Last month, more than nine hundred community members flocked to Anglo American’s Dawson mine for a family and community day.
Families came from Moura, Theodore, Banana, Biloela, Rockhampton, Yeppoon, Gladstone, Bundaberg, Hervey Bay, Brisbane, Sunshine Coast, Townsville and Emerald to see firsthand some of the work being done on site and how the mine is investing in the future.
As well as the general community, the families of the site’s employees came along and proudly showed off the place where they work and the equipment they use every day.
Throughout the day buses ran non-stop, shuffling people to and from Moura as well as taking visitors up to the lookout so they could see the pits and draglines in action. Visitors also had the chance to get up and close to two of the mine’s massive dump trucks, a dozer and other workshop equipment.
The feedback from the community was overwhelmingly positive. Susan Conway who is from Moura but teaches in Biloela said, ‘A big thank you to Anglo for what they have done today. It’s great to see so much support out here with all the employees and contractors and locals turning out. It’s showing the next generation what we have here locally, and we should be very proud of that’.
Dawson Mine General Manager, Matt Stevens, said that it was great to have the opportunity to host a day for both their people and the community.
“You get a bit immune to the size and scale of what we do when you work in it day to day, however seeing some of the kids walk into the workshop and see a 797 for the first time and then actually being able to climb up to it, you really see that wow factor and hear the audible gasps as people walk in. It’s been really, really exciting.
“Having all these young folks come in and with so many proudly wearing hi-vis, it really demonstrated the interest in what we do.”
The hope is that many of these young people who visited the Dawson Mine site at Moura will become coal miners of tomorrow, as operators, engineers, safety officers or environmental specialists.
“We really saw that people were starting to consider a career in mining for the first time when they didn’t previously really understand what we did here,” said Matt.
“It was great to see all the smiling faces and hopefully out of today, we’ve got some coal miners of the future coming through our pipeline!”
Image caption: Margaret Worthington, 8, from Biloela, Elizabeth Goodsall, 10, from Rockhampton, Georgia Goodsall, 8, from Rockhampton, Adam Goodsall, 7, from Rockhampton, Elouise Burchell, 8, from Biloela, Matthew Worthington, 6, from Biloela, Macey Burchell, 7, from Biloela, Zara Burchell, 4, from Biloela.
