Hundreds of mining jobs set to disappear as the industry is wound up on North Stradbroke Island will be replaced with green positions, Premier Anna Bligh claims.
Ms Bligh yesterday announced up to 80 per cent of the huge sand island off Brisbane would be declared a national park and no new mining leases would be signed.
The decision was revealed by brisbanetimes.com.au two weeks ago.
The move to phase out the 50-year-old industry over the next 17 years spells the end of hundreds of mining jobs.
However, Ms Bligh said they would be replaced with at least 400 green positions.
Although she refused to guarantee no job would be lost.
“We expect over time, frankly, to see more jobs on North Stradbroke Island,” Ms Bligh said.
“We will see more people working in the national park, we will see new opportunities for eco-tourism resorts, the sort of things that we’ve seen at Fraser Island.”
“We know that there are jobs involved. We know that the island economy has a strong relationship with the mining companies and that’s why none of this will happen overnight.”
Tourism on Queensland’s largest island, Fraser Island, has boomed since sand mining there was banned in 1976, and logging stopped in 1991.
Climate Change and Sustainability Minister Kate Jones said green jobs were already outnumbering mining positions on North Stradbroke Island.
“The latest ABS [Australian Bureau of Statistics] data shows that in 2006 - for the first time - tourism and eco-tourism jobs, based on the fantastic environment we have here, have outstripped mining jobs on the island,” Ms Jones said.
“This is the future of North Stradbroke Island.”
Pressure to create new jobs on the island will likely ramp up in 2015 when the first of the five operating mines, Yarraman Mine, shuts down at the end of its lease.
The last lease expires in 2027.
The wife of a Yarraman miner, who requested not to be named, said she had already expected her husband to become unemployed when the mining lease ended.
“We sort of knew that that was on the cards, anyway,” she told brisbanetimes.com.au.
However, she was concerned the government’s plan would attract a flood of tourists and national park legislation would restrict island activities.
“It might bring jobs but it will change the lifestyle on the island,” she said.
She feared many of those jobs would only be seasonal.
Ms Bligh said the government had announced its decision early to ensure there was sufficient transition time.
“I know that this will create a little bit of uncertainty for people who are working in the mining company … that’s why we’re putting in place a long-term strategy,” Ms Bligh said.
“Once upon a time, very few people could imagine a Fraser Island that didn’t have logging on it. Now no one can imagine going and logging that precious place and that’s how we need to start thinking about North Stradbroke Island.
“Sandmining has been a very important part of its history but its long-term future is in the preservation of its precious, natural environment.”
Presently, 1.7 per cent of the island is national park.
That will increase to 50 per cent within 18 months and reach 80 per cent, or 22,000 hectares, by the final stage in 2027.
The excluded areas include existing townships, land designated for the island’s indigenous Quandamooka people and a proposed recreation precinct.
Ms Bligh also announced the government would negotiate an Indigenous Land Use Agreement with the Quandamooka people, which would include exclusive access to some parts of the island, land transfer to the indigenous people and joint management of the national park areas.
In welcoming the ban on mining, Queensland Conservation Council spokesman Simon Baltais said tourism could provide more long-term jobs.
“Protecting the natural assets of North Stradbroke Island ensures that island residents will have access to long-term sustainable jobs, something mining can never do,” Mr Baltais said.
“Once the mining resource is gone, so are the jobs and so is the environment.
“Protecting the environment provides long-term job security through industries like tourism, recreation and education along with a multitude of services that support these industries.”
The mining industry believes there is another 200 years of resources on the island.
Ms Bligh said legislation setting out a timetable for the changes would be introduced to parliament.
