Coal dust is coal dust, some people make a fucking big deal out of it and the environmentalists scream but at the end of the day it's still the cheapest source of power. Our air down here is pretty clean despite the open cut mines and sooky la-las.
I don't know of the specific dust storm you speak of because Australia is a fucken big place and much of it is desert so sand storms that you hear about may not necessarily make news here. The thing is when Sydney gets blanketed in red dust from the outback, which did happen a few years back and doesn't happen often because it requires specific weather patterns for several days, the whole world has to hear about it because Sydney people cry about everything and want other people to think they are hard done by. Everywhere else in the country just gets on with life, Sydney cries and wants to tell the world.
Our news services are funny, Victoria and South Australia suffered what the experts called an Asthma storm a while ago (really bad conditions with wind, dust, pollen etc that causes asthma like problems even in people that don't get asthma), a month later Sydney had one that was worse, yet somehow the hospitalisation and death figures were almost nothing where as the other two states had hospitalisation in the hundreds and something like a dozen deaths. Same goes for things like heat, all the news services are reporting that the suburbs of Sydney could reach 42 degrees (107) tomorrow and how dangerous that can be yet every state in the country is pushing temps that high with the interior pushing closer to 48, but Sydney is the danger spot.
So chances are if you heard about a sand storm here it was the day Sydney got blanketed in a bit of red shit from the deserts, tell your grand kids to keep their eyes out for it happening next time!