In the historic mining town of Muswellbrook, on the Hunter river in northern New South Wales, mining might soon be history. BHP and Glencore, for decades the town’s major employers, have announced that they will wind down two enormous pits in the area within the next five years. Coal is becoming so expensive to get out of the ground that it is no longer profitable. 

Jeff Drayton, who spent two decades in the mines and is now the town’s mayor as an independent, says the closure of the Mount Arthur and Mangoola pits will result in 12,000 job losses. That would have a huge impact on Muswellbrook, which has just 17,000 residents.

“Jobs will be lost, but it’s much bigger than that,” he says, pointing out that miners’ income goes straight into the community. “The car yards, the pubs and clubs. The economy in Muswellbrook is really exaggerated by those coal mining wages.”