The creation of the Great Koala National Park in New South Wales could mean a third of the workers in a rural village on the state’s mid north coast will lose their jobs.
The Timber, Furnishing and Textiles Union said 80 locals worked at the Pentarch Forestry timber mill, in a community of just 246 people in Herons Creek.
The mill is one of six included in a state government industry support package released on Tuesday for workers made redundant, two months after a logging moratorium was placed on 176,000 hectares of state forest between Kempsey and Grafton to create the park.
The union delegate at the Pentarch Forestry timber mill, Jake Pinkerton, said the package was “overall a fair deal”, but it was also a difficult wait.
“The last 10 weeks have been nerve racking, as you are left in limbo and we don’t know who or how many will lose a job,” Mr Pinkerton said.
Jake Pinkerton says they are waiting to learn about job losses. (Supplied: Martin Lane)
“The sawmill employs around 80 people and most are from the area, so you can imagine what that would do to a small community like Herons Creek, if the sawmill was to shut.”
In a statement, Pentarch Forestry declined to comment, but a spokesperson said it was currently working through the NSW government’s announcement regarding the Great Koala National Park.
But fellow union delegate and mill worker Bodhi Moye said some were taking the news hard.
Bodhi Moye has worked at the local timber mill since he left school. (ABC Mid North Coast: Sophia McCaughan)
“There’s one bloke in particular, he’s fourth generation, he lives just three doors down and he is heartbroken,” Mr Moye said.
But as affected timber mills are still to learn what their losses will be under North Coast wood supply agreements from the logging moratorium, Mr Moye said no-one knew how many jobs would be lost.
“We’re still yet to hear what the company is going to do, and this is the end of the 10 weeks that the government has been paying us.
“We hoped to find out today or tomorrow, but nothing has been said.”
The NSW Minister for North Coast, Janelle Saffin, said about 300 jobs would be directly impacted by the logging moratorium.
She said she “understood no worker would want to lose their job,” but the package was negotiated with the industry and unions.
“It is the package that will allow them to re-adjust, find some other work and pay things off, so it is a sufficient package to allow that and to create the Great Koala National Park,” Ms Saffin said.
Timber, Furnishing and Textiles Union secretary Alison Rudman said the worker package matched compensation awarded to Victorian timber industry workers when native forest harvesting ended there.
Alison Rudman says industry support packages offer “dignity” to workers. (Supplied: Timber, Furnishing and Textiles Union)
“It allows workers who lose their job to leave the industry with dignity and options for the future.”
Created by Bill Boyd and Bennetts at Bago, the Herons Creek Turpentine Tramway honours early timbergetters. (ABC Mid North Coast: Sophia McCaughan)
A resident of Herons Creek for the past 28 years, 79-year-old resident Ron Morris said everyone was worried.
“For us to lose that number of people out of Herons Creek would just make it like a ghost town,” Mr Morris said.
Further north in the Clarence Valley, Dion Durrington has been a maintenance fitter and electrician at a Grafton timber mill for 29 years. He followed his father into the company.
A union delegate for 20 mill workers, Mr Durrington said, people were “going downhill pretty quick” as they waited to hear if they would keep their jobs.
He said the workers’ financial support packages were “pretty good”, but “could always be better”.
“A lot of blokes would still like to have a job, but if we can’t have a job, the money’s going to help them out for a few months and get them on their way,” he said.
Dion Durrington says the older worker financial supports “will be great for a lot of blokes in the industry”. (Supplied: John Speechley)
“I’m 50 [years old] now, not a lot of employers hire older people, so it’s going to be hard to find another job.”
Relocating to possible jobs in Queensland would not suit those with family ties on the North Coast, he said.
176,000 hectares of state forest is now set aside for the Great Koala National Park. (ABC News: Nic MacBean)
