Corryong sawmill owner, Graham Walker, has notified his 22 employees today of the closure of the mill in June 2023 or earlier if the company runs out of logs for processing. 
“This has been a very difficult decision to make but with no guarantee of log supply past 2024 and only 60 per cent of supply in 2023 we had no choice but to arrive at the decision to cease operations,” Mr Walker said.
The shortage of logs has been caused by a Supreme Court decision in November stopping VicForests from harvesting timber because it broke the law by failing to protect endangered gliders when logging in Gippsland and Central Victoria.
The state-owned logging group is preparing an urgent appeal regarding the final orders and wants it listed for hearing as soon as possible.
However, Mr Walker, said at the time he was concerned that if the appeal dragged on his order of logs from VicForests would be stopped.
He estimated that the mill’s existing supply of timber would be depleted by March 2023.
“Once they get a court date that might not be until March, so it doesn’t give much of a window to get logs in before the wet season, so I’m not putting a lot of hope in it,” Mr Walker said.
“I can’t see we’re going to get an outcome before the end of March or if not later and depending on what logs we can get, we’re going to be running low by then.”
“The sawmill has supported employment in the town since 1965 and I thought we would be successful in finding a buyer to continue operating but the prospective buyer we had look at the business thought the town was too isolated, it had limited supply of workers, low availability of rental accommodation and the sawmill needed to have bench operators in enclosed stations, not operating the saws as we do. 
“I had hoped Victoria would have had a change of government in November as the LNP were going to reverse the Andrews government’s decision to close native forests but unfortunately this wasn’t to be and the Greens are hellbent on ceasing native logging and disrupting VicForests harvesting at every chance they get. 
“We have been supplying hardwood pallets for 57 years but sadly Spot Pallets will not be a household name in Corryong after next June,” Mr Walker said.