They come promising projects to future-proof their region, but once the politicians and businesspeople leave town and the dust settles, locals are left wondering if anything will eventuate from these cash-splash announcements.
The latest is a multi-billion-dollar renewable energy project to be built on the doorstep of Collinsville, an old mining town in Queensland's coal-rich Bowen Basin.
Fourth-generation former coal miner Brett Murphy said Collinsville residents were still in the dark about the proposal.
"As locals, as a community, we don't get to hear about it or have it explained until weeks after," he said.
"I think it is not right."
The Collinsville Green Energy Hub is the jewel in the crown for the Han-Ho Hydrogen Consortium, formed between three major Korean conglomerates.
It wants to develop a supply chain to export more than one million tonnes of green ammonia each year to Korea by 2032 to meet forecast demands for the north Asian nation's climate commitments.
Mr Murphy said after watching previous plans for a new coal-fired plant stall and the Urannah Dam proposal continually knocked back, he was sceptical about the latest proposal.
"Like most other people in Collinsville, I will believe it when I see it," he said.
"We've all heard it before … things are going to boom here, things are going to be built here.
"They usually fizzle out or the government changes their mind."
Australia's largest renewable energy hub
Under the proposal, wind and solar farms would be hosted across grazing properties in Collinsville to power the clean energy hub, touted to become Australia's largest.
Twelve landholders have been signed up to the hub, which would cover an area of 190,000 hectares.
After a flurry of online complaints from residents, the company leading the project, Ark Energy, sent out information flyers, but it has still not released further details on where it will be located.
Whitsundays Mayor Julie Hall admitted she did not know much about the proposed project before September when Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk arrived in town to observe the signing of the memorandum of understanding.
"We were given a very short overview of what the state government has planned for this area," Ms Hall said.
"They were still negotiating with landholders, so up until then we weren't given much advance notice."
The mayor said she was still unsure how the town would be directly impacted, but she supported the project.
"We sat down with the energy hub to discuss what the future was. So that's all the knowledge that I've got at the moment," she said.
Town's repurpose into energy powerhouse
The Collinsville Green Energy Hub is being pitched as a saver of local jobs after the plans for a new coal-fired power station were shelved.
The project is being underwritten by the Queensland government's $25 million Hydrogen Industry Development Fund and forms part of the state government's $62 billion renewable energy fund.
Ark Energy says more than 350 jobs will be generated during construction, with up to 30 ongoing operational jobs.
"There will be ongoing jobs in the hydrogen production facility, as well as the transport supply line in terms of transporting the green ammonia and jobs associated with the actual export component," Queensland's Assistant Minister for Hydrogen Lance McCallum said.
Mr Murphy said, despite the town's traditional resource base, he believed it could support a transition to renewable energy, as long as locals were kept front of mind.
"I don't think that there's anyone that says anything about them versing one another," he said.
"And if something can be developed with renewables that will take the place of coal and be sustainable? … I don't think you'll get much flak from that."
