Coal mining is crucial to Muswelbrook, but the town needs new job opportunities, businessman Steve Fordham says

He's calling on governments to help establish new job opportunities in the area, so residents can continue to live and work there in future.

Mr Fordham's company - Muswellbrook-based Blackrock Industries - is looking for new opportunities, given the predicted decline of coal. "The big issue we've got is jobs. But what opportunities are out there? There's not much left in Muswellbrook, bar coal mining," Mr Fordham said.

Moving the business - which employs about 70 people - isn't an attractive option. "I went to preschool, primary and high school here. I want to continue to live in the area," he said. "Do we have to pack up and become a travelling show and follow construction projects to stay open?"

Blackrock does earthworks and construction in mining services. Muswellbrook has been good for the business, with infrastructure projects always happening.

"We rely heavily on the mining sector. There's coal jobs going on 24-7. It's helped a little business like mine grow to the size we are today," he said. "I didn't have to relocate or find big jobs in Sydney. My guys go home every day to their families. If we had to follow construction jobs, going project to project, my guys would have to relocate all the time. It would be a burden on the whole area."

Mr Fordham is pleased the area no longer has safe seats. "The government is making a lot of money off mining, but the day the pits stop is the day they walk away and leave us alone and we get nothing," he said.

He believes the government should focus on "what other industries they can bring to the valley". "They can talk about electricity and renewables, that's fine. But how do we look at manufacturing opportunities? How do we find new industry groups? How does the government give tax concessions for more businesses to open in our area? How do we bring people to us?"

He said Muswellbrook felt like "District 12 from [the film] Hunger Games". District 12's main industry was coal mining. It was the poorest, smallest and furthest from the capital of the 13 districts in the film.

"We raise all this money in our area and send it to the city. People in the city complain about our industry, but they have the opportunity to buy cheaper power," he said. "We want a green planet eventually one day too, but the government needs to talk about jobs. "This is where we get annoyed. It's always anti-coal, anti-coal. Give us pro-jobs, pro-jobs. That's where Labor and Liberal need to start pulling their targets out."

He believes the best way forward is for the government to invest mining royalties for five to 10 years "back into Muswellbrook and the regional areas with mines". "They should guarantee we'll be able to find new industry and development," he said.

Mr Fordham, 30, is an Indigenous man.

"Around 65 per cent of our staff in Muswellbrook are Indigenous. We actually employ guys who are incarcerated as well. We run an inmate program. Mining has a big target for Indigenous employment and opportunities. I have not seen a solar farm yet with an Indigenous target," he said.

Mr Fordham has approached companies building renewable projects.

"We've reached out to a lot of large solar projects, especially in rural-regional areas where they're building a project with 1000 jobs. I've talked to them about opportunities for Indigenous growth, but they don't know anything about it because it's not something they've done before. Everyone thinks they must be big on community. Most of the time, it's build them, get them finished and walk away," he said.

The Muswellbrook community wanted to "build our area".

"I think everyone thinks coal miners are locked into mining. If you brought a tomato farm tomorrow and could pay us the same salaries we're getting and give us long-term gainful employment, we'd jump tomorrow. The problem is, it's not there. Even agriculture and dairy now have robotics and one guy with a computer. We've got to look out for regional Australia. Where is the progression? What are the job opportunities? Where is it all going to go?," he said.

He added that Muswellbrook was a unique mining area that attracted people who wanted to "go home to their kids every day", rather than work in fly-in, fly-out camps.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: