Sign Up
..... Australian Property Network. It's All About Property!
Categories

Posted: 2024-06-26 00:50:20

Michael Harding sloshes across the yard of his Esperance depot in drizzling winter rain.

The owner of Freight Lines Group, which runs 140 trucks across the state, is among the businesses and workers on WA's southern coast dealt a double blow in the past few months.

First was news the Ravensthorpe Nickel Operation was closing for the third time in 15 years.

"We do all their general freight," he said.

"So yeah, that's impacted our Ravensthorpe depot operations."

He stands near a truck and wears a grey jumper

Michael Harding is among the suppliers who could be impacted by the Koolyanobbing closure. (ABC Esperance: Emily Smith)

Then last week, Mineral Resources announced its Koolyanobbing iron ore mine, almost 600 kilometres north, would also be shutting its gates by year's end.

"That has a massive flow on in town, to the shops, to the sporting clubs, to the pubs, to basically everything," Mr Harding said.

"We potentially lose people out of town."

Mineral Resources has said the 1,000 direct employees impacted by the closure would be redeployed across its other mine sites.

In Southern Cross, the town closest to the site, most residents expected the impacts to be minimal.

"Because they don't patronise the local businesses very much," Yilgarn Shire deputy president Bryan Close said.

He stands by a pink building

Bryan Close does not expect the closure to impact Southern Cross. (ABC Goldfields: Giulia Bertoglio)

But it was a different story in Esperance, where the mine's iron ore made up more than half the total export business from the port, which employed about 160 people. 

Southern Ports chief executive Keith Wilks said he was "extremely disappointed" by the news.

View More
  • 0 Comment(s)
Captcha Challenge
Reload Image
Type in the verification code above