The Greens are asking the question: what do our mining towns look like in 2050 and how can we be better prepared? The resources boom brought enormous profits to the main players and was partly responsible for insulating Australia through the worst of last year's global economic turmoil. However, with indicators of a resurgent mining boom, it is essential we learn from the recent past._x000D_
The last boom saw housing stress at levels unseen in the big cities, health services strained to breaking point, and Aboriginal poverty side by side with some of the most lucrative industrial precincts in the country._x000D_
Much of the wealth still flies right over the heads of regional communities as fly-in, fly-out operations proliferate._x000D_
Behind these local stresses, resources booms rely on the stripping of non-renewable resources which will eventually run out, and the unique environment of the north-west is taking a battering._x000D_
Communities of the north-west have a perilously narrow economic base which must be broadened if townships of the Pilbara and Goldfields are to avoid the fate of places such as Goldsworthy and Wittenoom. Unless this is informed by local communities, decisions will be made in capital cities thousands of kilometres away by people largely ignorant of the unique conditions prevailing in regional Western Australia._x000D_
Global climate change negotiations and oil depletion will heavily penalise emissions-intensive economies like Australia which fail to keep up as the world moves to a low-carbon environment._x000D_
This is an ABSTRACT ONLY no paper was prepared for this presentation._x000D_
FORMAL CITATION:Ludlam, S, 2010. What does this place look like in 2050? in Proceedings Sustainable Mining 2010, p 307 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).