworks he’s sculpted in his property.
He says he thinks the new mining project is “a great idea” because it will create jobs.
“(But) I’d still be here if Leigh Creek wasn’t,” he said.
“I’d just have to go to Port Augusta to get supplies.”
Mining Minister Dan van Holst Pellekaan says the Government had reinstated a Leigh Creek taskforce to determine “the best outcome for the town and the wider community”.
Commercial and residential leases in Leigh Creek had been extended to June 30, 2021.
“Leigh Creek has many assets including the airport, upgraded Aroona Dam tourist facilities, proximity to the Strzelecki Track and the proposed World Heritage listing of the nearby Ediacara Fossil sites,” he says.
“It is the Marshall Government’s intention to enable Leigh Creek to transition to a sustainable, open and self-sufficient regional town.”
michelle.etheridge@news.com.au
SA optimism shines through in latest survey
While the perils of this pandemic continued to swirl around them in states like Victoria and overseas, South Australian business owners were surprisingly feeling somewhat confident about the road ahead.
SA business confidence on the mend
SA business confidence made a comeback in the June quarter, exemplified by a Lonsdale family-owned business that employs 500 staff and has its eye firmly on the future of manufacturing in Australia.