Preparing communities for the inevitable: mining cycles, camps, and closure

Dr Sharon Harwood, Senior Associate Social Consultant and Natalie Gardner, Senior Associate Social Consultant Tetra Tech Coffey

Mining operations based on Fly In and Fly Out (FIFO) or other long-distance commuting work practices are perceived to be contrary to the creation of strong and resilient communities in regional Queensland. But are they really?

This article examines the current policy environment for accommodating mining workforces alongside a review of the cyclical nature of mining and the social impacts of these cycles, including mine closure.

We use Moranbah as a case study to argue that the focus of the Queensland Strong and Sustainable Resource Communities Act 2017 on construction and operation has led to limited consideration of mining cycles and the negative impact on housing prices.

The town is surrounded by established mines and exploration sites and is the largest town in the Bowen Basin (with a population of 9,425 at the 2021 Census).

Moranbah also provides a case study of how to effectively utilise workforce accommodation villages to manage the peaks and troughs associated with boom and bust cycles to protect home buyers and investors from property price fluctuations and enhance the liveability of our regions.

The Federal and Queensland governments have hosted several parliamentary inquiries into the mining industry's use of FIFO and other long-distance commuting work practices and how these affect the sustainability of rural and remote regions. These inquiries reported several concerns, including:

• Difficulties in sustaining health and education services from the low residential population base

• Economic benefits flying out of the region with the workers at the end of the shift

• A reduction in the number of people able to participate in community activities, such as sports teams

The Queensland Strong and Sustainable Resource Communities Act 2017 came into effect in 2018. The object of the act is to ‘provide for matters that will benefit residents of communities in the vicinity of large resource projects during their operation’.

Three key elements were included in this legislation:

• prohibition of FIFO

• anti-discrimination

• social impact assessment with a focus on construction and operation.

However, best practices for mine development include planning across the project lifecycle – from construction to closure from the point of project inception to mitigate environmental and social impacts and optimise postclosure land opportunities and social transition outcomes).

The Queensland government does not address social outcomes in its mine closure or social impact assessment (SIA) policies or regulations. Currently, these closure and rehabilitation policies only address environmental matters, and the SIA guideline only addresses the social impacts of construction and operation.

The reality of mining cycles

Mining projects and their workforces are cyclical. Consequently, the housing that is needed to support mining projects is also cyclical. However, when residential housing is the primary basis for accommodating mining workforces, housing markets become vulnerable to large fluctuations associated with the stage of the mine development e.g., the transition from construction to operation, and the transition from operation to closure.

The impacts of inflated prices are widely recognised and include difficulty in obtaining affordable housing for families and workers outside of the resource sector, the out-migration of essential workers, and financial stress for households in the rental market.

Looking to the next decade

A key question that should be considered is how the housing market in Moranbah and towns like it will respond, as we enter a phase of decarbonising energy supplies and the potential for mine closures to follow. Other examples in Queensland, such as Mt Mulligan, Duchess, and Kajabbi indicate that mine closure is often followed by out-migration.

From our view, it is arguable that mining camps (or worker accommodation villages) present a sustainable option when considering the entire mine lifecycle because they can reduce the burden of temporary and transient populations on rural townships and on service managers during booms and periods of reduced demand.

We think that instead of a full prohibition of FIFO and worker accommodation villages (WAVs), that the way WAVs are designed, located, integrated and repurposed in ‘resource communities’ needs a rethink.

Key demographic trends

The numbers that describe the impact of the WAVs on the housing market only tell one part of Moranbah’s story. The demographic description of the people who have moved into the town now that it has become affordable, show how the social infrastructure attracts different skill sets that enhance the liveability of the region.

In the 5 years since the last census, Moranbah’s average annual growth rate was 1.2%. However, looking back over the last 3 census periods since 2011 there have been some notable changes, such as increases in:

• the number of people over 65

• one-parent families

• the number of residents from non-English speaking backgrounds

• lone households

• the proportion of Indigenous residents

The data is also showing a decline in the number of couple families with children, a lower number of people working in the mining industry and the number of fully owned private dwellings. Group households which are typically associated with mining towns, decreased by more than a quarter (-26.8%) over the ten-year period creating additional available housing in the market.

These subtle demographic changes will, over time, affect the demand for the types of social services provided by the local and state government, which influence the overall liveability of the region for its residents.

Because of the development of a number of coal mines in the region, Moranbah has evolved as a regional service centre. Social services are provided by governments where there is a population base to substantiate the cost and benefits. But population losses as a result of mine closure or other external forces place the long-term sustainability of social service provision at risk.

So, what does all this mean for the Bowen Basin?

It means that the use of WAVs has managed to reduce the fluctuations in the housing markets, which in turn has attracted new non-mine employed households who can now afford to live in Moranbah to provide and consume the much-needed social services that underpin a region’s liveability. The WAVs have helped to transition Moranbah from a single-industry mining town to become a regional service hub.

Regional industry transition

The real challenge for the long-term sustainability of the region is how to navigate the challenges associated with the transition to a decarbonised future. Three new coal developments have recently been approved in the region, but should more housing estates be built to accommodate the workforce of a temporary land use project?

In the absence of state policy and guidelines that integrate the full mining life cycle, we contend that a straight prohibition of FIFO may not address risks associated with mine closure or housing market failures before they become material and, indeed, may not be the best approach for building strong and sustainable communities.

Moranbah has demonstrated that it can achieve a balance between residential development and WAVs to reduce the fluctuations in the housing market. Careful consideration of how the workforces for new temporary developments should be accommodated must be made to protect the current and future residents from the boom and bust cycles associated with the mining workforce accommodation demand.

We also believe that in a wider sense, a comprehensive regional approach to industry transitions and closures must work to reduce or prevent negative social impacts on regional communities, while considering ways to optimise the use, design, location and integration of WAVs in the Bowen Basin.