Shoddy end to 85-year operation

COMMENT BY JOHN CAMERON

THE Maryvale Mill opened in the Latrobe Valley in 1937 and has since grown to be one of the largest employers in the region employing up to 1000 people in direct jobs.

Maryvaletraditionally manufacturesabout

600,000 tonnes of paper and board annually from about 1.5 million cubicmetres of logs,adding considerable value to the logs unsuitable for sawn timber.

The site includes five mills, ECF-free(Elemental Chlorine Free) bleach plant and two wastepaper recycling plants.

The openingofthe Maryvale Mill in 1937 followed intensiveappraisal of surroundingforestsand was facilitated by along-term wood supply agreement to underpin the mill investment. The mill used the waste wood from saw log operations, helped with forest regeneration operations, reduced the bushfire hazard and assisted with agovernment policy of decentralisation (which over the past few decades has morphed back to ‘centralisation’).

The Forests Commission of Victoria wrote in its 1936-37 annual reporttoboth Housesof Parliament:

“After intensive field investigations and protracted negotiations between the Commission and Australian Paper Manufacturers Ltd., the largest paper manufacturingcorporation in the southern hemisphere, abasis of agreement was reached and the necessary legislation enacted to enablethe Company to obtainsupplies of pulpwood timber from suitable areas of indigenous hardwood forests”.

“From aforestry point of view, the most important feature of this new development is the prospect of the raw material required by the industry being supplied solely fromexistingand potential sawmill waste, inferior trees and logging slash, and prospective thinnings, all of which timber was formerly discarded as waste due to lack of available markets for such inferior grades of produce”.

“The Commission was in the position of being able to guarantee adequate supplies of raw material from these sources for the requirements of the projectedplant….all operations of the Company connected with the getting of pulpwood from State forestareas are to be rigidlycontrolled by the Commission, through the medium of plans of utilization to the provisions of which the Company must adhere”.

“The manufacture of wood-pulp is the most important form of wood waste utilisation, and the advent of this industry should prove of immense economic value to the State” (and it was).

“Regeneration operations will be facilitated by the removal of the bulk of the discarded timber from sawmilling areas and the fire hazard will similarly be decreased”.

“The successful inauguration of the new undertaking will be an important advance in the rural economy of the State. Alarge body of labour will be permanently employed both in the forest and in the mill, and the fact that the industry will have its headquartersina country centre willbeofmaterial assistance in promoting apolicy of decentralization of both industry and population”.

This original pulpwood agreement underpinned a substantial investment in the Latrobe Valley that created thousands of jobs and considerable regional development over 85 years. The actions 85 years ago provide acase study on how agovernment focused on supply-side economics can create wealth and prosperity for regional Victoria.

APM saw an opportunity to reduce reliance on the supply of expensive imported pulp but needed long-termsecurity of resource supplytojustify its substantial investmentinanew pulp mill at Maryvale.

The Dunston CountryParty Governmentsaw the potential for anew industry to deliver decentralisation, jobs and prosperity and committed to supplythe wood, along with supportingthe supply of essential transport, water and power for the new mill.

Priortothe Maryvale mill,Australian papermaking was undertaken at Southbank Melbourne (from 1868), Barwon near Geelong (1878), Broadford (1890) and Sydney (from 1890), using rag and waste paper as fibre.High internationalfreight costs precluded the use of imported wood pulp.

At thattimethe world's pulping industry was based on the long-fibred softwoodsfromnative forests of Europe and North America. The use of short fibre Eucalypt pulp made at Maryvale to replace imported long fibred pulp represented amajor technological breakthrough at the time.

Kraft pulping of Mountain Ash (Eucalypt regnans) producedpulp that was easytobleachfor white papers andnewsprint. Wood procurement