Australia’s last white paper manufacturer will permanently close with a suspected 200 workers to be made redundant.
After months of speculation about the company’s future, documents seen by the ABC show Opal Australia is set to withdraw from the graphic paper business.
A lack of timber supply is being blamed for the decision following a court verdict in November last year where the government-owned timber business VicForests lost a Supreme Court case for not amply protecting endangered wildlife, including two possum species.
As a result, the company was ordered to scale back its timber harvesting in parts of rural Victoria.
The mill previously produced up to 200,000 tonnes of white paper per year, with 300 reams of paper created a minute. At this point, the mill’s brown paper production is not affected.
