A purpose-built mining camp for FIFO workers in the Goldfields town of Kambalda received unanimous support from the Coolgardie council, but locals fear it will cause the town to die. At a special council meeting on Tuesday night, all five councillors voted in favor of sending the proposal through for community consultation.
The plan has already met opposition in the community.
Since she was five, Kara Janssen has lived in Kambalda and said she had seen the town change over the years as other fly-in fly-out mining camps were built.
She said that a fourth camp was not what the town needed to survive.
She said that the town will die once we become a FIFO town because at the moment we have no rentals and no-one is interested in building any more houses for families.
Coolgardie Shire President Malcolm Cullen said that for the shire to maintain and improve services in the community, they needed to look at other sources of revenue.
He said that while supporting a key industry for our community, the workers accommodation village project provides that.
Ms Janssen said instead of building more mining camps, she would like to see the council invest in fixing the town's roads and building more residential housing.
She said that we have to put stuff here for families to draw them in so that we don't die off.
The village could help address the workers accommodation crisis, according to Coolgardie Shire chief executive officer James Trail, who told ABC Goldfields Breakfast.
He said that in order for the mining sector to keep expanding and for these major projects to go ahead, they need workers' accommodation.
The project has been costed $164 million and will be constructed in two stages, with phase one being to provide between 600 and 800 rooms.
Along with new road, parking and pedestrian infrastructure, as well as sewage and water infrastructure and a waste treatment plant, the stage one would see new road, parking and pedestrian infrastructure built.
A kitchen and mess area will be built to cater for 800 people, with the facilities being expanded in stage two to cater for an additional 900.
If the development were to proceed, it would be fully funded by external sources, according to Mr Trail.
The accommodation village is expected to be built in Kambalda West on the site of the town's former golf course.
Mr Trail said the site was chosen because of its proximity to the city centre and has a minimal impact on the community.
He said that the former golf course was the most appropriate location for the development, with the village using 20 per cent of the 90 hectare site, and is a five-minute walk to the town centre.
He said it was a balance between integrating members of the village into town, but also keeping it a reasonable distance because of the size of it.
Kambalda resident Helene Richardson lives close to the golf course and has started a petition to stop the 1,500-room development, saying it would be damaging to the community.
She said there were nearly 80 signatures on this petition.
The people have said they are not going to pay attention to this petition because Mr Trail has made up his mind that he wants this camp to go ahead. Ms Richardson said she believed that the economic benefit to the town had been overstated based on her experience with the current mining camps in the regions.
She said that no fly-in fly-outs spend money here to support the local community because it's all spent where they live.