Kangaroo Island bushfires wipe out local timber industry
Blazes unable to be contained on Kangaroo Island have decimated the island’s timber industry.
Nearly all of Kangaroo Island’s local timber industry plantations have now been damaged by ongoing bushfires, according to a new geographic update released on Tuesday.
The industry, made up of ASX-listed Kangaroo Island Plantation Timbers (KIPT) and 12 independent growers, incurred further damage after fires on the island escaped containment lines on January 9.
The disaster has now seen 95 per cent of KIPT plantations affected by fire, with Australia’s only listed timber company weighing what can be salvaged from the flames.
Its latest damage estimate is the fourth since mid-December, and comes after KIPT shares were placed in a voluntary suspension on January 7.
Meanwhile, all 12 independent growers on the island have seen the fires ravage the entirety of their plantations, according to KIPT, which owns 86 per cent of the island’s net stocked area.
KIPT’s Timber Creek Mill was in the line of fire and also sustained fire damage, but the group’s preservation plant has remained intact.
“The equipment [preservation plant] will be essential in turning smaller fire damaged pine logs into much needed treated fence posts,” a spokesman said.
Around 3000 kilometres of fencing will need to be replaced on the island following the bushfires that broke out in Ravine des Casoars Wilderness Protection Area on December 30 and the Duncan region on December 20.
Executive director John Sergeant told The Australian on December 30 that the intensity of the blazes was partly due to a high volume of mature eucalyptus within plantations.
The fire, which has spread eastwards, has burnt a large portion of farmland area and several of the company’s remaining plantations.
Mr Sergeant also said the lack of harvesting on the island is partly a result of no deepwater export port on the island.
KIPT’s fire insurance policy holds an excess of $5m.
The company said it would continue to update the sharemarket during its trading suspension.
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