Middlemount
Postcode: 4746
Middlemount is a town in Queensland, Australia, located about 250km inland (by road) from Mackay and Rockhampton. It is a mining town with a population of about 2,000, servicing two coal mines, Foxleigh and German Creek.
The German Creek mine (or Capcoal), operated by Anglo Coal, is notable as having the deepest longwall coal mine in Queensland, and also for operating Australia’s only ‘thin-seam’ underground coal mine, using technology from the USA. It has five producing underground mines (Central, Southern, Bundoora, Grasstree and Aquila) and two open cut (open pit) mines (Oak Park and Lake Lindsay). Central and Southern mines are no longer operating, Southern has become Grasstree West and Central Closed in 2006.
The Foxleigh mine is a joint venture between the QLD government, CAML resources and a number of other partners. It is currently producing around 2 million tonnes of coal for the export market.
Middlemount, like many other mining towns in Queensland vitually sprung up overnight in the early 1980’s; this means that the houses are all almost identical, in this instance there are three types of houses; lowset L-shaped, lowset square and highset.
Nicknamed the “Giant Peanut” by locals due to its slightly bizarre road layout, Middlemount is also notable for Olympic cyclists Anna Meares and Kerrie Meares, who grew up there, and also for being rated as one of Queensland’s highest earning locations – in 1998, it returned the 5th highest average taxable income (according to the Australian Tax Office). It should also be said that the locations in spots 1-4 were Glenden, Tieri, Moranbah and Dysart, all of which are similar mining towns in the same region.