There is a stretch of Queensland coastline, forty kilometres south of Mackay, where the scale of what this state does for the world becomes tangible. The land is flat and scrubby, the tidal range among the highest on Australia’s eastern seaboard. The community that lives there is small — just over thirteen hundred people by the 2021 census. And yet the two industrial structures extending from this shore into the Coral Sea represent one of the most consequential pieces of export infrastructure on the planet. coal.queensland — the onchain civic namespace anchoring the Queensland coal industry to a permanent digital identity — finds its most concentrated physical expression here, at the Port of Hay Point, where two terminals working in adjacent formation have, for more than half a century, channelled the wealth of the Bowen Basin toward the blast furnaces of Asia.

To understand the port is to understand something about the nature of Queensland’s economy that balance sheets alone cannot convey. The royalty figures, the export tonnages, the budget line items — these exist because of infrastructure: a specific, engineered commitment to moving a specific commodity from a specific geological formation to a specific set of markets. Before the first ship was loaded at Hay Point in 1971, the coking coal beneath the central Queensland ranges existed as potential, not as revenue. The port converted potential into product, and in doing so helped define the state’s fiscal character for generations.

TWO TERMINALS, ONE PORT.

The Port of Hay Point is unusual in that it houses two entirely separate coal export terminals, side by side, each with its own ownership structure, customer base, and operational history. The port comprises Dalrymple Bay Coal Terminal (DBCT), which is leased from the State Government by Dalrymple Bay Infrastructure, and Hay Point Coal Terminal (HPCT), which is owned by BHP Billiton Mitsubishi Alliance and operated by Hay Point Services. The physical proximity of the two facilities is not accidental. They share the same deep-water approach, the same tidal context, and the same position on the Bowen Basin’s rail drainage network. What separates them is history, ownership, and purpose.

As one of the largest coal export ports in the world, the Port of Hay Point is a vital part of the social and economic fabric of both Mackay and Queensland, more broadly. The two separate coal terminals service coal mines in Central Queensland’s Bowen Basin, with the mines linked to the terminals via an integrated rail-port network. The integration of that network — from coal face to stockpile, from stockpile to rail, from rail to receival station, from receival station to shiploader — is what makes the port more than a loading facility. It is the terminus of a supply chain that spans hundreds of kilometres of central Queensland.

The Port of Hay Point handles coal from over 30 mines in the Bowen Basin, Central Queensland — the source of more than 80% of Queensland’s coal production. That single figure contextualises the port’s significance within the state’s broader production geography. Not Gladstone, not Abbot Point, but Hay Point handles the dominant share of what Queensland mines. And what Queensland mines is, by global standards, among the most prized metallurgical coal available.

HAY POINT COAL TERMINAL: THE OLDER INSTRUMENT.

Hay Point Coal Terminal began operating in October 1971 with a single coal loading berth and added a second berth in 1975. Its establishment was part of the same wave of industrial ambition that opened the Bowen Basin to large-scale export mining — a period in which Queensland governments, Japanese steel companies, and multinational mining houses formed the commercial relationships that would define the state’s export identity for decades to come. After the Second World War, Australia began exporting coking coal to Japan to aid in their production of steel, with exports to South Korea and Taiwan soon following. Hay Point was the physical embodiment of that strategic alignment — a purpose-built export facility anchoring a long-term bilateral trade relationship between Australian coal and Asian steel.

The Hay Point Coal Terminal is part of BMA, the 50:50 joint venture between BHP and Mitsubishi Development. The terminal is capable of handling more than 55 million tonnes of coal for export every year and is the coal-loading terminal for Bowen Basin mines in Queensland. The Japanese equity in the terminal’s ownership structure — through Mitsubishi — is itself a historical artefact of the original commercial logic: importing nations secured supply certainty by taking ownership stakes in the production and export infrastructure. The port was never purely a Queensland asset. It was always a node in a transpacific industrial system.

The terminal has been expanded multiple times as demand grew and as mining operations in the Bowen Basin deepened and intensified. A two-phase A$256 million expansion project in 2006–07, known as HPX1 and HPX2, increased the terminal’s shipping capacity from 33 to 44 million tonnes per annum. That was followed by a far more ambitious third expansion. The HPX3 project, initiated in 2010, added a third berth and an additional shiploader, raising the terminal’s capacity from 44 to 55 million tonnes per annum. Hay Point Expansion Stage 3 was inaugurated by Queensland, BHP and Mitsubishi authorities in December 2015. The construction statistics for HPX3 give some sense of the engineering commitment involved: the construction workforce peaked at more than 1,630 during 2014 and more than 12.6 million person hours were worked.

