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Industry insiders say that the most immediate applications for driverless lorries – apart from in enclosed industrial zones likes open-cut mines or ports – are probably in remote, harsh terrain with extreme environmental conditions, especially along vast stretches and in a largely straight trajectory.

He also helped last year to persuade a judge to recommend against a new open-cut coal project in Queensland state.

His firm, Central Queensland Coal, had proposed to build an open-cut mine about 700km north-west of Brisbane, that would produce both thermal and coking coal and operate for about 20 years.

Minister Plibersek's department agreed, finding sediment and run off from the open-cut mine was likely to damage the Reef and local water resources.

The couple lives in the village of Bulga, 14 miles from Singleton on the other side of the Mount Thorley Warkworth open-cut mine.