Chapter 11 UTAH DowN UNDER 229 On May 11, 1968, Queensland Premier J. C. A. Pizzey, Marriner Eccles, and Bud Wilson officially opened the Blackwater Mine. In his speech, Eccles briefly recounted Utah Construction’s history and observed, “Capital, natural resources, and markets are mutually interdependent, each upon the other. Great progress has been made [here] ... because of a climate of understanding and mutual respect in a favorable economic and political environment.” Eccles then touched on what had become an increasingly sensitive topic in international business: “I realize that there is a growing feeling in Australia concerning the investment of foreign capital.” Pointing to America’s own early history of dependence upon foreign investment, he urged Australians to think positively and to envision a better world for everyone in a “rapidly growing interdependent world.” He then concluded with a call for the cooperative development of the world’s resources: “We cannot expect to live peaceably on islands of abundance with seas of poverty all around us.” As if to reinforce the Utah chairman’s words, the Queensland venture rapidly expanded in the early weeks of 1969, with new contracts promising revenues of $1 billion, 85 percent of which would go to Utah. The contracts also boosted the company’s overall backlog of mineral sales for future deliveries to approximately $2 billion. Preparations quickly began to open a second mine, the Goonyella, in Queensland, at the northern end of the venture’s 1,333-square-mile exploration area. Contract terms also called for the eventual opening of a third mine at nearby Peak Downs, with combined sales projected to reach a maximum of seven million tons yearly. UDC committed to build a new town to serve the mines, construct a port at Hay Point, and finance a railroad, complete with locomotives and railcars. Subsidiaries could also provide ocean transportation, should Utah decide to build large coal carriers in the 75,000- to 100,000-ton class. With these impressive developments, the Queensland venture became a colossal part of the company’s mushrooming worldwide expansion. All the activity in the Queensland mining area, however, was not strictly business. Not surprisingly, the Bowen Basin soon became a favorite haunt for Australian paleontologists, as Utah