QLD mining regions (Bowen & Surat Basins & Gladstone): Willing to help anyone with questions

Hi Keystrategies,

Thanks for your post its great!

The Bowen Basin has two major service centres. To the south is Emerald and to the North is Mackay. Although that is not where all of the miners live they are the two areas that provide major infrastructure and servicing for the mining and rich agricultural activities throughout the Bowen Basin. There are towns like Dysart, Moranbah, Blackwater, etc that get a large concentrated number of mines wanting to rent out houses. This is great for investors as you have discovered with the purchase of your duplex, you receive such high ROI in way of rents and potential capital growth.

Should the mines impose a 100km radius for workers this would actually have the opposite effect on Emerald than you are thinking. A large number of people that work in the mines in the south of the Bowen Basin live in Rockhampton and Yeppon. This would mean that they would have to move. If this is implemented by some mines, it is not an overall mining industry rule, it will be imposed by certain mines and not all. The mines at alpha for instance wouldnt, or should i say couldnt, impose such regulations as this would mean they would all have to live in Alpha which is impossible due to no infrastructure etc.

As a part of mining recruitment, and as much higher demand appears for skilled employees, many mining companies must offer lifestyle for their workers to encourage longevity. It is common knowledge that the mines do not expect to retain employees on a long term basis when housing them in places with limited infrastructure and lifestyle opportunities.

There are a number of motels in Emerald, many of which are not that old, the demand comes from a number of fly in fly out workforce, however this is quite often due to the service and contracting industries that are based there. As the regional hub for the south of the Bowen basin it also attracts many business visitors which occupy a large percentage of the accommodation.

Emerald has significantly more infrastructure than Blackwater and always will. The international coal centre is basically and information and tour centre for visitors to the area. It was placed there as Blackwater is considered to be the coal mining capital of Australia due to the number of mines around it. Despite this being the case over the last decade at least, Emerald has continued to attract more people, more businesses, more mine offices and more infrastructure than Blackwater. In fact the cafe that opened up at the visitor centre had closed down for a while.

During the last GFC Emerald outshone all of these areas in regards to real estate. Prices did not fall, rents were secure and reasonably steady, and the town continued to prosper during such dire times while other regional centres failed to perform to the level that Emerald did as mines cut funding etc for short periods of time and re-structured. What Emerald positions itself as, is a long term, secure investment which also achieves reasonable rents and good solid capital growth as a large percentage of the population is owner occupiers, hence the lifestyle opportunities and the ability to sustain a family model in this area. If you are looking to hold a property for 10+ years, you would obviously be looking for long term growth and security as a property investor. The likes of Bunnings Warehouse/wesfarmers group, Gerry Harvey, centro, woolworths all seem to be of the same mindset here as they look to secure a presence/and or a larger market share in Emerald. Families move to Emerald for long term employment, education & lifestyle. With a choice of schools, tafes and the Central QLD university positioned in Emerald it provides a family with the ability to raise their children in the region and also provides the infrastructure for the kids to further their education and or employment with a wide array of employment opportunities, not just mining. Many other regional towns cannot offer this so they will continue to be subject to such a transient population. I believe that investing in regional QLD is no just about trying to achieve the highest rent possible, it is the longevity and continued capital growth that many investors also look for.

In regards to chinchilla area, excuse my ignorance on it, which mega-mines were you referring to? there is the wandoan coal project which has the ability to produce a large amount of export coal, I wasn’t aware of other mines that had this export capacity.

I am keen to hear your thoughts on all of this.

Hi,

At a glance, Nebo’s population declined between 2001 and 2006 by 51%! poor lifestyle opportunities maybe? its median sales price is rising however this is mainly due to a small amount of sales (only three recorded so far this year). I Dont think the rail project will cause the place to “boom” however it could make for good returns with rent.Out of all the companies in regional QLD, the rail companies have always looked for the cheaper accommodation. This isn’t always the case, however there budgets are a lot tighter than the mining companies. It is fairly close to Mackay, I know where I would live if I was only 1hr away from Mackay. I don’t see overflow going from Moranbah to Nebo but I could be wrong.

The population decline worries me, it takes a long time and careful government and citizen planning for regional cities to get to the level of attracting people and businesses long term. for every 1 job directly created within a coal/mining company, approximately 2 indirect jobs are created. If they dont get created in the same area/region than you loose out on the long term compounding population growth effect.