Save Glenden fight heats up as workers threaten to walk off job

QCoal and its partners launched a public campaign, Tell Them Where To Go, against the state government over its decision to force 800 mine workers to live in a town "without shops, permanent police or medical facilities".

QCoal, which owns and operates six mines across the state, said it was "blindsided" by the government's legislation attached to the Child Protection Amendment Bill in August 2023.

The legislation outlined a mandatory use of Glenden, located two hours west of Mackay, for mine accommodation and a transition of all workers to the town over the next five years.

QCoal head of communications Paul Turner said the move would force the closure of the established mining camp at Byerwen, and threaten 800 jobs.

QCoal joined with other companies affected by the legislation to form Energy Resources Queensland to run the campaign against the government's decision in the lead up to the election.

Mr Turner said the campaign was about providing people with the choice of where to live.

"We have workers who currently choose to live in Glenden but forcing us to close the camp and make workers live there is outrageous," he said.

"Glenden's current population is about 200 with fewer than 40 children in the year 1-12 school.

"This so-called 'Save Glenden' campaign was more about getting the headline and getting the issue off social media rather than actually saving the town."

Mr Turner said over the past 10 years, Glenden had been left to deteriorate - with the loss of the local supermarket, bowls club, golf club, hairdresser, and a doctor presence reduced to a weekly visit from out of town.

"No one in the government asked the actual workers, the miners who work 12.5 hours a day, seven days straight, where they wanted to live," he said.

"The state government has claimed they consulted with QCoal on this legislation. It just didn't happen.

"The first we knew of this legislation was when it was introduced to the parliament."

An Environmental Impact Statement in 2012-2013 showed that approximately 1300 people lived in Glenden, with an expectation that up to 30 per cent of the Byerwen workforce may have chosen to live in the town.

The EIS report stated that the township, a purpose built mining community with housing stock provided by Xstrata for employees of the Newlands mining operations, had housing offered as part of a salary package for employees.

It also stated that if sufficient land was unable to be acquired, that accommodation would be provided at an alternative location outside Glenden - on or near the mining lease.

"At no time had our mining lease approval or our EIS forced all our workforce to live in Glenden and shut our workers' camp," he said.

Mr Turner also stated the QCoal had committed to building a camp in Glenden if there was insufficient housing or if workers chose not to live in the town.

The mining body had purchased land in Glenden to build a camp, but the application was "opposed by the state government" as the land (the only available freehold land of adequate size) was too close to the town's school.

QCoal currently owns 13 freehold properties in the town and leases another two - all of which are "currently full of Byerwen workers".

The remaining properties in Glenden are either owned by Glencore or private owners.

Glencore's Hail Creek, also 40km from Glenden, was granted approval for expansion for a 1000-person camp in April 2022.

"The minister's claims that the nearby Glencore Hail Creek mine was approved before the Sustainability Act makes no sense as Byerwin mine was also approved, without objection from the department or the Isaac Regional Council, before the introduction of the Sustainability Act," Mr Turner said.

"If it was good enough to retrospectively change Byerwen's mining leases to force accommodation in Glenden, they could have just as easily included other nearby mines. That may actually have helped save the town."

ERQ raised concerns about Byerwen mine being "singled out with retrospective legislation" and not the nearby Hail Creek mine, and the legislation being introduced "with no notice, no consultation, no parliamentary committee review and pushed through parliament in 24 hours after 30 minutes debate".

ERQ also stated that Byerwen mine and QCoal had not seen the legislation before it was introduced and had not asked for legislation "forcing the closure of the workers' camp" and that the original EIS never called for 100 per cent of Byerwen workers to live in Glenden.

"It was always a matter of choice. At the time we thought up to 30 per cent might want to live in Glenden because it was a thriving community of 1300 people," Mr Turner said.

"(From the mine) it's a 40 minute bus trip to Glenden (one way)...then another 10 minutes or so (getting to your cabin).

"There's been a lot of misinformation. We asked for approval for a camp and we had as many properties as we could get in Glenden...moving people in there as we could.

"We had a camp operating, it was a temporary camp but we asked it to be approved because that's what the workforce wanted. Unfortunately what we got was a piece of legislation....saying we have to shut our camp and move all our people into Glenden in the next five years."

Mr Turner said up to 70 per cent of workers said they would leave if forced to live in Glenden or else go across town to the Hail Creek mine.

QCoal group executive James Black slammed the "secretive legislation" and said there was no available accommodation in Glenden to meet the legislation requirements.

"This change will add up to two hours a day in travel time on buses on a country road," he said.

"If the focus was really on saving Glenden, why wasn't Glencore, the company responsible for the mining camp at Glenden, also legislated to move its 1000-person Hail Creek coal mine camp workforce into the town? It makes no sense. The two mines, and camps, are virtually the same distance from Glenden."

Isaac Regional Council Mayor Kelly Vea Vea said council had put an offer on the table to work on a housing agreement for the community.

"If they're fair dinkum about getting their people into housing, we'll walk into Minister Scott Stewart's office with them and negotiate amendments on the legislation," she said.

"What was disappointing is that (the) offer was put to them prior to the launch of their campaign.

"We will continue...to offer to work with QCoal and, we hope they will begin to actively prioritise benefits for the community.

"We'll continue to work with the state government in their negotiations with Glencore (and we'll) continue to appeal to Glencore to start releasing some of that housing in bite-sized chunks to help us minimise the risk and Isaac Regional Council is going to be the middleman."

Ms Vea Vea said while there were a range of options, stakeholders like QCoal must "come to the table and start working with community rather than fighting government".