Western Australia also shut its doors to native forestry this January the government saying it will now protect almost two million hectares of native karri, jarrah and wandoo forests. It will protect those forests from foresters but perhaps not from mining companies. Source: Timberbiz
As late as December last year Alcoa was given exemptions to allow it to keep mining in jarrah forests. Adele Farina chief executive of Forest Industries Federation WA (FIFWA) has said that it was possible for Alcoa to provide the hardwood for the mills from its mining sites at Huntly and Willowdale.
But that is not a forgone conclusion as contracts have not been finalised for the logging and haulage work although under an agreement with the government Alcoa must allow the Forest Products Commission to perform logging operations before it can start its bauxite mining operations.
In WA, as in Victoria, many mills and harvesting companies have already closed and while the government promised information on the future supply of hardwood logs from sources such as thinning nothing has been released so far to assist those companies that are trying to remain open. They have been left to try to source logs from other areas.
In a report released in May 2022 titled A Thousand Cuts compiled by the WA Forest Alliance, the Wilderness Society and the Conservation Council WA it claimed that bauxite mining was the primary cause of deforestation in WA’s south west forests.
The report stated that more land was cleared for bauxite mining than by the timber industry over the past decade with around 62% of the 18,000 hectares of medium-tall forests in WA deforested from 2010 to 2020 for mining. Bauxite mining cleared 415 hectares of native forest in 2022.
The Australian Financial Review spoke with Dwellingup Sawmill at the end of December, the mill was being asked by WA government departments that relied on native hardwood how the mill could supply their hardwood needs. These other departments required the hardwood for their work in areas such as road and bridge contracts.
The WA government is trying to shift the focus to softwoods saying that it is investing a record $350 million dollars in WA’s softwood pine plantations, which will support thousands of south west jobs.
In another twist it is the mining industry that is a major user of hardwood as it relies on jarrah and other native timber stakes to peg the ground in the Pilbara, softwood won’t do the job.
