Prawn fishermen in northern Queensland say they don’t know how their industry is going to survive.

Despite promising conditions like early rains, catches around Mackay have been less than half of what’s expected in an average year.

Danny Pope has been a fishermen for 44 years.

He has caught less than half the banana prawns he’d usually catch this time of year.

Danny Pope says they only get paid $5 per kilo for the produce they are currently catching and it’s getting pointless to keep operating.

“We are finding that the quality of the prawn is a smaller count prawn rather than then bigger count prawn, so we would expect normally to be catching half and half. But at the moment it’s basically 99 per cent in the smaller grades.”

He thinks prices in supermarkets haven’t decreased and somebody in the chain is taking too much without paying fishermen their share.

“The industry is at a point where if the price doesn’t firm up, there will be no industry. We cannot keep going on the prices we are getting.”

Part of the problem, he feels, is a lack of competition among marketers.

“Since the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority restructure within the green zones, and buy outs, taking out not only boats but marketers, we have less competition.”

Mackay wholesaler and exporter David Caracciolo agrees the industry is struggling to survive, but doesn’t think that prawn fishers earn less because middlemen take too much.

He says the problem is the high dollar, increasing operation costs, cheap imports, and an ageing work force.

“I personally don’t think the fishing industry is going to survive unless something happens very soon.”

The Chairman of the Seafood Importers Association of Australasia Norman Grant says it’s true that the industry is doing it tough, but says imports are definitely not to blame.

“Prawn imports have declined substantially since 2007. They are down 30 or 40 per cent since 2007, so there is certainly no increase in prawn imports.”

He says the global price for prawns has decreased due to prawn farming around the world.

And he says people aren’t willing to pay high prices for seafood anymore.

Story on ABC website: https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2011-04-07/tough-times-for-prawn-fishermen/6187468

Longer audio version on ABC Rural: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-04-07/fishermen-and-wholesalers-have-a-tough-time-making/6187486

PLAY AUDIO:

Audio Script:

JANE PATERSON: The resources sector says that the new tax will thwart investment in mining and drive investment overseas, but this morning, the man behind Waratah Coal, Clive Palmer, said he plans to go ahead with the thermal coal project north of Alpha, as planned.

Our reporter Nicky Redl went to a business breakfast in Mackay this morning, where the guest speaker was one of the head honchos at Waratah. G’Day Nicky, how are you?

NICKY REDL: Yeah, I’m well, Jane.

JANE PATERSON: Who was at this breakfast this morning?

NICKY REDL: The speaker at the breakfast was the managing director of Waratah Coal, Phil McNamara. And the room was actually quite full, so a good turnout for that breakfast.

JANE PATERSON: Did he provide any new details on the Waratah Coal project?

NICKY REDL: Look, I think most of the things he said we already knew. The only thing that was really different from what I saw on the website, the estimated cost was around $7.5 billion Australian dollars; he now estimated that at around over 8 billion US dollars.

But apart from that, the China First Project, as it will be called, will be based 50 kilometers north of Alpha in the Galilee Basin. They are planning to mine 50 million tons a year of thermal coal. They are also saying the quality of the coal is not the same as in the Bowen Basin, so it’s a mixed quality, but with some very good quality amongst it.

And the general resource they are quoting is nearly 4 billion tons of coal, but because of that varying quality of that, the target amount they are planning to mine is about 1.4 billion tons.

JANE PATERSON: So, where is the money going to come from for them to undertake the Waratah project?

NICKY REDL: They are working with several Chinese construction companies. They have Chinese customers and Chinese banks as well to come up with the money needed for this massive project. Seventy percent will come through debt funding and the remaining 30 percent they want to access through capital raising.

They say they also have a 30 million tons sale contract to export coal back into China for the next 20 years, but Mr. McNamara said those contracts will still be finalized over the next few weeks.

JANE PATERSON: So, who is their major partner in this project?

