The forestry industry has suffered yet another blow with the closure of a highly-regarded saw mill in Busselton, leaving more than 30 workers out of a job.
Whiteland Milling has been running in Busselton for 41 years and this week its entire flooring manufacturing factory will be auctioned off following the state government's decision to end all native logging in WA by 2024.
"This decision goes down bitterly," Whiteland Milling owner Neil Whiteland said.
"There was no consultation or pre-warning about it at all. There was no damn need for it.
"I wish the government had done it better. I really do."
Whiteland Milling is one of the main flooring manufacturers for the Perth market employing more than 30 workers in its factory, as well as utilising other local businesses for its day-to-day operations.
All they've done is put a lot of people out of work and caused a lot of pain for a lot of businesses including me
- Whiteland Milling owner Neil Whiteland
"Our closure is going to affect a lot of businesses - you've got the logging people and the bush crews, and local business we deal with everyday. We spend money on tyres, fuel, maintenance, and repairs. They're all going to be affected."
READ ALSO: WA puts an end to native forest logging
Announced in September 2021, the decision to end logging of native forests is expected to preserve at least 400,000 hectares of karri, jarrah and wandoo forests.
The decision is restricted to the forestry industry, and does not prevent clearing of native forests for mining.
However, the State Government is yet to announce a formula to decide which business will receive the wood from the mines.
"The government has not made any decisions on who they are going to give wood to," Mr Whiteland said.
"They are going to allocate it to someone but they haven't even made a formula for who they are going to let it out to, which means no one can plan.
"People who want to stay in the industry don't know what to do because they can't plan anything."
Mr Whiteland's son Mark has been working for Whiteland Milling for 15 years, but has now been left in limbo and unsure of what to do with his life due to the hard-and-fast decision.
"We built this up from nothing when it was a very tiny saw mill," Mr Whiteland said.
"Over 40 years we have spent millions of dollars upgrading and upgrading to eventually hand it down to son who has been working for me for 15 years.
"Now he's in limbo and doesn't know what he is going to do with his life."
Mr Whiteland said more consultation and research should have been conducted before making such a "devastating" decision.
"Forestry is run sustainably. Saw milling business that are still operating only cut 1 per cent of the total forests in WA, and 1 per cent is absolutely minimal, so why couldn't we have kept going?
"If they thought things were getting a bit tough, they should've maybe just cut back a fraction on the quotas and kept it going for another 10 years which would've given more time to plant more pine trees to help the industry."
It was scientifically proven that it was run sustainably, and they didn't even take that on board at all
- Whiteland Milling owner Neil Whiteland
Shadow Minister for Forestry Steve Martin said the saw mill was the third timber mill to close within the last month as a direct result of the state government's decision.
"By shutting down a sustainable, local industry, Premier McGowan has shown us that Labor would rather rely on importing questionably sourced timber into WA than protect our regional jobs."
Mr Martin said the closure of the local saw mill would have a devastating impact on families, communities and businesses in regional WA.
Whiteland Milling's complete flooring manufacturing factory will be auctioned off this Saturday from 10am at 36 Cook Street, Busselton.
