Coal seam gas (CGS) extraction, which the Government’s announcement yesterday should only have a marginal/negligible impact on (Mining buffer ‘doesn’t go far enough’) will be one of the big drivers of Queensland’s economic growth in the next few years. And the prosperity will be shared around the State with flow-on impacts to other industries, such as the building industry in Toowoomba ($57m deal boost to job market):

A $57million contract that will create 230 Toowoomba jobs has come at a perfect time for Cambooya carpenter Jason White.

The Hutchinson Builders Toowoomba carpentry supervisor said the announcement of the contract between his employers and gas company QGC came as a huge relief to him and his partner Naomi Davidson.

Under the deal, 1286 accommodation units will be constructed to house workers at Surat Basin sites Ruby and Woleebee Ck.

The single person accommodation unit, colloquially known as a donga, is a defining feature of the current resources boom. With all the new development in the Surat basin, the number of fly-in, fly-out (FIFO) or drive-in, drive-out (DIDO) workers must soon be approaching 5,000 people or around 10% of the region’s population (i.e. somewhere near the proportion in the Bowen basin). These FIFO/DIDO workers include not only miners but people in other industries benefiting from the boom (e.g. Mine sex work a hot bed of controversy). It’s time for OESR to update its Surat Basin Population Report so we can fully understand the economic and social impacts of these important developments.