Victorian native timber industry faces fresh crisis as cuts to supply are felt in manufacturing

Victoria's native timber industry is facing a fresh crisis, despite a $62 million injection from the Andrews Government to keep a Gippsland mill with its 250 jobs afloat.

Carjo Furniture in the Melbourne suburb of Reservoir employs 30 people.

Last year the Government took the unprecedented step of spending $62.1 million of taxpayer funds to buy the Heyfield hardwood timber mill, after the previous owners declared it was no longer viable.

But while the mill stayed open, the amount of timber it processes has been drastically cut and the workforce has already been reduced to 150.

Flow-on businesses relying on Heyfield's Victorian Ash timber now say the reduced supply is beginning to affect their bottom line.

More than 20,000 people rely on hardwood to manufacture products in Victoria.

Read the ABC News story by Stephanie Anderson - “Victorian native timber industry faces fresh crisis as cuts to supply are felt in manufacturing.”

Global warming dwarfs all other political issues

Peter Gardner.

Peter Gardner, a Bairnsdale blogger, says: “Global warming dwarfs all other political issues.”

The retired bookseller, who had been a labourer, prospector and teacher in the Ensay and Swifts Creek districts, has been researching and writing on local and regional history since 1973.

“I am now writing short essays on climate change in Gippsland and standing for office as a ‘climate emergency independent’ whenever the opportunity arises,” he says.

On his blog, Peter says: “Urgent action is required at all levels of government to adopt a wide range of policies that mitigate global warming by reducing our waste and output of greenhouse gases and that adapt to the consequences of the warming we are experiencing now and further warming predicted in the future.”

Visit Peter’s blog.

Watch: 'A Simpler Way: Crisis as Opportunity'

Actually, it is the full length documentary.

A Simpler Way: Crisis as Opportunity is a feature length documentary made by Jordan Osmond with Samuel Alexander of the Simplicity Institute.

This Jordan Osmond’s first feature film and was made it on a budget of $11,260, all of it crowdfunded by generous supporters.

Over the course of 2015 Osmond lived in a community in Gippsland, Australia where nine people came together to take part in this documentary to explore and demonstrate a simpler way to live in response to global crises.

Throughout the year, Osmond said, “We built tiny houses, planted veggie gardens, practiced simple living, and discovered the challenges of living in community.

“This film is the product of hours and hours of footage that I shot during that year-long experiment in simple living,” he said when discussing the film.