The state-owned company wants to halve the timber supply for Australia’s largest hardwood mill despite admitting a huge amount of forest is still available for commercial use. Source: The Advertiser
The former chief executive of VicForests, Robert Green, told a meeting of the state’s forestry taskforce last year that 36,000ha of forest was potentially available for the timber industry.
Australian Sustainable Hardwoods, which employs 250 people at Heyfield in Gippsland, said this would easily provide the 130,000 cubic metres of timber the company needed annually to be viable.
The company last month threatened to shut down the mill after VicForests offered a short-term contract at half its current volume.
ASH chief executive Vince Hurley said he was shocked when told how few logs were now available.
“A little over six months ago, I was informed by VicForests that they had sufficient supply of suitable sawlogs available for 12 to 15 years,” he said. “For VicForests to turn around and say the best they can do is less than half of our current contracted volume over three years, just six months later, doesn’t make any sense at all.”
VicForests spokesman David Walsh said the contract offered to ASH took into account sustainability and contracts with other customers.
“VicForests informed a range of groups in May 2016 that approximately 36,000ha of 1939 regrowth forest are potentially available to supply timber to the Victorian hardwood industry, but also noted that not all of this area can be harvested due to regulatory and logistical constraints,” Mr Walsh said.
When asked whether there was enough forest to supply the Heyfield mill’s demand, Premier Daniel Andrews said VicForests made a judgment based on different criteria.
“And one of those criteria is obviously the sustainability from a biodiversity and endangered species point of view, and the offers they make to their clients are reflective of that balance,” he said.
