But for Lynne Jack, a director of family-owned East Maitland truck repair business Griffin Motors, the mining boom has been more of a curse than a blessing.

After years of struggling to attract and retain staff, Mrs Jack has elected to shut the business her maternal grandfather began in Morpeth in 1948 as Dee’s Garage.

Notices advertising next Wednesday’s auction say the business is closing ‘‘due to skill shortages’’.

Sitting in the factory lunchroom yesterday, Mrs Jack said her business was far from the only one in her industry finding it hard because of the mines.

She was backed by another Hunter truck industry figure, Tony McGrath, a member of the Australian Trucking Association’s NSW committee and the operator of a haulage and storage business in Carrington.

‘‘My personal opinion is that the road transport industry is having trouble attracting quality staff,’’ Mr McGrath said.

Mrs Jack said a business like hers could only afford to pay her mechanics $28 to $32 an hour, or about half what they could earn in the mines.

‘‘Both my children work in the mines – my daughter drives a dump truck in one,’’ Mrs Jack said.

‘‘I can’t blame them.’’

She said she had tried everything – hiring locally, nationally and internationally – but young people never stayed long.

Mrs Jack said social changes – rising numbers of single-parent families – meant many boys were growing up without a man to show them ‘‘how to change a bike tyre or how to build a billy cart’’.

‘‘So they never know if they have the aptitude for the job,’’ Mrs Jack said.

‘‘And part of this is the industry’s fault, our fault, but nobody wants to be a tradesman, and we’ve let it get to the point where people think of it as a second-rate career, but it’s not. You can go anywhere once you’ve learned that trade.’’

Both she and Mr McGrath lamented the rise of the ‘‘replace rather than repair’’ mentality.

‘‘If we don’t train more apprentices and keep these skills going, we will get to the point where all these trucks will be sitting there and nobody will know how to fix them,’’ Mrs Jack said.