A Mount Gambier-based business has purchased the idle Kalangadoo timber treatment plant, which is expected to further reinvigorate the regional forestry sector and boost jobs. Source: The Border Watch
Steeped in history and formerly used as a bustling treatment plant, the 10.15ha site has been sold for an undisclosed sum to the Badenoch family that operates a logging company.
The news comes 10 months after the shock collapse of the embattled facility that left 20 workers out of a job and stunned the regional forestry industry just weeks before Christmas.
But in a step forward for the industry, the new owners are expected to employ up to 12 people at the revitalised site.
Established before World War II, the plant has had a string of owners, including Softwoods, Auspine and Gunns and employed 135 people during its peak.
Forestry union Green Triangle secretary Brad Coates welcomed the announcement the plant would re-open.
He said the reopening of the plant was also positive news for the former employees who had not been able to secure full-time employment since its closure.
“This will help to boost confidence, particularly in the small community of Kalangadoo,” Coates said.
He said the sale was good for the forestry sector, given it was one of two licensed creosote operations in Australia.
Coates said he also hoped the site would continue to expand in the future given the plant’s flow-on impact on the economy.
“We are always hopeful of more jobs, but 12 jobs are better than no jobs,” the union leader said.
Coates said it was also pleasing to see new life being breathed into mothballed or idle timber plants around the region.
“It is sad to see former timber processing sites sitting idle as you drive around the region, such as at Mount Burr, Dartmoor, Lakeside and Pine Mouldings in Mount Gambier.”
While new owner Peter Badenoch did not want to speak to media, Mount Gambier realtor David Herbert – who handled the sale – said the operation would operate under the name Plantation Treated Timber Pty Ltd.
“Mr Badenoch hopes the plant will be up and running shortly and when fully operational will result in the employment of 12 persons, including some of the former employees,” Herbert said.
“There is a huge potential in the vigneron, horticulture, farming and equine markets with existing customers hungry for this plant to return,” Herbert said.
“The absence of the Kalangadoo operations in the industry had blown out lead times in product by up to seven months on some popular lines.
“Being one of two creosote plants in Australia makes the site an attractive proposition.”
He said the Kalangadoo site began operations in 1948, with the burgeoning softwood industry making a mark in the district.
“The mill was originally operated by Walter Morris, who in turn sold it to Kauri Timber and was eventually incorporated into Softwood Holdings in the early 1960s.”
While the company expanded into drying timber in the 1980s, the plant was scaled back to treatment only with most of the plant being removed to the Tarpeena operations.
Auspine then sold to Gunns, which resulted in a reduction of staff from 75 to 18 at the time of the company’s collapse.
Wepar Investments took over the site on October 20, 2012, but the facility was later placed into liquidation.
