Opinion: Why Dalby is the centre of the universe
THIS small town in southeast Queensland has proved itself a powerhouse of industries, with ambitious expansion plans into renewable energy and biofuels in the wind.
Opinion
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THE rolling wheat and cotton fields of Dalby on the Darling Downs are hardly the place you would expect to stumble upon one of Australia’s last remaining family foundries.
Tucked just off the Warrego Highway, White Industries makes thousands of widgets, doodads and thingumabobs for the mining, rail, transport and agricultural industries.
Metal components like turbocharger cylinder heads are made for the global revhead market.
Managing director Bruce White admits it is rather incongruous to find a sophisticated manufacturing plant smack in the middle of Queensland’s grain and beef heartland.
His father Bob, 77, started the business making waterski parts in his garage for Keith Williams in the 1960s.
Today, if you lift the bonnet of just about any NASCAR racing in America today you will find turbocharger parts made by the family in Dalby. The Japanese, too, are customers.
“We chose to stay in Dalby for the lifestyle. I drive home for lunch without going through a single traffic light,” said Bruce White, 53.
With most Australian foundries succumbing to foreign competition, the company survives and prospers because it does the jobs no one else wants to.
“We don’t do manhole covers or pipes that can be mass produced in China,” White said.
“We do awkward shapes and complicated, high-integrity parts requiring special alloy steels. It’s become a highly technical business.
“Everyone thinks you are country hicks if you live in Dalby. Not any more.”
Not far away, Simplicity Australia makes agricultural equipment to till the soil and plants seeds as far away as New Zealand, Russia and Africa.
“We are a small manufacturer in a big pond,” general manager Troy Law said.
“However, I don’t think there is another business in the world that makes a greater variety of air seeders.”
Law, 45, admits the firm has had its hardships. In recent years, however, Simplicity has been profitable enough to fund million-dollar laser cutters and robotic welders.
And these delightful, gung-ho family outfits are about to be dwarfed by what comes next, says Western Downs Mayor Paul McVeigh.
He is spruiking the region as an emerging energy hub. Origin is poised to start work next year on a $217 million solar farm, Australia’s largest, to be built next door to its gas-fired power station.
Origin has pegged a 200ha paddock 45km west of Dalby that will be home to 400,000 solar panels.
The panels are set to produce 108mW of renewable energy annually – enough to power 32,000 homes.
And there is a much larger renewable project in the wind, McVeigh says.
After an eight-year study, AGL wants to spend $500 million on a wind farm with 115 turbines on grazing land at Coopers Gap at the foot of the Bunya Mountains.
McVeigh says a massive project will also help boost Dalby and neighbouring towns Bell and Jandowae. And he hopes it will cement the district’s green power credentials.
Also on the horizon is a major biofuels industry.
Melbourne service station tycoons Eddie Hirsch and Avi Silver’s United Petroleum is extracting 76 million litres of ethanol a year from locally grown sorghum.
The Western Downs Regional Council expects the ethanol industry to soar with the mandate for E10 fuel coming into force on January 1 next year.
By happy coincidence SunPork’s Tong Park piggery, northwest of Dalby, is undergoing a $40 million expansion likely to see herd numbers soar to 130,000.
The pigs will eat the mountains of fodder that are a byproduct of the ethanol extraction.
McVeigh, 61, says he is proud his region is leading the transition towards a lower carbon emissions economy with gas, solar, and wind.
While coal-seam gas has underpinned the region’s prosperity, there has been a resurgence of grain farming and beef.
The region has a concentration of the most successful beef feedlots in the nation, one with a licence for 58,000 head.
Meanwhile the Oakey beef export abattoir is moving to double production with 11,500 cattle slaughtered every week.
The expansion includes an upgrade of rail sidings to allow direct live cattle deliveries. Up to 500 new jobs will be created.
McVeigh points to the 2% unemployment rate, one of the lowest in the country.
He now lives in a rambling Queenslander in Dalby while his son Steven, 28, runs the family properties.
“I’m very excited about the next generation,” he said.
“They are better educated and they plan things better than we do.”
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PS …
Victory for a visionary mayor
THE opening of the $1.02 billion Redcliffe Peninsula rail line on Monday – 130 years after it was first mooted – attracted an assortment of federal and state cabinet ministers from the prime minister down. But the person who stole the show was the formidable Moreton Bay Mayor Allan Sutherland, resplendent in top hat, black tie and a handsome staff with a shiny silver handle. Sutherland was perhaps the wiliest politician on the stage. He pushed the project past four prime ministers and three state premiers and deserves most of the credit for the new link. Wayne Swan, too, deserves a pat on the back as the treasurer whose 2010 Budget released the largest tranche of funds for the project. The feds committed $595 million, the state $323 million and Moreton Bay Regional Council $108 million.
PM warned
ALLAN Sutherland’s next challenge is to build his city a university on the old Petrie paper mill site. His council bought the 200ha site for $50 million and has a commitment from the University of the Sunshine Coast to build a campus there. More funding is needed. Sutherland showed Malcolm Turnbull the site from the train window and reminded him that Canberra had three universities while Moreton Bay had none. And Canberra has a smaller population. Sutherland told the PM the lack of higher education opportunities for young people in Moreton unfairly blighted their potential. He is right. Sutherland is building his case. He is relentless. You’ve been warned, Malcolm.
Sorry, no seats
YOU would expect Queensland Rail chief executive Helen Gluer to be among the passengers ushered aboard the historic first train out of Kippa-Ring on the new Redcliffe Peninsula line. But no, she was left on the platform. And that’s the way she called it. Gluer kindly surrendered her seat when too many passengers turned up. Queensland Rail chairman Michael Klug and Transport Director-General Neal Scales also surrendered their seats for eager locals. Good for them. Klug was reappointed as chairman this week. His board is responsible for more than 6500km of track linking 216 stations.
Fat cats
BRITISH-born David Smales is the rising star of Queensland corporate life after being catapulted into the boss’s chair at Energy Queensland, the $24 billion power entity created by the merger of Energex and Ergon. Smales, an amateur photographer from England, will be paid $825,000. So he will out-gun Powerlink chief Merryn York, whose salary was listed as $819,000. Other fat cats: Stanwell’s Richard Van Breda, $577,765; Seqwater’s Peter Dennis, $484,393; Urban Utilities’ Louise Dudley, $647,000; Sun Water’s Peter Boettcher, $513,702; and Unity Water’s George Theo, $524,451. Meanwhile, Queensland Investment Corporation CEO Damian Frawley on $750,000 was paid slightly more than Dave Stewart, the D-G of Premier and Cabinet on $738,000.
Trumping both of them was Queensland Institute of Medical Research CEO Frank Gannon on $805,000. Languishing behind them was Neal Scales, D-G of the Department of Transport and Main Roads on $595,000 and Michael Hogan, D-G of the troubled Department of Child Safety, $497,000 and Police Commissioner Ian Stewart, $556,000.
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IRRITANT OF THE WEEK
IT’S time for Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk to unplug Mark Bailey. The posturing Energy Minister is endangering power security by recklessly pursuing an unobtainable, unaffordable renewable energy target. Renewable energy, alas, remains massively subsidised and ineffective in reducing emissions.
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HE SAID WHAT?
“IT’S astonishing to even consider a royal commission into a really safe and well-run banking system. It’s a well-run and profitable system that helped Australia through the global financial crisis better than anyone else.” Former Prime Minister John Howard says a royal commission demanded by Labor would undermine confidence in the financial sector and harm Australians.
Email: desmond.houghton@news.com.au
Twitter: @DesHoughton
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