Carter Holt Harvey closes Nangwarry timber mill, making 26 employees redundant

Carter Holt Harvey will close its Nangwarry timber mill in a shock decision, with 26 employees made redundant on Thursday afternoon.

Carter Holt Harvey will close its Nangwarry timber mill in a shock decision, with 26 employees made redundant on Thursday afternoon.

Workers had expected to start four weeks leave as part of the mill’s annual shutdown, before the decision was made by the CHH board, in New Zealand.

The closure has followed months of negotiations between CHH and the union on a new Enterprise Bargaining Agreement and redundancy entitlements.

CFMEU district secretary Brad Coates said they had a “suspicion” it would close, given CHH’s continued move to sell off its Australian-based assets.

This included its Mt Gambier Jubilee Highway sawmill last year to OneFortyOne Plantations, which took on its 300-plus workers.

“Workers had suspected something would happen in the New Year, but not today – Merry Christmas, hey,” Mr Coates said.

“Obviously, trying to access services such as financial advice and job search provisions … at this time of year makes it difficult.”

The longest serving employee had been at the mill for 43 years, while two others had been there for more than 35 years.

The closure of the Nangwarry timber mill has cost 26 employees their jobs.

Mr Coates said the company had agreed to pay workers 12 weeks leave, plus entitlements and a $3000 payment to be used for retraining purposes. He said the mill had been operating at a “small loss” for the past 18 months.

“There had been very few orders for the past three months and no forward orders going into next year,” he said.

The decision was also a “kick in the guts” for Nangwarry – a town of just 500 residents.

“At its peak 25 years ago, close to 600 people were employed at the site,” Mr Coates said. “The whole town was established to service the mill and it’s the first time Nangwarry won’t have a single production operation in the town.

“It’s devastating for those people who live and work there.”

The plywood manufacturing plant had scaled back its operations in 2010, making 130 people redundant.

CHH had once been Australia’s largest timber operator, but now only has two sites left, Mr Coates said.

The Nangwarry site had been on the market for two years before its closure.

“The site itself is large, with a lot of sheds, it has gas and position-wise it’s fantastic,” Mr Coates said.

“If would be good if someone would buy it and establish another industry there, but whether that will happen I don’t know.”

The biggest timber operator in the region is OneFortyOne Plantations, which bought the three forward rotations of the South-East pine plantations from the SA Government in 2012 for $670 million.

It bought the Mt Gambier sawmill from CHH.