Mining – godsend or manmade disaster in the eyes of rural communities?

Mining – godsend or manmade disaster in the eyes of rural communities?

A typical response upon hearing the word ‘disaster’ is to associate it with ‘natural disasters’ although the word also refers to disasters brought about by human negligence or poor judgement. During a mixed-methods case study of Moranbah, Queensland, the perceived impact of mining on the community’s daily lives, their future and the liveability of their town emerged as a very strong theme. This theme should be viewed against the twenty-first century planning paradigm where governance has replaced government, and participatory and communicative planning is held as best practice. The value of this research lies in the fact that Moranbah shares many of the characteristics of other Australian rural resource towns and valuable lessons can be learnt from this fifth fastest growing town in Australia. The conclusion of the authors is that poor judgement or ‘man-made disasters’ have the potential to impact on the living spaces of communities as severely as ‘natural disasters’. Further research is recommended to investigate the sociological and psychological underpinnings of community viewpoint, especially the adaptation of social indicators to individual contexts.

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