EXCLUSIVE
Out in the sunbaked centre of Queensland, in a tiny mining town known as Blackwater, there is only one thing more precious than the coal getting hauled from the ground.
Young, single women.
The outback outpost – about a four-hour drive inland from Rockhampton – is experiencing the worst ‘lady drought’ in its history.
Locals reckon there are more than 5,000 rugged, cashed-up miners and tradies vying for the affections of just 30 eligible young local ladies.
Competition for their attention is so fierce in the male-dominated community that the town’s young bucks have even resorted to jelly wrestling each other in their undies in a bid to showcase their natural prowess and impress the women.
Now the town is crying out for single ladies from the city to redress the balance and ‘come find true love’ in the bush.
The plea comes as outback towns across the country contend with an ongoing shortage of single ladies as they continue to move to bigger cities for work and study.
Shae Stinson, who runs Blackwater’s most popular pub, the Capricorn Hotel, said demand for young, romantically unattached females was so high, they barely need to bother making any effort to attract a fella.
‘There are just so many young single men out here, they’re everywhere you look,’ she told Daily Mail Australia.
‘You can wear Ugg boots to the pub and still have a line-up of blokes wanting to buy you a drink because there are just so many men in town. I mean, they are just everywhere.’
The remote Queensland mining town of Blackwater is experiencing the worst ‘lady drought’ in its history as young women continue to migrate to bigger cities for work and study
The shortage of young single women means every woman in the town has a group of young men vying for their affections, with the Capricorn Hotel the hottest spot to find true love
The popular outback pub is even hosting a male strip show night in a bid to lure more young, single women to the hard-working regional coal mining centre
According to exclusive analysis by The Demographics Group, Blackwater has one of the lowest single rates – for both women and men – in the country.
Data extrapolated from the Australian Bureau of Statistic Census 2021 suggested there were only about 120 women in the town in their twenties who were not married or in a de facto relationship.
But Ms Stinson said that once young women with a boyfriend were also ruled out, the real number of ‘single ladies’ in the town fell even further.
‘Women are in hot demand, I would be hard pressed to name more than 30 single women in their twenties in the whole town, and that’s me working at the main pub and knowing just about all of them,’ she said.
‘There’s maybe a couple of older single women that maybe don’t come to the pub but that would be about it.’
The ABS stats suggested there were was an equally low number of young single men in their twenties in Blackwater, with just 139 eligible local bachelors.
But Ms Stinson said that number failed to take into account the community’s army of mostly male fly-in, fly-out miners.
‘I’m actually across all the numbers because I just did a Community Impact Statement as part of our licence requirements, and I had to do all the research,’ she said.
‘Blackwater has about 4,700 people who live here full-time, but we’re primarily a mining town – we’re the coal capital of Queensland – and there are easily about 5,000 FIFO miners who work around the town and that more than doubles our population.
‘The vast majority of them are men. I mean, there is definitely a few women that work in FIFO, but by and large it’s all men.’
Blackwater’s Capricorn Hotel has become a hot destination for young backpacking bar staff
Many of the pub’s staff end up finding love with local miners and tradesmen
Almost any one of them would make a suitable candidate for a partner.
‘They’re all good types, definitely marriage material,’ Ms Stinson said.
‘They’re well-employed gentlemen; obviously they’ve got good jobs working in the mining industry and they’re committed to their work.
‘And in addition to the mining, the hospital is being revamped, so we’ve got a heap of tradies – like builders, plumbers, electricians and landscapers – that have flooded into town too.
‘Most of them are tall and fit, sort of muscly tattooed types; you know, those kind of guys.
‘They’re away from home, so they’re maybe feeling a bit lonely so they come to the pub looking for new friends or looking for a new girlfriend.
‘So if you can’t find a fella in the city, then you should probably be heading to Blackwater where you can take your pick from literally dozens. You can’t miss.’
She said her pub was doing its best to help the fight the woman shortage by attracting dozens of young female backpackers to work its busy bars.
‘We hire about between 15 and 20 on average at a time,’ she said.
‘They’re primarily from the UK, Ireland and Scotland but we’ve got Canadian girls and French girls, too. Just a really good mixed bag of youngsters.
‘It’s sparked a lot of love stories.
‘One single backpacker who came to work with us ended up shacking up with a local boy and now they’re travelling the world together and having a “happy ever after”.
‘Then again, that don’t all end that way. Another girl who came town, she met a local guy and he fell in love with her, then she ended up leaving and breaking his poor little heart.’
Although some of the Capricorns backpacker bar staff have ended up settling down in the Outback town, others have left behind broken hearts among the local male patrons
Mount Isa has been struggling with a woman drought for decades and attracted international attention after mayor John Molony encouraged ‘beauty-disadvantaged’ women to move there
In addition to her popular jelly wrestling nights and Hawaii lauas, Ms Stinson said she was also hosting un upcoming ‘male strip show’ at the Capricorn in an attempt to lure more young women to the town.
‘We haven’t put on a singles night so far because that could end up being very one sided,’ she said.
‘But we’ve got the male strippers coming out on the 17th of October so we hope that is going to be a lot of fun for everyone.’
The country’s Outback lady drought has been growing since the turn of the century.
In 2008, Mount Isa’s former mayor John Molony sparked international outrage when he called ‘beauty-disadvantaged’ women to move to the mining town, where he assured them they would find a man.
But Ms Stinson said the simple truth was that someone who considered themselves something of a ‘plain June’ in a big city would be seen as an absolute knockout in the bush.
‘I’m not saying that to offend anyone, there are just fewer women out here,’ she said.
‘It’s simple supply and demand.’
The tropical seaside mining town of Weipa has also been hit by the Outback women drought
About 1,400km north, in the tropical heat of Cape York, Weipa has also been struggling with the Outback woman drought.
The Demographic Group’s analysis showed there were just 102 single 20-something women in the small seaside mining town – the lowest number in the country.
While it only showed about 140 young single men, like Blackwater, the real number was boosted by the community’s mining workforce, with locals suggesting there were at least four eligible young bachelors for every bachelorette.
Weipa Town Authority chair Jaime Gane said young women looking for a little adventure and a lot of romance should come meet a ‘real man’ in the Aussie outback.
Weipa Town Authority chair Jaime Gane says there are plenty of fish in the sea up north
‘Our median age is only about 31 so it’s definitely a young person’s town,’ she told Daily Mail Australia.
‘We have a lot of young families, but there are a lot of young singles as well who are here for work – and there are way more men than women.
‘It’d probably be four blokes to one woman, so the chicks definitely have the upper hand.
‘They’re all really well-paid, making good coin, and they’re all genuine people who love the bush, camping, fishing, hunting and exploring the the best country in Australia.
‘If you like outdoor types, you’ll love the real men here.’
The suburbs around Charles Sturt University, just outside Wagga Wagga, are among the best hot spots in the country for young men hoping to hit it off with an eligible young lady
Broome is one of the only remote towns in the country to avoid a young woman drought
As for young blokes looking to gain an advantage in the dating game, they were best off heading for big cities boasting university campuses.
The NSW suburb of Estrella, which is adjacent to Charles Sturt University, just north of Wagga Wagga, was a particularly hotspot, with 392 single twentysomething women to just 274 single men in the same age bracket.
While the far-flung Western Australian resort town also offered some of the most favourable odds in the country, with 473 young single women compared with just 371 eligible young men.
The picturesque tourist hot post was one of the few regional and remote centres across the country to buck the migration trend and escape a singles drought.
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Read more at DailyMail.co.uk