HEAD TO THE HILL

I live in a small town on Lake Macquarie in NSW. 20 minutes from my house is the town of Newcastle and my backyard is the Hunter Valley. Newcastle has always been known as a coal town. I can see a colliery from my house. My sister lives in a house owned by a mining company and there’s a shaft right under that property. The upper Hunter Valley is full of mines that a lot of my mates have worked in and as you’re no doubt getting the idea, where I live, mining is a big deal.

But it’s also the number-one culprit fingered in the downturn of local economies as the price of coal and iron ore suffers and jobs are being cut. I wanted to get an idea just how things are across other districts and decided the best way was to pack a Suzuki V-Strom 1000 and head to other mining areas and see what’s going on.