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.
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