The Australian tells of struggles for Central West town

SYDNEY, Australia - Lithgow was depicted as being in depression, both economically and mentally in a news story that went national last week. “As reliance on fossil fuels wanes in favour of renewable energy, residents are picking their way through a depression that afflicts the town economically and its people mentally, The Australian newspaper said in its article published on Thursday.

Electrician Ben Smith (pictured with his wife Jessica and kids Molly, Audrey, & Leo at their Wallerawang home) has witnessed the fall of a once-mighty industry. When he was a kid, Smith told the newspaper everyone seemed to fnd work, there were four or five more mines than there are now and the jail was just being built. But so many mines have closed, he says, and there’s been little to no jobs growth.

Ben, who works at the Springvale mine, told the national newspaper the number of apprenticeships on offer had dwindled from hundreds to just six this year.

“There’s definitely not a great deal of opportunity for the kids,” said Mr Smith, who worries for the future of his three young children. “We’re a really close-knit family. I don’t want them to be forced to move away to find work.’’

Lithgow has one of the highest youth unemployment rates in the country and youth suicide is a serious issue.

In the eight months to February, Lithgow was rocked by eight suicides, the victims aged between 22 and 35. All but one were male, said The Australian report.

Mayor Stephen Lesslie, in a recent submission to the New South Wales parliamentary inquiry into the prevention of youth suicide, cited a lack of mental health services, high unemployment, the struggling coal industry and an absence of mental health education in schools.

“Our community is deeply affected by the rising levels of suicide but unsure of how to best respond,” he wrote in the submission. “There is no Headspace service providing early intervention mental health services for young people in Lithgow, with the nearest located in Bathurst (45 minutes away by car) and Penrith (1.5 hours away by car).”

Last week, on R U OK? Day, the Springvale mine introduced the Mates In Mining program aimed at giving miners the skills to help identify mental health problems and suicidal tendencies in their workmates. “We’ve seen a lot of success with that program and there are a lot of similarities between construction and mining,” Andrew McMahon, a former Mineral Councils employee who runs the charity, told The Australian.

Following are the comments The Australian article attracted (unedited):

Roderick

Will someone tell the state government that the letters N.S.W. does not stand for Newcastle, Sydney and Wollongong.

They stand for New South Wales. ALL of New South Wales.

Peter

You're being replaced by migrants and the emerging post-industrial world and economies. The world doesn't need men unless they're the Self-identifying type. To rub it in they'll remind you about your 'privilege', how it's all 'your' fault and how 'your' history is racist, colonialist, homophobic and misogynistic. You'll be told you're being enriched culturally and your jobs need to go to save the world. Japan and Germany and India and China get to have coal mines and coal fires power stations, but you don't.

Welcome to the future.

Peter

Lithgow, typical of regional Australia. All of the businesses have closed, all Government jobs taken to Sydney and everything controlled from Sydney. Progressive people leave and replaced by unemployed and unemployable people from Sydney, who come for the cheaper real estate prices. Only industry Macquarie Street will allow are jails. Towns are trashed and drug use resulting in lawlessness and mental health issues take over the town. This is 21st century economic policy for rural Australia.

Martyn

@Peter Not strictly true, Bathurst is booming but the Greens and Labor want to destroy country economies because they don't want any mining. What the Greens are doing to Lithgow is appalling. they have no regard for people, they just want to turn everything back to the stone age but how are their Electric cars going to be charged? Coal !.

Peter

@Peter Unfortunately, Labor, the unions and the Labor controlled council have a lot to do with the run down of Lithgow. High labour costs killed the pottery and brick works. The Small Arms factory closed due to poor management and lack of innovation on top of high labour cost due unionpower. Closure of the coal mines was due to high labour costs as well lack of innovatoon and lack of labour flexiblity due to unions. The mines were and still are overmanned. Lack of labour flexiblity with regards to automation ultimately results in closure. That is what has happened to the car industry. The Wallerawang power station closed before it needed to due to poor labour practise on top of stupid energy policy. It was the Labor government that closed it. Now Mt. Piper PS near Portland is threatened with closure due to greens and pathetic government

Deborah

@Peter I think you have summed it up perfectly Peter- that is what is happening all over rural and regional Australia and at the same time the cities are choking with too many people.

Philip

The coal miners know who to blame , Labor and their greens allies but they keep electing Labor in the Lithgow area. Go figure.

John

@Philip More welfare recipients = more labor voters.

Russell

But can't they just transfer their jobs to Eco tourism or all those jobs that renewable energy creates? Someone has to point out where the koalas are or wash the solar panels and grease the windmills. That's what the Greens are saying in the Hunter Valley. No coal no future.

Linda

@Russell Tourism especially via visiting cruise ships is indeed being promoted as a viable alternative to coal in the Hunter. I am sure that you won't be surprised, though, to hear that the greens and fellow anti coal protesters actually caused the Port of Newcastle to be closed by blockade and consequently the diversion of a cruise ship which had local tours booked. There is no sanity in their operations.

