Graham Walker
I came to Corryong last Friday to announce to the employees that our sawmill will close once the existing log stock is milled. The gloomy sky over our log stack showed how I was feeling as I delivered the bad news.
It was the hardest decision I have ever made but it was the right decision for our employees and the dark sky mirrored the sombre mood of the staff.
On April 20, I received a letter from Minister Gayle Tierney regarding our participation in the opt-out scheme to hand back our 2024 sawlog license. The letter, dated the 15th of April, gave us 15 days to accept the offer and it was important for me to consider the long-term employees who could receive the maximum redundancy from the Victorian government, who have indicated that each employee will receive four week’s pay for every year of service. (We still have not seen this in writing, but it has been widely reported).
If we were to continue business as usual, we had no certainty of sawlog quantity from VicForests as they are still embroiled in battle with ‘Friends of the Forest’ and court injunctions and they had only guaranteed 55 per cent of our 19,000m3 allocation.
Should I have chosen this path to continue, the employees would only get their entitlements from our company once June 2024 came, and log supplies had dried up.
The decision to end native forest logging is ripping small communities like Corryong apart and our business has been supporting wages since 1965. The flow-on affect to all our suppliers will be felt heavily as over $4.5-5m per year was going into the economy and supporting other businesses.
When I invested in our solar system in 2019, I believed I was investing in a sustainable future using renewable energy only to find that four years later our existence was terminated by a weak and uninformed government.
For Walkers Sawmill it’s an end of an era of some 87 years and three generations in our family. Dad (Max) would be doing somersaults in his grave if he knew that Labor and the Greens had destroyed the industry that had engulfed his life of 96 years.
To the townsfolk of Corryong and surrounding districts, I sincerely apologise for my decision to close the mill. I can’t imagine what the effect will be when the loss of wages spent in town takes.
The sawmill has employed hundreds of workers over the years, and I remember the early days of when farmers were employed to support their incomes.
Some of the names synonymous with the sawmill that I remember are the Stockwells, McNamaras, Mildens, Sheas, Smith, Nankervis, Cox, Dumbrell, De Witt, Whitehead, Mangelsdorf, Green, Faci, Fulford and Williams.
We’ve have had three generations of Williams and at least six Cranes from the one family, as well as Wilkinsons involved in our logging. Many friendships have been forged over the years.
Supplying quality hardwood pallets to the same customer for 58 years is a record to be proud of.
My other concern is where the local builders and farmers will source their hardwood for renovations or the Towong Shire for their needs to repair bridges etc.
To all our past and current employees, I thank you for your service and commitment to Spot Pallet Supplies and Walkers Sawmill.
To those people who voted Labor and Greens, I hope you truly realise what damage you have done to these small communities and the businesses that have put food on the table for so many.
We need more education in schools starting from kindergarten, teaching kids that native forestry is sustainable and that cutting down trees is the right way to manage forests – they are invigorated and thrive after a logging coupe has been regenerated.
This was a letter from Graham Walker to the Corryong Courier newspaper.
