Sammendrag
In 2010, a proposal to build the ‘Carmichael Coal Mine and Rail Project’ in the Galilee Basin in Queensland Australia, was submitted by the Indian mining company Adani Mining Pty Ltd. This thesis is a study of how this proposal has affected the city of Mackay. Between 2003 and 2011, Australia was in their fifth and largest coal boom to date, and Mackay was affected greatly in terms of migration to the city and economic growth. Subsequently, when the bust came, Mackay was also one of the cities that were hit the hardest. The Carmichael coalmine brings hope for many in Mackay, for the unemployed and those who see economic growth as a predicament for the city’s survival. However, seven years after the proposal was submitted, no construction has yet been made. The resistance towards the mine has been great, and due to litigation put forward by several environmental groups, the mine has been stuck in court. Environmental groups from all over the nation are afraid that if the mine opens, the Great Barrier Reef will suffer. Mackay is in a cooled down state, and stands between two proposed futures: One promises a return of the state the city was in during the boom, the other is a more uncertain future, a future without coal. With two of the most avid proponents and opponents of the mine located in Mackay, the city can be seen as the epicentre of what has become a dispute over the Carmichael coalmine. I study how the people of Mackay see their own situation, how Mackay’s past is facilitated to fit how they see the present, and whatever future they want for Mackay. Furthermore, I study the two opposing actors’ discursive strategies to propagate their view of the Carmichael coalmine, as well as people’s reactions to these. Lastly, I connect the dispute with Australia’s nation narrative, of how the concept of egalitarianism and different views of the past can shed light on what has become a polarised dispute.