Access Economics’ March quarter Investment Monitor shows the value of definite investment projects is now some $A153 billion, an impressive lift of 20% over the past year. There is also a large amount of investment in the pipeline.

“But there are signs that Australia's investment boom is losing traction. It is becoming narrowly focused on Queensland and Western Australia, with investment growth having already slowed in the rest of the country in aggregate,” Access Economics said.

“And an important further concern is that the planning pipeline is not being replenished enough to sustain this investment boom beyond the short term.”

Part of the slowdown can be attributed to the high Australian dollar; however, this seems to have had little effect on the resources sector.

“The high [Australian dollar] has not yet affected investment in the mining sector, and nor would we expect it to unless commodity prices weaken and the [Australian dollar] doesn’t,” Access Economics said.

Coal got a special mention in the economic consultancy’s report: “Coal mining, which saw a huge ramp-up in investment as prices boomed. However, there are risks with coal prices now moderating, as well as ongoing bottlenecks at ports and greenhouse concerns.”

Access Economics said strong coal prices were likely to continue as the global economy continued to grow and the number of coal-fired power stations in Asia increased.

The consultancy also warned that if clean coal technologies were unable to be fully implemented in the future, climate change would threaten the longer-term viability of the industry.