NICKY REDL: Their main partner is a Chinese engineering and construction company called China Metallurgical Group Corporation, MCC, but there are also three other Chinese companies, including Sinosteel.

JANE PATERSON: So did Mr. McNamara say anything about the infrastructure that will be needed for this project to get up and running?

NICKY REDL: Well, at the moment, there is no infrastructure at the Galilee Basin, so they will have to build a 490-kilometer railway and a port as well as the mines.

So they didn’t give any comment so far if they are planning to share any of that infrastructure, but they are planning to build accommodation for about 6,000 construction employees, 1,500 of those jobs will be permanent, so those facilities will stay at the site.

And a lot of those people will later be on a fly-in, fly-out basis. From what I understand, workers will mostly then be based in Brisbane, Mackay, and Rockhampton, and be flown in and flown out.

JANE PATERSON: Interesting if the main part of the funding for this project is coming from China, Nicky, what does that mean for employment of locals from Central Queensland itself?

NICKY REDL: Look, that was one of the questions asked, and he simply didn’t give a clear answer to that.

He was acknowledging that some of the engineering work, or quite a lot of the engineering work, would be done overseas and also quite a lot of the equipment would be coming from China, but he was also said, obviously, a lot of the maintenance and work on the mine won’t be possible without Australian engineers and also without Australian companies being involved.

But, he really didn’t give any clear figures, and he simply didn’t give a clear answer to that question.

JANE PATERSON: So it’s still a bit up in the air as to whether or not those 6,000 construction jobs that we talked about and the 1,500 permanent jobs would be filled by Australians?

NICKY REDL: Yeah, no, he certainly didn’t give a clear answer to that, no.

JANE PATERSON: Okay, so what’s the timeline then for the project to actually begin, because there is a lot of talk about it, but when is it actually, the first sod sod turned, if you like?

NICKY REDL: Well, he was saying they are planning to start construction at the end of this year, and they are hoping to get into production by late 2013.

JANE PATERSON: Alright, interesting, given all the talk from all the other major miners that they won’t be going ahead with projects with the new tax that the federal government has placed on them. Thanks for that Nicky.

NICKY REDL: Thank you.

JANE PATERSON: Reporter Nicky Redl from a business breakfast address by Phil McNamara, the managing director of Waratah Coal, that was held in Mackay this morning. Waratah is, of course, planning to build a brand new thermal coal mine near Alpha in central Queensland.

Broadcast on ABC Queensland’s Country Hour on May 7, 2010.

This report is no longer available online, as the previous ABC Rural website has been archived. Click here for the new ABC Rural site.

After Cyclone Ului felled an 80-foot tree onto his remote Eungella home, 72-year-old Guy Fletchere-Davies describes riding out the storm and its aftermath without access to power and running water.

PLAY AUDIO

Audio Script:

How would you feel if a tree crashed into your house, leaving you trapped in there with no power, no running water, or even a mobile phone for a week? That’s exactly what happened to Guy Fletchere-Davies during cyclone Ului in Queensland’s north.

Nicky Redl trekked out to his remote property in the Eungella forest west of Mackay, armed with a recorder – and a loaf of bread.

(Sound of footsteps)

NICKY REDL: I’m just making my way over big puddles, fallen tree trunks, and all sorts of half-chopped-up branches.

Obviously, the SES has already been at work here, because you can see a lot of work half done, branches have been chopped, but they haven’t been removed yet. So they are all over the road, and it’s quite obvious why nobody would be able to get through here.

The creek right next to the road is very full, and it’s flowing quite fast. No, nobody could get out of here. There is just a really big tree trunk right across the pathway here. And, there is a house. Beautiful. I think I have nearly arrived.

Hello! Guy!

(Sound of dog barking)

GUY FLETCHERE-DAVIES: Ho, Jay!

NICKY REDL: How are you going?

(Barking)

GUY FLETCHERE-DAVIES: Lovely. I didn’t think you’d make it.

NICKY REDL: (laughs) I didn’t think I would make it either.

