‘Make or break’: Mining needed to keep Qld’s regional towns firing

Queensland’s major regional towns would be unrecognisable and significantly worse off without the resources industry, which accounts for up to 90 per cent of their economies.

Queensland’s major regional towns would be unrecognisable and significantly worse off without the resources industry, which accounts for up to 90 per cent of their economies.

Mining is a make or break industry for Mackay, Mount Isa and Gladstone as well as the Central Highlands, Banana and Livingstone regions, according to analysis of the latest economic data which paints a picture of the contribution mining makes to Queensland.

Direct spending in wages in some of the biggest mining towns is almost $900 million.

In Mackay, almost 40,000 jobs are supported by the industry — more than half of total employment in the town — and it makes up 90 per cent of gross regional product, while in the neighbouring Whitsundays it accounts for 83 per cent of the economy and 54 per cent of jobs.

A dump truck pulls in to be loaded up at Meandu Mine. Photo: Tessa Mapstone

A whopping 94 per cent of jobs in Mount Isa are supported by the resources sector, and it makes up 80 per cent of gross regional product while in the Central Highlands 77 per cent of jobs are related to the industry and it makes up 72 per cent of the local economy.

Greater Whitsunday Alliance CEO Kylie Porter said the coal sector was now the biggest economic contributor for Mackay, Isaac and the Whitsundays, and without it, those regions may have more closely resembled agricultural-reliant communities like Childers and Ayr.

Ms Porter said the “affluent” and “vibrant” mining sector had also boosted construction and manufacturing industries and generated an “enormous amount” for the nation’s economy.

“I think we would be predominantly an economy that would be reliant on agriculture and tourism, it means that some of our other big dominant industries like construction probably wouldn’t be as mature as they are,” she said.

Greater Whitsunday Alliance chief executive Kylie Porter.

“Our economy would be far smaller, our populations would be definitely smaller.”

Mackay-based Resources Centre of Excellence CEO Steven Boxall said the sector’s high-paying jobs for Queenslanders sector’s helped soften the impacts from world events like the Covid pandemic.

“Our economy is in its own little bubble that enables people to potentially live a little bit better, have a few more luxuries, be able to make sure that their kids are getting good educations,” Mr Boxall said.

In Townsville, the resources sector accounts for nine per cent of gross regional product — but it has thousands of fly-in, fly-out workers.

Wiggins Island Coal Export Terminal near Rockhampton.

In the 2021 Census, nearly 2550 Townsville residents were working in the Outback Queensland and Mackay-Isaac-Whitsunday mining regions.

The city is considered the gateway for the resources industry in north Queensland, being a strategic connector between the buried minerals in hardened, rocky, and sometimes difficult to access places, and the markets overseas that want to buy them.

Critical Minerals Queensland is based in the city, and new boss Paul Holden said Townsville made an important contribution to the industry.

“If you look at where the critical mineral resources are located in particularly in Queensland and where the expertise around processing and metal processing and infrastructure is located, North West Queensland and Townsville is the centre of that,” Mr Holden said.

“The north west and Townsville are directly connected, they are heavily associated with each other because of the corridor and Townsville is the main technical support and service centre for everything that happens in the North West.

Hay Point terminal south of Mackay. Photo: Lee Constable

Resources Minister Scott Stewart said the closure of the Queensland Nickel refinery in 2016 showed how much of an impact the resources sector has on Townsville’s economy.

“We saw around 3500 jobs disappear out of our economy, and the flow-on back through … just really depressed our local economy and particularly our employment market,” Mr Stewart said.

“That rose to 13.4 per cent unemployment and I think youth employment was up around 22 per cent.”

“You think about the jobs associated with (the resources industry) and the number of people who live here in Townsville and raise their families in Townsville that either do the FIFO or the DIDOs, the driving in and out, to our various mines out of here is absolutely huge.”

Originally published as ‘Make or break’: Mining needed to keep Qld’s regional towns firing