INSTEAD of confronting piles of odorous rubbish, tech-savvy professionals could be plugging in their laptops and doing business at the old Ardlethan tin mine.
This bold idea is the brainchild of town advocate Robin Brown, who believes the dump proposal would be the end of Ardlethan.
Mr Brown said four telemarketing offices should be built on the site in a bid to encourage people to live and work remotely in regional and rural Australia. Mr Brown and frustrated Ardlethan farmer Renee Doyle approached communication minister Malcolm Turnbull.
“He liked the idea but told us to speak to the private sector,” Mr Brown said.
Ms Doyle said the site should be used in a way that would be productive for the town, rather than destructive.
“The landfill does not fit with the Riverina. It goes against everything that we stand for. Our clean, green crops will be 100 metres from the landfill and it will impact the town immensely.”
Ms Doyle said the town had recently experienced a tourism surge – with visitors flocking to new coffee shops and gift stores. She said a dirty, odour-filled tip would drive them away.
Coolamon mayor John Seymour said he was aware of the idea and was awaiting a development application from council to have a more two-sided debate about the future of the site.
Riverina Regional Tourism chair Greg Lawrence said projects should be thoroughly investigated before they were implemented.