The terminal’s cumulative throughput underlines its longevity. More than one billion tonnes of coal have passed through Hay Point Coal Terminal since it was established in 1971. That figure, confirmed in BHP’s own public statements, represents a sustained industrial achievement measured across more than five decades of continuous operation.

DALRYMPLE BAY: THE OPEN-ACCESS COUNTERPART.

Where HPCT was built by a mining joint venture for its own captive production, Dalrymple Bay Coal Terminal was conceived on a different principle. Dalrymple Bay Coal Terminal was designed as an open-access coal export facility by the Queensland Government on behalf of four original customers who were unable to access the adjacent Hay Point Coal Terminal. The logic was one of equity and industry broadening: as more mining companies sought to develop Bowen Basin deposits, the existing terminal’s captive structure meant they had no export pathway. The Queensland Government chose to remedy that through public infrastructure.

Original investigations into the establishment of a second coal terminal at the Port of Hay Point commenced in the 1970s, though it was not until 1979 that the Queensland Government appointed consulting engineers to design a coal handling facility, with the aim for it to be operational by 1983. Construction commenced in 1981 and was completed in 1983, with an initial capacity of 14.55 million tonnes per annum. The first unloaded coal train arrived on 3 October 1983, and the first ship was loaded on 7 November 1983 at DBCT.

The jetty at Dalrymple Bay is a feat of civil engineering in itself. The construction of the 3,850 metre jetty started at the shore and the wharf end simultaneously, with steel tube piles supporting the jetty driven down sometimes to 30 metres until embedded in rock. Today, coal travels the full length of that structure by conveyor before being loaded onto bulk carriers in deep water offshore. The coal is transferred via conveyor from the stockyard to shiploaders 3.8 kilometres offshore, where it is loaded onto customer vessels for transport to ports around the world.

The terminal’s growth from its 1983 beginnings has been continuous and substantial. Over time, the terminal has undergone seven expansion phases, increasing capacity from its original 14.55 million tonnes per annum to a current integrated supply chain capacity of 84.2 million tonnes per annum. The most significant of these was the 7X expansion, completed in 2009. At AU$1.26 billion, Dalrymple Bay’s 7X expansion was the largest in the terminal’s history and ultimately increased its capacity by 50% — from 54.5 to 85 million tonnes per annum.

The facility is today the state’s largest coal export terminal, with an annual export capacity of 85 million tonnes. Its commercial structure reflects its origins as a public-interest facility. Through its wholly owned entities, Dalrymple Bay Infrastructure has held a 100% interest in the 99-year lease — comprising a 50-year lease with a 49-year option — of the terminal from the State Government since 2001. The terminal has been declared a monopoly business activity with market power, which is why the Queensland Competition Authority regulates the terms under which mining companies gain access to it. The tension between monopoly infrastructure and open-access principles has made Dalrymple Bay a recurring subject of regulatory deliberation — a terminal whose commercial governance is as consequential as its physical capacity.

There is also a regional importance to DBCT in that it is one of the largest sources of employment in Mackay, with approximately 480 DBCT employees and sometimes that many contractors onsite as well.

THE COAL THAT MOVES THROUGH HERE.

To appreciate what the port exports is to understand why the trade relationship it sustains is structurally durable — even as the global energy transition reshapes the broader coal landscape. The dominant product at both terminals is metallurgical coal, not thermal coal. The port has expanded significantly over the past two decades and now primarily exports metallurgical coal, a key resource in the steel-making process.

The terminal supplies coking coal, PCI coal and thermal coal from Queensland’s Bowen Basin coal fields to the world export market, accounting for approximately 7% of total global seaborne coal exports and 21% of world metallurgical seaborne coal exports. That single figure — 21% of world metallurgical seaborne coal exports through one terminal in coastal Queensland — is extraordinary. It means that roughly one in five tonnes of metallurgical coal moving by sea anywhere on earth has passed through the conveyors and shiploaders at Dalrymple Bay. The steel in bridges, vehicles, and construction frames across Asia contains within it the chemical signature of the Bowen Basin.

