Australia's A$15 billion ($90.25 billion) a year coal industry is enjoying a boom, but the country's infrastructure has been unable to keep up and threatens to stall the resurgent industry in its tracks.
Last year, it was the sight of up to 50 coal ships at a time clogging the port of Newcastle that put the infrastructure shortfall into focus.
This year exporters are estimating that delays at the Queensland port of Dalrymple Bay will cost them A$500 million in demurrage costs - charges incurred when ships that should be carrying coal lie idle, waiting to be loaded.
Quite simply, Australia cannot get the coal out of the mines and to its customers fast enough.
The continuing coal boom, driven by China's transformation from coal exporter to importer, has driven prices from 25-year lows of US$25 a tonne in 2003 to about US$60 a tonne.
Australia exports about 250 million tonnes of coal each year, 11 per cent of its total exports.