This chapter examines the scope for local economic development in the west coast mining towns of Tasmania, Australia. The preceding chapters in this section have examined individual communities. This chapter looks at a situation in which a number of mining communites in the same region are facing downsizing or closure. It highlights the variation that can occur within the one region not only in natural economic resource endowment, but in local attitudes relevant to different forms of the economic development process. It also highlights some of the dilemmas that arise in such a situation, when co-operation for regional development is desirable, but towns within the region are potentially competing in a struggle for survival.
Neil, C. C. & Lea, J. (1992). Wind-down and closure across a region: Local economic development problems facing the Tasmanian west coast. In C. Neil, M. Tykkyläinen & J. Bradbury (Eds.), Coping with closure: An international comparison of mine town experiences (pp. 265-290). London; New York: Routledge.