Generally when faced with a problem, we (mankind) have found a solution.
It seems though at the moment we are more intent on creating problems
than finding solutions. There must be a huge problem, that we allocate
so little to finding solutions to the extra problems being created in
attempting to fix the big problem.
It’s Time we Took A History Lesson.
The sun was just rising, giving the sky a bluey grey glow. He looked
across the Yeppen Lagoon at the lighted train carriages taking the
Rockhampton based workers to work for the start of their shift. This is
not an aspiration for a bullet train to take Rockhampton based workers
to Gladstone to start their shifts at the LNG plants. This was 1926;
the Rockhampton based workers were being transported by train to start
their shift at the Mount Morgan mine. I asked why the workers didn’t
live at Mount Morgan. “There was no where to live there Warren”, was
the reply. Here we are 85 years later with an accommodation crisis in
Gladstone and we don’t have a dedicated passenger train from Rockhampton
to help alleviate the problem. Baffling to me, why this hasn’t been
identified as a “significant project for the State”. Not only back in
1916 (and beforehand) were workers being transported by train to work at
Mount Morgan, special Abt Rack locomotives were imported to overcome
the obstacle the Razorback with its steep incline provided. Footage of
this can be seen via a 3D presentation at the Mount Morgan Rail Museum.
How determined and innovative they must have been. Eighty five years
later our solution to meeting the labour demand appears to be fly in fly
out. Is there a lesson to be learnt here! Mount Morgan must have
wished it was screaming out for long term sustainable development when
it was the richest gold mine in the southern hemisphere. Fly in fly out
is not going to assist the long term sustainable development of Central
Queensland. We should look at history and learn from it, the good and
not so good chapters.
A bullet train between Rockhampton and Gladstone will benefit both
cities, not just during the job boom, but for the future. Each city has
complimentary strengths that need to be jointly marketed. I also hope
we hear more about a possible hovercraft transport route between Zilzie
and Curtis Island. Now’s the time to demonstrate how determined and
innovative Central Queensland still is.
By the way, the person at the beginning of the column who was looking
across the Yeppen Lagoon is my grandfather. He was sixteen then and had
just finished doing the Gracemere milk run by horse and cart. He will
be 102 in January.