WHILE the immediate concern for the Barham and Koondrook area is the approaching Murray River flood peak, flooding will have a longer term impact for the local Red Gum sawmill industry.
Continued inundation of district forests threatens to impede production at Koondrook’s century-old Arbuthnot Sawmill.
The community is anxiously awaiting the river’s flood peak expected later this week, but the sawmill industry is also concerned about dwindling supplies of available timber.
Arbuthnot Sawmill general manager, Mr Paul Madden said the latest round of flooding would have a significant effect on production and all other employment associated with the sawmill’s operation.
Mr Madden said the forests that produced the timber were the main concern for his industry.
“Shorter logging periods because of the high river levels and the tendency for these levels to remain higher for longer periods has become a problem in the last two years,” he said.
Flooding on both sides of the border in the Gunbower Island and Koondrook, Perricoota and Campbell’s Island forests has the potential to threaten the employment of several timber related industries.
Among workers likely to have their incomes affected by the floods are more than 20 people employed by two mills, sleeper cutters, haulers, fellers and firewood cutters.
“There will be a loss of revenue affecting the whole district, thereby continuing a trend that unfortunately has become regular occurrence in this area because of the flooding,” Mr Madden said.
He said floodwaters from the Murray had forced the mill’s closure from December 1992 until February 1993 when it was unable to get logs and all indications were that the same situation would occur again.
“This year (1993) is a bigger flood, so it could take even longer for the mill to regain full operation,” he said.
Sawmill staff have begun sandbagging about 150 metres of frontage land at the sawmill.
Mr Horrie Simmons, 62, a resident in Koondrook all his life, has never seen the river level so high.
Mr Simmons said the floods of 1956 and 1975 had seen water encroach to the old woodshed near the mill and lap on the old railway line.
Mr Simons believes the construction of a built-up area by the State Government-funded employment scheme of the 1980s had alleviated flood problems for the vicinity of the old railway line and other areas adjacent to the mill.
“The river will get even higher than what it is now, so we are definitely in for a bit of water around here,” he said.
Mr Madden said that one benefit of flooding will be rejuvenation of trees in the forests which enhances the long-term future for the timber industry.
