South Sister St. Marys, Tasmania
Coupe NI114A at South Sister, St Marys, is worth about $138,000 to Forestry Tasmania as once off royalties, before it pays for its roading costs in the coupe. The coupe is 163 ha, from which Forestry Tasmania will sell 800 m3 of Category 1 sawlogs, 800 m3 of Category 8 logs, and 7000 tonnes of pulpwood, in total about 9600 tonnes for $138,000, an average of about $15 per tonne. This return is equivalent to an annual return over a 30 year logging cycle of some $28 per ha , the price of '5 hamburgers with the lot'.
Of course Forestry Tasmania prefers to say the coupe is worth $800,000 to their customer, being their figure for the milled and chipped wood. While this doesn't say much for their customer confidentiality charter, it does say that the wood is worth $83 per tonne to their customer, a 480% markup on the pittance paid to Forestry Tasmania to meet direct logging, cartage and milling costs, recover a hefty slab of general overhead and make a healthy contribution to overall profitability, while Forestry Tasmania continues its crazed race to give away more hamburger coupes before it is overwhelmed by the tide of debt lapping at its coupes because of its financial incompetence, and has to yet again ask the Government for debt absolution.
Thats what really hurts - that they would log it for hamburgers!
David Clement
Save Our Sisters
St Marys
5017 (1, 1, 28, 53)