Extract from ABC News
As you drive south-west from Mackay towards the small inland community of Clermont, you pass through stunning burnt-orange sorghum crops and past rock formations bursting from the ground before entering deep into coal country.
Convoys delivering giant machinery that takes up both lanes slow the trip down. The machinery is heading towards the open-cut mines that are the lifeblood of these communities. And seemingly never-ending trains rattle on the tracks that skirt the road, carrying the precious black cargo to the port and out to sea.
Some stereotypes hold true; the roads are full of men and women in high-vis orange shirts driving white utes.
For the past 35 years, Rhonda Bleakley and her husband have been keeping those utes going from the helm of a petrol station and fuel distributorship in Clermont.
"We only planned on coming out here for a couple of years when we first moved out here," she says.
"But it was such a lovely community, we decided we liked it and it was a great place to raise our kids."
Rhonda's livelihood depends on the fossil fuel industry, as do many of her customers'.
She used to think it would take a long time for the industry to wind up, but now she sees the future speeding up to meet her.
"I'm sure there's no two ways about that. How long it takes, I think, is the big question that everyone is sort of trying to deal with now," she says.
"People that work in the fuel industry or in the coal industry are just normal workers — they're trying to earn a living — and that doesn't separate them from the rest of the community.
But not everyone out here sees it that way.
The mining sector directly employs 27 per cent of people in Clermont. That number rises to 40 per cent in the wider Isaac Regional Council area.
It is the largest coal mining council region in Queensland, with 24 operational mines producing more than half the state's coal exports.
Despite global pressure on the future of coal, the council still supports the opening of new coal mines.
"Coal is extremely important for jobs in our region," Mayor Anne Baker says.
"There's three very large projects that have been assessed and approved that will take us into the next century."
That would mean another 100 years of coal.
"What I feel is this discussion needs to be a balanced discussion and we need to be a primary stakeholder in that discussion," she says.
"Because we bring a lot of value, we bring a lot of balance to the debate.
"And this should never be about closing any one industry down."
Others hold more extreme views.
Like Greg Austen, a local councillor who runs a trucking business that supplies nearby mines, including the Adani Carmichael mine.
"I don't believe in it at all — the climate's changing all the time," he says.
Greg is not afraid to say how much he loves coal.
As well as producing thermal coal for energy, a large portion of the coal produced here is metallurgical — used for steel production.
Many here, including Greg, believe those exports will continue well into the future.
"Well, what's happening globally? All I can see is people want coal," he says.
But there is a stark intergenerational divide out here.
'Torn both ways'
Coal miner Ashely Reed has decades of work ahead of him, but he is worried about what that will be.
"There's a big uproar to do better for the environment and I completely understand that, but then there's millions of people in jobs like my own.
"I guess there's a fear in our line of work that one day we're going to be out of work.
"That's a worrying thing for a lot of people."
It is something Rhonda Bleakley's youngest son is also grappling with.
Tim Bleakley works in a nearby coal mine.
"It's weird being in the middle, like torn both ways," he says.
"My family's part of the fossil fuel industry and my friends all around me are part of the fossil fuel industry. I'm part of the fossil fuel industry," he says.
"But I've got another part of me that wants to make a change.
It is not a topic he likes to openly discuss.
"It's just, I don't want to get into a debate about it because it always ends quite nasty," he says.
Clermont
became a key battleground during the 2019 federal election, when a
convoy of anti-Adani protestors led by former Greens leader Bob Brown
came to town.
They were greeted in Clermont by a pro-coal protest.
The result was a massive swing to Nationals MP Michelle Landry.
But Rhonda believes in the past two years there has been a shift in community attitudes.
"Those extremist views, I think are really — there's not as much of that anymore," she says.
That is a reality for her son Tim.
"People are going to be out of work anyway. So why not try and have the back-up plan?" he says.
"It's coming. The rest of the world is doing this slowly, you know, weaning off coal.
"Why can't we? Why can't we start that now?"
Local union representative Shane Brunker agrees.
"People on the ground understand that there are pressures coming," he says.
"But then we don't see any action from governments, as far as giving them an alternative where the future is heading."
'People know things are changing'
Conversations about the impending change remain difficult for everyone, with the language heavily politicised.
The
term "just transition" was coined by the international trade union
movement to ensure that moving towards a low-carbon economy did not come
at the detriment of workers and their communities, but even that
language has become divisive in coal country.
"My union, we don't like the word 'just transition'. We see it's actually a transformation of the economy," Shane says.
"We've actually put our case forward to the government that we believe there should be a statutory authority developed.
"And that authority then can liaise directly with local communities like Clermont or Moranbah or Emerald."
A transition authority — or whatever you want to call it — is an idea that is gaining traction both in Australia and globally.
Amanda Cahill from Next Economy works with regional economies that are trying to deal with economic change.
She says in the past 18 months there has been a real shift in community attitudes, with people a lot more open to the discussion.
"The real issue for Queensland in particular is that our major trading partners have upped their climate ambition around net zero emissions," she says.
"They are moving away from carbon-intensive production techniques, so they're not going to need our coal anymore.
"We still have some time but we need to start now because this sort of change that we're talking about is transforming the entire economy. We need to start now."
She believes there needs to be leadership and a national transition authority.
"If you look around the world, I think there are over 50 countries now that have a national transition plan and have set up authorities or bodies to manage that," Amanda says.
"Really good examples that we talk about all the time, like Germany, they have national transition authorities in place that have brought together industry, different levels of government, environment groups, unions and workers to actually plan together what needs to happen."
Amanda also hopes the change in community attitudes will impact the politics.
"Because of the amount of acceptance now on the ground that things are changing, it would be hard for any politician to say, 'We don't need to think about that, because coal is here to stay,'" she says.
The federal government denies there are any pressures on the future of coal. In a statement to the ABC it said:
"The Coalition government is committed to supporting coal industry workers, who have a long-term future in the region.
"Coal exports to some of our key Asian markets are expected to increase as the global economic recovery picks up."
'We have to change our ways'
Trying to bridge the political divide is Rhonda's eldest son and Tim's older brother, Dan.
He is back in town for the first time in five years.
Since leaving Clermont, Dan has become a fervent climate change activist.
"But at the same time, I know that we have to change our ways.
"This region has been quite dependent on fossil fuels for a long time, so once I started learning about the climate crisis, it became quite difficult to try to talk to people about it."
Now he is back trying to change hearts and minds — with fast cars, taking coal miners out for joy rides in a Tesla.
"I
think that introducing people to EVs (electric vehicles) out
here really gives people an idea of how amazing the future can be if we
choose to grab it," Dan says.
One of the coal miners who got behind the wheel was Ashley Reed.
"It took me by surprise how quick it actually was," Ashley says.
"It's got a lot more punch than what my diesel dinosaur does.
"I definitely think we need to invest in the infrastructure for the EVs because, the way I personally see it, is it's the only way that the future is going to go."
Driving fast cars around to make a point may be fun, but it still hides the deep fractures in this community about the future.
"I definitely think that the coal industry will continue on and we will need them for a while longer," Ashley says.
"But there does need to be a change in getting things ready for what the future is going to hold."
Dan believes if governments had invested in clean industries a decade ago, they would be booming now.
But he says change is better late than never.
"I think that these regions could be developing clean-tech industries now," he says.
For the younger generation of coal miners, change is inevitable. But what it looks like or how it happens remains uncertain.
"I don't think anyone goes out to harm the environment," Tim says.
"I truly believe that people, wherever they can, if it's easy enough, they're not going to go out of their way to burn fossil fuels."
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