NSW Premier Chris Minns has been urged to “back a new future for timber” on the Mid Coast, with Port Macquarie MP Robert Dwyer pressing the government to approve a 40,000 cubic metre hardwood supply contract for Pentarch’s Herons Creek mill.
“The proposal would retool the mill for high‑value decorative timber products and safeguard one of the region’s largest manufacturing employers (in the region),” he said. According to Dwyer, the plan is “a strategy that delivers on the Government’s environmental commitments while ensuring no net job losses across the region.” Without new supply arrangements, he warned, “the industry risks contraction and the loss of skilled employment.”
The announcement of the Great Koala National Park boundaries in September imposed “an immediate temporary moratorium on timber harvesting across 476,000 hectares, including 176,000 hectares of state forest.” Although the park lies between Kempsey and Grafton, Dwyer said “the decision has had significant effects further south, impacting the long‑term Wood Supply Agreement at the Pentarch mill at Herons Creek – putting local jobs at risk.”
“The mill at Herons Creek, which is the largest mill in NSW, is 150 kilometres from the Great Koala National Park,” he said. “Ninety per cent of their timber is not sourced from the GKNP, yet they have lost its contract. It just doesn’t make sense.”
Wood Central understands that Pentarch has put forward four major investment projects designed to safeguard long‑term employment and drive economic growth. These include “a new plantation‑based softwood mill at Koolkhan, a biochar and bioenergy facility developed with BlueScope, and a prefabricated housing manufacturing plant at Herons Creek, modelled on Pentarch’s new 2,000‑homes‑per‑year facility in Orange,” Dwyer said.
“The revival plan would protect existing jobs, strengthen local engineering capability – including firms such as AE Gibson and Sons – reduce the export of unprocessed timber, and lower the Government’s costs associated with industry contraction,” Dwyer said, before adding that he is “working closely with Pentarch to try and secure government cooperation, including new supply arrangements, transitional support for regional engineering businesses, streamlined approvals, and coordinated engagement with Forestry Corporation and relevant agencies.”
- To learn more about the Great Koala Park, click here for Wood Central’s special feature from September 2025.
