Mackay apprentices welcome $9m funding for CQU EV training centre

As Central Queensland’s mine sites go electric, Mackay’s apprentices are ready to grab the future. Read how students of today will secure the jobs of tomorrow.

Apprentices Connor Dobson, Kade Starrett and Isaac Berardi are watching the massive technological shifts taking place across Central Queensland’s mine sites.

“There’s a few trucks out there, mainly using big electric vehicle motors,” Mr Dobson said at the Mackay CQUniversity campus.

The big miners are going electric, converting their fleets and underground operations from diesel to electric and Mr Dobson said it meant more work for him and his fellow sparkies.

“It’s good because it’s more jobs for electricians, a lot of different stuff to work on, not just your general draglines and shovels,” he said.

“It’s good for trucks, it’s all different gear that you’re not seeing as often.

“It’s a good learning experience.”

For Mr Starrett, the transition to electric vehicles is the “way of the future”.

“Efficiency, they’re eco-friendly and we need to stop burning as much fossil fuels,” he said.

“(Electric vehicles have) less parts in the system and also combustion engines are only about 25 per cent efficient, whereas electric motors are around 85 to 90 per cent efficient.”

Opposition Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Dawson Labor candidate Shane Hamilton visited the campus to announce $9m in funding to establish the Mackay Electric Vehicle Energy Training Centre, designed to prepare workers such as Mr Starrett, Mr Dobson and Mr Berardi for the mine work of the near future.

“The $9m covers the whole thing,” Mr Chalmers said.

Mr Hamilton said the big companies were moving to embed electric vehicles in underground operations to reduce emissions and improve ventilation.

“We’re talking about cleaning up the underground mining space for the guys breathing the air down there to make their worksite more safe and more productive,” he said.

He said equipment giant Caterpillar was already converting its fleet to electric.

“It won’t be long until we see fleets of mining equipment out in the mines converted to an electric function, which means we need to tradespeople now to fix them into the future.”

Associate CQUniversity vice president for North Queensland and the hinterland Pierre Viljoen said his institution had been in discussions for more than a year with politicians and industry to establish the new training facility.

“Because we’re doing a lot of the training currently in the existing technologies, we foresaw an opportunity for us to assist in the transition to those new technologies as well,” he said.