Sawlog supplies drying up: Mills cut back workers’ shifts

A legal case lodged against VicForests is set to lock up the last supply of high-value ash, used in flooring, window frames and furniture.

Harold Fox, Dan Pote and Steve Bedggood have slowed their Powelltown sawmill’s production to cope with a massive shortfall in log supplies. Picture: Zoe Phillips

Legal action by environment groups has locked up timber coupes across the Central Highlands and East Gippsland, leaving sawmills with just 65 per cent of their contracted Victorian ash sawlogs volumes.

But the situation is about to get far worse after yet another environment group launched legal action this month to stop harvesting in the Tambo region, one of last sources of the high-value ash that underpins hundreds of timber jobs.

Powelltown mill part-owner Dan Pote said he been forced to slow production of timber used in flooring, stair treads and window frames, given VicForests had only been able to deliver 65 per cent of the contracted ash sawlogs.

Australian Sustainable Hardwood managing director Vince Hurley said he was in the same situation “despite buying every HPV plantation log and bringing in everything we can from other sources (interstate)” to supply the Heyfield mill.

“We’re going to drop (shifts) from nine hours a day down 6.5 in our green mill, where we have 24 workers,” he said.

The Victorian Government, which holds a 49 per cent stake in the Heyfield mill, has rejected repeated calls from the timber industry and Victorian Opposition to follow other states and close a legislation loophole that allows third-party legal action against its own native forest harvesting manager - VicForests.

Mr Pote said the shortfall he and his workers were facing “is the result of the Victorian Government not supporting VicForests through legislative change.

“We need more protections from environment groups, who can litigate without any real funds behind them and lock up coupes so quickly it’s bewildering,” Mr Pote said.

But Environment Minister Lily D’Ambrosio has previously stated: “the Andrews Labor Government does not agree that there is a ‘loophole’ in the legislation and is continually working to improve environmental standards, including the revision of the Timber Code of Practice to improve clarity and enforceability for timber workers, environmentalists, and the Conservation Regulator”.

However VicForests continues to face a barrage of legal cases, with 11 lodged over the past four years, none of which environment groups have won, but which have led to delays or injunctions that lock up coupes and strangle sawlog supplies.

The latest case was lodged by the Gippsland Environment Group, based on threats to Greater Glider populations from timber harvesting in the Tambo forest area.