‘Jobs are booming’: Coal is far from dead in central Queensland

Coal is alive and kicking in central Queensland with the Olive Downs Mine officially starting operations, the third coal project to open in the area in just three years.

Coal is far from dead in central Queensland with the Olive Downs Mine officially starting operations Friday morning, making it the third coal project to open in the area in just three years.

“There are so many Chicken Littles out there saying the end has come for coal,’’ said central Queensland based LNP Senator Matt Canavan who attended the official opening just over an hour’s drive from Moranbah in the coal-rich Bowen Basin.

“And the Prime Minister has been the Chicken Little-in-Chief.’’

Workers onsite at Olive Downs Mine, in Central Queensland between Moranbah and Dysart. Picture: Contributed

The Olive Downs Mine, which produced and shipped its first coal to international customers in January, has already created 700 jobs in construction and 600 new jobs in its first stages of operation.

The mine will not only generate more than $10 billion in royalties for the Queensland Government but provide the platform for thousands more indirect jobs across the region in its expected life of just under 80 years.

Queensland Minister for Resources and Critical Minerals Scott Stewart, who was also at the opening, said the Queensland Labor Government would always back projects which stacked up environmentally, socially and financially.

“And Olive Downs ticks all those boxes,’’ he said.

“I want to congratulate Pembroke Resources and acknowledge that by building this mine they are backing Queensland’s resources sector for decades to come.”

Liberal Senator Matt Canavan.

Olive Downs joins the Bowen Coking Coal project and the Carmichael Mine near Clermont as major new developments in the coal industry in the past three years alone.

“People keep saying coal is dead, yet it’s clearly not just alive, but kicking,’’ Senator Canavan said.

“’Jobs are booming.’’

The Australian Conservation Foundation opposed the mine saying an expansive koala habitat could be wiped out by the mine’s construction.

The mine has incorporated a specialised clinic for Koalas and Greater Gliders, staffed by expert veterinarians, and has set aside around 20,000 hectares of conservation areas dedicated to preserving fauna.