Owen

@Linda @Russell You actually mention Greens and sanity inth same breath! That really takes some grit and a wide imagination!

Linda

Just collateral damage to the greens and fellow travellers.

R.Glenn

Go and chat to a greenie

Richard

Climate change BS is destroying our economy, jobs and future.

Anne

Their Union has done so much for them--- not.

Deborah

@Anne When the Courts allow a group of fools like 4Nature to close coal mines that have been operating for decades then they are fighting a losing battle.

Brasso

@Anne Yep, they'll keep taking your dues right until you apply for the dole.

Russell

@Brasso @Anne They still ask you to pay you Union dues even if you lose your job.

mary

It is people like those in communities such as Lithgow that make my blood boil. Their plight reminds me, as if I could ever forget, that the ideologues who advocate for the closure of coal mines, whether they be politicians, environmentalists or simply superannuated idealists are all cozily and permanently nestled in well paid taxpayer funded jobs or pensions and care not a jot for people such as Ben Smith and his family and others exactly like them who have to graft for a living. Mental health programs? Only for the over nurtured delicate natures of the inner city elites. Any sort of empathy or consideration? Not a skerrick, unless you are 'gender challenged', or possessed of some currently favoured minority status.

graham

@mary, On the money, well said.

Patrick

@Mary Perfectly said. You can see why the French Revolution occurred. The silent majority are suffering due to political weakness, self-interest, incessant bickering and incredible stupidity leaving thousands of people adfrift in a sea of worry and fear. The politicians only try to appease the perceived urban elites.

Mary

@mary Substitute Blackwater in Central Queensland. Add Dysart, Tieri and Middlemount. All of these towns wrecked by FIFO workforces living on 5 star accommodation camps. People who purchased houses now left with houses which have no buyers plus debtbexceeding6 equity. No answers from anyone.

Pamela

And still the major parties pursue the ideology of climate change/ global warming myth. We have abundant reserves of coal which should translate into jobs in rural areas. Stop listening to the UN and the EU, both basket cases. This is about Australia and Australians. All politicians need to get a backbone and stand up for their electorates or get out of office and let somebody else have a go!

Paddy

The Greens would love this story, bet they'll be sharing it all over Fairfax sites and having a good chuckle.

mary

Yes, it will be the comedy of the week for them. I can see SHY now laughing her head off as she watches the whales, glass of Chardonnay in hand, with a lemonade, of course, for her daughter.

mary

Perhaps it should be organic pomegranate juice not lemonade.

PR

These are blue collar workers. The Left wing Elite has disavowed them. Even there Unions no longer care for the future of these mines. The wets in the Liberal Party don't support them. No wonder they are depressed.

Meanwhile, the country now has the most expensive power in the world and it's getting unreliable.

Murray

@PR It is truly amazing the extent to which the ALP has removed itself from its grass roots. Electricity Bill should be marching in the streets of Lithgow with his CFMEU mates, and promising dire retribution on the Greens if they don't develop some sort of loyalty for Australia and Australians, for today, not some mythical date in the future when AGW may or may not affect our great grandchildren.

Ted

Let me guess - most of those suffering now voted Labor - so have no reasons to complain.

Talk to your union mates but I doubt they care much...never did..

Ted

Miner in deep depression killing themselves but all we hear is suffering of gays due to the No supporters in SSM plebiscite.

It just show how this country has been screwed up by the stupidity of Turnbull gang and their leftie mates.

graham

@Ted

'No Coal Joel' and Gillard Rudd not bringing in SSM when they had the chance and putting in carbon tax to hamstring coal mining.

Tony cleaned up the mess, which was why 'Lefty Turnbull' usurped the PMs position to put OZ back on the road to destruction.

See the ships lined up off Newcastle taking OZ coal to the world, but we can't use it, makes sense, not.

Lan

@Ted You can't blame Turnbull for that. The labor and green are more left than him

mary

An excellent analogy, Ted. The terrible 'mental anguish' of the . LBTGUXYZ minority because they can't have their way compared to that of the people in rural and regional communities who cannot put food on the table for their families or feel assured that their children have some sort of a future. What an incredibly stupid nation we are.

Anne

Not much more. 42% isn't exactly a gigantic dip under the 50% " renewables" green nightmare.

GD

@Ted

"Miner in deep depression killing themselves but all we hear is suffering of gays due to the No supporters in SSM plebiscite."

Spot on, Ted!

maree

Here in the Hunter, mining has been the mainstay since the 1800s. Almost every family has a connection.

Our son does FIFO all over Australia , mostly NT and WA andSA, plus PNG and Indonesia, because the Hunter is pretty much a closed shop, like Lithgow.

Locals don't like opening up their cushy places to contractors who will work harder.

graham

@maree

maree, and you have 'No Coal Joel' pandering to the Greens.

Murray

@maree "Closed shop" brings to mind the worst form of militant unionism. Union members being the last men standing in an industry they have helped kill.