Redmond 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.”
These words from Walkers Sawmill owner Graham Walker in a letter to the local paper the Corryong Courier, should be written large across cities around the country.
The mill, in Corryong north east of Melbourne, will close after 87 years of operation under three generations of the family.
The mill employs 21 people in a town of around 1200 people.
Mr Walker’s bluntness continued
“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,” he wrote.
And he directly blames what he describes as a “weak and uninformed government”.
Sadly, it’s a similar and familiar story in Western Australia where the owner of the Redmond Sawmill in Albany announced the closure of the mill.
The company processes logs for a range of timber products including floorboards.
It will be the fifth mill to close in WA since the ban on native logging was introduced
Redmond mill managing director Corey Matters told the ABC the company had not been supplied enough logs to stay afloat through the winter.
About 20 workers will be made redundant due to the closure.
The consequences of the Victorian and Western Australian governments’ decision to close down native timber industries in their States are getting out of hand.
These closures quite simply are the tip of the iceberg.
Graham Walker in his letter said that more education is needed in schools starting from kindergarten, teaching kids that native forestry is sustainable and that cutting down trees is the right way to manage forests.
Easier said than done unfortunately.
