Timber shake-up

A plan that will close off access to native timber forests in the next 10 years will destroy families and kill small communities, according to a fifth-generation timber worker.

Brett Robin was outraged when the state government released its forestry industry plan last week and he fears the worst for the long-term future of the Noojee based business Robin Logging.

“It’s at the stage that families in the industry are at breaking point and it’s killing small communities.

“Tens of thousands of jobs rely on the timber industry.

“People just look at a burnt coup and say shut it down. They don’t think about the consequences to the wider industry product demand,” he said.

Mr Robin said Thursday’s announcement was “not what we wanted to hear at all.”

“There are millions of miles of timber out there that just keep getting locked up. This area has been built on the timber industry.

“Families are at breaking point due to citybased decisions,” he said.

Mr Robin employs 10 people in his harvest and haulage business based at Noojee.

He has worked in the family business for 25 years and has harvested areas previously harvested by his father and grandfather.

The family recently sold their Hill End sawmilling operation to Tayler’s Timber.

Mr Robin doesn’t even want to think about the impact the government’s plan will have on his business and staff, saying he doesn’t want anyone to lose their jobs.

“We are at the start of the chain. We harvest the saw logs for mills and 100 per cent of our waste product goes into paper.

Mr Robin said it would be more beneficial for the environment if the government invested in and supported healthy, sustainable forests.

“People see a burnt coup but that is actually a seed bed for another forest. We don’t flatten it in one go, we do it over several months; we leave habitat corridors and we leave regeneration areas.

“We are the most over regulated industry in the world…it’s never enough (regulation) for the environmental groups.

“It’s just ludicrous what they are doing. When is this going to be stopped?

“While this government is in, we won’t get any traction with a timber release plan.

They are locking up coups so we can’t access coups to meet demand.

“Environmental groups are starving us. It is a fully sustainable resource.

“We will end up importing timber from countries that don’t care about the environment,” he said.

Brett Robin of Noojee based Robin Logging fears the state government’s plan announced last week will mark the end to five generations in the timber industry for his family.