Coal billionaire wins mining camp fight after anti-Labor campaign

A Queensland coal billionaire spent more than $1m trying to turf out the state Labor government for legislating to close his miners’ camp.

QCoal’s Byerwen mining will stay open after the new Crisafulli LNP government intervened. Picture: Energy Resources Queensland

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A Queensland coal billionaire – who spent more than $1m trying to turf out the state Labor government for legislating to close his miners’ camp – will be ­allowed to keep the facility open after the new Liberal National Party administration intervened.

QCoal founder Chris Wallin.

Reclusive QCoal founder Chris Wallin launched an extraordinary third-party campaign ahead of the October election, spending $1.02m to campaign against Steven Miles’ Labor government in 12 ALP-held regional seats, prompted by rushed 2023 legislation to make his coal miners move from a 450-bed onsite camp to a dying nearby town, Glenden.

The LNP won 11 of those electorates, including Mackay and Rockhampton which have been out of conservative hands for most of the last 100 years.

Under Labor’s controversial law change, workers at the company’s Byerwen metallurgical coal mine in central Queensland would have been forced to start moving to nearby Glenden at the end of this month.

But Mines Minister Dale Last – whose electorate of Burdekin takes in Glenden and Byerwen – will on Friday allow QCoal to keep its mine camp open, and delay the requirement for workers to move until at least the end of the year, partly because Glenden does not have a reliable drinking water supply.

“The revised transition timeline gives us time to work with all stakeholders and consider serious issues like housing quality and water security – problems Labor ignored,” Mr Last said.

“Labor imposed conditions on Byerwen Mine without putting in place the critical infrastructure and support needed to make it work.”

Mines Minister and Burdekin MP Dale Last in Glenden.

About 300km west of Mackay, the town of Glenden was built more than 40 years ago by a mining company to house workers for its nearby Newlands mine, which was shuttered by Glencore in February 2023.

The mine’s closure threat­ened the future of the town, and then mayor Anne Baker launched a “Save Glenden” campaign, fearful Glencore would have to demolish the 300 houses as part of its contractual environmental rehabilitation if QCoal was not forced to step in.

Then premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said in August 2023 she would save Glenden, and forced through the controversial legislation.

Mr Wallin argued it was unfair for only Byerwen workers – most of whom he said were ­regional Queenslanders who drove to and from the mining camp from their home towns – to be targeted, while Glencore was allowed to keep its nearby Hail Creek mining camp ­operating.

A QCoal mobile billboard – part of the Energy Resources Queensland third-party campaign – outside then Labor Mines Minister Scott Stewart’s office in Townsville.

QCoal group executive James Black said he was delighted at the government’s decision to allow the Byerwen mining camp to stay open for the term of the mining lease, and would work with the government on the future of Glenden.

“Why were our workers singled out for this unfair treatment while other nearby mines were allowed to house their workforces in on-site camps? Why was saving Glenden the entire responsibility of QCoal and its 800 Byerwen workers?” he said.

Currently, QCoal has workers living in 15 houses in ­Glenden.

Former Isaac Regional Council mayor Ms Baker ran for Labor against Mr Last in Burdekin at last year’s election and lost 65.8 per cent to 34 per cent after preferences. Ms Baker did not win the Glenden booth, where just 46 people cast their vote.