Western Australia's coal mining heartland is facing an uncertain transition as the Cook government proposes converting Collie into a defence manufacturing hub, even as workers confront mass redundancies and a widening wage gap between their current jobs and the proposed alternative. The plan, announced by Premier Roger Cook at the Indian Ocean Defence and Security Conference, comes as the region braces for the shutdown of coal mines and power stations four years away, leaving a workforce that has sustained the area for more than a century without clear pathways to comparable employment.
A Community in Transition
Collie, located about 200 kilometres south of Perth, has been the heart of coal mining and power production in Western Australia for more than a century. The Cook government is committed to shutting down the state's coal mines and power stations by the end of the decade. Premier Coal is already cutting jobs because it has a surplus of coal and no-one to sell it to, while Griffin Coal receives millions in taxpayer subsidies each year to keep the coal flowing. The local workforce is facing mass redundancies and being forced to use up personal leave during company-enforced shutdowns.
Defence Industry Minister Paul Papalia said the weapons hub would be "like a Silicon Valley" for the local defence industry, and the government was not limiting the plan to missiles but could include "vehicles," "satellites," "uniforms" or "first aid kits." Cook said, "I'm a jobs dealer, I'm about establishing jobs."
The Wage Reality
The economic challenge facing workers is stark. The average mine worker earns $2,761 a week, according to the latest available ABS figures, compared with $1,500 in manufacturing. Locals who spoke to the ABC said lucrative FIFO work in the Pilbara or Goldfields seemed more likely than a local job in another sector. John Spoehr, a former director of the Australian Industrial Transformation Institute, said switching a coal-mining workforce to defence manufacturing would be challenging. He said, "The process of skill upgrade would be long and difficult," and added, "You're talking about people with engineering degrees, electronics degrees, master's and PhDs. That sort of investment would have to be made very soon, or would have needed to be done in the past."
Funding Questions and Past Promises
The WA government said it would not contribute any money itself to the defence hub and would only open up the land for development. The federal government, which is all-in on AUKUS, congratulated the Cook government for its forward-thinking but said it would be up to Western Australia to fund it. The idea follows a pattern of big proposals for Collie. Early last year, Collie was one of seven locations across Australia put forward to house a Small Modular Nuclear Reactor under a future Dutton Liberal government. The then-opposition leader promised "thousands of jobs," and the town's federal MP, Rick Wilson, said the plan would be transformative and help it transition to a clean energy future.
Collie Shire president Ian Miffling said of Peter Dutton's pitch last year, "There were questions around safety, waste management and the water issues," and "There were no definitive answers on that." Miffling said of the defence hub proposal, "I wouldn't get too excited about whether it's missiles or hand grenades, it's … about all sorts of equipment," and "It's all very broad at this stage." Local Labor MP Jodie Hanns said, "We don't know which industries are going to put their hands up, and which industries might express an interest in Collie."
Current Transition Efforts
The government's "just transition" plans for Collie have included millions in funding, local tourism attractions such as Guido Van Helten's enormous mural at Wellington Dam, smaller grants for individual businesses and local programs, and the installation of four "big batteries" to modernise energy storage capacity. The article said those efforts had generated an estimated 140 jobs so far. Collie resident Chris Martin said, "We're staring down the barrel of the death of coal now, so the town really has to reinvent itself," and added, "Tourism is a part of that, but the town needs more than that to survive." The Cook government says the 2030 exit from coal is set in stone, despite questions from experts and industry, while many in the community still believe the working life of the coal mines and the Bluewaters and Muja power stations will be extended.
Why This Matters:
The proposal to transform Collie into a defence manufacturing hub highlights the profound challenges facing workers and communities in the energy transition. With coal workers earning nearly double the manufacturing sector average and facing a skills gap that experts say would require years of investment to bridge, the question of who bears the cost of industrial transformation remains unanswered. The state government's decision not to contribute funding, combined with the federal government's position that Western Australia must finance the hub itself, leaves workers facing an uncertain future with limited public investment in retraining or wage protection. For a community that has powered Western Australia for generations, the gap between transition rhetoric and concrete support for affected workers and their families represents a test of whether the shift away from fossil fuels will be equitable or leave entire communities behind.