Trees from the nearby Wirrabara Forest Reserve and Bundaleer Forest Reserve – a combined 10,000 hectares of forest – are brought in to the Morgan Saw Mill in Jamestown every day to be fed through heavy circular saws, leaving behind a small mountain of wood chips. Source: ABC
The timber heads out again each day, cut and trimmed, in the form of anything from wooden pallets to patios. It may not be the largest, but the operation is the oldest commercial mill in the country, one that employs up to 60 people as permanent staff and supports four other businesses in the region around the small South Australian town.
But the operation is now facing an uncertain future after major bushfires in both forests destroyed 2000 hectares of the plantations and left just four years worth of mature trees to feed production.
Ed Morgan and his son Luke, the owners of the mill, have concocted a plan to extend that time frame to 10 years.
They say if they can supplement the remaining trees with others brought in from the Adelaide Hills, the mill could have enough wood to carry production long enough to allow the young trees in the area to mature.
“There’s a lot of young pines, there’s 300 hectares of young pines that would make good trees in eight or 10 years time, there’s a lot of juvenile pines that are 10 years or younger that are coming on,” Ed explained.
“The four years of mature wood that is out there, we could match that up with half supply from the Adelaide Hills, which is only two semi loads a day.
“We could make what we’ve got left here be perpetual, provided it was replanted now.”
