A prime industrial site in Burnie will become a holding yard for Forestry Tasmania’s stockpile of export logs. Source: The Mercury
Forestry Tasmania currently stockpiles its logs, which are destined for China, at the Burnie port and pays $75,000 per annum for the privilege.
Now it has entered into a licence agreement with the Burnie City Council to lease the land at Heybridge, at the entrance to the North-West city, which once housed the Tioxide paint pigment factory.
The site had been vacant for at least a decade. The council bought the land, which was touted as a top industrial site, for $2.5m in 2008. An ‘expressions of interest’ process to find a buyer in 2011 was unsuccessful.
Burnie Mayor Steve Kons said the decision to let Forestry Tasmania use the land allowed council to support the timber industry and make use of a site that had remained vacant for far too long.
“The purpose is for Forestry Tasmania to relocate the export log yard from the Burnie port to the Heybridge site,” Ald Kons said in a statement.
“I think it’s great that this vacant piece of land will have a new purpose and is a positive way to support a very important industry sector currently going through challenging times by ensuring jobs.”
It is not yet clear how much Forestry Tasmania will pay the council to rent the land.
Forestry Tasmania last week agreed to let timber contractors desperate to get their hands on blackwood, myrtle, sassafras and eucalypt logs to look through the stockpile and buy wood before it went offshore.
