Residents of Kangaroo Island in South Australia say a managed investment scheme disaster could be salvaged by burning bluegums for energy and harvesting them for sawn timber.
The island has 15,000ha of bluegums, which were planted by Great Southern in the mid-2000s. Great Southern has since gone broke.
As the island has no deep-sea port the trees were not viable for their intended purpose – woodchips.
West Australian company RuralAus told The Weekly Times it would apply for a Federal Government grant aimed at creating a biomass energy facility on the island creating 30 jobs. The project would see the sawmill and renewable energy plant become one of the island’s biggest employers.
Chief executive John Ipsen said his company could manage the trees so 40 per cent would be used as sawlogs and 60 per cent burned for renewable energy.
Former King Island mayor and Liberal MP Michael Pengilly said he wanted the land compulsorily acquired and returned to productive farmland. The trees replaced 32 former farms.