Australian metallurgical coal, particularly hard coking coal from Queensland’s Bowen Basin — by far the largest exporting basin of metallurgical coal globally — is generally considered the best in the world, and benchmark price indices for metallurgical coal are based on Australian coals. The quality premium that Bowen Basin coal commands is not incidental to the port’s commercial position. It is the reason that customers in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and India have sustained long-term supply relationships that have survived trade disputes, commodity price cycles, and pandemic disruption.

Coal exported through DBT is supplied to more than 20 countries, with core markets including China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and India. The throughput figures confirm the sustained demand. In 2003–04, 77 million tonnes of coal was exported through the two terminals combined. By 2021–22, that figure had grown to 97 million tonnes, making Hay Point one of the largest coal ports in the world.

THE ENGINEERING OF DISTANCE.

One of the distinctive features of Hay Point as export infrastructure is that it has been engineered around the fundamental challenge of Queensland’s geography: the coal is in the centre of the state, and the coast — the only practical export route — is hundreds of kilometres away. The solution has been an integrated electrified rail network connecting Bowen Basin mines to the port, with coal trains carrying enormous payloads across the ranges and onto the coastal plain.

Coal is extracted from mines, processed, and stockpiled before being loaded onto coal trains and taken to the terminal. The trains are operated by one of three operators, all of which run on Aurizon Network’s electrified rail network. Each train carries approximately 10,000 metric tonnes of coal. When a train reaches the terminal, it passes through one of three rail unloading stations, where coal is unloaded from the open bottom of the train onto conveyors.

The scale of the terminal’s stockyard operation is correspondingly large. Multiple grades of coal — different mines produce different coking characteristics — are maintained in separate stockpiles, blended to specification, and assembled into cargo parcels before being transferred to the shiploaders offshore. The ship at berth receives a continuous flow of coal from conveyors that run kilometres out to sea, maintained by the same management structure that oversees the rail receival, the stockyard, and the environmental monitoring obligations that come with operating inside the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area.

The port is located within the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area, and its operators take their stewardship role seriously. North Queensland Bulk Ports Corporation is the only port authority in the world managing three Priority Ports located next to the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area. The majority of Queensland’s export commodities are shipped through 10 ports located in the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area, including the priority port of Hay Point. The regulatory and environmental complexity of operating a world-scale industrial facility within a World Heritage Area is one of the less-discussed dimensions of the port’s operational reality. Dredging to maintain navigable depths, managing sediment plumes, monitoring seagrass and coral health — these are not peripheral obligations. They are embedded in every infrastructure decision the port authority makes.

GOVERNANCE, OWNERSHIP, AND THE STATE'S STAKE.

The ownership structures of the two terminals tell a story about how Queensland has managed the relationship between public interest and private investment in its most critical export infrastructure.

Hay Point Coal Terminal has always been privately owned — first by the mining joint ventures that built it, now by BMA, the partnership between BHP and Mitsubishi. The state’s interest in HPCT is regulatory and fiscal rather than proprietary. It receives royalties on the coal that passes through, and its port authority — North Queensland Bulk Ports Corporation — manages the broader port precinct, but the terminal infrastructure itself is in private hands.

Dalrymple Bay’s history is more complex. DBCT was established in 1983 by the Queensland Government as a common user coal export facility. In 2001, the Queensland Government, represented by Ports Corporation of Queensland, awarded a long-term lease of DBT — a 50-year term with a 49-year renewal option — to a private consortium. DBCT was privatised in 2001 through a long-term lease, with an initial lease term of 50 years expiring in 2051. The terminal is owned by the state but operated under private governance — a hybrid model that has made it subject to ongoing regulatory scrutiny over access terms and pricing. DBT is owned by the Queensland Government and leased to Dalrymple Bay Infrastructure Management through a 50-year lease to operate, maintain and develop the terminal, with an option for a further 49 years.

It is a natural monopoly with significant economies of scale. That classification drives much of the regulatory structure around it. Mining companies in the Bowen Basin do not have a practical alternative to the terminal that best serves their location. The Queensland Competition Authority’s role in determining fair access terms is therefore not an abstract competition-law exercise — it directly determines whether new mines can reach market, and at what cost.

