One balmy summer’s day in 2007, a trade union veteran with a Hells Angel beard and a penchant for disruption turned up at a town-hall meeting in Collie, Western Australia (WA), with the unwelcome news that the local coal industry was living on borrowed time. 

“Absolutely got my head kicked in,” recalled Steve McCartney, state secretary of the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union (AMWU), whose no-nonsense, invective-prone manner belies a deep-seated altruism and care for those on the frontline of the energy transition. “They weren’t interested in anything I had to say. They kept reminding me there was 150 years of coal left in that hill outside town.”

Collie came into being in the 1880s after coal was discovered in the area. It soon became the heart of coal mining and coal-fired energy production in the state, and its two coal mines and three coal-fired power plants have powered the South West Interconnected System, WA’s main electricity grid, since 1931. 

Today, 130 years on, coal still runs as deep through its culture as the rich seam of fossilised carbon beneath the ground, with around 1,800 of the town’s 9,000-strong population working in coal-related jobs.

But as the planet heats up and the need to move away from the main culprit – fossil fuels – becomes more urgent, this small town is a microcosm of the transformation underway in the global coal industry. As the world’s coal-producing regions grapple with how to decarbonise their economies by mid-century without devastating local communities, Collie offers a promising blueprint for a “just transition” away from coal. 

Ending Australia’s coal dependence

The energy transition is set to cost nearly 1 million coal-mining jobs worldwide by 2050, and Australia is particularly exposed. The country is the world’s second-largest coal exporter, and nearly three-quarters of its electricity generation is coal-dependent – contributing over a third of its carbon emissions.

But as the country aims to shut 90% of its coal-fired power plants by 2035, Collie has successfully garnered close to A$700 million (US$445 million) in investment to help it attract new green industries, including battery energy storage, green steel, graphite processing and magnesium refining. The money will also go to retrain and repurpose the coal workforce and revitalise the town’s high street and tourist economy.

This plan, however, was not imposed from above by officials or corporate executives. Rather it is the result of a community-led, cross-sector collaboration, forged by almost two decades of painstaking struggle. 

Having powered the region for over a century, Collie’s public coal-fired power plants, the Muja and Collie power stations, will gradually be switched off by 2029. That clearly threatens the future of the town’s coal mining firms, Griffin Coal and Premier Coal, and its sole private coal power station Bluewaters.

In response, the government, unions, businesses, and – most importantly – local people have jointly developed a transition plan that will support jobs, community stability and economic diversification. 

“The world has no choice but to move on from coal – but coal communities like Collie need to have a renewed future that guarantees workers the support, income and opportunities they need to transition to new sustainable industries,” said Sharan Burrow, special advisor to the International Energy Agency’s Global Commission on People-Centred Clean Energy Transitions and former head of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC). 

“Collie is a remarkable example that has all the right ingredients…  It’s not a done deal yet, but it’s certainly on the right track.”

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Anger, acceptance, action

After a decade of efforts by the likes of McCartney, Collie’s transition began in earnest in 2017 when the WA Government first announced plans to close Synergy’s Muja A and B sites. Initially, much of the community was in denial, recounted Ian Miffling, current President of the Shire (Mayor) of Collie. “People thought, ‘It won’t happen’. But gradually, it dawned on people that it was inevitable.” 

Over the subsequent years, initial conversations evolved into hard plans. By the time the state government arrived to announce the staged retirement of Muja C in 2019, the town was ready for them, armed with a solid vision and principles to guide the transition. 

“We wanted the town to decide its future, not the government,” McCartney explained. Residents emphasised the need for sustainable “jobs that create other jobs”, utilising the town’s long-established industrial skills – ones that wouldn’t leave future generations in the same plight. They also wanted to evolve from being a “one-job town,” recognising the vulnerabilities of relying solely on coal.

Jodie Hanns, member of WA’s Legislative Assembly for Collie-Preston, remembered the emotionally fraught task of announcing the coal-plant closure timelines alongside WA Premier Mark McGowan. “I had to stand in front of my husband, friends and neighbours and tell them their jobs at Muja power plant would have to end. It was one of the hardest days of my life.”

