I’ve recently enjoyed welcoming a number of groups of tourists to our Yarwun visitor’s centre.

Two things seem to resonate with them: the fresh homemade scones (who would have thought Daryl Branthwaite could bake like that!) and the prospect that Australia could meet a significant part of our transport energy needs from a Gladstone resource, combined with Australian ingenuity and hard work.

Many worry that over 90% of the transport fuels we use come from imports – much of it derived from the Middle East and processed in Asia.

The litre of diesel that a trckie puts in her truck at Benarby might well have been pumped out of the Saudi Arabian sand, travelled 14,000km to Japan in an oil tanker, been processed into diesel in a Japanese refinery by Japanese workers, and then travelled the arduous 11,000km sea journey to Queensland.

It just makes sense to people that if we can make it here instead, and underpin Australia’s fuel security for decades to come, then why not do it? It makes sense to us at QER too!