Merrett Logging is a family-owned business based in Penola, SA. Established in the mid-80s the company started with traditional machines. Over the next decade it progressed into the 90s upgrading machinery with a fresh spring in its step and with a surge of growth in the 2000s.
Wood Central senior editor Jim Bowden caught up with the family, and its patriarch Snow Merrett, in this article published almost 30 years ago.
The Green Triangle region straddles the border of southeast South Australia and southwest Victoria. It contains some of Australia’s most productive radiata pine forests and has been a major softwood plantation region since the early 20th century.
Based at Penola and operating mainly in Victoria, Snow Merrett harvests 90,000 cubic metres a year of second thinnings and 125,000 cubic metres a year of third thinnings under contract to Auspine’s company plantations.
All product from Snow’s Merrett Logging Pty Ltd operations is delivered to Auspine facilities in the area. Auspine’s silviculture management consists of three thinnings and a clearfall. The first thinnings go for pulpwood, with whole tree chipping and transport of the chip to Auspine’s Portland export facility.
The Merrett Logging second thinning operation provides about 45% of product as small sawlogs for the Tarpeena mill, 15% as treatment log for Kalangadoo and 40% as pulplog, which is stacked on road edge for another contractor to process into chip for Portland. Snow’s third thinning operation produces 85% sawlog with the balance mainly chip and a small amount of treatment log.
To meet an annual production for 215,000 cubic metres of delivered product, Merrett Logging runs a fleet of six harvesters, five forwarders and six log trucks at a capital cost of more than $5 million and employs 20 operators. This allows the oldest of the harvesters to be used for training new operators and as a fulltime backup to harvester crews that operate on a single shift basis. The entire fleet of harvesters and forwarders are John Deere machines, making Snow Merrett one of the biggest JD customers in Australia.
The harvester fleet includes a 608A with 762B Timberjack head, 608S with Waratah 622B head, 1270A with 762B Timberjack head, two 1270Ds with 758 Timberjack heads and a 746C head on a 15-tonne Kato excavator.
The forwarder fleet consists of a 1210, six-wheel 1410, eight-wheel 1410 and two 1710Ds. Snow feels that the optimum life of these machines is between 12,000 and 15,000 hours, which is reached after about five years of operation. He currently has some of his equipment at or past this target and is considering a replacement program.
Most of the fleet maintenance is carried out in the company workshop at Penola. A new workshop will be completed before Christmas. Heavy maintenance goes to South East Forest and Hydraulic Centre, an agent for John Deere and Hitachi parts and service.
Snow is very happy with his John Deere fleet and the arrangements for its after sales service and backup.
The haulage fleet consists of five B-doubles, all with Kenworth prime movers (a T950 and four T650s), and a single trailer Western Star 3800S. The conventional Plunkett trailers were all manufactured in Mt Gambier. Three of the B-doubles are fitted with disc brakes and all trailers have airbags. All prime movers have central tyre inflation (CTI) to handle the 10-15% of off -highway operation, mostly on sandy tracks, while providing smooth and efficient highway running.
Auspine provides an annual cutting plan that guides Merrett’s harvesting operations and sets out summer and winter logging activity and areas of all weather access. Regular meetings consider environmental and occupational safety issues and provide the opportunity to review progress and adjust plans to meet production and market requirements.
Merrett Logging is a successful family business. Oldest son Stuart has been involved for 18 years and looks after training and log extraction activities with the machines. John has 12 years and focuses on maintenance, looking after mechanical, electronic and optimisation aspects of the machines. With four years behind him, Adam is a forwarder driver and back up truck driver.
Snow Merrett started work in July 1974 as a chainsaw faller in the old South Australian Woods and Forests Department plantations around Mt Gambier. In the mid-1980s he moved into post peeling in the SAPFOR plantations before they became part of Auspine. His first move into mechanical harvesting came about five years later with Auspine and he has built up his experience and operation progressively since then.
While Snow thinks his business is fairly settled now, he still has one eye on the future. With succession planning under way, he is keen to do a bit more towards growing the business. He is well aware of the explosion of bluegum plantings in the region that is about to come on stream and skilled people and machinery will be required to harvest this resource.
Through his involvement with the Australian Forest Contractors Association and the local Logging Industry Training Association, Snow is helping the region to prepare for this growth. With almost 300,000 ha of radiata pine and bluegum plantings and proposals for further expansion of processing activity, it is little wonder that the timber industry is one of the mainstays of the regional economy.
Together with Timber Communities Australia, local contractors such as Snow Merrett are also working to get their industry in front of the local community by arranging displays at local shows. By demonstrating the job opportunities and economic impact, they hope to be able to assist in retaining their younger people to see a future in the local area, particularly in the timber and forest sector.
