A shock announcement from Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk will save an embattled country town from the path of bulldozers.
Premier Palaszczuk floored many at the Courier Mail’s Bush Summit in Rockhampton this morning as she declared the salvation of the mining town of Glenden.
More than 300 homes were set to be bulldozed as miner Glencore winds up operations in Central Queensland.
The miner was contractually obliged to remove the town of Glenden, southwest of Mackay, as it winds up mining operations in the area, which have existed for 40 years.
While not yet divulging the finer details, Ms Palaszczuk said her government would update legislation to see the “future of that town will continue”.
According to the Premier, Isaac Regional Council Mayor Anne Baker, whose council runs water, waste and community facilities in town, was “in tears” when Ms Palaszczuk broke the news to her just before the Summit.
The Premier said the plight of the small community had captured a broad audience of Australians.
“It’s really touched everyone, 400 people there who want to stay there,” she told the Summit.
“The future of that town will continue – we see a very bright future there.”
Exactly how the new legislation will work is still being nutted out by the state and local governments involved, the Premier said, and will be presented when Queensland parliament returns next week, on August 22.
The tiny town, which mainly homes resource workers, was set to be destroyed as part of the rehabilitation process at Glencore’s Newlands Mine.
Late last month, Glenden and the hundreds of residents who would have been forced to find new homes in the midst of a housing crisis made national headlines.
The last of the coal was extracted from Newlands in the previous year, and Glencore shifted into its rehabilitation phase for the town, which would see its 670-strong population reduce to about 200 over the next five to six years.
At the rehabilitation’s completion, it would cease paying for the operation of the town, which currently costs the company millions every year.
Central Queensland’s Isaac Regional Council and locals opposed the demolition, with the council hoping incoming mining giant QCoal would consider building its camp or using empty houses there.
“This should be a straightforward transition in a mining town from one company to another,’’ Mayor Anne Baker said at the time.
“Infrastructure is there for QCoal’s taking.’’
QCoal has indicated its intention to instead build its own mining camp with beds for 450 people for its new $1.8 billion Byerwen coal mine, just 20km out of town.
In a series of videos campaigning Resources Minister Scott Stewart, locals begged for Glenden to be thrown a lifeline by the government, which is within its power to deny QCoal permission to build its own camp.
“Industry is still booming, but why aren’t we?” one local said in a “Save Glenden” video, shared to social media by Isaac Regional Council.
“The approval of a 450-bed mining camp in their lease is a nail in our coffin,” another local said.
The mayor of Longreach, also in Central Queensland, argued mining companies had a responsibility to sustain communities.
“We understand a mining company’s right to make a profit, but there has to be a commitment to community that goes with it,’’ Tony Rayner said.
“You don’t just destroy a town.’’
Current resident of Glenden, Melissa Payne, who moved to the area in 1982 with her dad to help build the town, described the situation “extremely frustrating”.
She had in November been forced to close her general store, which she operated for a decade after the population of roughly 350 families shrunk to about 40.
“I’ve grown up here, I have raised my family here, I have done everything here in this town,” she told the Courier Mail in July.
Ms Payne described Glenden and its small community as an “amazing” safe place to raise a family.
She feared her daughter, Dakota, who died and was buried in Glenden about 26 years ago, would wind up as “a roadside grave in a cow paddock”.
Glencore, in July, told news.com.au it was open to handing over the funding responsibilities of Glenden to QCoal.
“Glencore indicated that we were happy to consider alternative proposals for the Glenden community services, which were consistent with meeting and funding our statutory obligations,” a spokesperson said.
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“We are of the view that Glenden requires an ‘anchor tenant’ who is willing to support the town. Glencore would welcome an agreement between QCoal and the Queensland Government which would see the community of Glenden continue.
“In the absence of another anchor tenant prepared to support Glenden, Glencore has statutory obligations to rehabilitate the town post-mining. Glencore has no immediate plans to demolish housing at Glenden as we await the outcome of discussions between the local council, QCoal and the Queensland Government.”
– With Brooke Rolfe
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