A new publication by historian Dr David Lee is the latest of the Minerals Council of Australia’s Monograph series. In Iron country: Unlocking the Pilbara, Lee charts Australia’s modern iron age from the lifting of the iron ore export embargo in the early 1960s to the China boom of the early 21st century. He demonstrates that there was nothing inevitable about the rise of the Pilbara to become the jewel in the crown of the Australian mining industry.
As John Kunkel, Deputy Chief Executive, Minerals Council of Australia, says “the vital importance of the iron ore industry to Australia’s modern prosperity is widely recognised. Less appreciated perhaps is the industry’s remarkable back-story. This gap has now been filled.”
A daunting series of political, commercial, financial, engineering and infrastructure challenges all had to be overcome to develop the foundation Pilbara projects. Similarly, there was nothing ordained about the industry’s survival through the long years of low prices at the end of the 20th century.
Lee uncovers the many and varied players who pioneered the industry. They include prospectors and geologists, politicians and business visionaries, as well as the engineers, architects and workers who built much of the infrastructure of the Pilbara industry in the late 1960s and early 1970s. These are all the sort of people that International Mining seeks to recognise in the IM Technology Hall of Fame (www.im-halloffame.com)
“The conclusion Lee draws is compelling,” says Kunkel. “The Snowy Mountains Scheme is held up as the benchmark of Australian engineering and technological prowess in the 20th century. The foundation Pilbara projects, constructed by private enterprise and over a much shorter time period, are at least a comparable achievement.
“Those interested in a carefully-researched, fact-based analysis of the iron ore industry will find this publication indispensable.”
It is available at http://bit.ly/ironcountry
Dr David Lee is the Director of the Historical Publications and Research Unit, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. He is the author of Australia and the World in the Twentieth Century and Stanley Melbourne Bruce: Australian Internationalist. He is currently researching Australia’s post-1960 mining booms and a collaborative biography of Sir John Crawford.
The Minerals Council of Australia has now launched a new website to help better inform the community about Australia’s iron ore industry. The website – ironorefacts.com.au – “provides factual information on Australia’s A$75 billion iron ore export sector and addresses some of the myths that have been peddled in recent weeks about the industry,” says Brendan Pearson, Chief Executive, Minerals Council of Australia.
“While there is vast amounts of publicly available data about the sector, ironorefacts.com.au provides an easily accessible platform to better understand the industry.
“Australia’s iron ore industry has been one of the nation’s great economic success stories over the past 50 years. It has delivered hundreds of billions of dollars in royalties and taxes and directly employs over 60,000 Australians. None of this has happened by accident. It has taken a vast effort and investment to develop this jewel in Australia’s economic crown, which is the envy of the world.”
Picture courtesy of Rio Tinto