I had heard that there were some locals with a good work ethic...

I had heard that there were some locals with a good work ethic and some highly skilled people from other nearby mines in the early days, but they burnt through them fairly quickly, because the company and management were so busy "fighting fires" on the OHS, regulatory, financial and operational side they could never retain or train/upskill the good people they did have. By then they were convinced that highly skilled engineers, surveyors, geologists, metallurgists and mine & mill operators would be languishing around Cloncurry ready to be employed, apparently (and hilariously) the decision came from head office at the Gold Coast that Cairns, Townsville and Brisbane people were "too far away" to be considered for employment despite these towns being the source of labour for every other base metal mine in NW QLD.