Assessing risks of returning mined land to grazing in the Bowen Basin of central Queensland, Australia

Regulation of mining in Queensland, Australia requires completed rehabilitation to result in the site being safe, stable, presenting no adverse off-site impacts and for a sustainable end use acceptable to stakeholders to be designated. By 2008, an estimated area of 70,000 ha of the coal-mining region of central Queensland had been disturbed by mining activities of which some one third has been rehabilitated. The remaining notional accrued rehabilitation liability exceeds A$1 billion. This paper reports on research into the management style likely to be used by the region's graziers if granted tenure of mined land. Graziers' management style was modelled as being influenced by their characteristics and circumstances. The chief influences were found to be:

• The financial stability of the grazier's business (25%)
• The effect of interventions that a company may take; for example, building respectful, trusting relationships with graziers (23%)
• Graziers' non-financial motives in seeking tenure of mined land (17%)
• Graziers' underlying rural values and attitudes to land management (14%)
• The property's operational flexibility (12%)
• The external climatic and economic climate (9%).

An understanding of factors that influence the grazing management of mined land can be used to assess risks, suggest interventions to reduce grazing risks, to guide the planning of future rehabilitation work, and to support a company's end use proposal to the regulator.