Insight 7: The Mining Industry
Australia is sometimes called ‘the lucky country’. One reason for this is that it has great mineral wealth beneath its soils, and, historically, this has benefited Australia’s economy very much. Mining is still one of the primary industries, but the famous ‘gold rushes’ are long past, and many old ‘mining’ towns are now a shadow of their former selves.
There are still signs of those earlier days, and a few of the former mining towns have opened their old mines are tourists attractions, (right) allowing an insight into those times.
Sometimes, when driving around, you see emotive sights of these past activities. The picture on the left shows an old derelict building which was once part of a coal-mining operation. In the 1960s, the coal eventually proved too expensive to mine, and everything closed. This building remains – but for how long?