ABSTRACT
Coal mining households face complex decisions about their futures, often shaped by forces far beyond their control. Through a multi-scalar approach, this chapter connects global coal market dynamics and the Australian national and sub-national policy context with the everyday lives of workers and households. Drawing on qualitative interviews with coal worker households in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, the analysis reveals how households actively balance economic security amongst other competing responsibilities. We begin with an overview of Australian mining, where the differences between two types of coal (thermal/metallurgical) and two markets (domestic/export) are often neglected in public discourse, yet produce divergent trajectories for mining regions and communities. Building on this context, we then look to the experiences of households, examining the daily realities of working within export-oriented metallurgical coal mining, household experiences of negotiating economic precarity in this cyclical sector, and competing visions for its future in the region. These grounded insights extend our understanding of some underlying and frequently overlooked dynamics of Australia’s highly contested post-carbon ambitions, while underscoring the importance of place-sensitive transition approaches and policy certainty for regional workers, households and communities.
