Not arguing with your own experience
@treefeller, but in this particular case the town of Peterborough is not on the main highway between Broken Hill and Adelaide, the existing rail line does run through town obviously, the town is located 80km away from the mine site and some of the workforce may reside in the town and/or the region, but this distance is more indicative of a construction camp setup so the direct impacts on the town itself may not be huge. The state and federal governments are responsible for the Barrier Highway and most of the oversize and construction materials will likely be coming in on this highway probably to the rail hub location and onwards to the mine site proper.
This is not an open pit or mine underneath a town, the main operation is 80km away. Effects on the housing market/supply will depend on how much of the workforce is residential in Peterborough and the Oodla Wirra area, and how much of the workforce will be DIDO from other parts of NSW and SA with an accommodation camp at the mine site probably being necessary.
This will be good for the Peterborough area as it's a neglected part of a very Adelaide-centric state government. The SA state government will love it because the blue rinse set in the Adelaide Hills and suburban Adelaide won't have their hobby-farms/wine tasting evenings disturbed by dirty miners, but the royalties will mostly be spent in Adelaide. You only have to look at the state of the roads/infrastructure in SA further than 50km from the CBD of Adelaide to see where the state government's priorities are.
