Taxi owner hails rebirth of coal
proximately 9445 workers who fly in, fly out or drive in, drive out for mine work. Moranbah, Dysart, Middlemount are home to thousands of FIFO and DIDO workers.
The camps – rows and rows of dongas in geometrically straight lines – surround the towns.
Cr Baker wants candidates to address Postcode Discrimination.
This is the name given to the practice of companies hiring on the basis of where people live.
Mining companies demanding that trainees wanting to work for them should live within a 100km radius of the Brisbane Airport is a no- no in her book.
She wants it fixed so that all Queenslanders are able to have the opportunity to work in the mines and not just those who live at certain postcodes. This is another job for the elected representative.
Cr Baker is positive about this year’s state electoral redistribution. It means that as a council she will be dealing with mainly one state representative instead of three.
“In the past we had other state seats coming into the shire,” she said. “We’ve still got part of Mirani, but all of the coalfield towns are in the seat of Burdekin. It will be easier to deal with just one person.”
Cr Baker wants to see the Adani mine happen. She believes the Federal Government has all of the appropriate safeguards in place.
But, she adds that the support of the Isaac Regional Council comes at a price and that is jobs.
“We expect a reasonable level of local employment from the Adani project,” she said.
“It is happening within our geographic boundary. For us there will be impacts, especially on roads.” THE Moranbah taxi company owner, Merv Fisher, divides his time between Mackay and Moranbah.
He has lived in Moranbah off and on since 1996, but worked on the construction of the Goonyella mine in 1969. This was the same year that the township of Moranbah was built by the Utah Development Company to accommodate mine workers.
“When I came here to work on Goonyella, the town site was still a cattle paddock,” Mr Fisher said.
He bought the Moranbah taxi business in 1996 and then rode out the coal mining slump of 1998- 99.
“They were bad years, but I got by,” he said.
He leased his three taxis out in 2009 and now, in his 80s, took them back to run himself a year ago. “You get lazy doing nothing.” He is a believer in the coal industry and wants to see a coalfired power station at Moranbah.
Despite the boom and bust nature of the coal industry, he remains a staunch advocate and says the fossil fuel “will be here” until it is replaced by uranium.
He is not a fan of the Adani mine. He said there were mines in mothballs waiting to reopen and doesn’t think Adani’s Carmichael is needed.
“We’ve got mines here waiting to reopen. Coal is back on the rise. It is here forever. We should be working with what we already have,” he said.
Mr Fisher worked on the construction of the Burdekin Dam in the early 1980s. He questions why the dam wall has never been raised so that the storage could hold back even larger volumes of water.
“They were going to do it in stages. It could be so much bigger. They should finish it properly,” he said.
The taxi business is doing well and coal is looking good for a long time yet. Mr Fisher is not complaining. And there is another bright light on the horizon.
The Moranbah races are on this Saturday.
“The three taxis will be going flat stick all day and well past midnight. They like to party here,” he said.
When it comes to how he will vote, Mr Fisher waxes lyrical about Pauline Hanson’s One Nation.
But, then he adds that he is registered to vote in the Whitsunday electorate held by the LNP’s Jason Costigan. The Whitsunday PHON candidate Noel Skippen shouldn’t get his hopes up.
“I’ll be voting for Jason. I’ve known his family for years,” he said.