Stories of Stradbroke: Emotional Geographies of an Island in Transition

Abstract

Many cities, towns and communities in Australia are heavily reliant on the mining industry; mines provide well-paid, ‘family wage’ jobs and mining companies may invest in local social and community infrastructure and civil society organisations. However, this dependence may create vulnerability in those places and the impacts of the cessation of mining activities can be devastating. How such communities can effectively transition to a post-mining economy and a post-mining future is an increasingly urgent question. This critical phenomenological project draws from research on emotional geographies, island studies and collective trauma to explore lived experiences of a post-mining transition. It takes as its case study North Stradbroke Island/Minjerribah (Queensland, Australia), home of the Quandamooka Peoples and approximately 2,000 permanent residents (Indigenous and non-Indigenous). Specifically, it investigates the transition planning process on the Island that followed the State Government’s decision to expedite the closure of the Island’s sand mining industry. It explores the roles of place, history, context, shared identities, community, civil society, informal networks and structural power in shaping transition processes