Decision Time !

 Back in the years of the second world war, Wollongong was known as a " dirty " city because it was home to our biggest steel making plant and several coal mines. A very large proportion of the work force were steel workers or coal miners and the steel produced was an important contribution to the war effort.

The steel industry survived the massive over production of steel from China that forced the closure of many famous steel plants on the world scene and now it has modernised and become one of the few remaining producers of steel in Australia.

This steel workforce has shrunk as the company has invested in automation but is still providing important pay packets to the local economy.  The future of coal mining in the Wollongong area is less certain. Most of the coal with easy access has been mined and expansion is needed if the mines are to continue, and that creates a host of new problems.

Mining today is by the " longwall " method in which an automatic mining machine leaves a cavity from where the coal was removed.  The ground above slowly " subsides " to fill that cavity and if expansion is granted it will be under existing housing and that subsidence will cause enormous damage to brick and tile housing above.

Where the land is free of housing, the mining is likely to divert the water flow from into water catchment and reduce the amount of storage needed to sustain the city supply.  Subsidence caused creek beds to crack and the water slips away underground.

To further complicate the situation, the steel works relies on this same high grade coal to fuel its blast furnaces and the Wollongong economy would be shattered if it lost both the steel works and all those lucrative coal mining pay packets.   There is enormous pressure from the miners and their coal unions to grant permission for mining extensions.

This is happening at the same time as the world is desperate to control global warming and to do that we need to reduce burning fossil fuels - and that means oil and coal.  Australia is one of the world's biggest coal exporters and recently we have opened several new mines.  Extending those Wollongong mines will further increase the very footprint we need to reduce.

Those decisions rest with the Federal Department of Planning who need to decide if our steelworks can survive drawing its coal from other Australian sources with consequent additional transport costs.  Without extension approval, several local coal mines will eventually close and many well paid mining jobs will be lost.  That will certainly impact on the Wollongong business community.

It is possible to mine below where new housing is planned by limiting the weight and type of building material used but damage to aquifers and existing water courses are inevitable if approval goes ahead.

These will be political decisions and they may decide whether we join the world order to stabilize the world temperature or continue to give self interest our main priority !