WINTER 2026 | Mid-Western Living | 29 “We are very lucky to be in the industry we are in. I like to share that luck with people who are not so fortunate.” Paul is the kind of person who shows up for everything — for his mates, his community, for strangers who need a hand. A coal quality engineer at Wilpinjong Mine, he has spent almost 20 years at the same operation and quietly become one of its most respected figures — not just for what he does at work, but for everything beyond the mine. Paul was one of the very first people employed at Wilpinjong, joining in the second intake in 2007. In those early days there were only three crews and two excavators — everyone pitched in wherever needed. Paul’s background in quarrying, particularly in blasting, quickly set him apart, and he was soon supervising the mine’s drill and blast operations. “Safety has always been at the forefront, even back then,” he said. “No cowboy stuff. Safety has been a constant focus since the start.” From drill and blast, Paul stepped up into crew supervision, then technical services, and is now a coal quality engineer. Today the mine runs six excavators and employs around 700 people — so Paul has a much bigger team of people to work with and help out. Ask Paul why he stayed and his answer is immediate: Mudgee. “Mudgee is a beautiful little place,” he says. “I wanted to keep my family here.” His four children — Courtney, Tayla, Danika, and Max — grew up going to school there, and his partner Megan also works at Wilpinjong. “If we didn’t have mines in the area, Mudgee wouldn’t be Mudgee,” Paul says plainly. If Paul’s professional life is marked by expertise and dedication, his charitable life is marked by something altogether more colourful. Over the years he has raised money for breast cancer research, Beyond Blue, Movember and Shave for a Cure — events that have seen him sport shaved heads, mohawks, and mullets in the name of a good cause, raising “$4,000 here, $7,000 there.” The most memorable moment involved neither clippers nor a buzzer. One memorable Shave for a Cure event involved a work colleague shaving his head with an axe! “I said, if we can raise the money from it, I’ll do it.” So the axe came out, and the story has become fundraising folklore. “We are very lucky to be in the industry we are in,” he says. “And I like to share that with people who are not so fortunate.” Twenty years on, Paul is still showing up — for the mine, for his mates, and for the town he’s proud to call home. Paul has spent 20 years digging deep — in more ways than one For almost two decades, Paul Rohrich has called Wilpinjong Mine home. But for this extraordinary man, the real work has always happened in the community he loves. Wilpinjong Mine
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