Kamis, 14 Agustus 2014

Queenstown locals fear for town*s future after Mount Lyell mine closure (ABC)

Mark Hull worked at the mine for 32 years and has decided to relocate to Queensland in search of work.ABC Mark Hull worked at the mine for 32 years and has decided to relocate to Queensland in search of work.

Residents of a Tasmanian mining town are reeling from the closure of the Mount Lyell copper mine, and fear their town will die with it.

For more than a century the mine has been the Queenstown region's economic mainstay but Vedanta, the Indian company which owns the mine, has decided to mothball it after a rockfall in a crucial area.

The decision has cost 300 miners their jobs – a hammer blow in a town of only 2,000 people.

It follows a horror run for Queenstown's locals; three local miners died in two separate incidents around seven months ago.

That forced a temporary closure of the mine, with workers stood down on half-pay. But the latest decision is the final straw for many.

Mark Hull worked at the copper mine for 32 years and is a proud Queenstown local, but he has reluctantly decided to relocate to Queensland in search of work.

"Oh, it's been terrific to me, Mount Lyell. I've brought my family up because of Mount Lyell," he told the ABC's 7.30.

"I started as the nipper, that was just when you were on the broom, sweep the workshops up and clean everyone's mess up."

Without the mine operating, he is packing up and heading to Gladstone.

"I've got a brother who works up there at the aluminium smelter," he said.

"I haven't actually got a job yet but it's more or less you've just got to turn up and put your foot in the door and see what happens."

Mr Hull is taking years of memorabilia with him. Among his prized possessions is his tribute to two of the three miners whose deaths originally closed the mine.

"That's a sign I had made up for a couple of great mates who were lost at work which is probably one of the toughest times I've had at work," he said, taking down a sign engraved with the names of his dead friends.

"It was probably meant to be me on the job but things changed that morning and it's just the way it is. You can't change anything - wish we could."

For the time being his son, Stanley, will stay behind in Queenstown with his mother, Stephanie, and see the school year out.

"Stef doesn't like the [Gladstone] heat but she'll get used to it," Mr Hulls said.

"I've got a 16-year-old in there I'm trying to convince, too. He's not real keen on it.

"He's got all his mates and that here but there's not a lot here for him, so hopefully in 12 months time he'll be thanking me instead of abusing me."

Worker expects mine closure to affect Tasmania's West Coast 

'For sale' signs are springing up all over town and two pubs with worker accommodation have gone into administration.

Ehren Stringer was a contractor at the mine. He says it will not just be Queenstown who will feel the mine's closure.

"There'll be only half a community left," he said.

"It's going to make it hard for not only me and the mining industry, but everyone in the whole West Coast, is going to feel the roll-on effect of people leaving the town, basically."

There are suggestions the mine could reopen in 18 months, but Mr Stringer does not believe people can hang on that long.

"In another two years or 18 months you're not going to have the workforce to open this mine again," he said.

"I've got a six-month-old daughter and a girlfriend and if I can't find work somewhere around the coast then I'm going to have to try and either do fly in fly out, or try and get rid of my house and move to the mainland."

Joe Taylor, 25, has also lost his job and is worried he will be forced to leave.

"I've got family here and I bought a house here, it's heartbreaking," he said.

"You've got to go where the money is really.

"I'm not going to make the money back on the house, so I might end up back here one day but if you've got to go you've got to go. That's how it is."

Mr Hull says the lack of money around the town is obvious.

It's a lot quieter. People have got to watch what they're doing - they've got home loans, car loans, young families - so either they've got to try and weather the storm or move on," he said.

"I don't think I'll be the only one that moves."

But he says he will miss the people of Queenstown, people he has known all his life.

"When you move away from a place like this you're not going to meet the people up there that you meet here because you went to school together and you've worked together," he said.

"You won't meet people up there like this. No, far from it."


http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/latest/24719252/queenstown-locals-fear-for-towns-future-after-mount-lyell-mine-closure/

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