The resources boom has brought much wealth to Australia, but it has also changed the grey nomad experience … perhaps forever.
And it’s not just the ongoing difficulty of finding a caravan park site in mining areas that’s the issue. Large parts of Australia’s landscape are undergoing dramatic, and often ugly, transformations – and the special character of many communities is being lost.
The fertile Bylong Valley between the Wollemi and Goulburn River national parks west of Newcastle in NSW is a classic example. The Bylong Valley Way was once named one of the top 10 drives in the country. But then coal was discovered. Today, contractors, drillers, geologists and other coal company employees are reportedly as thick on the ground as farmers and daytrippers.
However, that is a drop in the bucket. Just last week, a clutch of big coal and coal seam gas projects were approved by the federal government. They included the controversial Maules Creek mine in Leard State Forest near Narrabri, NSW, and a coal seam gas development in Gloucester, NSW.
Across in outback South Australia, the recent discovery of a possible $20 trillion worth of shale oil under land near Coober Pedy will have a ‘transformative’ impact on the area. Linc Energy expects to be drilling there for the next 20-30 years.
And, of course, a final decision is also imminent on the building of a giant gas hub at James Price Point on a pristine stretch of Western Australia’s Kimberley coast.
Local residents in places like Broome and the Byfield Valley are vocal in their opposition to the plans but they are not the only ones who will be affected.
On the www.thegreynomads. com.au forum, regular contributor Rosie recalled a recent trip through the Hunter Valley, around Muswellbrook and Singleton.
“The New England Highway cuts very close to some huge open cut mine, almost up to the highway, with huge mountains of grey waste rock/soil and deep excavations down to the coal layers,” she wrote. “It’s such a shock to come from wonderful landscapes, rolling hills and farms into the moonscape.”
Boothie was equally aghast.
“Have you done Cobar, Broken Hill and areas around Castlemaine?” he wrote. “Just the same … hopefully, these days, they will clean up after themselves.”
