Supreme Court halts timber harvest: workers without income

A Supreme Court injunction has halted most native forest harvesting in East Gippsland and the Central Highlands.

Message board: Anti-logging protestors have managed to once agin halt native forest harvesting, bringing timber communities to their knees.

The Supreme Court has placed injunctions on all Victorian Central Highlands and East Gippsland timber coupes, where Greater Glider posums have been spotted, putting up to 30 harvest and haulage contractors out of work.

Yesterday’s decision has rocked the native timber forestry industry, given contractors and mills were just getting back on track after previous delays due to anti-logging activists legal challenges to harvesting.

The lastest action by King Lake Friends of the Forest and Environment East Gippsland could not have come at a worse time said Victorian Forest Products Association chief executive Deb Kerr, just three days out from Christmas.

“People who have been without income for months were looking forward to a reasonable Christmas to support their families.” Ms Kerr said.

Ms Kerr said saw mills were already running on empty and supplies of native timber for floorboards and stairs would now be in jeopardy.

Details of the case are still coming to light, but The Weekly Times understands Justice Richards has placed injunctions on all coupes where gliders have been spotted until the court sits again some time in the New Year.

Forest and Wood Communities Australia managing director Justin Law said the injunctions were terrible new for thousands of people reliant on native timber.

“Victoria is the only state that allows this type of third-party litigation,” Mr Law said.

Central Highlands harvest and haulage contractor Gary Moran said he had little idea of what happened in court yesterday, saying he’d sent a text to VicForests to ask how it went and got a message back “Not Good”.

“We’ve all got Gliders in our coupes, there everywhere,” Mr Moran said. “That’s why they’ve been identified and buffers are in place to protect them.”

VicForests, which is reponsible for allocating coupes to harvest contractors, stated it was “disappointed by the court’s decision.

“We will work closely with all our stakeholders to determine what the impacts of today’s decision are for them.”

The Weekly Times undertsands VicForests is trying to open up a few coupes where crews can be deployed to harvest storm damaged timber, but there is only enough work for about six harvest and haulage contractor teams.