(Barking)

GUY FLETCHERE-DAVIES: Hey, Jay. He won’t hurt you, by the way. He’s only a little puppy.

NICKY REDL: I brought some bread.

GUY FLETCHERE-DAVIES: Thank you very much for that.

NICKY REDL: Oh gee, so that’s the tree that has nearly come into your house.

GUY FLETCHERE-DAVIES: Well, that’s the one that is towering over the top of the house. And as it comes down, it’s starting to bury the roof, as it sinks more into the roof. So they reckon there is somewhere between 8 and 10 tons over us, which is hanging out the other side of the house.

NICKY REDL: That’s reassuring, isn’t it.

GUY FLETCHERE-DAVIES: Very (laughs).

(cluttering of cups)

Okay. One sugar, one tea bag. Hot water coming up.

NICKY REDL: So you are here with no running water, you are still kind enough to offer me a cup of tea, when did the electricity run out and when did you stop having running water?

GUY FLETCHERE-DAVIES: The electricity went down at eleven o’clock Saturday night, and the cyclone hit us just after one o’clock. The dog had disappeared with all the noise, frightened to death, came back and jumped into bed with me about ten minutes later, covered in leeches, would you believe.

We bled together through the night, listening to the thumping and banging of trees crashing around us  – there are over 50 trees on the driveway down.

Plus, this 80-foot giant leaning on my house, not to mention the fig tree, which is over 100 foot high and God knows how many tons it weighs, but it was actually a living garden. It’s full of bird nest fern, orchids; it’s now in three pieces on the ground, blocking the highway.

As you stand by it, it comes up virtually to shoulder height. And it’s sat there, and we are trapped behind it. I can’t get out.

The tree has come through the pump house,  it’s drained a 10,000-liter tank that’s on top of the hill there. So all the water is gone. Electricity only came back on yesterday, good old Ergo. Telstra was the day before.

NICKY REDL: You’ve also lost quite a few lovely trees around here that you planted?

GUY FLETCHERE-DAVIES: Oh, this place was just something else. And everybody who comes over, we’ve had the bird watching people up here … because this is the area for the Eungella honey eater. It only lives within 35 square kilometers in the world.

And I’ve had people up here from Sydney, and they’ve actually sat out there on the patio. I made them a cup of tea and toasted raisin bread. And they sat there, and they come through at 8 o’clock in the morning and about 4 o’clock at night, they were almost able to reach out and touch him, because the birds aren’t frightened here, you know, they don’t see anybody.

So yes, it’s shattering, actually. And all my rhododendrons are drowning up there with wet feet. I’m sort of living from day to day at the moment, and I don’t want to think about next week, because I don’t think I can handle it, you know.

I’m 72 now, for goodness sake. I’ve worked hard here for six years, and it was really starting to show.

And look, it might get back there. The Tropics are extraordinary; things grow very quickly here. But you’ve seen some of the holes it has knocked in the forest.

When you go back to the gate, if you can look back here, where the top of the forest continues up the hill, it’s like a giant has just reached out and grabbed a 30-meter circular section of the forest, here and there up the hillside, and just ripped the tops of the trees out.

They don’t twist, they just snap off. And you’ve got this 15- to 20-foot stump there, and the top of the tree is gone, dumped somewhere else.

MICHAEL MACKENZIE: That’s Guy Fletchere-Davies speaking to Nicky Redl inside his house in the Eungella forest west of Mackay after cyclone Ului just did the most extraordinary amount of damage not only to his premises but the forest around him.

And since that interview, Guy’s driveway has been cleared, and a local tree lopper has finally agreed to get that tree off his house.

What an amazing story of survival, and the dog and him in bed with leeches? They bled together. That was beautiful, wasn’t it?

Broadcast on ABC Radio National’s Bush Telegraph on March 31, 2010.

Online version on the ABC website: https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2010-04-01/surviving-a-cyclone/6205668

Online audio on ABC website: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2010-04-01/surviving-a-cyclone-in-the-eungella-forest/6205686