Workers at the New Acland Coal Mine ‘frustrated, angry’ at High Court decision

Andy Scouller has worked at the New Acland Coal Mine for 17 years. Now his job, and those of 150 other workers at the site, are on the line.

Andy Scouller said there was a feeling of anger and frustration on the mine site as the High Court decision was made known. Picture: Annette Dew

Andy Scouller has slowly watched his team dwindle since October 2019.

Originally there were 29, and two rounds of redundancies later there are now 12 working in the wash plant at the New Acland Coal Mine, north of Oakey.

Wednesday's High Court decision has in all likelihood sealed their fate as well.

"I think it's fairly safe to assume our jobs will be on the line next," Mr Scouller said.

Andy Scouller said there was a feeling of anger and frustration on the mine site as the High Court decision was made known. Pic Annette Dew

Mr Scouller began working at the mine 17 years ago as a casual fitter and worked his way up to become the wash plant manager.

He said the mood among his team upon hearing the High Court decision was one of anger, frustration, and disappointment.

"I won't be the first or the last person to ever lose their job," he said.

"There is life after mining but I guess the frustrating part is that we're a viable business and employ a lot of people here who contribute to society, and that's just all going to be wiped out basically with the stroke of a pen.

 

 

"If the mine had gone broke or we'd run out of coal you'd say, fair enough, we had a good run.

"But there's still coal to mine, there's still work to be done, and we're getting bloody shut down before we can do it."

When asked what he would say to members of the Oakey Coal Action Alliance - the group objecting to the New Acland Coal Mine Stage 3 expansion - Mr Scouller said: "You don't want to print it mate."

"It's very disappointing that a very small minority of the local community can have such an impact on a business or a project," he said.

"They're certainly not very popular around here at the moment."

Mr Scouller said life was now a lot more uncertain for his family, as the mine's applications return to the Land Court for re-hearing.

"On a personal level we'll have to look at making some decisions - whether we stay in town, or leave, move somewhere else, or stay here and do FIFO," he said.

 

 

Originally published as 'Anger, frustration, disappointment': Mine site reacts to High Court ruling

Originally published as Workers at the New Acland Coal Mine ‘frustrated, angry’ at High Court decision