The fire that burnt down the Orbost sawmill three weeks after it went broke in May, remains unsolved. The fire did about $200,000 damage to the company’s offices where the books were being reviewed by the receivers. Forensic investigators concluded the fire was deliberately lit. 25.7.06 ABC news
On the 15th May, the Austimbers mill, just east of Orbost, sacked about 15 workers. Not so long ago it had the largest sawlog licence in East Gippsland but now its saws and machines lie silent, its gates are closed and the receivers flick through the books to salvage some cash to pay the workers. …
Despite plans to burn 130,000ha of bush last season DSE only managed a massive 49,000ha. The year before 127,000ha was scorched and before that 95,000ha of healthy undergrowth ecology was turned to ash. Gippsland had a planned 54,000ha to be flambéd but only managed to dry out and modify 10,000ha. Jill / Weekly Times 14.6.06
If you ever thought you can’t make a difference to an arrogant government, the halted sale of Snowy Hydro should make you think again. The Greens legal advice showing that the sale was illegal really upset the PM’s applecart. This was the main motivator that saw a turn-around, although the press gallery were not wanting …
Scruffy scruplesReaders will be aware of government and logging industry attempts to give wood products that come from destructive clearfelled areas a green tick of approval. This is to con both domestic and overseas buyers that the timber they purchase is from nicely logged forests. To achieve this, they invented the Australian Forestry Standard or …
NZ has no logging industry that cuts down public native forests and yet employs 23,000 people, produces 11% of the country’s total exports being 4% of their GDP, has annual sales of $5 billion with $3.5 billion of that being exported. New Zealand has one of the largest areas of protected natural forest in the …
A giant underwater electrical umbilical chord now joins Tasmania and Victoria. As of late April, we can now buy Tasmania’s ‘clean Hydro power’, or if their wood fired electricity generators get going, power from their incinerated old growth forests. They can also buy our cheap, off-peak, dirty coal power and save their own to sell …
The Victorian Government plans to use gauge convertible concrete sleepers in the upgrade of the Mildura rail line. This was a solution green groups were putting to our government years ago to save thousands of old Red Gums from being cut down for replacement sleepers on railway lines. The East Gippsland upgrade used thousands upon …
Japanese paper factories are now demanding their woodchips come from trees that are less than 15 years old , either from plantations or young regrowth, rather than natural forests. This has caused the recent 40% drop in woodchip sales from Tasmania’s forests. Regrowth please In East Gippsland there’s been a substantial increase in chipping young …
Victoria has the worst land clearing record in the country. In 1869 we had 88% of the state covered in forests. In 1972 it had shrunk to just 36% of the state. That’s about 60% of the forest cover being wiped off the land in about 100 years. In the 34 years since 1972, more …
