The mining industry in Queensland, Australia : some regional development issues

Mining boom has created various impacts in the regions of Queensland, Australia. However, it is not clear how to increase positive impacts from mining within the regions. Mining industry may be the dominant industry in the local community and in the region in terms of providing local employment and generating income; it does not necessarily have direct linkages to the local economy and therefore does not contribute fully to diversified sustainable development of the local community or the region. This paper discusses the dependency of mining communities on the resource industry. The regional economic diversity is identified using the input–output analysis. This paper attempts to identify the key sectors, backward and forward linkages within three regions in Queensland: Fitzroy, South West and Darling Downs Statistical Divisions in order to analyse which industries in each region are needed to be encouraged to increase their connections with the mining industry to induce higher retention of benefits from mining boom and reduce regions dependence on mining.