When New Hope Coal arrived in Acland in 2002, company executives promised a new era of prosperity for the small Queensland town. "They said there would be jobs, jobs, jobs, and Acland would boom," recalls Glen Beutel, one resident.
Ten years on, New Hope is producing four million tonnes of coal a year, but Acland is almost deserted. As the mine has crept ever closer, locals have sold up and moved out. Only Beutel has resisted the company's offers, and - apart from a family which rents a house from him - he is the sole remaining inhabitant of the once thriving town on the Darling Downs, west of Brisbane.
The election of Campbell Newman's Liberal National Party last month has given Beutel a stay of execution, with Newman vetoing plans by the company to mine beneath the town itself. But although Newman blocked another major coal project on the fertile Darling Downs, and pledged to protect "strategic cropping areas", few expect the mining frenzy gripping Queensland - and neighbouring New South Wales - to subside.
Already one of the world's biggest coal exporters, Australia is expected to double, or even triple, exports by 2020, with most production taking place in coal-rich NSW and Queensland.
NZ Herald (Apr 21)
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