Nana Flint
Right. Here's the answer to my favourite question. You are. The taxpayer is cleaning this one up.
On the record: liquidators for Bowen Coking Coal handed back the lease on the Bluff mine near Blackwater. It's now an abandoned mine, managed by the Queensland government. The estimated rehab bill is about $12.25 million, for roughly five hundred hectares of bare ground.
Claire Gronow from Lock the Gate says that seems a little low, given the site hasn't been actively managed for a year or two.
The lease was granted in 2016 for fifteen years. Mining started in 2019, and two owners went into administration along the way. My two bob: the mine didn't go its full life, and the paperwork never seems to plan for that. Where was the money for this day kept?
Source: ABC News, 2026-09-24
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