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Mayor Anne Baker who leads one of Australia’s largest resource regions is calling for federal candidates to commit funding to invest in a resource knowledge hub for mining innovation and research in a bid to transform jobs and skills.

The proposed Isaac Resource Excellence Hub will provide mine workers and resource communities with training and access to technology to support them in moving towards the future.

Isaac Regional Council Mayor Anne Baker said $2 million is needed to kick start this worthy project in the heart of the Bowen and Galilee Basins.

“The hub is about providing opportunities for our workforce to embrace the changing landscape of the resource sector and providing a future for mining communities,” Mayor Baker said.

“Politicians on the federal level are looking at climate change and trying to identify ways they can support resource regions like ours.

“By backing the Isaac Resource Excellence Hub, candidates and political parties will show voters they are genuine about their commitment to the nation’s resource communities.

“With over 60 per cent of the workforce employed by the resource sector in the Isaac region, this project is critical to enabling innovation in the mining industry and futureproofing our workforce. We have 22 active metallurgical coal mines on our doorstep and this facility needs to be at the coalface, giving our miners the ability to reskill and meet the changing needs of the global markets.”

Council CEO Jeff Stewart-Harris said the Isaac region is innovative and ready to be a game-changer.

“Our region’s workforce is renowned for its hard work and resilience and that’s why we are calling on all candidates running in the seat of Capricornia and their party alliances in Canberra to back regional Australia,” Mr Stewart-Harris said.

“We know that new technology and digital infrastructure change the way we work, what we don’t know is how the Isaac region’s workforce are going to access the support they need to meet this change.

“In order to protect our futures, there is a need to create improved social, safety and environmental futures for resources communities and a hub in our backyard is the answer.”

Council has committed 8.5ha of high exposure community land as its capital contribution to bring this project to life.

The project is now seeking funding partners to transform the future of resource communities.

Council has also committed a reasonable project planning budget to ensure the necessary initial integrated planning to support the project.

The proposed hub’s scope will explore opportunities to incorporate the following elements:

• The North Bowen Basin mines rescue station and training centre
• A satellite campus of Central Queensland University (with or without other partnering institutions)
• An in-mining-region collaborative extension of the Mackay Resources Centre of Excellence
• A node in the Cooperative Research Centre community
• A mining visitors’ interpretive and cultural heritage centre; and
• Complementary industry, regulatory and community facilities and activities; and tangible respect for First Nations culture to advance the excellence hub vision.

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