Isaac Regional Council considers Civeo Property work camp extension
A massive camp for mine workers will grow its accommodation offering, council documents show. We reveal how the project will help service the thriving coal industry.
Mackay
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A giant work camp west of Mackay, which makes Toowoomba’s 1000-bed Wellcamp facility look small in comparison, is poised to increase its accommodation offerings.
Civeo Property, which owns a sprawling work-camp at Coppabella in the Bowen Basin, has applied to unlock an extra 96 rooms for miners working away from home.
The site under consideration, 12798 Peak Downs Highway, has a total area of 40.4ha and is 50km southwest of Nebo, 50km northeast of Moranbah and 150km southwest of Mackay.
Isaac Regional Council documents state the Coppabella Village is already the largest work-camp in Coppabella with 3038 rooms and 2181 car parks built since the development was originally approved in May, 2006.
The village, located between the Moorvale and Coppabella surface mines, has its own tavern plus fitness facilities including a pool, tennis and basketball court, gym and exercise tracks.
Agenda documents state Civeo met with IRC in January last year to discuss the extra 96 rooms – each of which measures 12sq m with a bathroom 900mm wide butted up against the sleeping space measuring 2.45m x 3.3m which has a single bed, wardrobe, chair, desk, and small TV.
“The buildings containing the 96 rooms are already located on-site and it is understood that the existing rooms were decommissioned around 2013 but had not been removed from the property,” the agenda states.
Location IQ’s Need and Demand Assessment reveals the village is at more than 90 per cent occupancy with 11 major projects within a 50km radius set to “significantly increase” Coppabella’s workforce.
The assessment states Coppabella workers are currently being “turned away” to Moranbah or Nebo to find accommodation which was not preferable to fatigue management.
It adds Moranbah’s two largest work camps – Eureka Camp which has 1400 rooms and Buffel Park Village which has 1380 – were also “understood to be nearing capacity”.
It further states increasing coal prices made for an “optimistic” likelihood that “approved/proposed” mining and energy in the Bowen Basin would go ahead in the “short to medium” term, increasing the accommodation demand.
But an independent review criticised the needs assessment which found Coppabella would only service seven of 11 major projects.
This included a coal mine expansion; two mines which have just commenced construction – Pembroke Resource’s Olive Downs Project plus Fitzroy Resources and Nebo Central Coal’s Iron Bark No. 1; another two mines which have “approvals in place” – BMA’s Red Hill and Peabody’s Moorvale South expansion; and two energy projects – Broadlea Solar Farm and Bowen Basin Gas Project.
The review states Moranbah should service the other four projects at Isaac Downs, Winchester South, Saraji East, and Moranbah South.
But in support of the project, the review states zero homes had sold in Coppabella over the past 12 years as the 80-odd houses belonged to railway-associated entities and were “therefore not available to mining workers”.
The review concluded extra rooms at large work camps that serviced several mines and projects, such as Civeo’s Coppabella Village, was preferable to mining companies opening smaller work camps that were “subject to only the operating life of each mine”.
Property IQ’s assessment states IRC approved 291 extra rooms at QRI’s CoppaVillage in March, 2021, which would almost double its capacity.
An IRC spokeswoman said councillors approved Civeo’s request to reinstate 96 rooms during the ordinary meeting of council on Wednesday.
“Council noted the need for further review of the social impacts of nonresident worker accommodation specifically in Coppabella and other Isaac region communities,” the spokeswoman said.
The town of Coppabella was initially established as a railway settlement with the Goonyella to Hay Point Railway and the Coppabella Railway opening in 1971.
The Isaac region itself is the largest producer of Queensland’s saleable coal, and is home to more than two dozen operational coal mines.
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