TRANSCRIPT
In sawmills and timber yards across Victoria, operations are grinding to a halt.
Dale Tiley has owned his business for two decades, taking after his father and grandfather, who also worked in Western Victoria's logging industry.
"I support it's not just work, it's part of your life, I suppose, yeah. I've grown up in the bush since, I can't remember, I was always sitting on a dozer (bulldozer) or playing in the bush. So it's not just a job, it's part of me, it's part of our family. My kids have been brought up the same way. We go up to the bush, camping and mucking around, and just love it. They'll come and have a look at the work. It's part of your DNA I suppose."
Mr Tiley says his family has operated around the Mount Cole area since the early 1900s.
But he says with the Victorian government's decision to bring forward a ban on native forest logging, that livelihood has now been upended.
"I feel like I'm gonna let my family down. We had plans, things to do, like there was local ground we were going to buy next door. We haven't been able to do that now. We could've expanded our farm. Our biggest worry is the kids. You always like to set them up in life. They're all still at school. You try to have a bit of a bank account and help them out, but it sort of make things a bit tougher now. I've got a business partner. He's only been in the business two or three years. We employ another young bloke, who's just building a house down the road. God forbid, if we have to put him off in the new year, it's going to be a pretty hard decision."
Dale's wife Kate Tiley says it's been distressing to see the weight of responsibility taking its toll on her husband.
"It's a bit emotional watching him, because I know how much it's always meant to him and it's probably the strong connection he has with his father. He takes a lot of responsibility on for everyone else, so our family and his workers, and like he said, one of them is trying to look after his family and he's just got a loan for a house, he really takes that responsibility on as well. It's also, he wouldn't say it, but his connection to his dad, it's the last thing he has from him. They were pretty close and he started out with his dad, so watching him go through all this, it's a bit hard in that respect."
The state government has offered five-year contracts for VicForests harvesters to work in fire management services.
It says it's invested $1.2 billion to support the industry through the transition.
But Tim Lester, from the Australian Forest Contractors Association, says that doesn't do much to help community contractors like Dale.
"We appreciate and acknowledge the five-year contracts particularly, but this fundamental piece the government needs to understand and recognise the value of the businesses themselves that has been really affected. It's beyond their contractual obligation."
Living near Victoria's Great Otway National Park, Yuin man Doctor Jack Pascoe says he sees an opportunity for greater understanding of First Nations forest practices.
"Trees are everything. They're old, ancient spirits, and they're so important to helping us read Country, but also relating to Country. They support the plants and animals, and the totems, and they're a really important part of those family groupings of plants that live together on Country, and so certain tree types will support food and medicine species."
Doctor Pascoe hopes beyond Victoria's ban, Indigenous groups will be more engaged in managing native forests.
"Look, I think we've got a history in this state, and probably really southeastern Australia, and largely Australia, in managing forests of pretty practice. It's relied pretty heavily on clearfell logging, and that's had significant biodiversity issues, landscape issues, so I think that's why we were looking at this ban. I also see it as an opportunity to move beyond black and white, logging or no logging, and maybe move towards better practice."
Victoria is not alone in banning native forest harvesting on public land.
Western Australia will also be banning the practice from next year, joining South Australia and the A-C-T, which do not have native forestry in their jurisdictions.
The Northern Territory has one Indigenous-owned native forestry enterprise, while the industry is still permitted in Queensland, New South Wales and Tasmania, but there are growing calls for a nationwide ban.
A spokesperson for the federal government says the sector has some challenges, and the government will update its National Forest Policy Statement in partnership with the states, territories and industry.
The jobs of Dale Tiley and his two co-workers will be among an estimated 2,600 jobs affected by Victoria's ban.
A Victorian government spokesperson says the Community Forestry Support Package will help workers transition out of the industry.
But Paul Beaton, Mr Tiley's business partner in Western Victoria, says he's been caught unprepared, and still doesn't have a business plan for after the 1st of January.
“What do you do, until you have a reason or an option out, what do we do? We've got nothing. We're left hamstrung. We were told 2030, so we had 10 years, yep, alright, we'll plan that out, we'll be able to make something up by then, and then they pulled the rug straight out from under us.”
