Heyfield Mill closure sparks protest outside Parliament
Script:
Hundreds of workers, families and union members from Heyfield marched down Exhibition Street this morning in a protest to stop the closure of the Heyfield timber mill.
Over thirty logging trucks arrived early in the morning to block the streets outside State Parliament house.
The protestors were calling on the Andrews government to take action as the impending closure of Australia’s largest hardwood mill is putting 260 jobs at stake. Mill-worker Joseph Stoddart isn’t hopeful about his future.
JOSEPH STODDART: It’ll mean I’ll have to go find another job somewhere else. I’m sort of in between homes at the moment. I’m with my partner at Heyfield. I can’t really travel from Trafalgar to Heyfield once a week.
Just last week, it was announced that the Australian Sustainable Hardwoods mill would be closing down in September of 2018 due to a lack of timber-supply.
It’s understood that VicForests could only offer half the amount of timber as before and owners of the mill rejected this offer.
There’s talk of moving the timber-mill’s operations to Tasmania, though closure of the site in Heyfield will mean a devastating impact on members of the community.
LEE WOJCINSKI: There are no other people, there’s no other industry in Heyfield. So that’ll mean people will have to move away. Already we’ve had people apply for loans to build houses, they’ve been knocked back. And that was before the decision was made about the timber. It was just the uncertainty, the banks wouldn’t loan the money.
EMILY HORSCROFT: Oh, it’ll be decimated. Heyfield will just slowly turn into a ghost town. Simply put.
KAITLYN WISHART: Our son, he’s only three and a half, by the time he goes to school, what’s gonna happen? … Heyfield’s timber-town, that’s what it’s always been.
Dr. Chris Taylor from the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute says that there is simply not enough Ash forest in Victoria to meet the demand of timber as a result of bushfires in 2009.
CHRIS TAYLOR: The current levels can’t be sustained. There’s a bio-physical limit. It’s like a fishery that’s been depleted. If the fish are not there, you cannot fish there. And the same thing is happening with the forests.
Dr. Taylor and Heyfield locals hold that poor planning by the government is accountable for the lack of timber supply.
CHRIS TAYLOR: The state government doesn’t manage its wood yield for the potential impacts of a fire. So, what they do is that they run the forests as if a fire never actually burns through.
JOSEPH STODDART: The government’s got the power to do everything. They’ve got the power to keep people in jobs. The whole thing is caused by mismanagement.
The Heyfield community is still hopeful that action can be taken to keep their livelihood and to stop the closure of their mill.
Elizabeth Pillidge reports.
