The brilliant blue water of Black Diamond Lake, a former coal mine near the Western Australia town of Collie that ceased operations decades ago, has made the site an Instagram hotspot.Emma Graney/The Globe and Mail
Two ducks paddle across the turquoise water, a gentle breeze rustling the gum trees that surround this small, picturesque lake in rural Western Australia.
The tranquil beauty of the spot belies its origins: a former coal mine that filled with water when it closed decades ago. It used to be something of a hidden gem, a spot locals would go for a dip, jumping off the steep banks into the cool water.
Social media has changed all that. Now, Black Diamond Lake’s brilliant blue hue draws tourists hungry for Instagram-worthy photos.
Shire of Collie president Sarah Stanley welcomes the visitors it has brought through the town of Collie, five kilometres down the road, but she says the lake’s new-found popularity has also brought with it some issues.
“The problem with Black Diamond is that nobody owns it. So it’s a long-abandoned mine – the ex-owner just upped and walked away. It sat there for decades really just being our local plaything,” she said.
“I grew up going to Black Diamond … and I thought everyone had one of those in their backyard until Instagram came along and it got discovered. Now it’s been absolutely overrun by people coming to look at it.”
But because nobody owns or manages the site, she said, visitors have brought rubbish and destructive camping behaviour and have highlighted a raft of dangers posed by the sandy cliffs that surround the lake.
The shire was forced to step in. Citing its duties under the local health act, it now provides bins and portable toilets at the site over the summer months.
“That’s really as far as we will go,” Ms. Stanley said. “Otherwise, suddenly we have to manage the whole thing.”
As beautiful as Black Diamond Lake is, Ms. Stanley says it’s the wrong way to deal with the abandonment of a coal mine.
Australia has the third-largest coal reserves in the world and has mined more than 11 billion tonnes since the late 1700s, according to Geoscience Australia.
Coal was used to produce about 60 per cent of the country’s electricity in 2017. But the use of natural gas to generate electricity has steadily increased since the 1970s, and renewables such as wind and solar have resulted in a gradual decline in the burning of coal for power.
The industry still provides a significant number of jobs, plus a great deal of capital investment and domestic and export income, but as countries push for greener forms of energy to lower greenhouse gas emissions in the fight against climate change, the sector’s future is far from certain.
Still, China Energy Investment Corp. recently placed an order to import Australian coal – one of the first deals since Beijing eased an unofficial ban imposed on coal imports from Australia in 2020, Reuters reported this year.
It was made possible by the thawing of relations between Beijing and Canberra, as China tries to meet its growing demand for energy after the easing of pandemic shutdowns.
Collie has long been a coal mining town, with the first sites in the area developed in the late 1800s. These days it’s home to the last two in Western Australia, as well as two state-owned coal-fired power plants that are due to be retired by 2030.
About 15 kilometres south of the town is another former coal mine that has been transformed into a lake. But unlike Black Diamond, Ms. Stanley points to it as an example of the right way to go about mine rehabilitation.
Sprawling Lake Kepwari was once a mine operated by Premier Coal. In 1990, the south branch of the Collie River was diverted around the site to access coal reserves, according to the company. Mining there wrapped up in 1997, when closure plans included keeping the diversion channel so the mine void would remain disconnected from the surrounding river catchment.
The mine site eventually filled with water, but in August, 2011, a deluge of rain caused the reservoir to breach the levee wall that separated it from the diversion channel. A study concluded that the water quality of Lake Kepwari had and would continue to improve as river water flowed through. So the government approved a new rehabilitation plan for the area in 2018, transforming the lake into a huge public recreation facility; in December, 2020, Premier Mark McGowan opened a $5.2-million campground and boating site.
It’s now a tourism hub, with areas for boating, water skiing, swimming, camping and picnicking.
On a recent January day, with the temperature hovering around 32 degrees, about a dozen families cooled themselves in the tea-coloured water, some ripping around on boats, some kayaking or swimming.
Others, like retirees Dot and Rusty Doig of Perth, lounged on the sandy beach. It was their first time at Lake Kepwari. Their son lives nearby in Australind, about 50 kilometres west of Collie, and often brings his boat to the lake.
“It’s fabulous. What an amenity for the people,” said Ms. Doig, lying on the sand to dry off after a swim.
“It’s so beautiful. You wouldn’t think it used to be a mine.”