Queensland’s Darling Downs is renowned for its black fertile soil plains, and has long been regarded one of the Sunshine State’s prime farming assets.
Beneath this land, however, lies rich deposits of coal, which has also brought mining to the region, driving development and creating jobs.
Now, the small town of Acland, as well as neighbouring Oakey stand divided over the pending expansion of the New Hope mine.
As the Queensland State Government reviews the approval process, SBS Insight spoke to leading economic forecaster, Phillip Ruthven, regarding the tussle between farming and mining.
Ruthven says residents and politicians need to "face realities" about the use of land in Australia, and that on “pure economic terms, there’s absolutely no debate.”
"Agriculture is a very tiny, tiny industry in Australia, it's only 2% of the entire economy.”
Ruthven said farmers need to wise up, and realise the market will dictate investment and growth, rather than history or emotion.
“Get real for goodness sake, we're part of the Asia Pacific, we're not some little introverted country which we were allowed to be for the last 200 years.”
Dairy farmer Noel Wieck has been farming the Acland region for 55 years, and says there is plenty at stake.
“He's so out of touch with reality as far as the moral issues involved here. We are probably three generations from the extinction of the human race if we don't get on top of climate change… the mine is contributing to this problem," Wieck said.
Local cattle farmer Sid Plant says he too will fight for the future of farming.
“I'll do whatever I've got to do to keep farming, for my family to be able to keep farming. I want to set my family up so they can survive.”
Ruthven says agriculture won’t fade altogether, but neither will mining in the short term.
“Coal is something we don’t like really… (but) we can’t just turn it off today because we think it’s bad.”
“We've got at least another thirteen years of very strong (mining) growth just to supply Asia Pacific with what it wants. So we're going to have to make the best of that before we can even look at agriculture as a big, faster growing industry than it's been.”
This week, Insight looks at what happens when mining comes to a farming community. Catch Insight at 8.30PM on Tuesday on SBS or live stream at www.sbs.com.au/insight/live
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