Forest Products Industry

A local buyer has swooped on more than 1200ha in South Australia’s prized South East, snapped up in an eight-figure deal. Source: The Weekly Times Sydney-headquartered, nature-based global investment manager New Forests has sold the 1265ha Southern Aggregation from its broader 5485ha Wattle Range Portfolio, located 12km west of Penola. Wattle Range was listed for sale in January this year, comprising three parcels of land known as the Northern Aggregation (2769ha), Central Aggregation (1451ha) and Southern Aggregation (1265ha). The Wattle Range Portfolio was established to existing blue gum forestry plantations, which were to be retained under leaseback arrangements with varying timelines for investor possession between 2027 to 2030. This timing allowed New Forests to facilitate plantation harvests and undertake remediation works to ensure the land is fully cleared, ploughed and transitioned to agricultural use for the incoming buyer. The Wattle Range Portfolio was marketed to comprise 4524ha (82 per cent) of productive agricultural land and 961ha (18 per cent) of native vegetation and support land, once remediation was complete. It is understood the Southern Aggregation was acquired by an established South Australian farming family enterprise with an existing local footprint in the region. The Southern Aggregation is understood to align with their current farming operations and productive capacity, with the property to transition back to agricultural use following the harvest and remediation of existing forestry plantations. It is understood the Aggregation was sold for in excess of $10,000 a hectare, or more than $12.65m, based on ‘stumps in ground’ remediation. LAWD agents Erica Semmens and Danny Thomas handled the sale, with a renewed campaign to begin in late June for the remaining Northern and Central Aggregations. “The campaign generated strong interest from a broad cross-section of the market, including institutional capital and local farming groups,” Ms Semmens said. “We saw engagement from both aggregation-scale buyers and those targeting individual components, reinforcing the effectiveness of a flexible campaign approach. “Following the sale of the Southern Aggregation, we are refocusing on the balance of the holdings, to be offered on an individual basis in response to enquiry from well-capitalised local buyers seeking smaller parcels. “With competitively priced opportunities, we expect renewed and accelerated engagement from both existing parties and new entrants to the process.” New Forests is best known for its vast forestry holdings — a $10.5bn portfolio spanning 1.4 million hectares. In August 2022, the company broadened its scope with the creation of New Agriculture, a sister business established to manage its Australian farmland assets and build a global

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It is a peculiar kind of politics that pretends to be cautious and frugal while doing something deeply mischievous. The latest call from environmental campaigners, backed by the Greens and independents Peter George, Helen Burnet and Kristie Johnston, for Tasmania to halt long-term native forest timber contracts is exactly that. It is being dressed up as fiscal responsibility. It is not. It is a blatant attempt to close regional sawmills by stealth. The argument sounds simple enough – do not sign contracts until there is “certainty”. But anyone who has ever run, financed or worked in a real business knows that certainty is precisely what contracts are designed to provide. Without them, businesses cannot borrow, invest, employ, maintain equipment, train apprentices or plan production. Forestry is no different to any other capital-intensive industry. Dairy processors, farmers, freight companies and manufacturers all rely on long-term contracts to have the confidence to invest, employ and expand, often while policy and regulation shift around them. Our sawmills should be applauded for continuing to invest and adapt in uncertain conditions, not undermined by political slogans and activist pressure. A sawmill is not a pop-up operation. It is a specialised, high-cost regional business carrying expensive machinery, kilns, drying sheds, log yards, maintenance crews, safety systems, power costs, transport arrangements, finance costs and skilled workers who cannot simply be switched on and off at the convenience of an activist media release or political opportunity. A sawmiller needs to know that logs will arrive next year, and the year after that, just as builders and the community need to know that the timber they rely on will be there, year after year. Without that confidence, banks will not lend. Owners will not invest. Workers will leave. Apprenticeships will not be offered. Customers will look elsewhere. Equipment will not be replaced. And eventually, a business that took generations to build will quietly close. This campaign is focused on making it impossible for the industry to function. Starve processors of supply certainty. Frighten government away from contracts. Create enough sovereign risk that investment disappears. Then, when sawmills shut, claim it was the market. Tasmanians should see through that and through the politicians who stand by activists whose whole fundraising model appears to be built on closing down local Tasmanian industries. Of course, governments should manage risk. Of course, contracts should be responsible, lawful and based on sustainable supply. But the idea that the responsible course is to freeze the industry until every political and regulatory question is settled is naive in the extreme. In the real world, uncertainty is not solved by paralysis. It is managed through clear rules, proper planning and durable agreements that give both taxpayers and businesses confidence. In any case, should any government shut an industry down, the lesson from Victoria is that transition costs extend far beyond sawmill supply contracts. Compensation there included forestry transition programs, community support packages, business support, worker support, plant and equipment compensation, redundancy top-ups and loss-of-income payments. Tasmania’s priority should be maintaining certainty, backing regional jobs and avoiding unnecessary costs to taxpayers. Which is why it is disappointing seeing elected representatives lend their names to this campaign as though there are no consequences to their communities beyond sawmill contracts. These are not abstract debates. They affect workers in regional towns, contractors with mortgages, family-owned businesses, truck drivers, mechanics, mill hands, foresters, fabricators and the communities built around them. Politicians who stand shoulder-to-shoulder with activist organisations, while pretending they are merely protecting the budget are disingenuous and should be honest about what they are really doing. They are putting thousands of Tasmanian jobs at risk. They are undermining confidence in local businesses. They are jeopardising timber supply. And they are sending a message that any industry disliked by a well-organised pressure group can have its commercial foundations pulled away by political ambush. The irony is that this is happening at the very moment Australia is desperate for timber. We have a housing shortage. Builders need reliable supplies. Families need homes. Governments talk endlessly about housing targets, affordability and supply chain resilience, yet some of the same political voices are willing to weaken a local industry that produces renewable building materials and support the importing of timbers from highly questionable sources, such as Indonesia, Russia and East Africa. That is hypocritical and makes no sense. If Tasmania wants regional employment, domestic manufacturing, lower reliance on imports and enough timber to help build the homes we need, then it cannot treat sawmills as disposable. It cannot ask businesses to invest without contracts. It cannot demand jobs without giving employers the confidence to employ. Long-term supply contracts are not a favour to sawmillers. They are the basic commercial foundation that allows them to operate. Pull that foundation away and the result will be devastatingly obvious and entirely avoidable.   Tony Price is a professional forester with more than 40 years of experience in forestry across Australia.

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