The global recession struck the remote town of Ravensthorpe in Western Australia two weeks ago with the kind of venomous lightning attack normally associated with the region's deadly Tiger snake.

Without warning, BHP Billiton, the world's largest mining group and a chief beneficiary of the waning China-fuelled resources boom, shut its poorly performing nickel mine nearby and axed close to 1,500 workers, who represented more than half the region's entire population.