‘People prefer that we’d never close’: Eraring lifeline a mixed blessing for a coal community in limbo

Peter Land and son Hayden at the Myuna coal mine, which was not part of the extension. Many workers now “have got no idea where they will go in four weeks’ time”. Photograph: Brydie Piaf/The Guardian

For Scott King, last week’s announcement by the New South Wales government to extend the giant Eraring power station for at least another two years was a mixed blessing.

“It’s certainly not the longevity that people were hoping for but it does give [us] breathing space,” says King, a plant operator who has worked 18 years at the nation’s biggest coal-fired power station. “Of course, people prefer that we’d never close.”