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- 20 October 2004
Brigalow Belt South Bioregion
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Page: 11664
The Hon. RICK COLLESS [6.12 p.m.]: This evening I once again air the issue of the Brigalow belt south bioregion and the Carr Government's refusal to lift the moratorium it placed on logging in 500 important forest compartments of the bioregion as well as its failure to address the final outcomes of the assessment of that Brigalow belt south bioregion. The Pilliga Forest, the major forested area within the Brigalow belt south bioregion, is a vast woodland area and contains the largest cypress pine forest in the Southern Hemisphere. It is not a naturally occurring forest, but developed into a forest from open grassy woodland at the time of European settlement as a result of the cessation of Aboriginal burning in the late nineteenth century. This development gave birth to an active timber industry based on the white cypress pine and narrow leafed ironbark species.
White cypress pine is an extremely durable white ant resistant softwood timber ideally suited to timber house framing and any other use where the timber is not exposed to the elements. If it is exposed to the elements it needs regular painting and maintenance to protect it. Honourable members who attended the funeral of the Hon. Doug Moppett, MLC, in Coonamble would recall the character of St Steven's Church in Coonamble, constructed entirely of white cypress pine from the local region. Narrow leafed ironbark is also extremely durable and white ant resistant but is a hardwood timber ideally suited to exposed uses such as fencing timber, shed construction, stockyard posts and rails, electric fencing posts and battens and any use where external durability and strength is required.
My Nationals colleagues and I have made many trips up to the area and have spoken on several occasions to two of the sawmillers in the region, Tom Underwood of Gwabegar Sawmills and Roy Matthews of Gallagher Insultimber. Tom Underwood's mill processes only white cypress pine for the housing industry, making framing timber and flooring as their major industry. This slab of flooring timber came from Tom Underwood’s mill. Roy Matthews mills only narrow leafed ironbark for the electric fencing industry and supplies posts and battens marketed as Gallagher Insultimber. This timber is so dense and heavy that it will not conduct electricity, making it ideally suited for use as electric fencing posts as it can be used without using plastic or ceramic insulators.
The town of Gwabegar, which is located between Baradine and Pilliga in the heart of the Pilliga Forest, has both the lowest per capita household income and the highest unemployment rate in New South Wales. Tom Underwood's cypress mill in Gwabegar is the major employer for the village and is currently employing 20 people, with all the other businesses in the town reliant on the timber industry. This employment provides the lifeblood of the village. Tom says that due to the moratorium there is a decline in the size of the cypress stems he is able to access from forestry and he is having to source supplies from private property. Smaller stems place greater pressure on the remaining forest resources while the moratorium the Greens have placed on the 500 compartments is causing environmental damage and the loss of biodiversity.
Unbelievably, although the demand is there, the Gwabegar mill is unable to undertake the investment needed to expand employment opportunities any further as there is no certainty of continued supply if the proposed national park option for the Pilliga goes ahead. Gallagher Insultimber, which operates the Baradine ironbark sawmill, has been unable to work in the public forests of the Pilliga for more than 20 months and Roy Matthews has been forced to source logs on private properties at a distance of up to 130 kilometres from the sawmill. The additional harvesting and haulage costs are making Insultimber, a highly respected local and export business, less viable than it has been for many years. The mill has had to retrench staff and go to a nine-day fortnight despite the Carr Government's promise that there would be no job losses during the community consultations, the assessment and the decision-making process within the Brigalow belt south bioregion.
For nearly three years now the Carr Government has refused to announce its plans for the forests in this bioregion. All the necessary reports were completed in 2002. Because of the moratorium, loggers are revisiting compartments sooner than normal. They are sourcing smaller scattered logs, which is harming the environment, and the Pilliga is being logged at unstainable levels. If the moratorium is not lifted and a favourable decision made, as determined by the Brigalow Region United Stakeholders group, these two mills will probably close by Christmas. The Ministers involved, the Premier and the Government stand condemned for their inaction on something so vital for the prosperity and wellbeing of our rural areas and the small communities involved.
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