The cost of this cyclone, the largest since Yasi in 2011, is yet to be tallied, but it will certainly be in the billions of dollars and will affect coal production, tourism, and agriculture for a great swathe of Queensland south of Townsville.
BHP Billiton won’t reveal the dent on coal production until its next quarterly report and other Bowen Basin miners such as Stanmore Coal are hopeful they will be able to kick start production at the end of this week. However, given the dire flooding of roads and other transport and logistic problems around Moranbah, Mackay and Emerald this may take longer than they think.
While the financial cost of this catastrophe will be staggering and may take months if not years to rectify, the human cost and the disruption to livelihoods is also great, as Mother Nature has wreaked havoc randomly and without mercy.
At this point, many are scared, dazed, and overcome by the enormity of the damage.
Fortunately, Hogsback can see some silver linings, even in such massive clouds.
There is going to be an almighty clean up in the wake of the wind, rain, floods and already all segments of the population are lending a hand, offering shelter, transporting food stuffs and helping with provisions and cleaning.
This is the point where the great Aussie spirit kicks in and gets on with the job. Past grievances and gripes are forgotten – whether they be about the state of the Great Barrier Reef, Adani’s proposed Carmichael coal and infrastructure project and global warming.
There is a serious job to do and all hands are on deck.
You will see coal miners rubbing shoulders with sugar cane farmers, army reservists, townies, tourism operators, mechanics and school mums all focused on getting their communities in a state of functionality again.
The Central Queensland communities have been through this before in 2011 so they know what is expected of them.
Even an ugly coal miner won’t seem so bad when he offers to lend his ute and some elbow grease in a clean-up.
At a mine site level, open cut operations know they have a lot of pumping ahead of them but that is alright.
The mines in the Bowen Basin know the drill and they also know that there will be inevitably times around the cyclone season when production will be disrupted.
The Bowen Basin is one of the most productive coking coal provinces in the world. When the Bowen Basin sneezes, or even gets a bit damp, the coking coal price can go stratospheric.
We saw this happen in 2011 and 2012 when coking coal was the hottest commodity in town.
While the local coal industry is still gearing up after four hard years of a downturn, any help that it can get on the pricing front – from nature or otherwise – is going to be welcome.
Hogsback hopes Central Queensland communities and industries can get together and prosper again and lead the rest of the nation as examples of true resilience.
