Wonthaggi people power moves mine impasse

EVEN before more than 200 people turned out on a cold, rainy night for a public meeting about the future of Wonthaggi’s State Coal Mine on Wednesday, they’d had a win.

As they were told at the meeting by Bass MP Jordan Crugnale, the representatives of the Friends of the State Coal Mine, including president Steve Harrop and volunteer John Duscher, will at last get their meeting with Parks Victoria hierarchy.

Previously they haven’t been able to get to first base with their twin concerns about the delayed reopening of the mine café and the resumption of underground mine tours, shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to Ms Crugnale, she has been able to organise a briefing for the ‘Friends’ representatives with the District Manager at Parks Victoria (Greater Melbourne Area), Victoria Purdue, who will be able to address the group’s concerns.

And she made a firm commitment to keeping the State Coal Mine open and assisting it to reach its full potential.

“I think we’re all here today to bring out the best in that site and keep it going and I’m absolutely committed to doing what I can to keep that site open and to be able to realise the potential of the site as well,” Ms Crugnale said.

But make no mistake, the sometimes angry, always passionate crowd, which included legendary local coal miners including Lou Storti, Reg Wilson, Don Thompson, Frank Cimino and Aldo Sartori; want action.

At the end of the meeting they voted unanimously for the immediate reopening of the coal mine café and the reinstatement of underground mine tours.

And they’ve urged Ms Crugnale to get the new Minister for the Environment, Ingrid Stitt, to visit the mine and other relevant ministers including the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Major Events Steve Dimopoulos and the Minister for Regional Development, which shouldn’t be too hard as Minister Harriet Shing represents this region as the Member for Eastern Victoria.

The meeting started off in fiery fashion when a heckler was asked to tone down his comments after calling on those addressing the future of the mine to “tell the [expletive] truth”. He ultimately made a racket outside the reception room of the Wonthaggi Workmen’s Club on his way out.

But it was enough to put the organisers of the meeting on their toes.

“This meeting tonight, about the future of the State Coal Mine, reminds me of that song “You Don’t Know What You’ve Got Until its Gone”, said John Duscher.

“But we haven’t been sitting on our hands.”

President of the Friends, Steve Harrop, said the group which represented between 100 and 120 volunteers at the State Coal Mine was at a complete loss to say what was planned for the site and when the café and underground tours might reopen.

Ms Crugnale pledged her commitment to keeping the mine open and also to helping it reach its full potential but short of saying the department was preparing a tender document for the leasing of the café, she couldn’t say when the either the café would open or mine tours resume.

“The drift car (used to carry visitors down the mine) is being investigated but there appears to be more damage than first thought. There is also the issue of higher compliance standards following the Dreamworld incident.”

Ms Crugnale said she couldn’t say when the mine tours might recommence but noted that work was being done on the feasibility of walking tours underground until suitable rolling stock was available.

There after followed a lively round of statements and questions from the floor of the meeting during which time it was clear there is wide and passionate support for the operation of the State Coal Mine.

Some in local industry offered technical assistance repairing the underground transportation.

Others said signs and general promotion of the mine attraction, including to local people, was poor.

There were comments about getting more activity into the area, and more community groups, beyond users such as the theatre and plant propagation group, using the 127-acre site.

Others said they felt there was a lack of understanding within government of the role the Wonthaggi coal mines played in the industrialisation of the state, and the fact that it was the only underground coal mine attraction of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere.

After there had been an hour or more of comments and questions, one of the organisers, John Duscher, said the fact remained that experienced and skilled volunteers were being lost to the mine while obvious action to reopen the café and resume the mine tours was being allowed to drag on.

“Time is of the essence,” he said.

“We need two things to happen and we need them to happen immediately; the reopening of the café and the resumption of underground tours.

“The café has been a popular meeting place, for locals and visitors alike, but the reopening of the underground tours is the key.

“We have been talking about master planning up there for years. We can talk about that later but we need some leadership from Parks Victoria in getting these two things done.

“What I’m worried about is the lack of duty of care. If you are running a service and something isn’t working, you get it fixed, simple as that.

“But what I’m really concerned about is losing our volunteers while all this is going on,” he said.

“It went down during COVID and that’s what we are meeting about tonight. Getting it going again.”

The meeting made it clear however, that it wasn’t critical of the local Parks Victoria staff who were doing what they could with limited resources, it was an issue of a lack of direction, possibly a lack of funding from senior management and ultimately the government.

Cr Brett Tessari was the only Bass Coast Shire Councillor in attendance but he said the council was fully committed to the future of the mine and its importance to Wonthaggi and the local region.

“He said it was important for the community to come up with a strategy for getting the desired action at the mine, and once decided the community needed to “stick together” to achieve their goals.

The vote calling for the café and underground tours to immediately resume came right at the end of the meeting and with it, came the clear message about how important the State Coal Mine is to the spirit of the town and also to its future as a major regional centre.