LAST LOAD FOR HYNE’S SALVAGED BURNT LOGS
THE last truck carrying salvaged burnt logs from the 2019-20 bushfires was waved into the Hyne Tumbarumba mill this week.
The unprecedented 15 months of salvage harvesting has seen more than 1.6 million burnt plantation pine logs processed at the Hyne mill alone.
The burnt bark is removed and the logs are processed into quality, sawn timber.
Around 75.5 million linear metres of timber has been processed from salvaged logs which would almost wrap around the world twice.
Hyne Timber CEO Jon Kleinschmidt said this last log truck marked the end of a historic event of collaboration and incredibly hard work,
“To still be accepting burnt log 15 months after the fires has completely exceeded industry expectations of 3 to 6 months,” Mr Kleinschmidt said.
“The efforts of all involved from the growers, the harvesting crews, the haulers, the staff here at the Tumbarumba mill and our by-product customers has been remarkable and deserves to be celebrated.”
Mr Kleinschmidt said in celebrating the achievement, Hyne had been able to work with suppliers to source some logs from further afield, securing mill jobs on site which is welcome news for the Hyne team and the community of Tumbarumba.
“Further, we currently have several job vacancies and encourage people to consider joining our resilient business, industry and commitment to the supply of quality, Aussie timber for our construction sector,” he said.
Regional manager of Forestry Corporation of NSW Dean Anderson said it was good to see that, despite the devastation of the bushfires, much of the damaged pine plantation could be salvaged.
More than 45,000 ha of pine plantations were impacted by fires in the local area, which is just under 40% of the area planted.
More than half of the area affected was too young to salvage and the focus has been on getting all the trees older than 19 years and as much as possible of those older than 12 years.
