Forestry: My bitter experience

Dave Roberts
Wow, Peter…a $500,000 return on a tonne of timber is pushing the barriers. At the very most, a tonne of processed and dried birdseye Huon Pine is around $10,000 depending on who sells it. That’s a minimum $490,000 gross profit on your initial outlay. At this point, I would like to say I’m not the Dave previous writers are referring to. I could also be termed a “forestry insider” too, Peter. My website can be accessed through http://www.huonpiner.com With regards to your statement: “I’m just calling a spade a spade. Forestry Tasmania has through incompetence, collusion with Gunns and just plain stupidity, fucked up our forests to such an extent that in the near future there will be no speciality timbers of any sufficient quantity to maintain a uniquely vibrant furniture and boat building industry”. I certainly agree with you that some special species timbers will be more difficult to source in the future, but whether it will be the near future is another matter. As a former Forestry Tasmania client I can draw on my past personal experiences with FT and relate facts and produce undeniable evidence as to their incompetence, collusion, conspiratorial tactics, deceptiveness, dishonesty, attempts at intimidation and various other unconscionable acts which relate to a particular FT Contract of Sale. I also wish to make it quite clear not all FT personnel are tarred with the same brush…the decent ones are too afraid of career prospects stagnating to question unjust treatment meted out by their superiors to those clients who fight for their contractual rights. After several years in dispute with FT and total lack of support from Labor politicians (who were “appalled” at the treatment I was receiving, but were too spineless to assist), I ran out of finances, the Statute of Limitations expired, my health, both mentally and physically, suffered and I was left disillusioned and almost broken in spirit. I often contemplated making an appointment with the manager of Derwent District (S W) and walking into the FT building and blowing the whole fucking place up as compensation. However, my sanity returned…but the bitterness of the experience remained. With regards to FT incompetence, one only has to recall the gross mismanagement of the State’s largest Huon Pine stockpile…approx 4,000 tonnes of high grade sawlog (some boat grade), veneer log, ultilty and “craft wood”) which for years languished out of the water on the banks of a boomed off bay in Lake Gordon deteriorating in quality before being severely damaged by fire….and no-one was held personally accountable for that massive lack of responsibility leading to that loss of an irreplaceable finite resource. Read more, Comment here