ACLAND DELAY FORCED ME OUT
Contractor pulls pin on operation as mine’s future remains cloudy
A MULTI-MILLION dollar drilling contractor for the New Acland Coal Mine is one of the first businesses to pull out of the Toowoomba region, blaming uncertainty around the mine’s expansion. Nigel de Veth’s company Roc-Drill, which he said injected up to $5 million into the economy every year since 2008, has sold its Torrington office and will move to the Gold Coast.
NIGEL de Veth isn’t waiting around to learn the future of the New Acland Coal Mine – he’s walking out the door and taking his business with him.
The long-term contractor to the mine is one of the first to pull his blast hole drilling operation Roc-Drill out of the region, blaming his move on the uncertainty around the controversial stage three expansion.
The business’s headquarters in Torrington have been sold, while equipment and stock is being shipped down to its new base on the Gold Coast.
Mr de Veth, who moved to Toowoomba in 2008 to capitalise on the now fast-ending second stage of the mine, said it was a heart-breaking departure.
“We’ve packed up, we’re taking our money elsewhere, (because) we can’t sit and wait for the Land Court case,” he said.
“We didn’t want to wait until the nail was in the coffin.”
The news comes just weeks after the Queensland Supreme Court breathed life into the expansion by sending it back to the Land Court.
But even that wasn’t enough for Mr de Veth to change his mind.
“The fact is I can’t wait another minute. I can’t sit around and wait on the hope that it will go ahead,” he said.
“We’ve sold our house, two commercial properties, two employees have already left.”
At its peak, Mr de Veth said Roc-Drill employed nearly 100 people across Australia and injected up to $5 million into the Toowoomba economy every year.
He said if the mine expansion didn’t proceed, Toowoomba, Oakey and the surrounding communities would feel the loss in ways not considered.
“It’s going to have a massive impact on Toowoomba, and I don’t think they realise it – people have got to get their heads out of the sand,” he said.
Mayor Paul Antonio was saddened to hear of the departure, saying it was a sign of the threat posed by the mine’s potential closure.
“It’s the reason we’re standing as well as we can behind Oakey, because there will be enormous dislocation in that community,” he said.
“We are concerned about the long-term employment in this area. It won’t be just one business but many many businesses right across the region.”
Oakey Coal Action Alliance president Frank Ashman said while he hated seeing businesses leave, it didn’t change his concerns about the impact of the mine.
“We’ve got to look at sustainable industry and it is agricultureThe food producing industry is paramount,” he said.
Tom Gillespie