And so ends 2019, the last year of a second decade of a not-so-new-anymore century, in a haze of heat, dust and smoke. It hasn't been much of a year for trophy lifting. The list of losers is long. Winners are scarce.
Of course there are the usual losers, the Knights and the Jets, albeit only on the playing field, as taxpayers shovel cash for new training facilities at Broadmeadow.
The arts, another regular loser, can only look with envy as another year passes without even a whisper of funding for a Newcastle gallery expansion.
Loss also persists, ridiculously so, for those fighting land contamination. The longstanding fight of Boolaroo residents for proper and thorough clean-up of historic lead contamination should have been resolved long ago. This old industrial region should be a world leader in these things.
Clean-up and compensation are also overdue for Williamtown residents following contamination of their lands by fire retardant chemicals used on the neighbouring RAAF base.
Where does such shabby treatment by federal authorities come from? Blame shifting and offhand arrogance are the most likely explanations.
The land is also a big loser up the valley. Drought is relentless. This time it comes with levels of heat never faced, and fire and smoke never imagined. It will take a lot of rain in 2020 to start a recovery.
But some losses will be permanent.
Between 2006 and 2016 the number of people employed in broadacre farming in the Hunter - cattle, sheep, grains - fell by 25 per cent, from 1716 farmers to 1275. The number of dairy farmers in this period fell by 40 per cent, from 450 to 270. By and large the fall-off has been due to the need for commercial farmers to get big or get out.
But drought is all red ink on a farm's balance sheet meaning more farmers are forced to leave. The downward spiral is hard to stop, population decline in the Hunter's townships, small and large, and more loss of services and jobs.
By year's end, all has changed, coal is triumphant.
It isn't a pathway to be choosing.
The biggest loser in 2019, though, is the Australian Labor Party. The Hunter backed Labor to the hilt in March at the state election and again in May at the federal election. Our region returned Labor representatives in eight of 10 state electorates and in all four federal electorates. But Labor lost both contests.
Only in the state electorate of Upper Hunter can you walk through the door of a parliamentary office and talk to someone in power.
In the rest, the MPs know only opposition benches. Add the stench of ICAC and the region's investment in Labor looks threadbare.
But there have been winners. Property developers are smiling. They maintain unimpeded access to the countryside for sprawling new urban estates. They palm off reasonable community demands for infrastructure contributions. And windfalls continue from their conversion of the downtown into apartments for cashed-up retirees.
The big winner, though, is coal. 2019 started with big questions over the future of coal in the Hunter. Global funds questioned both the ethics and the economics of coal investments in a world confronted by climate change. Labor, state and federal, promised an accelerated transition to a low-carbon economy where coal would have a diminished presence. Hunter voters gave their support. But by year's end, all has changed, coal is triumphant.
A victorious new federal resources minister Matt Canavan came to a Minerals Council conference at Cessnock in August and signalled full steam ahead for Hunter coal. Local Labor MP Joel Fitzgibbon has jumped on board, shovelling furiously, caution to the wind. What a ride to victory we're on.
Small winners can only look enviously at big coal's trophy cabinet. Bylong Valley residents had a win over KEPCO, the Korean state energy company, but they watch the new year nervously as a legal appeal unfolds.
Another small winner is Newcastle Airport, the little engine that can. The genuine benefits flowing to the region from the airport's success are massively under-appreciated. The lack of government support for our airport shows, once again, how out of touch governments are with the non-metropolitan regions.
And so adios to 2019, and wishing you a happy Christmas and a successful new year.
