WESTERN Australia may have proved its resilience in 2009 by bouncing back from the financial crisis to lead Australia’s economic recovery, but it still endured its fair share of disasters during the year.
WESTERN Australia may have proved its resilience in 2009 by bouncing back from the financial crisis to lead Australia’s economic recovery, but it still endured its fair share of disasters during the year.
There was no more enduring image of disaster in 2009 than the sight of the West Atlas oil rig at the Montara oil field burning out of control in the Timor Sea, 400 kilometres north-west of Wyndham.
Owned by Thai group PTTEP Australasia, Montara began leaking on August 21 and spewed tens of thousands of barrels of condensate into the sea over the next 10 weeks before a relief well was drilled and finally stopped the flow.
Ironically, it was only as the well was plugged in early October that a fire erupted, destroying the drilling rig and wellhead platform.
However, the image of the burning rig became a metaphor for the ravaged reputation of the oil and gas industry, amid increasing consternation about the threat posed by oil and gas development to the pristine waters off the Kimberley coast.
The rapid acceleration of the global financial crisis late last year also ensured a disastrous start to 2009 for WA’s mining industry.
Just four weeks into the year, BHP Billiton announced the closure of its brand new $3 billion Ravensthorpe nickel mine on the south coast, throwing 1,800 miners out of work.
At the same time, BHP also sacked 300 workers at its Mt Keith and Leinster nickel operations in a bid to keep the operations viable in the face of plummeting nickel prices.
Over the ensuing four months, several other operations were put on hold, including Norilsk Nickel’s last two WA mines, Iluka Resources’ Wagerup and Waroona minerals sands operations, and Rio Tinto’s HIsmelt pig iron plant at Kwinana.
Together with mine closures, which occurred in the final days of last year, official industry figures showed more than 9,660 industry workers lost their jobs between October 2008 and July 2009.
The downturn also devastated local engineering firms, with about 1,200 engineers losing their jobs as firms cut their workforces by an average of 15 per cent.
Overall, WA’s unemployment rate hit a five-year high at 5.8 per cent in 2009 as job losses extended from the resources industry to the tourism and hospitality sectors.
Local investors also suffered from high-profile collapses, notably the $800 million failure of timber plantation manager Great Southern and the $150 million crash of West Perth property investment group SAS Global.
Aside from leaving 43,000 plantation scheme investors out of pocket, the dramatic fall of Great Southern should also spell the end of the managed investment scheme-based agribusiness.
But as the hotly contested battle for control of Great Southern’s 240,000 hectares of timber plantation showed, its fundamental timber assets remain a significant prize.
Hundreds of WA consumers were also stung by the collapse of national whitegoods retailer Kleenmaid, which collapsed in May, leaving many owed goods worth thousands of dollars.
But they pale into insignificance with the scores of investors still wondering where their $100 million plunge on fuel technology group Firepower disappeared to.
Though Firepower went into liquidation in October 2008, it was not until this month that liquidators had the chance to quiz founder Tim Johnston in court, following his court-ordered return to Perth.
But his testimony has so far shed little light for investors, with the former high flyer unable to recall significant details of the company’s financial activities.
