a gathering of civic leaders, harvesters, processors and staff at Mount Gambier City Hall yesterday. Picture: SANDRA MORELLO
FORESTRY company OneFortyOne Plantations has driven a 45pc increase in the regional domestic processing sector since taking over the State Government’s forestry estate five years ago.
This was the key message at the company’s five year celebrations in Mount Gambier yesterday.
Speaking at an event to mark the anniversary acquisition of its forest estate lease, OFO chief executive officer Linda Sewell said the Australian-owned company wanted to mark the milestone as the custodian of the forest estate.
She said it was important to acknowledge how much progress had been made since the signing of the agreement with the South Australian Government and to thank the community for its ongoing support.
Conceding the acquisition of harvesting rights triggered a public backlash five years ago, she said the timber industry was now enjoying arguably the biggest upswing for many years.
“A combination of strong housing demand and investments made by our customers following the government’s South East Forestry Partnerships Program support have meant we’ve been able to increase domestic fibre supply by around 45pc,” Ms Sewell said.
“This is a great outcome for our industry, the local economy and our business, particularly in Mount Gambier.”
In the five years, the company has gained national and international accreditation for sustainable management of the forest estate.
“We have grown to a team of 65 staff, drawn from across the Green Triangle and a further 500 contractors who support our silvicultural, transport and harvesting operations,” Ms Sewell said.
“I’m incredibly proud of the work our teams undertake every day to ensure timber supply to every mill and processor across the region – we are the only forest grower to do this.”
Ms Sewell said the forestry industry in Mount Gambier continued to go from strength to strength with Australian housing and construction driving demand for sawlog and timber products.
“This has been a key factor in the success of OFO,” the company chief said.
“The last five years have been good for the entire forestry industry and the community.”
This year, OFO’s harvesting teams will spend more than 100,000 hours in the forest and its silvicultural teams have hand-planted more than five million trees as part of its commitment to sustainable operations.
Since OFO acquired the forest in 2012, the business has also invested more than $1m in partnering with Mount Gambier and Limestone Coast community initiatives.
These include the Stand Like Stone Foundation, Nature Glenelg Trust and more recently Mount Gambier Rotary in a three-year partnership to support the Blue Lake Fun Run.
Representatives of these community groups – along with around 100 of OFO’s customers, contractors, community stakeholders and staff – attended yesterday’s celebrations.
According to the company’s 2017 annual review, the plantation estate owner planted more than five million trees and grew more than eight million seedlings at the Glencoe nursery.
The company demonstrated compliance with plantation lease and AFS certification requirements and purchased an additional 158ha of plantation to expand the estate.
The company has also created an export market for what it says is residual pulp log not required by regional industry.
“To improve the overall efficiency of production and sustainability of our plantation, we have also worked to establish niche markets for product that is not used by domestic customers,” the report said.
“We are proud of our heritage, managing one of the oldest estates in Australia and are humbled to think the initiatives we put in place today will set the course for the next 100 years of forest management.”
Each year, OFO forestry managers and harvesters tend to about 64 million trees across the company’s plantation estate, which is enough to build and landscape more than 40,000 homes.
