A packed community meeting at Heyfield in regional Victoria has heard that without the local timber mill the place will become a “ghost town”. Source: ABC News
A crowd of more than 1000 spilled into the foyer of the Memorial Hall and some watched on a television screen outside.
Australian Sustainable Hardwoods (ASH) has said it would shut down the mill and start laying off its 250 staff by September unless log supply is increased.
Under the current deal with state-owned logging company VicForests, the mill receives about 150,000 cubic metres of native regrowth timber each year.
But ASH’s chief executive Vince Hurley said over the next three years it is only being offered between 60,000 and 80,000 cubic metres of timber, which would make the business unviable.
“Operating at such a low volume just isn’t efficient at all, it would be a massive loss and you could not compete with imports at that level,” he said.
The company has set a four-week deadline for the Victorian Government to reach an agreement to keep the mill open.
ASH has proposed receiving younger regrowth timber to boost supply but said that would involve processing smaller logs and wanted the Government to provide millions of dollars to refit the timber mill.
Diane Blackie, who has been working at the mill for 36 years, is unsure what to do if the mill closes, but was in no doubt about the effect on Heyfield and surrounding towns.
“You’ve got Hazelwood [power station] closing, you’ve got businesses closing all round the place, I mean where else are you going to get work?” she said.
Father of three Adrian Cox also works at the mill and said Heyfield would struggle to survive.
“The town would become a ghost town,” he said. “There would be people still living here but there would be nothing for them to do.”
Mr Cox has been building a new home, which he is about to move into and said losing his job would destroy his family’s future.
“If the place shuts down I would be joining the homeless people out on the streets of Melbourne, I’d be forced to move away but good luck selling the house,” he said.
Kurt Pritchett is equally concerned about being able to find a new job.
“I’m a third-generation timber worker myself, quite a few other blokes here are the same,” he said. “[I’m] very worried, I mean what does a 55-year-old forklift driver do, there’s not that many forklift jobs.”
Mr Pritchett’s wife Anne is a local school teacher. She said if the mill closed, they would lose “quite a few children”. “We were both born here, it’s our lives,” she said.
Agriculture Minister Jaala Pulford could not attend the meeting but said “all parties are committed to working in good faith”.
