Narrabri Mayor mulls the good and the bad of mining boom

Narrabri Shire has a population of around 13,500 and lies at the Gunnedah Basin’s northern tip. It is home to two huge new developments in Aston Resources’ Maules Creek and Whitehaven’s Narrabri underground mine.

“We do have the potential to be bigger,” Councillor Faber said. “Back in the 1970s we were probably about 15-16,000 population, and I think that is where we are going to head again. You need a critical mass of people to make businesses viable and to enable us to maintain roads and property and so on.

“We’ve had a stable population of 13,500-14,000 for the last 10 years,” Cr Faber explained. “However, the State Government in its wisdom, based on the 2006 census, had us declining at a rapid rate to about 11,000 in the next 10 years.

“In reality we had small growth in 2008/9 and the latest census just gave us 100 people extra in 09/10. Since July 2010 you could say it is a lot more than that. I really think we have got about 1,000 additional in the Shire, mostly in Narrabri and Boggabri, purely to construct the mining boom and also the new hospital and schools program.

“We have a huge conference facility, a 1,200 seat theatre. We have to plan events a long, long time in advance because you can’t get in. We are facing a dilemma. All of a sudden it has just come together. Now we have the problem that everything is full, th erents have gone up dramatically just in the last six months. Something that was $250 is now $350-$400 a week, and of course that is putting the local people out.”

Cr Faber is calling for the NSW Department of Planning to approve a rezoning of land in Boggabri, a town of 1000 people which sits between the regional hubs of Narrabri and Gunnedah. Narrabri council is “trying to release some new housing blocks to diffuse the situation, by rezoning our local environment plans to get medium density development or conversion into apartments and the like.”

Cr Faber was quick to point out that there is also good news from the mining boom, but it is just under reported. “They like to put out the stories that are bad news. That is what sells papers. There is a bit of a skewed view of how big the problems are.

“On the other hand, the shops are busy and we have 100% occupancy rates in the hotels.” She said that “anyone who wants to work in this Shire can work. There is not an issue with employment, which is great,” and stressed that she was very impressed with mining and construction companies’ efforts to train and employ local people.

Perhaps adding to local scepticism is the region’s previous experience of the coal industry’s sometimes boom-bust cycle. In the 1980s, Gunnedah Shire had around 550 people directly employed in coal mines. By th elate 1990s the Gunnedah Colliery and Preston had wound-down their operations, bringing significant job losses and economic pain.

“We want sustainable growth. We don’t want boom-bust. We don’t want what happened to Gunnedah back in the 1990s,” said Cr Faber. However, she remains optimistic about the potential of current industry growth to deliver positive results for the regions.

Not least in regards to the potential cash from Voluntary Planning Agreements (VPA). The agreements are between State Government (on behalf of local council) and enterprises, to offset impacts of commercial operation. Cr Faber said the Shire’s two potential deals with Whitehaven and Aston have great potential.

“If the VPAs are adopted by the government as part of the approvals, we stand to get a fair few million dollars,” she said. “That will be put to things like common infrastructure, major capital road works and I want to spend money on a childcare centre for Boggabri.

“At the end of the day I think the mines will deliver well. We need to plan and work together.” However, Faber cautioned that key to successful planning for the Shire is an over-arching, integrated regional planning framework. “What we need is a true regional plan that looks at everything that is happening.

“We would not be in quite the accommodation fix we are in at the moment if we didn’t have hospitals being built, brand new schools being built, construction companies for the mines, plus mining companies themselves and the gas happening.

“This highlights that it is essential we have regional planning. Now the Namoi group of councils, of which we are a member, has been pushing the [NSW] Government since 2008 to get its act together, to help us put out some really good regional planning, and the only time they have listened has been with the coal and gas strategy just before the last election.

“The bureaucrats just sit there and do what they are told to do. They know their masters want them to find a way to approve the next coal mine, and basically that is what they focus on. So the community out here can shake its hands all they like, but they are cynical by now. We know that things will get approved, and I am sure the new government is going to find a big black hole in the budget, so they will not be able to avoid it.”