This may be the author’s version of a work that was submitted/accepted for publication in the following source: Mayere, Severine& Baker, Douglas (2011) Communities under stress: Understanding and managing growth in resource-based regions - The case of the Western Downs, Queensland. In Maginn, P J (Ed.) Proceedings of the 3rd World Planning Schools Congress 2011: Planning’s Future-Futures Planning: Planning in an Era of Global (Un)Certainty and Transformation. The University of Western Australia, CD Rom, pp. 1-18. This file was downloaded from: https://eprints.qut.edu.au/49488/ c Consult author(s) regarding copyright matters This work is covered by copyright. Unless the document is being made available under a Creative Commons Licence, you must assume that re-use is limited to personal use and that permission from the copyright owner must be obtained for all other uses. 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If there is any doubt, please refer to the published source. http:// www.ersa.org/ Communities Under Stress: Understanding and Managing Growth in Resource –Based Regions – The case of the Western Downs, Queensland Dr. Severine Mayere School of Urban Development Queensland University of Technology 2 George St, Brisbane, QLD 4000, Australia E: [email protected] Professor Douglas Baker School of Urban Development Queensland University of Technology 2 George St, Brisbane, QLD 4000, Australia E: [email protected] Paper presented in Track 19 (Rural and Regional Planning and Development) at the 3rd World Planning Schools Congress, Perth (WA), 4-8 July 2011 Communities Under Stress: Understanding and Managing Growth in Resource –Based Regions – The case of the Western Downs, Queensland Abstract: The Western Downs region, located in Southern Queensland, about 200 kilometres west of Brisbane, has been experiencing rapid and significant changes over the past years, due to a massive boom in the energy sector. The rapid growth triggered by the development of mining and energy sectors has generated environmental, socio-economic and land use issues, and has revealed strong weaknesses within the region’s current governance arrangements. The present paper develops a four-stage approach to managing current and expected changes in a resource-based region under tremendous stress and uncertainty. Keywords: Land use conflict; Spatial cohesion; Mining; Resource-based communities Introduction The Western Downs region, in Southern Queensland, was until recently a predominantly rural community with no expected rapid growth, and whose economy was based on agriculture and feedlots. The recent discovery of significant energy resources within the region has led to major changes triggered by the rapid development of mining and energy industries to exploit coal, coal seam gas, and petroleum resources. The mining and energy sectors are now driving economic growth and change within the region, and are responsible for the rise in gross regional product over the past two years. These industries have created sudden and extreme growth in population, and it is expected that the 42 projects being commissioned over the next 5 years will require approximately 30,000 construction workers and more than 8,000 permanent workers for maintaining the operations (WDRC, 2010). The population increase due to the resource boom and the rapid development of energy resources has placed this rural region under stress. The benefits of mining and resource development are important with increased employment, income and business investment and a reduction in rural outmigration. However, very little revenue at this stage comes back to the Western Downs communities. 2 For example, a business capability study conducted by the Western Downs Regional Council indicated that 52% of businesses in the region import what they need, rather than using local production (WDRC, 2010). The challenges that the Western Downs region are facing are numerous and include: environmental problems e.g. water resources, preservation of farming lands, infrastructure provision and maintenance, fly-in fly-out (FIFO) with no economic benefits for the region, as the transient population is not accounted for (when it comes to using infrastructure and services), skills shortage, and the supply of affordable housing. The primary challenge for the regional council is dealing with both demographic and socio- economic rapid changes with limited policy and planning tools. The policies for dealing with these changes are disjointed and top down. The governance and land use issues are explored in greater details in this paper, with a focus on developing a conceptual strategic framework for managing growth in the study region. The Western Downs region The Western Downs region is located within the Surat Basin, an area of approximately 110,000 square kilometres rich in natural resources (Map 1). The recent discovery of significant energy resources within the region has led to major changes triggered by the rapid development of mining and energy industries to exploit coal, coal seam gas, petroleum resources. The mining and energy sectors are now driving economic growth and change in the Surat Basin, creating rapid growth in population, and increasing demand for services and infrastructure. The 2009 Western Downs population was estimated at 28,563 by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS, 2006; 2010), with a projected growth of 31,936 by 2030. The latest number released by the Western Downs Regional Council shows a 2010 population of 31,897 a number beyond what has been predicted by the ABS, with a projected growth of between 36,800 and 42,100 by 2031 (WDRC, 2011). This represents a significant increase in terms of population, with a predicted growth rate of around 32% over the next 20 years. 3 Map 1: Location of study area within the Surat Basin (DIP, 2010) Challenges In Australia, financial and legislative power primarily exists within the federal and state levels, while local governments are administratively weak and constitutionally unrecognised (Brown and Gray, 2008). Local and regional councils tend to be limited in their operational abilities, constrained by the legal context in which the States have formed. With the exception of some metropolitan areas, local authorities are even still inhibited while trying to function within their legislative boundaries by the disproportionate financial resources which local government have access to. The Surat Basin and its associated regions, although not a formal regional entity, have recently experienced a significant internal administrative change with local government authorities amalgamating into “regional” bodies. In 2008, the local government areas of Dalby, Chinchilla, Tara, Murilla and Wambo were amalgamated under the label of the Western Downs Regional Council. Although the amalgamation process undertaken by the state government has been controversial, it has created a more administratively capable set of organisations which have a greater ability to negotiate partnerships and a larger taxation share 4 (O‟Toole, 2006). However, even with this institutional redesign, regional councils are still struggling to effectively manage growth and demographic change. Change from the cumulative impacts of mining projects are of particular concern, as the financial benefits flow to the state government - whilst problems and associated management demands are largely left to local governments (Brereton et al., 2008). As a consequence of increasing mining activities within the Surat Basin, the Western Downs Regional Council is experiencing a broad spectrum of problems associated with its ability to deal with social, economic and environmental impacts. In terms of environmental/land use issues, the region is facing problems related to environmental deterioration, disposal of saline waters, soil erosion, preservation of farming lands, construction and maintenance of infrastructure and utility services, and rehabilitation once resources have been extracted and mines closed. The Regional Council is also challenged by a number of social and economic issues. Like many other mining regions, the fly-in fly-out workforce employed by mining companies does not effectively contribute to community life, and only brings minimal economic benefits for the region. Fly-in fly-out mining operations usually provide food and lodging accommodation for workers at the mine site. This kind of operation is widely used by mining companies as a means of accommodating workers for remote area mining operations and is viewed as a beneficial alternative to constructing residential towns from scratch. However, these temporary accommodations often exist in isolation of existing local communities. In some cases, they have been associated with a loss of economic and social values affecting existing communities. Furthermore, the leakage of skilled workers to the mines affects