James Neville-Smith (r) will employ a further 12 workers at the Mowbray site. (ABC News: Sallese Gibson)
Tasmania’s largest native timber sawmill’s latest expansion demonstrates the sector is thriving, the company’s chairman says. Source: ABC Online
Neville-Smith Forest Products is spending $1.3 million on the expansion, with the help of a $440,000 government grant.
The company has begun creating products out of wood residues that would have otherwise been exported as woodchips.
It has a mill at Southwood and a drying plant at Mowbray, and expects to employ a further 12 people full-time.
Garden stakes and wood pellets for residential heaters will be created out of residues; the company will also use shavings to fuel boilers at the drying plant.
Executive chairman James Neville-Smith said the native forest industry was thriving.
“The companies left in the state right now are the family businesses who employ people and have a great culture,” Mr Neville-Smith said.
“The notion that native forestry is not part of the future is absurd.
“The industry has shrunk, we are no longer a large industry that can rely on volume to give us efficiencies.”
Mr Neville-Smith said the company had to maximise the recovery from every sawlog it purchased.
Resources Minister Guy Barnett said confidence was returning to the industry.
“This is an example of the forest sector being in a resurgence,” Mr Barnett said.
“Our native forest sector is sustainable and it’s renewable.”
The Government is still finalising its plans for state-owned logging company Forestry Tasmania.
Forestry Tasmania will undergo a major restructure, which could include offloading some of its functions to the private sector.
Mr Barnett did not give a timeline for the finalised model.
“A lot of work is going on behind the scenes with respect to Forestry Tasmania, the Government has a very clear position, it’s to be put on a sustainable footing going forward,” he said.
The previous minister, Peter Gutwein, said a model would be finalised this month.
Labor’s Madeleine Ogilvie said the Government had gone through three forestry ministers in three years.
“These people came in and said ‘we’re going to fix forestry, we’re going to make this work’, they haven’t had it work, they haven’t delivered,” Ms Ogilvie said.
“It’s time to deliver.”
Figures released last month showed woodchip exports from Tasmania had tripled in the past three years.
