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- 10 November 2005
Gwabegar Sawmill Closure
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Page: 19531
Mr IAN SLACK-SMITH (Barwon) [4.32 p.m.]: Eighty-odd years ago the town of Gwabegar boasted one of the largest liquor licences in New South Wales. Today things have changed absolutely dramatically, because today not only is there no liquor store in Gwabegar, there is no pub either. That is because on 23 September this year the last sawmill in Gwabegar, the last employer in Gwabegar, closed its doors for the last time. The lockup of prime timber in the Brigalow Belt South bioregion, and particularly in the Pilliga, meant that there were simply not enough sawlogs of quality in the Gwabegar area to be milled. So the owner of the sawmill, Tom Underwood, closed the doors.
The Gwabegar sawmill was first opened in 1949 and the Underwood family bought the operation in 1965. At the height of the timber industry, Gwabegar supported four sawmills, which employed more than 60 people. In addition, 22 sleeper cutters were employed. The Underwood family's link with the Gwabegar area dates back more than 70 years. Tom Underwood senior operated a sawmill at Rocky Creek and his brother Jack bought the Wooleybah mill located between Gwabegar and Baradine. The Wooleybah sawmill closed 15 years ago. This present situation has come about not because of the non-viability of the timber industry and not because of a lack of sustainable timber in the region, but because of the bloody-mindedness of the National Parks Association, very ably supported by the Minister for the Environment, the Premier, and the Minister for Planning.
They spent more than $80 million to lock up the Brigalow Belt South bioregion and then saddled the taxpayer with five years of consultation at a cost of an additional $50 million. It has completely destroyed the Gwabegar community and decimated the community of Baradine. Gulargambone, in my electorate, is also under threat because it is not known whether there is enough timber for that town to continue milling. They intend to try to continue for as long as possible. The mill at Gwabegar employed 20 people when it closed in September, but now 20 more people are out of work. It is really a terrible shame because there is no good reason for this to have happened.
The BRUS option, if the Government had adopted it, would have given a win-win result. The environment would have had a win because exactly the same area would have been locked up and preserved—or allowed to remain uncontrolled, which is the subject of another debate—and the prime areas of resource and sustainable timber in the Pilliga would have been retained. Closing down certain areas and picking out prime timber locations will create a lose-lose situation. Gwabegar lost its last employer. It has one small school, one police station, no industry, and a lot of people without any future at all. I think it is very, very sad that this has occurred when there is simply no reason for it to have happened.
In addition, Gwabegar has lost its train line, which was closed recently. That line serviced Gwabegar, Baradine and Binnaway. The Government spent $2.4 million on upgrading the line and then, all of a sudden, closed it down—just before a record wheat harvest. If that is not proof that this Government has lost the plot, I do not know what is.
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