The establishment of the Just Transition Working Group (JTWG) in 2019 – and its state-run secretariat the Collie Delivery Unit (CDU) – was a pivotal moment. The JTWG brought together all the partners in the transition – the community, employers, government and unions. “We had everyone at the table,” said trade unionist McCartney. “Decisions could then be made without going back and forth to Perth.” 

Sub-committees tackled specifics, from job creation to retraining, ensuring every worker had a personalised plan. “We wanted paid training to happen while people were still working, so they didn’t fall behind,” he added. “We saw what happened when Australia’s car industry transitioned: if you wait until after the closures to retrain the workers, it’s already too late.” 

In 2020, the JWTG and the State Government published a Just Transition Plan for Collie built on four pillars: maximising opportunities for affected workers, diversifying the local economy, celebrating Collie’s history and promoting its future, and committing to a just transition as defined in the 2015 Paris climate agreement.

Financing the transformation

Collie’s approach has already yielded results. The WA Government has so far committed A$662 million to the cause, earmarked for retraining programmes, industrial diversification and infrastructure projects. The town will also benefit from the state’s wider A$3.8-billion renewable energy development programme, including a A$1-billion battery energy storage system (BESS) currently being constructed in Collie.

The funding support for the transition started in 2019, with the State Government committing $115 million to Collie support initiatives. As part of this, $38 million was allocated for new tourism attractions including public murals, adventure trails, redeveloping recreation sites and renovating the high street, which has since seen a surge of visitors. 

In 2022, the WA Government announced that, alongside A$300 million for decommissioning Collie’s state-owned coal assets, $200m would be allocated to the Collie Industrial Transition Fund to support new large-scale industrial projects in priority sectors such as green manufacturing, minerals processing and clean energy. 

Magnium’s new green magnesium pilot plant has been one of the beneficiaries. The facility produces low-carbon magnesium metal, a critical material for electric vehicles and other green technologies. It opened in January 2025, aiming for full-scale production by 2030. “We’re targeting 5% of global magnesium demand,” explained CEO Shilow Shaffier. “The full-scale facility will span 40 hectares, create over 1,000 construction jobs, and provide 400 permanent positions.” 

Similarly, the Collie Battery Energy Storage System, run by state utility Synergy, will be one of the world’s largest battery systems. It will provide 500 megawatts of power with 2,000 megawatt hours of storage to the South West Interconnected System, which can power 785,000 average homes for four hours. Liz Baggetta, Synergy’s head of transition, said it offers a “great opportunity” to the company’s employees, with some already working on the project as part of their individual transition plans.

The town is pinning even greater hopes on Green Steel WA, another cornerstone of Collie’s economic diversification strategy. The company plans to build a 450,000-metric-tonne electric arc furnace, powered by renewable energy. The facility will recycle scrap steel into low-emission products, with the potential to cut 800,000 tonnes of CO2 annually compared to traditional steelmaking. The company is hoping to generate around 220 direct jobs in Collie, and hundreds more in supporting roles.

Tailored plans for workers

The final piece in Collie’s transition puzzle is its retraining programme. In 2022, the government announced a training support package that would expand the existing Collie Jobs and Skills Centre (JSC) to deliver a facility situated – very deliberately – in the middle of the high street to provide tailored career and training assistance to residents.

“We can’t train everyone at once – new industries are still evolving,” explained JSC manager Nat Cook. “So we adapt to meet changing needs, offering everything from resume writing to on-site consultations.”

Separately, Synergy has set up a Workforce Transition Program to provide individualised pathways for workers affected by the closure of the Muja and Collie power stations, offering retraining, redeployment, voluntary redundancy or retirement. “When the closure announcements were made, we spent six months listening to workers to understand their concerns and goals,” explained Baggetta, who heads up the programme. Based on these conversations, Synergy developed tailored plans to hel