I believe there are opportunities in towns like Jerilderie near the oalkands mine where house prices are still cheap to make a buck-----see my posts in property forum.
Academic warns to plan for mine boom By Melissa Maddison
Posted Thu Feb 25, 2010 9:00am AEDT
A central Queensland social researcher says forecasts that the current mining boom will last another 20 years should serve as a wake-up call for governments.
Reserve Bank deputy governor Rick Battellino says the industrialisation of India and China could easily maintain high mining growth in Australia for the next two decades.
CQUniversity Professor John Rolfe says governments and communities were largely unprepared for previous booms.
"One of the problems that governments and communities face is the boom-bust cycle," Professor Rolfe said.
"That means that they are reluctant to invest in housing and infrastructure because they think it's only going to be three to five years.
"The evidence in front of us is that this is going to be a generation, so it means it's much more worthwhile to invest in communities and provide the necessary services there."
Professor Rolfe says the government and mining industry need to look at the broader effects of major mining projects.
He says the current process of environmental impact statements (EIS) for developments is flawed.
Professor Rolfe says it only looks at the impact on the towns that are geographically close to the projects.
"But in fact almost all of their impacts are on the big regional centres where the people are living, so government planning and what the companies have to look at are still very focussed only on the local areas," he said.
"There's very little attention really on the broader regional impacts."
CWK Price at posting:
31.3¢ Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held
