Bowen Basin
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8
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Search complete. 9 mentions across 8 episodes found for "Bowen Basin".
Oct 12, 2026
AdamHOST
[laughs]
Aaron WittHOST
So from there, next up, speaking of airports, we flew from Brisbane to Rockhampton, um, and then drove from Rockhampton to Blackwater in Queensland's, Queensland's infamous Bowen Basin.
Aaron WittHOST
Um, this is the largest, this area's the largest exporter of steel-making coal.
Aaron WittHOST
So the scale is unbelievable.
Gary JubelinHOST
Mm-hmm
Tim SmithGUEST
... you know, inland, the coal belt, Bowen Basin, deadliest coal mine in Australia.
Tim SmithGUEST
Yeah.
Gary JubelinHOST
As in, uh, the, like, accidents, mine acc-
Tim SmithGUEST
Yeah.
Tim SmithGUEST
It's the Bowen Basin.
Tim SmithGUEST
And my town's quite famous.
Andrew RuleHOST
Yeah.
Rob TysonHOST
As someone that's listened to these podcasts before, and we always start these off, I just wonder if you can just obviously tell us a little bit about yourself, a little bit about your career, how your sort of careers developed.
Rob TysonHOST
We were just speaking offline, and you mentioned that you were working in Australia, in the Bowen Basin.
Rob TysonHOST
So I'll hand it over to you just to tell us a little bit about your career.
Mark MukhijaGUEST
Yeah, thanks for that.
Mark MukhijaGUEST
I got my degree from the University of British Columbia.
Mark MukhijaGUEST
And then yeah, my first role was with BHP in Australia.
Mark MukhijaGUEST
So that was in the Bowen Basin.
Mark MukhijaGUEST
So very happy to have my technical and operational foundation from BHP.
speaker_3NARRATOR
About halfway up the Queensland coast lies the city of Mackay.
speaker_3NARRATOR
This seaport is not only famous for sugar cane, but also mining, thanks to its proximity to the Bowen Basin, Australia's single largest coal reserve.
speaker_3NARRATOR
A few kilometres south of the city centre, two massive cranes are pulling into the Hastings Deering Complex, a sure sign something big is about to go down.
speaker_7GUEST
Today's job plan is to assemble four of the major components to this CAT 794 off-highway truck.
Gary HardgraveHOST
Yeah.
Gerard RennickGUEST
Who, when we built the, um, you know, opened up the Bowen Basin in Central Queensland, we, you know, Leo Hielscher was smart enough to say to BHP Mitsubishi, "You have to build the railway lines and the port." So the Queensland taxpayer didn't have to fund that, but we got to collect the revenue from the railway lines, the ports, and the coal royalties.
Gary HardgraveHOST
Yeah.
Gerard RennickGUEST
And then we rinsed and repeated up in, in Weipa with the bauxite deposits, where Le- but Leo Hielscher went one step further where he said to Comalco, "You can't export bauxite.
Tim McLainGUEST
Like I just came from a coal site yesterday.
Tim McLainGUEST
This whole week I was up in the Bowen Basin working with a client and their intentions were the opposite of what they need to do.
Tim McLainGUEST
And so I've got to explain to them because of not their intentions were good, but their actions were wrong.
Tim McLainGUEST
So I explain to them, hey, this is why we do this and this is how SAP treats it.
Amy MitchellCORRESPONDENT
And there's another potential source of critical minerals on Mackay's doorstep, the waste that is left behind by decades of coal mining.
Amy MitchellCORRESPONDENT
The Centre of Excellence has been investigating whether coal tailings at the Bowen Basin could contain commercially useful minerals.
Amy MitchellCORRESPONDENT
Mr Boxall says laboratory testing has now been completed.
Stephen BoxallSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
And what we're looking to do now is bring on proponents that we start to do full pilot scale testing with the view to be able to understand in the barn basin, is there other revenue streams available at commercial quantities in coal tailing? We know it takes 14 years to open a new mine in Queensland.