AGL’s recent closure of the Liddell Power Station in NSW’s Muswellbrook after 52 years, is also an instructive precedent. Leigh Holford, principal economist at Hatch’s newly expanded social advisory and economics division, argues that the question of how regional economies survive after such decisions or disasters is more important than ever, especially in a town like Muswellbrook where a key industry that once employed a sizeable portion of the population is shut down.