About 50 people were at the Kingscote Town Hall at the weekend for the Harvest Jobs Expo, arranged by Kangaroo Island Plantation Timbers and its harvest contractor Harvestco. Source: Timberbiz
Harvestco, which operates in the Green Triangle, NSW and Qld, is keen to employ Kangaroo Island people for the salvage harvest following the bushfires of 2019-20.
CEO Rick Murphy was able to give some details of the kind of work and opportunities available, which will increase in number over the year as harvest work increases.
Harvestco is hoping to employ local operators for its log trucks, harvesters and forwarders, as well as a diesel mechanic. Others in attendance from Harvestco included operators and training and safety personnel.
Mr Murphy’s team brought a partly loaded log truck and a forwarder into the Council car park for people to inspect and showed drone footage of the harvest operations now under way at KIPT’s Gosse West property on Kangaroo Island.
Harvestco will provide training through its partnership with LITA Training on the Limestone Coast.
Local training and workforce support organisations Workskill and ATEC were also at the meeting with information.
“It was 40 degrees in Kingscote yesterday and it was great to see so many people turn up – those with a strong interest in working in forestry, as well as people with a general interest in the company’s progress,” KIPT Director Shauna Black said. “It’s an exciting time for the company as harvest begins in earnest.”
