Worker says forestry transition program 'decimated' Gippsland's small towns

Worker says Victoria's forestry transition program 'decimated' Gippsland's small towns Tue 30 Jun 2026 at 5:29am In short: Victoria's forestry transition program ends today, two-and-a-half years after native logging was shut down. In Gippsland, the number of people employed in agriculture, forestry and fishing has declined in the past five years. What's next? Displaced timber workers and local councils say the transition has not replaced what was lost, while an auditor general's assessment has critiqued the government's transition plan. As the Victorian Forestry Transition Program comes to a close, some residents in regions that relied on the timber trade are questioning what has been done to build a replacement economy. The state government's transition program ends today, two-and-a-half years after Victoria's native logging industry was brought to an end with the flourish of a pen. The government committed $1.5 billion to support the transition, including $320 million to the Forestry Transition Program to provide financial support for affected workers, businesses and communities. But some residents remain unconvinced enough has been done to replace the jobs lost. Mick Harrington's family worked in the timber industry for three generations: harvesting, processing, and transporting lumber from Gippsland's bountiful, verdant forests around Stratford. But Mr Harrington, a former timber worker, does not harvest native timber anymore. Nor does he work in a mill. That industry is gone locally. Loading...Instead, he gigs around town as a musician while working at Gippsland Critical Minerals. "It's basically decimated local communities," Mr Harrington said. He said there had been a failure to create a like-for-like economy to replace the sector that rural economies across Gippsland relied on. "All those downstream businesses that relied on the timber sector are really struggling in those towns, like Swifts Creek and Powelltown, Noojee and Orbost alike," he said. It comes as the Victorian government comes under further scrutiny after Four Corners revealed Tasmanian timber was allegedly being shipped to the state for processing. 'Decimated local communities' The Victorian government promised hundreds of millions of dollars in funding after it revealed it would bring down the axe on the state's timber industry. The local industry has responded in kind. Mills started to shut across the state, including smaller outfits in Swifts Creek and Yarram over the past eight months. Mr Harrington said he had witnessed the industry's demise firsthand. "There was a promise that communities would transition to a strong economic future," he said. "And what we're seeing is a managed decline." A Victorian auditor general's report into the end of the industry, released in April this year, critiqued the government's transition plan and where funds were allocated. It found 80 per cent of displaced timber workers were in full-time employment before the end of the industry, a figure that fell to 60 per cent after the end of the sector. A 'managed decline' According to Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data, the number of Gippsland residents employed in agriculture, forestry and fishing has dropped from 12 to 5 per cent over the past five years. East Gippsland's Deputy Mayor Tom Crook said timber was a "significant economic contributor" to the region for decades. "For places like Orbost, that's a part of their identity, they're farming communities and they're proud timber communities," he said. "I think part of the government's decision was perceived locally as an attack on them." He said residents struggled to engage with services attempting to provide job opportunities. "Those processes really struggled to engage meaningfully with the town and its people about what their economic future was going to be and the opportunities," he said. But not all mills have closed. The state's biggest native hardwood sawmill, Australian Sustainable Hardwood (ASH) managing director Vince Hurley said his Heyfield mill had transitioned to processing plantation hardwood and low-grade timber. ASH now mainly survives on trees from Tasmania: half from plantations and half from native forests. It received more than $49 million from the Victorian government's transition fund over three years. He said suggestions that government compensation money had been used to log native timber in Tasmania to keep up with demand on the mainland were not accurate. "It's not about jobs versus the environment," he said. "ASH is a business unique in Australia for manufacturing products, where the only alternative is imported and often in fear of dubious source. "The forests are well-managed, the plantations are well-managed … we're not going anywhere." Black gold It was gold that first drew visitors to the tiny west Gippsland town of Noojee in the 1860s. Then came the loggers, who founded the township and the timber economy that supported generations of workers and their families. Will Langoor has lived in Noojee for about 40 years. He spent 18 years working at the town's mill and said the end of the sector was a hard pill for many to swallow. "It was hard, and that created a bit of animosity in the town at the time," he said. A group of Noojee residents is hoping black gold, or Gippsland truffles, will ignite a new visitor economy in the hamlet, about 134 kilometres east of Melbourne. The inaugural Noojee Truffle Festival was brought to life with funding from the government's transition programs. "New people come in, so we've got new types of ideas, new families, maybe one day we might even get the school back," Mr Langoor said. "But it's just a matter of now getting everybody together, because with the community, we can do anything." At the official launch of the new truffle festival, Member for Eastern Victoria Harriet Shing acknowledged the toll the end of the sector has had on towns such as Noojee. "The decision to end native timber harvesting in Victoria was a very difficult one and we needed to face the reality that there was no certainty of supply," Ms Shing said. "The work we did was as much about supporting communities to design and to invent their own futures as anything else. "And this is one of the examples of what's been achieved in those towns that are transitioning." [Image text:] CENEDAISTOD INSIDE auls M