Bar open for business as miner builds on Dajarra base

People are able to enjoy a coldie together inside the Dajarra Hotel bar for the first time in years as a phosphate mining company ushers in a new era. Ardmore mine operator Centrex has been leasing the hotel for workforce accommodation for the past two years and recently took running the bar and other services into its own hands. Ardmore phosphate operations general manager Brian Hall said an outside business had been providing hospitality services at the site from February to December last year. Shakayla Major works behind the bar. That outside service has concluded, and he has employed five local residents for cooking, cleaning, attending the bar and carrying out the administrative duties involved in running the hotel for Centrex. Mr Hall believes he is getting good value, and the new regime brings a social upside for the community as well as providing local jobs. The previous operators served takeaway drinks through a window on the wall, he said. "I've opened the doors up and the locals can come into the bar and get what they want," Mr Hall said. He said the arrangement of only serving drinks through a window had been in place for years. "Locals had to walk up to the window and push the bell and they'd go out, serve them and give 'em what they wanted and away they went," he said. "But now we've actually opened the door. So they actually come in ... Dajarra Hotel chef Alvin Limin. "One guy walked in, he said 'wow, I haven't been in here for 30 years'. And my mining contractor, he's indigenous and most of his crew are, when he found the bar was open he said 'let's go down, boys - going to buy you a couple of drinks. First time. I've been here for years'." In terms of meals, at this stage he said the pub was only catering for the Ardmore workers accommodated in the venue's 28 rooms. Mr Hall said the company planned to add a further 16 rooms in the next few months to accommodate the increasing Ardmore workforce. "As we ramp the plant up, we'll eventually end up running day/night shift. At the moment we're just running day shift," he said. "The restriction is accommodation, obviously, at this stage." Centrex managing director Robert Mencel said the company had made a conscious decision to support Dajarra. Ardmore workers enjoy a meal the the hotel. "We could have built a camp out at the mine site, but we knew there was the town of Dajarra 20km away," he said. "And so we've made a conscious decision to put that camp into Dajarra. It's probably still too early to see if it's the right decision, but signs are good and what we really want to do is we want to be part of the community. "We didn't want a whole lot of guys who were drive-in and drive-out or fly-in and fly-out. We wanted to employ locally as our first priority and actually reinvigorate the place. "And so what you see is we have activity through the hotel, we're supporting the school where we can, we certainly are bringing the place to life, helping revitalise it."

Bar open for business as miner builds on Dajarra base

Industry Queensland

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