The warning comes from civic and conservation chiefs who fear that the town’s reliance will lead to the local economy’s downfall.
The town, 200km southeast of Perth, has a population of 7000 but a massive 75% of the town economy comes from the mining of coal, or the burning of it at the nearby power station.
Mounting pressure from the WA government to shift from coal to cleaner energy sources could see a huge proportion of Collie people out of work.
Local coal companies Griffin Coal and Premier Coal have already taken the axe to a considerable amount of jobs in the area.
More jobs are likely to go since the federal government axed $450 million in funding that was vital to Premier’s investment in clean coal technology.
Other sectors are feeling the pinch since the decline in coal began. Collie’s real estate sector has plummeted, with house prices falling flat as well as general spending at record lows.
The health of residents is also under scrutiny.
A report by the federal environmental department said that levels of arsenic and fine-level pollution had never been higher, with doctors saying residents were already feeling the effects.
The Collie Basin is believed to hold 760 million tonnes of reserves, enough to last 100 years at current extraction rates, according to the Department of Mines.
Despite Griffin planning to increase exports from Bunbury Port by 15Mt a year, residents agree that something needs to be done to ensure a steady economy for the future.
Tourism is the likely market that Collie will be looking to tap into, as it attempts to lure visitors from the coastal town of Bunbury.
In stark contrast, there are also plans in place to increase the amount of heavy industry in the area as demand for industrial land grows due to a lack of available space in Perth’s metropolitan area.
Greens Senator Scott Ludlum has said that Collie could benefit from its pre-existing infrastructure to become a renewable-energy generation hub.
With coal reserves not likely to run out soon, discussions are slowly getting underway as to Collie’s post-coal future.
As one of the state’s largest energy producers, the shift from coal in Collie will have ramifications across the state.
