The first shipment of 60 containers of timber has been loaded onto the train at Werris Creek destined for Port Botany, as the region’s new rail hub gears up to take up to 230,000 tonnes of timber from Walcha and Nundle annually. Source: Timberbiz
Walcha District Manager Gary Miller said Forestry Corporation of NSW is the first customer to use the rail hub, which would improve safety and significantly cut costs by removing trucks from the hazardous road route to Newcastle.
“Forestry Corporation’s export operations from Walcha and Nundle are a great local success story,” Mr Miller said.
“We began exports after we were unable to find a processor in the region and over the past few years exports have revived the region’s timber industry and created new jobs in forest management, harvesting, haulage and processing for export.
“In recent years this region has become a timber production powerhouse, with around 300,000 tonnes of certified sustainable timber set to be harvested from the plantations around Walcha and Nundle each year.
“Timber from certified sustainable State forest plantations is sought after because people know that it has come from a well-managed source, it’s reliable and it’s good quality.
“Every time the trees in our timber plantations are harvested for timber, we replant another crop of high-quality seedlings, ensuring our region will continue producing sustainable timber for generations to come.
“Forestry Corporation pine plantations currently produce enough structural lumber to construct a quarter of the homes built in Australia each year, as well as supplying renewable pulpwood for paper and packaging and logs for export markets.”
