Work demands a blow for sporting clubs in Queensland's once booming mining towns

It's Saturday afternoon in the small, rural mining town of Tieri in central Queensland and the local footy field at Langerak Park should be packed.

The Peak Downs Pirates Rugby League Club is the social fabric of this 700-person town, and fans would normally be hustling to get a prime spot next to the bar, where they could flip open their camp chairs and cheer.

But today, there is no game.

"I've cried and I'm looking at grown men with tears in their eyes," said long-serving Pirates committee member Samantha Reinke, as she looks over an empty field from the clubhouse and grassed hill.

An empty Langerak Park, the home of rugby league in Tieri. (ABC Capricornia: Aaron Kelly)

The combination of two mines closing, seven-day rosters and a dwindling population have led to the club folding.

"Everybody looked forward to a home game and a lot of people also followed us to the other towns as well, which can be up to two and a half hour's drive," Ms Reinke said.

"That's all gone now and there's nothing else to do, so it's very demoralising for the community to lose something like this."

Impacts of FIFO work

The town of Tieri, about 900 kilometres north-west of Brisbane, was established in 1983 as a service centre for the three local coal mines open at the time.

Now there's just one.

The Glencore-owned Oaky Creek North Coal Mine in Tieri employs about 800 workers and is one of the most productive underground coal operations in the Bowen Basin.

Mitch Reinke grew up playing footy in Tieri. (ABC Capricornia: Aaron Kelly)

But with each new census, Tieri's population declines due to the impacts of fly-in fly-out (FIFO) work.

Half of the mine's workforce is FIFO and as the town shrinks, its sporting clubs are rapidly disappearing.

Once a hive of sporting activity, touch football, hockey, soccer, gymnastics, indoor cricket, tennis and lawn bowls are all things of the past.

The Pirates are the latest casualty.

The Peak Downs Pirates celebrate a win earlier this year. (Supplied: Peak Downs Pirates)

"As the years have gone by, and you see it with all the mining communities, especially the small ones like ours, it's almost impossible to get a full side," Ms Reinke said.

The disappointment and heartbreak are echoed by club president Mitch Reinke and coach Ben Liddell.

"We had over 50 people registered to play this season, which was promising, but with injuries and shift work it was very challenging," Mr Reinke said.

Ben Liddell is determined to keep rugby league alive in Tieri. (ABC Capricornia: Aaron Kelly)

Before the agonising decision to fold, the Pirates could only field five players for their last match.

Mr Liddell was devastated.

"The town's got a real thirst for rugby league and to have to pull the pin it was a really hard decision," he said.

Pirates diehards hope at some stage in the future the club can be resurrected and return to its glory days.

Flow-on effects felt

Queensland's Central Highlands are the cattle and coal capital of Australia, and in the neighbouring town of Capella, it is a similar story.

The race club and bowls club no longer exist while the tennis club is barely surviving.

Cathy Murray and Kate Sullivan have introduced pickleball to attract more people to the tennis courts. (ABC Capricornia: Aaron Kelly)

"Tennis started in about the 1930s here with two ant-bed courts," said Capella Tennis Club's Cathy Murray.

"In 1981, we started night fixtures and it was every night of the week and we had 100 people playing but it slowed down during COVID and we couldn't get any tennis players back to play."

The introduction of pickleball this year has the kept the gates to the now six courts open.

"We've lost our grocery store, we've lost our only doctor, it's a dying town really," she said.

Andrew Jansen is a karate instructor on the Central Highlands and teaches classes in Capella and in nearby Emerald.

Andrew Jansen has seen participation rates drop in karate. (ABC Capricornia: Aaron Kelly)

He said roster cycles and cost-of-living were the main impacts behind a decline in numbers.

"The bigger hours people are working, quite often we'll get a phone call to say, 'We can't make it, I'm at work still.'"

Pain of dwindling numbers

According to researchers, country clubs and competitions are coming under increased pressure from not only the fluctuating presence of workers and financial strain, but also population drift and impacts on rural life.

Dean Miller, a senior lecturer in psychology at CQUniversity, said social sport and sporting clubs were the hub of small, close-knit communities.

"The engagement in community and getting more people into sports out there can really help the morale and engagement with social circles … and sport is a really great avenue to do that," Dr Miller said.

Dean Miller says social and sporting clubs are important for community morale. (Supplied: CQUniversity)

Participation in sports-related activities offered significant mental and health benefits for FIFO workers, he said.

"It can be quite difficult to follow through on those commitments as players or as officials and that will fluctuate depending on their availability and how their workload is at that certain period of time.

"We know in terms of mental health and health in general, engaging in physical exercise and activity with social sporting groups or competitive sporting clubs, it's really important."

The sad demise of the Pirates is the latest hit for the small mining town. (ABC Capricornia: Aaron Kelly)

As small communities across the country feel the pain of dwindling numbers and seek solutions to the effects of swing shifts, people such as Samantha Reinke are determined to keep theirs alive.

"My goal is to create awareness and perhaps get the NRL [National Rugby League] involved more in helping out the smaller communities," she said.

"It would be good to have some sort of incentive for players to come out here and play because it would just boost the town's morale."

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