"BMA is the world's largest exporter of seaborne metallurgical coal and employs 9,000 Queenslanders. The opening of the HPX3 project is a significant milestone."

That statement from BHP’s President Coal at the 2015 opening of Hay Point’s third berth captures the dual register in which the port always exists: global industrial leader and Queensland employer. The two are inseparable. The terminal’s commercial significance is felt locally in Mackay, regionally in central Queensland, and fiscally in Brisbane — all at once.

THROUGHPUT, TRAJECTORY, AND THE LONGER HORIZON.

The story of the two terminals over their combined histories has been one of sustained growth — from the 14.55 million tonnes per annum initial capacity of Dalrymple Bay in 1983, to the combined theoretical export capacity of around 140 million tonnes per annum that the two terminals collectively represent today. Against that backdrop, the actual throughput figures tell a story of the market’s real demands: in 2003–04, 77 million tonnes were exported; by 2021–22, 97 million tonnes passed through the port.

Queensland is a global leader in coal exports, supplying almost 200 million tonnes in the 2024 financial year to more than 30 countries, including China, Japan, India, and key European markets. Hay Point carries the preponderant share of that export volume. The question that now sits alongside those production figures is one that the terminals’ operators and owners are navigating carefully: how long will the demand profile for metallurgical coal remain stable, and what does the energy transition mean for the infrastructure investment horizon?

The distinction between metallurgical and thermal coal is important here. Thermal coal’s demand trajectory is clearly downward over time, as coal-fired power generation is displaced by renewables. Metallurgical coal occupies a different position. Steel is the world’s second-largest commodity market and plays an essential role across construction, infrastructure, transport, manufacturing and consumer goods. The decarbonisation of steelmaking is technologically complex and capital-intensive, and the timeline for any large-scale transition away from coking coal in blast furnaces remains contested. Queensland supplies around 50% of the world’s seaborne metallurgical coal, feeding steel mills in Japan, Korea, and India.

Against that backdrop, Dalrymple Bay Infrastructure has continued to plan for future terminal expansion. The 9X project remains a future expansion option beyond the 8X project, the earliest completion of which is 2028. The fact that a terminal operator is planning multiple decades of expansion is itself a signal about the expected commercial horizon for Bowen Basin metallurgical coal exports. Whether those plans are ultimately executed will depend on demand signals, royalty settings, and the pace of steelmaking’s decarbonisation — none of which is yet resolved.

THE PORT AS CIVIC FACT.

What the Port of Hay Point represents, in the broadest civic sense, is the physical translation of geological endowment into state capacity. The coal beneath the Bowen Basin was always there. The infrastructure choices made over fifty years — where to build, how to govern access, how to balance public ownership with private operation, how to expand capacity in response to global demand — are what transformed that endowment into the revenue that has funded Queensland’s hospitals, schools, and roads.

There is a civic literacy that Queenslanders have not always been encouraged to develop about their own export infrastructure. The port exists below the line of visibility for most residents of Brisbane, Gold Coast, or Townsville. It operates continuously, without ceremony, forty kilometres south of Mackay — loading ships for Japan, Korea, India, and beyond, in a process so industrially integrated that no single point of decision controls it. Its governance is distributed across state and federal regulators, private operators, mining companies, Japanese steel mills, and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. Its environmental obligations are defined by the Reef 2050 Plan. Its access terms are set by the Queensland Competition Authority. Its physical safety depends on Maritime Safety Queensland.

All of that institutional complexity — the layering of public interest obligations onto private commercial infrastructure — is part of what it means to operate a world-scale export facility inside one of Australia’s most ecologically sensitive marine environments. The port does not exist in isolation. It exists in a web of civic and commercial relationships that stretches from the mine sites of the Bowen Basin to the regulatory chambers of Brisbane, and from there to the steel plants of Asia.

coal.queensland is the onchain address through which the Queensland coal industry’s civic identity — its history, its infrastructure, its economic weight, and its contested future — can be anchored to a permanent, verifiable layer. The two terminals at Hay Point are the most concentrated expression of that identity in physical form: structures that have, for more than half a century, done the work that no amount of geological endowment alone could accomplish. They turned what lay beneath the ground of central Queensland into the material substance of the modern world.