The town of Broken Hill and the silver, lead and zinc mine that gave rise to the global mining giant, BHP - Broken Hill Proprietary Company Ltd.
As Australia exports its vast mineral wealth, it implicitly contributes to a growing environmental catastrophe. Australia’s carbon footprint is small in comparison to that of the USA or China, however per capita, it ranks among the worst. If the quantities of coal exported annually were included in this calculation, Australia would begin to rival the total emissions of much bigger economies. Sadly, the much lauded Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) that began last July, an attempt to put a price on carbon, actually compensates some of the largest emitters, such as the coal-fired power stations. Remote urban settlements at the centre of this boom have much in common. The mines dominate local economies, influence significantly day-to-day life in each town and in this way, generate wealth and employment, enabling communities to thrive. In the process they define much of the town’s cultural identity. In Kalgoorlie-Boulder for example, the Super Pit has evolved into a tourist attraction in its own right, while in Broken Hill, decommissioned mining structures are included on heritage registers as items of historical importance and are actively being preserved. However, do these towns have viable futures without operational mines to support them? Australia’s isolated urban communities are resilient, and whatever their future, it is sure that they will adapt quickly and at a scale as equally fantastic to the mining operations they support, or else they will simply cease to exist. c
1 World Urbanization Prospects, The 2011 Revision . United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, esa.un.org/unpd/wup 2 Resources and Energy Quarterly, December quarter 2012 . Canberra: The Bureau of Resources and Energy Economics, The Australian Government, 2012 3 The Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , 2007. www.ipcc.ch/ 4 ‘The Australian heatwave’ The Economist . www.economist.com/news/ asia/21569440-uncomfortable-time-australians-especially-climate-change- sceptics-up-eleven 5 John Gollings and Ivan Rijavec, Now + When Australian Urbanism , Austral- ian Exhibition at the 12th Venice Architecture Biennale. Sydney: Royal Australian Institute of Architects, 2010. p 10 6 ‘Town of Port Hedland announce key priorities to achieve ‘City’ vision ahead of election’ www.pilbaraecho.com.au/2013/02/01/town-of-port- hedland-announce-key-priorities-to-achieve-city-vision-ahead-of-election/
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